The Use of the Internet and Connectivity to Businesses - Essay Example

Running Head; Positive effects of the internet on business and corporations Insert Name Module Tutors Name 25th August 2008 Does the internet have a positive effect on businesses and corporations? Introduction The use of the Internet and connectivity to businesses and corporations has grown rapidly. Businesses and corporations that have been connected or that had been connected before are today undergoing major changes in their usage of, and attitudes toward, the Internet. Internet delegates the publicly interconnected network of computers and computer systems, each of which has a unique fundamental address, among the available address is the use of the Transmission Control Protocol which is also Internet Protocol which is a system of packet-switching procedures. A business’s or corporations well being in the technology world today depends on its ability to protect information and assets.  This not only entails issues of security and privacy but also disaster prevention and recovery planning. Taking a business or corporation through the right steps and with the right people will save it considerable time and expenses. The internet has been said to change the workplace by the many corporations and businesses that have put it into their operations. It puts more control into the hands of employees; this is because they are able to work from anywhere and at any time. The use of the Internet has changed dramatically the way that businesses and companies communicate, both within the enterprise and between enterprises. The time aspect of communication has been reduced to an almost instantaneous condition and, simultaneously, the breadth of communication reach has become global. (Jeffrey C, 2006 pp9-16.) Perhaps, the most important facts about the Internet are that it contains a wealth of information that can be sent across the world almost instantly and that it can unite people in wildly different locations as if they were next to each other. The Information available is vast and varies. To the Businesses and corporations, the internet is making them reap a great deal of benefits from its use in their operations; these benefits are from various dimensions, ranging from the nature of the business/corporation, size to the market accessibility. Some of the positive effects that the use of the internet has to these businesses and corporations have are; Productivity of the business The use of the internet in business has greatly been termed as E-Business. Business productivity is about technology use at work. While it automates many work processes and gives us the power to control information, technology is the leading cause of productivity loss at work. From Windows games to e-mail and instant messaging, technology makes it easier than ever to get in touch with the clients base that is found beyond the business premise and bring them close to your operation while they are actually miles away from you. In many cases business losses include both money and privacy but the vast majority of companies lack the tools and metrics to quantify this impact which is found in the use of the internet. Moreover a business can reach and build a greater market via the internet. (Mainwaring, 2000). Large market The Internet has come a very long way in the last five decades. Year in year out there are new innovations that come in to the light of technology, some of these innovations such as integrated software and hardware has really changed the way people view and obtain information. A large number of people are using the Internet to share information around the world, make new associations and communicate. Businesses and corporate giants are not left out either; they are all harnessing the power of the Internet. For many businesses, the Internet is becoming an integral part of their operations. To many businesses and corporations, the Internet makes the world smaller through the way information is easily transmitted around the globe translates to a bigger market for them. Even from an economic standpoint, the costs of establishing a brand new educational program for a few thousand students are far less than the cost of a building to house the same number of students. In this same way, businesses are able to reach a vast population through the internet. This can be well achieved through internet marketing; one of the best considered internet marketing methods is the email facility. Through this method, a company sends emails to his or her clients or anybody else to make them aware of their new schemes. For instance, there is a company that wants to advertise his or her new schemes. The next step involves getting the internet addresses of the people using the internet, and sending these contacts emails to tell them about the company's schemes. At the end of the day these businesses will have had done marketing at the click of the mouse and out they go selling themselves to the market. (Carayannis and Sagi, 2001) In the business world, Internet marketing requires business and corporations to update their websites and keeping them up-to-date with their critical keywords along with updated information. Increased market share, plus an increase in website traffic, leads, sales, and an improvement in the bottom line, this will result from taking a proactive content management approach for theses business and corporations. The marketing strategy to be applied by the businesses/corporations fully depends on efficient communication that should be put in place by the use of the internet. (Grieger, 2003) Nature of the business/corporations in communication efficiency Many businesses and corporations gain substantial benefits by implementing the e-recruitment platform. They advertise the different vacant positions that are available on their websites substantially reducing recruitment costs. This in turn improving the timeliness of all management information related to the hiring process and enabling human resources departments to provide an improved service to the hiring managers, ensures that clients hire the best people. The internet allows a recruitment process in businesses and corporations to be streamlined, every aspect of the process from vacancy posting to candidate management to skills matching and the maintenance of a corporate talent bank. In this event of hiring, the corporation or business are easily able to generate job alerts and other digital messaging from within their system to develop and maintain an interactive relationship with all candidates who are interested with the various positions that are available in their places, this in turn saves them time and resources. The internet also is of great help to corporations and businesses in regard to process transactions, such as purchase orders and invoices, completely electronically. This is because it offers them with the use of a computer the capability to send and receive electronic documents more quickly and at a fraction of the cost of processing paper documents, makings the entire process for much cheaper and time efficient. (Sadowski et al., 2002) Conclusion The Internet has made it possible for business and corporatioons to gain access to an information infrastructure larger than that owned by them before the put the internet into use. Indeed, the Internet allows businesses to communicate as widely with individuals or trading partners as any large corporation can. The importance of the Internet to business is reflected by the growth that has been posted in their annual reports. Therefore it is of great importance to have businesses and corporations to have this integral part of technology which will enable them go around the world with just a click of the mouse. References Business use of the Internet 1997, Retrieved on 24th September 2008 from www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/02651339710184343 Barrett, S., Konsynski, B. (2002), "Inter-organization information sharing systems", MIS Quarterly, Special Issue. Benbasat, I., Goldstein, D.K., Mead, M. (2004), "The case research strategy in studies of information systems", MIS Quarterly. Hamill, J., Gregory, K. (1997), "Internet marketing in the internationalization of businesses", in Hamill, J. (Eds),Journal of Marketing Management, Special Edition, Vol. 13. Pro E Business Internet Marketing Online Advertising 2008 retrieved on 25th September 2008 from, http://blog.pwebs.net/pro/2005/11/expand-market-reach-online.html Read More