Critically assess how e-business technilogies have altered the nature of competition within Lloyds TSB - Essay Example

Bynolfsson notes that e- Business as it is commonly referred to involve getting services through the electronic medium as well as offering these services through the internet (Bynjolfsson 2000). As a matter of facts, technological advancements often come with both the negative as well as the positive impacts upon its adoption in a business environment. All the same technological applications in e-commerce boosts the ways businesses operate as the work is done more faster using machines than when using human resources making the businesses more competitive in service production .

On the other hand machines have ben a draw back to the competitiveness of some companies since they need to keep training their employees on how to use the new technologies which is equally very expensive. Besides machines are prone to making faults and downplays due to mechanical and technological hitches in the curse of their operations, these problems cannot be accounted for by the machines making these businesses to make great losses rendering them less competitive in the business market.

Lloyds TSB is a famous insurance firm in Britain formed by the act of parliament in conjunction with the Lloyds’ act in 1871 to oversee the provision of insurance services to the people of the United Kingdom. With the dawn of computers and the introduction of the electronic business, the firm was among the many in Britain to automate their services though online services where their customers would be able to access their services online in an electronic medium. Impact on pricing and profits (P 5 F's) To begin with, the automation of the services provided at the Llyod’s TSB Company has obviously expanded their customer base, one of the very dire needs of all the business companies all over the world which are concerned with profit making.

This is because many people are now able to access their services right from their homes and offices or just from wherever they are on earth. According to Chen the expansion of the customers base is very helpful to the company s it is able to make tremendous profits from this (Chen, 2002). I do not in any way want to dispute this positive influence of technology into the operations of this company but the fact still remains unaltered in that the exposition of the company’s business operations in the world domain with aim to attract more customers and make her services easily accessible to their esteemed customers has as well exposed their business, operations and secrets to the outside world and believe me or not, there are certain repercussions for this.

Hackers are able to penetrate and have access to the secrets of the company and use these secrets to mar the operations of the company as far as their provision of services is concerned (Battalio, greene, Hatch and Jennings, 2002). Adams and Yellen asserts that technology has also brought with it various ills with people always trying to illegally access the financial accounts of various organizations and use this information achieve their own hideous missions to the detriment of the company (Adams and Yellen, 1976).

Online operations therefore in as much as they are beneficial to the company as they expand their network of operation they also expose these companies to external threats from virtually all angles. In order to minimize these illegal accesses therefore the company has to invest so much on the development of their online security measures in order to combat and thwart these illegal