Understanding the Scale of Technology in Organisations

Covering Assessment Criterion 1.4 of 5CO01, this video addresses how people professionals can assess the scale of technology present across an organisation and understand what that distribution means for work. The video examines the principal categories of work systems and equipment that organisations deploy, including Enterprise Resource Planning systems, Human Resource Information Systems, Human Capital Management platforms, and operational technologies such as automated production equipment, robotics, point-of-sale systems, and industry-specific scheduling tools. Collaboration and communication technologies — video conferencing, instant messaging, project management tools, and shared document repositories — are also covered in the context of their growing centrality to everyday work, particularly following the expansion of remote and hybrid working arrangements.

The video gives sustained attention to two concepts that sit alongside the question of whether technology exists in an organisation: currency and efficacy. Currency concerns how up-to-date systems are relative to available alternatives and evolving business needs, including the risks associated with obsolescence such as security vulnerabilities, compatibility failures, and declining vendor support. Efficacy concerns how effectively technology delivers its intended outcomes, with the video pointing to specific warning signs — employee workarounds and duplicate data entry across non-integrated systems — as indicators that implementation or training gaps may be present. Both concepts are treated as practical concerns for people professionals rather than purely technical or financial ones.

The video also examines how technology investment and deployment are distributed unevenly across an organisation's functions, and why understanding these patterns matters for workforce planning and capability development. Differences between core business functions and support functions such as HR and finance are considered, as are the contrasting organisational priorities of internal efficiency versus customer-facing investment. The human implications of technological scale — including worker efficiency, wellbeing considerations tied to always-on technology and work-life balance, and the evolving nature of roles over time — run throughout the discussion, grounding the assessment of technology scale firmly in the people professional's perspective.