Information Technology in PCL Construction

PCL Construction

• PCL Construction is a group of independent general contracting construction companies with over 4,400 employees in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
• PCL Construction operates in various sectors including commercial, institutional, multifamily residential, renewable energy, heavy industrial, historical restoration, and civil construction.
• PCL Construction faced challenges such as widespread operations, paper-intensive processes, difficulty in locating documents, and difficulties in keeping project documentation up to date.
• PCL Construction adopted solutions such as mobile devices, touch screen kiosks, Microsoft Azure Cloud, and virtual design and project management to address these challenges.
• Information technology has changed how PCL runs its business.
• PCL saves 80 percent of the cost of backing up its corporate data by using the cloud platform.

Information Systems and its Activities

• Information technology refers to the hardware and software a business uses to achieve its objectives.
• An information system is a set of interrelated components that collect, process, store, and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization.

Core Drivers of The Information Age

• Data is raw facts that describe the characteristics of an event or object.
• Information is data converted into a meaningful and useful context.
• Business intelligence is information collected from multiple sources that analyzes patterns, trends, and relationships for strategic decision making.
• Knowledge is the process of distilling information to create something new and useful.
• Data, information, business intelligence, and knowledge are all essential components of the information age and drive effective decision making.

The MIS Solution

• Digital firms are those where nearly all significant business relationships are digitally enabled and mediated.
• Key characteristics of digital firms include core business processes accomplished through digital networks, key corporate assets managed through digital means, rapid response to environmental changes, and flexible survival in turbulent times.

MIS Department Roles and Responsibilities

• The Chief Security Officer (CSO) is responsible for ensuring the security of IT systems.
• The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is responsible for ensuring the throughput, speed, accuracy, availability, and reliability of IT.

Dimensions of Information Systems

• Information systems offer solutions to challenges within a firm and encompass management, organization, and technology elements.
• Information systems literacy encompasses a understanding of the management, organization, and technical dimensions of systems.
• Computer literacy focuses on knowledge of information technology.
• Management information systems (MIS) seeks to achieve broader information systems literacy.
• MIS addresses both behavioral and technical issues related to the development, use, and impact of information systems.

Dimensions of Information Systems: Organizations

• Organizations have a hierarchy of authority and responsibility, including senior management, middle management, operational management, knowledge workers, data workers, and production or service workers.
• Organizations have core business functions, specific tasks performed by businesses, including sales and marketing, manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, and human resources.
• Formal business processes, established rules for accomplishing tasks, guide employee behavior.
• Information systems automate many business processes, such as credit approval and customer billing.
• Organizational culture consists of fundamental assumptions, values, and ways of doing things that have been accepted by most members.

Dimensions of Information Systems: Management

• Managers set organizational strategy for responding to business challenges and problems.
• Managers must act creatively, such as creating new products and services or re-creating their organization.
• Information technology can help managers design and deliver new products and services, and redirect and redesign their organizations.

Dimensions of Information Systems: Information Technology

• Computer hardware is the physical equipment used for input, processing, and output activities in an information system.
• Computer software consists of preprogrammed instructions that control and coordinate computer hardware.
• Networking and telecommunications technology consists of physical devices and software that link hardware and transfer data from one location to another.

This quiz explores the integration of information technology in PCL Construction's operations. It highlights the challenges the company faced, such as document management, and the innovative solutions they adopted, including cloud technology and mobile devices. Understand how these advancements transformed their business processes.