The Impact of Information Technology on the Supply Chain Management in Business Operations - Research Proposal Example

THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON THE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IN BUSINESS OPERATIONS. The Impact of Information Technology on the supply chain management in Business Operations. Introduction The transformational change in the information technology in the last century has had a significant change in the business industry. Information technology has become a vehicle that drives business operations with much more efficiency and helps organizations to realize high profits1. However, it is clear that it has become a challenge for many organizations to successfully integrate Information technology into their operations to realize the real value of this technology. The complexity of this technology has becoming overwhelming for many organizational leaders making it quite difficult to achieve efficiency in business. In addition, the IT technology remains dynamic and requires that organizational leaders remain focused and flexible to adopt emerging technologies. Research has shown that the main reason why most organizations have failed to realize their business goals is because they have failed to successfully implement IT in their supply operations. This qualitative analysis aims at investigating the impact of the IT in the organization supply chain management. Purpose Statement The primary purpose of this project is to investigate the impact of information technology on the supply chain management. In the business environment, it is a priority for the business managers to streamline the supply chain to ensure that they realize optimum profits as per their set goals. The ability of organization to integrate information technology in their supply helps them improve the organizational performance. The specific objective of this paper is to assess the impact of IT in the supply chain management in terms of cost reduction and effectiveness. The findings of this research will help organizations to successfully integrate IT in their business operations and provide an opportunity for organizations to improve their supply chain management strategy. The cumulative impact of this in business is to minimize supply chain expenses, increase efficiency and hence optimize profits. Problem Statement Research shows that the reason why organizations have failed to achieve effectiveness in their supply chain management is because they have undermined the value of information technology in streamlining the supply chain. Schillewaert states that majority of the organization have failed to integrate information technology in their business operations because they fail to understand its value in improving the efficiency of the supply chain. In this view, this research will provide the value of Information technology to the supply chain managers and provide an incentive for them to deploy IT in their business environment. Literature Review The role of Information technology in the business environment is a topic that has garnered a lot of interest in the field of business research2. Most scholars have set out to investigate the changes in the technological spheres and the impact that this has on the business environment. The main reason why this has become an issue of interest is because there it has been a challenge for many organizations to induce this technology in their business operations3. At the same time, some managers have ignored this technology and termed it as an expensive way of inducing effectiveness in business operations. In other organizations where this technology has been deployed, it is clear that it has not achieve optimum effectiveness as expected. Numerous companies have exploited the benefits of information technology in various perspectives in their organizations. According to a report by McKinsey and Company shows that over 69% of companies in the UK have exploited the web 2.0 platform in their business to transform their supply chain positively. Companies such as the Shop Direct Group in the UK have used the web 2.0 platform as a marketing avenue to push their products to the people. International companies such as Cisco have managed to mobilize their products by using information technology networks. Companies that have failed to adopt IT in their business environment such as the Bestway group continues to lag behind in terms of profitability. From this point of view, it is possible to regard IT as a crucial factor in business management. Huber is among those researchers who evaluated the value of Information technology in the business environment in terms of communication efficiency. Communication is one of the most crucial aspects of business and its effectiveness determines the smoothness of the operations in a business system. From the findings of his research, he concluded that information technology helps business managers to develop an effective communication network that is essential for smooth flow of business operations4. He added that the formation of an effective communication network comes along with reduction in the prices of communication. This research points out clearly that business information technology can be used to reduce the expenses within a supply chain.5 A more recent research by Goo6d has supported the fact that Informational efficiency in an organization can be easily achieved through adoption of IT infrastructure within any organization. In addition, Grover stated that IT brings automation of business operations that helps the management to accomplish their tasks quickly hence saving time, a crucial resource in the business industry. More research has outline the various challenges that business managers confront in their effort to induce IT in their operations. A research by Khosrowpour & Information Resources Management Association International Conference sought to investigate the reasons why it is a difficult task for managers