Business Case on Investments - Research Paper Example

Business Case for Investment Introduction The notion of business investment or business finance entails the implementation and procurement of available funds for the purpose of carrying out the various business operations effectively in order to attain the determined objectives. There lies utmost need for business finance in every large or small organization for its survival in the business industry along with attaining its expected business objectives. The quantity of business finance varies according to the volume and nature of the business. Moreover, the business investment or finance engages estimation of various available funds in order to invest in different business segments to execute the organizational functions more effectively (Medina, 1988). This paper broadly aims to formulate and present the business case, especially for technology investments. Various aspects that include the environment and procedures of prototyping and testing designs to include standards and processes, accessibility sources and integration will be portrayed in this discussion. A Brief Overview of Technology Investment Business investments or business finances are quite essential for every kind of businesses. The several businesses can be manufacturing, trading and also can be a technology based related business concern. The aspect of technology investment is very much significant towards attaining competitive advantages; however, it has often been noted that the investments relating to technology are quite risky and expensive. This is due to the fact that the technology investments as well as technological innovations are primarily based upon trial-and-error which frequently results in expensive inaccuracies rewarding advantage to the competitors rather than the organization. The eradication of trial and error mode is required from the technological innovation and investment perspective because the trial and error method is very much time-consuming (Fey, Bodine & Rivin, 2000). It is worth mentioning that there lie certain fundamental stages of technology investment approach. The first stage is known as the stage of selection in which a particular organization selects various technology related projects or assignments that would greatly support its expected objectives. The organization also recognizes as well as analyzes the risk factor of every project in order to develop necessary decisions regarding the utilization of the funds for undertaking a particular project (US Government Accountability Office, n.d.). The second stage is known as the stage of control in which an organization ensures the progression as well as the advancement along with the increase in investments. It also intends to guarantee that the projects of the organization are going to meet the expected objectives and results to a certain extent. However, if the projects are not going well and does not comply with the expectations of the organization, various remedial measures should rapidly be taken to cope up with the deficiencies identified in this regards (US Government Accountability Office, n.d.). The third stage or the final stage is the stage of evaluation. In this final stage, the organizations tend to recognize any sort of transformations or modifications towards the projects if required. Moreover, in this stage the organizations emphasizes on revising the procedure of investment management based upon the experiences (US Government Accountability Office, n.d.). A Brief Analysis of Prototyping Environments and Processes The notion of prototyping is described as a definite policy for executing various functions that are performed by a user in various technological processes. The prototyping also acts as a dynamic model that delivers a strong communication tool for the customer and the business developer with proposed application for key parts of a technological system (Fey, Bodine & Rivin, 2000). After acquiring a brief idea regarding the notion of prototypes, it can be apparently identified that the prototype environments usually consist of various prototyping tools. These majorly include generators, programming languages and architecture simulators. Hence, in order to understand the environment of prototyping, these tools need to be considered greatly. The tools of generator fundamentally comprise of two components such as an editor in which certain specifications are written and a compiler in which the specifications are checked and altered into an operational system. The generators are appropriately suitable as one of the prototyping tools because the generators facilitate the specifications to work at a high level for better functioning of the technological procedures of a business (Pomberger & Weinrech, n.d.). The other tool of prototyping is architecture simulators. These are the tools which makes efficient simulation of the flow of information between the various elements of the system. Moreover, the architecture simulators provide active support towards an incremental execution procedure. In the similar context, the execution of programming languages is often considered as the other tool of prototyping. The selection of a particular programming language can certainly have a considerable impact upon the deliberate efforts that are made towards the investment of any system elements for its structuredness along with modifiability (Pomberger & Weinrech, n.d.). These mentioned tools such as the generators, architecture simulators and programming languages are mainly required in order to describe, generate and test a particular database that are needed in any information system. The various procedures of prototyping include solderless breadboard or plugboard, springboard, wirewrap, perfboard and solder and printed circuit board among others. The solderless breadboard or plugboard method of prototyping is mainly used in laboratories and is very fast for building and making effective alterations. The springboard method of prototyping is also very much time-efficient to build and make effective modifications along with accommodating large sizes of wire which can get hold of higher current or power (Dartmouth College, n.d.). The wirewrap method of prototyping can make a composite circuit into a fully compact circuit being categorized as very much reliable along with can be implemented permanently. Moreover, the wirewrap method is less costly. The prototyping system of solder and perfboard can also be used permanently for the purpose of making the solder leads and run the wires wherever needed in a technical process. It is worth mentioning that the printed circuit board method of prototyping is executed universally especially in the production of electronics (Dartmouth College, n.d.). Thus, it can be sated that the above discussed prototyping tools greatly influences upon a technological business organization with its