Business and Information Technology

Business and Information Technology

 

It is a weekday, and Priya Awasthi, 26, is at work at her high-security Electronic City office in Bangalore. She is in a large, cool, bright hall, surrounded by neatly arranged banks of computers, with biometric sensors and closed-circuit cameras recording every movement. Six clocks show the time in Sydney, Tokyo, Bangalore, London, New York and San Francisco. In front of her, projected on a giant screen, are a bunch of changing numbers, dials and graphs. The scene looks like NASA's space shuttle launch center. But it shows us how deep the technology has penetrated in the business and one cannot think about running a business without having a regular IT infrastructure or outsourced one. Whether you run a MNC or a SME , you have to allocate a part of your revenue for IT infrastructure and if you ask why? Answer is simple: if you want to compete and make profits you have to adopt and equip with global standards in this flattening, fiercely competitive world.

 

Nearly twenty years ago, personal computers began to revolutionize the way we work and play. In recent years, though, the Internet has been the primary source of technological innovation, offering us everything from online auctions to networked research libraries Today almost every business organization invariably requires a strong and efficient Information Technology (IT) system for its survival and sustenance. This change in organizational structure has not come about in a day, but rather is the result of efforts of various people who are constantly thinking of making human lives simpler and better. Technology has greatly helped businesses in terms of increasing their speed, efficiency. It has also made the working environment more safe, predictable and transparent. Overall, technology has helped the firms in their growth by maximizing their operational leverage.

 

Technology, to a large extent is demand driven. It is the need to create simple ways to do things that leads to innovation and invention. This when applied and accepted on a large scale brings about what we refer to as “Technological Revolution”. In recent times, the technology that has transformed our lives in a big way has been the Computers.

 

The development of computers can be classified in 3 phases. Under phase I from 1940s to mid 1960s, comes what we call as first generation computers (using vacuum tubes), second generation computers (using transistors) and third generation computers (which used integrated circuits-ICs). Advancement in ICs led to development of computer chips or silicon chips. Therefore, under phase II (from mid 1970s to early 1990s) emerged microcomputers which we called Personal Computers or PCs. With the coming of PCs the whole business-to-business and business-to-customer model changed drastically. With greater connectivity, linkages between firms and firms-customers increased and became more direct. Vendor development came into existence and with it the whole idea of value chain addition and quality enhancement.  Phase III started somewhere in early 1990s when Marc Anderson introduced a software browser called Netscape (its generic name being Mosaic). It was followed by the Internet explosion. Internet has made it possible to share data throughout the world within a few seconds and now even in nano seconds.

 

Businesses, not to be left behind also joined the bandwagon and developed their own official websites or web portals to disseminate information directly to their customers, suppliers and investors. In contemporary times, where firms are trying to leave as large a global footprint as possible, firms need to have access to timely and accurate information in order to operate efficiently. Business has been driven by the rapid evolution in technology: virtualization, cloud computing, standardization of IT infrastructure, and the availability of sophisticated tool sets. Industries including telecom and banking, financial services and insurance became the early adopters.  

 

Adoption of IT also has the advantage of reducing transaction and processing costs, greater access to inventory levels, improving accounting information and improving feedback capabilities. Thus, integration of IT in Business not only helps businesses to communicate better among themselves but it also helps in catering to a wider audience while incurring minimum costs. It has also been driven by changes in customer demands and a mature offshore supply environment. Nowadays, it provides the customer with a unique and individualized experience, right at home. Be it online banking or online buying, everything is just a click away, with consumers having the freedom to do these tasks according to their own convenience and their own suitable time.  

 

Though technology is highly desirable, but it is not always easy to introduce new technology. For starters, many new technological inventions are wasted because of lack of clarity on its application. For example, it was Emile Berliner who gave the phonograph (later called gramophones) its purpose, namely playing music. For others, acceptance by masses may take too long a time as was the case with sewing machines i.e. masses are generally the late adopters. This could partly be due to the very high prices charged for the new products which might deter masses from buying them. Further, today technology has been often accused of being too complex and intrusive in nature. In fact, it has been observed that there has been a migration of technology from fore-front to behind the curtain which has sent the wrong impression to customers that everything is as simple as it seems while ignoring the ever growing complex networks in the background. Moreover, there is huge mismatch between consumer demands and vendor supplies that needs to be rectified and brought in alignment.

    

But going forward in future we must admit that technology alone is rarely the key to unlocking economic value, in fact companies create real wealth when they combine technology with new ways of doing business. Having said that Information Technology will continue to affect the business activity be it managing relationships, be it managing capital and assets or leveraging information in new ways.

 

BY : Neha  Richa Amit