to implement IT in their business environment7. They found out that most managers lack adequate understanding of the technology making it complex for them to implement it. Another challenging reason is that the managers fail to understand the value of the new technology and they feel that it would not be a worthy investment especially due to its high initial cost. As such, numerous business leaders have remained reluctant to deploy this technology, consequently facing the cost of remaining static in a dynamic business market. A critical evaluation of this literature points out there is a great misunderstanding on the implementation of IT in business and this has made difficult for organizations to benefit from the advantages of this technology. The research on the role of information technology on supply chain has been scanty and has not unveiled the values of this technology. Although various researchers have suggested that there is value in integrating IT in the supply chain, they have not brought out clearly the values of this technology in the supply chain. Organizations such as Wal-Mart have for long integrated information technology in their supply chain as one of injecting effectiveness in the operations right from the point where production time to the moment products reach their target customers8. Wal-Mart has utilized software and RFID equipment to monitor their products and communicate within their supply network. Ross stated that the shortage of research in supply chain technologies has become a barrier for investors to reap from the benefits of this technology9. This research intends to contribute to the knowledge of the various benefits of supply chain technologies and how IT can be used to induce change in supply chain management. It will provide a point of attention for supply chain managers to model their supply chain strategy. Methodology For the purpose of this research, a qualitative approach will be used to investigate the value of information technology in supply chain management. Oral interviews will be prepared and validated by the research team to develop to ensure that data collected in credible. Data abstraction methods will be used to obtain data from the websites of the sampled organizations. A total of 15 business organization will be selected through stratified sampling method. The stratified data sampling method is recommended for its superiority in providing a uniform sample across the target population. From the 15 business organizations, three interview responds will be selected from the top level management to ensure that those who provide data are well aware of the impact of IT in their business organization. The data so collected will be subjected to a qualitative analysis to synthesize the conclusions of this study. The research will aim at measuring the efficiency in supply chain in terms of cost, time and communication.10 To measure the extent to which organizations have deployed IT in their business environment, it will be crucial to evaluate the amount of IT infrastructure they have employed in the supply chains. At this stage, it will be wise to note the management software that they have used, and the security and communication equipment that they engaged in their operations11. This will help in measuring the level of IT technology that has been implemented versus the benefits that the organizations have achieved. The findings of this research will be generalized to the entire study population and conclusions will be drawn from this point of view. One of the main challenges anticipated in this research study is the unavailability of data from the websites of the sample population members. Some organizations fail to update their websites and this may lead to shortage of data in the data collection stage. To overcome this challenge, all organizations with inactive websites will be immediately developed from the sample and replaced with other organizations. This will ensure that enough data is available and viable conclusions can be made from the study. If this proposal is granted, the budget for this project is expected to be about $4000. This amount will adequately cover for the payment of the research team, the stationeries, travelling and other miscellaneous expenses. The University library has committed its efforts in providing with the recording instruments that are necessary for the interview process. This will facilitate accurate capturing of the data. The funds for this project will be raised through personal contribution and willing donors. Bibliography Good, David. Stone. Computer Technology and the Marketing Organization: An Empirical Investigation, Journal of Business Research, 34, 197-209. 2012. Huber, David, A Theory of the Effects of Advanced Information Technologies or Organizational. Design, Intelligence, and Decision Making, Academy of Management Review, 15, 1, 47-71. 2001. Hugos, Michael H. Essentials of Supply Chain Management. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley, 2011. Igbaria, Michael. The Consequences of Information Technology Acceptance on Subsequent Individual Performance, Information & Management, 32, 113-121. 2004. Jarvenpaa, David. The Global Network Organization of the Future: Information Management Opportunities and Challenges, Journal of Management Information Systems, 10, 4, 25-57. 200.5 Khosrowpour, Mehdi. Challenges of Information Technology Management in the 21st Century: Information Resources Management Association International. 2000. Olson, David L. Supply Chain Information Technology. New York, N.Y.] (222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017: Business Expert Press, 2012. Ross, Fredrick. Introduction to Supply Chain Management Technologies. London: CRC Press. 2010. Schillewaert, Niels. the Effect of Information Technology on Sales Person Performance. eBusiness Research Center. 2005. Zhang, Qingyu. E-supply Chain Technologies and Management. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, 2007. Read More