significant functions. An Analysis of the Testing Design to Include Procedures and Standards With the rapid introduction and significant growing quantity of various computing devices along with various information equipments including digital cameras, mobile phones and music players, the product designers felt the necessity to build a series of prototypes. In this connection, the product designers greatly emphasized upon testing the designs as well as the procedures and standards of the prototypes (Hartmann & Klemmer, 2006). With reference to the process of testing designs, the product designers fundamentally executed certain equipments such as the physical controllers, sensors and other output devices. It has been recognized that while designing a prototype, the testing designs are mainly executed with physical output or input mechanisms. By implementing the prototyping methods or standards, the designers instigate the process by plugging up the physical elements into the hardware interface (Hartmann & Klemmer, 2006). In order to make the prototype fully interactive, the designers generally execute their functions in various ways including the standards and procedures of prototyping. The designers can make the prototype interactive by controlling over the attached hardware, replicating the hardware events and finally by functioning upon the visual representation of the prototype (Hartmann & Klemmer, 2006). In order to execute the above functions smoothly, adequate technology investment is very much necessary for a technological related business organization. Sources of accessibility In order to make any technology related investments, the role of the sources regarding accessibility of funds play an imperative part. The available funds are essential for the purchase of various assets such as land and building as well as machineries among others. Furthermore, the funds are also needed to meet with the daily expenditures of the business such as payment of wages or salaries, telephone expenditures and other office related expenditures. These funds are also required for meeting up with different contingencies, to enhance the quantity of sales and to avail other business opportunities in the ongoing process of organizational operations. Thus, it can be stated that the business finance or investment plays a significant part in every business organizations by a large extent (Medina, 1988). There are various means of sources of funds available in financing a business. The sources can be through bank loans, smart leases, vendors, local or state finance development organizations and customers among others (Rao, 2010). The fund sourcing from the bank loans, which is also known as supermarket or debt financing, provides various categories of financing whether long, medium or short which assists in financing the assets that include working capital, real estate and others. The sources of accessibility of funds can also be raised from conducting smart leases. Notably, the business funds are acquired through leasing the fixed assets that converts into cash as a form of conducting smart leases (Rao, 2010). Moreover, the sources of the accessibility of funds can also be raised from consumers as well as vendors or suppliers by attaining advance payments from the customers and finance assistance from the suppliers in monetary terms. In addition, another source of business funds can be the local and state finance development organizations. The organizations offer sufficient funds for investment by charging lower interest charges than that of the banks (Rao, 2010). Integration In this competitive world of financial markets, every business organization feels the intense pressure regarding the effective and aimed execution of business operations along with attaining maximum profitable growth and simultaneously investing into new business strategies. In order to manage and to cope up with the vulnerable situation regarding the business or financing towards a new business project, the aspect of integration plays a crucial part (Burk & Lehmann, 2004). The aspect of integration is very much important for modern organizations because it is effective in gathering accurate business information that largely affects upon the analysis and forecasting of the business performances and thus intends to create an impact over the investment decision of a business. It has been a recognized fact that every new business follows the aspect of integration with respect to finance. All the relevant data and information regarding the finance can be acquired from the aspect of integration. The appropriate implementation of the aspect of integration would help a company to smoothly operate its financial operations along with possessing greater effectiveness in the financial performance of the business. In terms of business financing along with managing the overall business performances, the aspect of integration is regarded as one of the main drivers toward attaining expected business finance related objectives (Burk & Lehmann, 2004). Conclusion It is obvious to the fact that every organization should take effective as well as efficient decisions while making any sort of technological investments. This paper portrayed a detailed understanding regarding the formulation and presenting the business case, especially for technology investments. While portraying the business case, several aspects should be taken into concern such as the idea of prototypes, its different procedures and environment, several testing designs, sources of accessibility of funds and the aspect of integration. Therefore, it can be concluded that there are various sources of accessibility of funds available to the investors in order to make significant technological investments in business cases. It is in this context that the investors should follow the aspect of integration for the purpose of attaining their various expected business objectives along with finance related concerns. References Dartmouth College. (n.d.). Prototyping methods. Retrieved from http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sullivan/prototyping.pdf Fey, V., Bodine, N. & Rivin, E. (2000). A strategy for effective technology investment. Retrieved from http://www.trizgroup.com/articles/StrategyforEffectiveTechInvestment.pdf Hartmann, B. & Klemmer, S. R. (2006). Reflective physical prototyping through integrated design, test and analysis. Retrieved from http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/2006/dtools/dtools-uist06.pdf Medina, R. G. (1988). Business finance. Philippines: Rex Book Store. Rao, D. (2010). The 12 best sources of business financing. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/06/best-funding-sources-for-small-business-entrepreneurs-finance-dileep-rao_2.html US Government Accountability Office. (No Date). Introduction. Retrieved from http://www.gao.gov/special.pubs/10_1_23.pdf Read More