The Impact of Technology in Business - Dissertation Example

The Impact of Technology in Business Lecturer Department Table of Contents 0 Introduction………………………………….…………………………………………….1 1.1 background information………………….……………………………………………….1 1.2 Research Questions……………………...……………………………………………….1 2.0 Aims and Objectives of the Study………………………………………………………...1 3.0 Literature Review…………………………………………………………………….…...2 4.0 Research methodology……………………………………………….……………….…...4 5.0Problems……………………………………………………………………………………5 References………………………………………………………………………………………7 Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………..8 1.0Introduction. This chapter takes a general look at the study of the effects that technology has had on business, and the impact of technology. The search sought to explain how technology affects market balance. 1.1 Background Information This project looks at the advancements in technology and the effect on business. Over the years, there has been rapid advancements in technology, almost too rapid to catch up with. Every day, new inventions in the technological field are discovered. This has inevitably affected the market balance, and has a major impact on how the businesses are run in the world today. Technology has been incorporated into day to day learning curriculum in almost all the schools in the world today. 1.2 Research Questions 1. How has technology impacted on businesses today? 2. How does less technologically advanced business fair against the most technologically advanced businesses? 3. Has technology reduced or increased employment? 2.0 Aims and Objective of the study This study aims to clearly illustrate how technology has affected businesses in the world today. With the advances in technology, businesses have had to follow the trend in order to improve their financial positions. It has been a question of how best a business can use technology to their advantage to gain advantage over their competitors. The study sought to show how the advances in technology have revolutionized the way in which businesses operate today. 3.0 Literature Review 3.1 Impact of communication advancement on Business Despite the fact that the bigger companies have huge and dedicated information and communication technology departments, today, the technology levels the playing field to accommodate even the smallest companies (McKenney, Copeland and Mason, 1995). The smaller companies have a huge chance of surpassing the bigger companies if the smaller companies can use the ever increasing technology to their advantage (Johnson, 2009). 3.2 Impact of Databases to replace file systems in businesses A lot of technology has been applied in businesses today. For example, Database management systems are being used over the world in businesses. The database management systems replaced the old file systems (Atkinson and Draheim, 2010). This is probably one of the most widely used technology in businesses today. The database management systems are especially used in the accounting departments. Wang, 2014, suggests that businesses are solemnly driven by databases today. The better the database design, the more effective the business (Dhunna, 2010). 3.3 Impact of teleconferencing and home working Technology has changed how businesses operate is improvements in communications. With advances in communications, businesses can easily communicate with clients, suppliers and other important stakeholders quite effectively. This has led to increased productivity in the businesses. With teleconferencing for example, people can attend a meeting without necessarily being together in a physical room. This has, therefore, eliminated the need for travels as well as reduces expenses incurred by the businesses. Advances in information technology also have enabled people to work from their own homes without necessarily going to work. This however, has been criticized for integrating professionalism and private lives. 3.4 Impact of the Internet on businesses The internet has also been pivotal in how businesses are run today. Today, most of the companies have website that they use to show the clients the products available. There has also been the development in online business, whereby, clients who are far away can purchase or order goods online and have the goods delivered to them. This has been quite effective both to the business and to the customers. Online advertisements have also helped a great deal in bringing in more clients. There is a wider reach of people in online advertisements. 3.5 Impact of Social Media on businesses Social media has also played an enormous role in businesses. Although social media platforms are part of the internet, it can be studied on its own due to its effectiveness and diversity. Statistically, for than 60% of people in the world today is in social media. Social media provides a platform in which businesses can relate directly with their clients. It is also a great avenue to collect customer feedback on various products. One can track and know what the clients want and be able to provide it (Lord and Velez, 2013). 3.6 Analysis tools in Business With the developments of analysis tools and other managerial applications, businesses can be governed better. Managers can get the information that they want quite easily. They can then analyze the obtained information using analysis applications quite easily. This helps them to make better and more informed decisions regarding the businesses 3.7 Management systems in Business Project managers can easily plan and monitor projects using very sophisticated project management systems. There are various systems that are used in different friends. For example, office administrators have their office administration systems, banks have banking systems. The banking systems have made banking transactions very fast (Tsai, 2003). The transactions take a very short time to process, unlike in the past. Besides processing, the rates of frauds have decreased sharply as the system provides for clear accountability (Rohlfs, 2003). 4.0 Research Methodology 4.1 Introduction This section describes the methods that will be used in the collection of data to be analyzed in this research with a view of making logical conclusions. 4.2 Data collection techniques Different methodologies are going to be employed when trying to collect relevant data for this project. The method that I will mostly use is interviews. I intend to carry our various interviews in different Information Technology Companies as well as Different businesses. When carrying out the research for this project, I intend to use various methodologies to try and obtain relevant data. I intend to visit different business and carry out interviews to find out how well they are using technology in their businesses. I also intent to compare the financial positions between different businesses with different levels of technology. For example, I will seek to find out how the profits vary between companies with different technological levels. I will also interview senior members of the company to find out what they think about technology and how the technology has affected their businesses over time. In addition to this, I will seek to find the growth curves of different companies and try to find out how technology has affected their growth, whether negatively or positively. I also intend to visit information and communication companies to try and find out more about what they develop and why they develop them. I will request for an interview with the senior members of the company to find out which application is mostly requested by businesses and why they think businesses like that particular application. Besides interviewing different businesses, I intend to put up an online questionnaire to find out the public option on the position of technology in business. I also intend to use secondary data obtained from various publications, journals as well as online databases to try and draw conclusions from them. 5.0 Problems 5.1 introduction This section explains the challenges that I am likely to encounter in the course of the research. 5.2 Challenges anticipated In the course of our research, I am likely to encounter various problems. Among the problems that I am likely to encounter include: 1. Lack of cooperation. Some of the people who I intend to interview may not necessarily cooperate with me 2. Inconsistent and inaccurate date. Some may not give me accurate data as they might want to show me the company is in a better financial standing than it is. Inaccurate data may also be obtained because of poor memory. 3. The growth of some businesses may have been impacted by other factors other than technological advancements, which may lead to wrong conclusions. 4. Financial constraints as a lot of finances will be required to facilitate travel when carrying out the research. A lot of travel will be important in trying to find diverse data so as to make a more accurate conclusion. References Atkinson, C. and Draheim, D. (2010). Business Process Technology. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Dhunna, M, and Dixit, B. (2010). Information Technology in Business Management. New Delhi: Laxmi Publications. Johnson, W. (2009). Business Technology: A Guide for Midsize and Small Business. New York: Wain Technologies. Khosrowpour, M. (2003). Information Technology and Organizations. New York: Idea Group Publishing. Lord, W. and Velez, R. (2013). Converge: Transforming Business at the Intersection of Marketing and Technology. New Jersey: John Wiley& Sons, Inc. Madhukar, R. (2005). Business Communication. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House. McKenney, J., Copeland, D., and Mason, R. (1995). Waves of Change: Business Evolution through Information Technology. Harvard. O’Reilly. (1997). The Harvard Conference on the internet & Society. California: O’Reilly & Associates. Rohlfs, J. (2003). Bandwagon Effects in High-technology Industries. Massachusetts: MIT Press. Tsai, L. (2003). Information Technology and Business Process Reengineering. Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. Appendix The Project Timeline Task 1st Month 2nd Month 3rd Month Preparation of materials Documentation of the literature. Data collection Analysis of the Data Interpretation of information Discussion and Conclusion Recommendations Compilation of the full report Read More