The Role of the Internet in Business - Research Paper Example

The role of Internet in Business By Affiliation Table of Contents Introduction At the present time, the internet tools and technologies have become a primary driver of financial growth and business development, for the reason that the modernism brought by the internet tools and technologies has changed as well improved the set up of every kind of corporation (for instance, small, medium and large). Additionally, the adoptions and executions of the internet technologies (i.e. Web 2.0, e-commerce web sites, communication platforms, and e-business) have become as regular and common as fax machines, business cards, and telephones in performing business activities. In addition, approximately all the corporations now identify the value of internet in better dealing customers and reaching the worldwide markets. On the other hand, these permanent growths and enhancements in the internet technologies have made business industry more competitive than ever before because with the internet every organization in the world becomes a local competitor. Thus, they find and implement latest technologies to gain competitive edge (Summers et al., 2003, p.67; Watson et al., 2000; Rao et al., 1998; Soh et al., 1997). This report discusses the role of the internet in the business. The aim of this report is to discuss the benefits of internet technologies to the corporations and how they use internet to improve their business processes. This report will also outline some important aspects of the business that can be effectively supported through the internet. Internet: An overview A variety of attributes of the way corporations or individuals carry out their activities and survive in the twenty-first century will be determined through the huge web of electronic networks that was acknowledged as the information superhighway however at the present is generally known as the internet (Turban et al., 2005, p.128). “The internet is a broad collection of networks that connects the millions of corporations, educational institutions, government agencies and individuals” (Shelly et al., 2005, pp.11-12; Turban et al., 2005, p.71). In addition, approximately one-half billion people all through the world utilize internet daily for a variety of reasons, some reasons are given below: (Shelly, Cashman, & Vermaat, 2005, pp. 11-12) and (Norton, 2001): To communicate and meet other people around the world To utilize a wealth of information, news, and research results Online shopping for goods/products and services of their choice Bank and investment (to pay bills online) Attending online classes/courses Finding and using ways of entertainment in leisure time, for example online games, music, videos, books, and magazines. Internet is simply acknowledged as “the Net,” is a huge platform of computer networks, which helps users get information from any other computer (also they can communicate easily to users at different computers in different locations) by remaining at any one computer. Additionally, at present, the internet is a helpful, public, self-financing facility available to hundreds of millions of users internationally (Turban et al., 2005, p.71). Currently, it can be seen that the adoption of internet is increasing in the businesses more readily since it is really essential for the corporations to have an online business system in order that their business can flourish (Armstrong & Kotler, 2004). According to (Ray, 2004, p.269), the internet is a modern and up-to-date technology for the corporations. However this technology, similar to any other tool, is only a technology thus it depends on the organizations how they get benefits by adopting/implementing this technology. The internet helps organizations attract new customers, services presented ones improved, correspond to customers using more effective and professional manner, gather information about customers choices as well as retrieve it swiftly, and trade more products. In addition, many corporations have attempted to make use of the internet as inspiring much more than it is. By using internet, organizations and individuals developed whole businesses online, believing that in some way this would differentiate them from other corporations or businesses. However, a lot of among these organizations failed because they could not adopt it successfully (Ray, 2004, p. 269). The adoption and implementation of the internet technologies has increased in recent years remarkably, performing business activities in the digital economy refers to doing some kind of electronic commerce (carrying out business activities using internet) through web-based systems on the internet and various other electronic networks. Additionally, many researches shown and supported being encouraging results of adopting internet on a corporation’s competitive edge. In addition, the transition towards internet technologies has turned out to be more and more well-liked nowadays, because the expenditures of creating, maintaining, and accessing the business on internet and web site is comparatively less as compared to traditional business. Moreover, organizations now use the World Wide Web (WWW) to gather, publish and distribute information to and from actual and future clients and progressively for end-consumer business transactions through electronic commerce (Khodaparasti, 2009; Klein & Quelch, 1997; Day & Bens, 2005). Also, the internet technologies for instance interactive and multimedia in combination with other internet capabilities for instance, email support for group and personal communication, offers a number of ways to the corporations for attracting, marketing and communicating to customers. Moreover, the Web (internet technology) offers a structure to back-end applications for instance, databases operations, data mining techniques, and expert systems technology. Thus, the internet can be an excellent source for a range of marketing strategies and offer completive advantages (Watson et al., 2000; Dewan et al., 1999; Koh & Nam, 2005; Turban et al., 2005). The utilization of the internet technologies (e-commerce, e-business) to carry out business activities or modernize business processes in developed countries has become common over the past few years. In the United States, for instance, a lot of corporations in the computer manufacturing sector have begun to utilize/implement the internet to establish a connection between remote sites and business associates (stakeholders) for collaboration, for communications, and software support and distribution. CommerceNet is an association built by Intel in Silicon Valley, a lot of other corporation such as Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, IBM, and Enterprise Integration Technologies, reproduce this trend. However, the aim of CommerceNet is to commercialize the use of open computer networks for instance the Internet as well as to expand them as an electronic marketplace for carrying out business operations. In addition, it will deal with business concerns for instance high-speed Internet access, low-cost using multimedia applications and ISDN services. Moreover, a diverse variety of services and facilities will be offered to help small and medium-sized companies use public networks (Soh et al., 1997; Razi et al., 2004; Eid et al., 2006). The Use of Internet Technologies in Business The internet technologies are used in the following main categories of business: (Turban et al., 2005, p.129): Presence E-Commerce Collaboration and Interaction Integration and Services Emphasis Eye balls (human review) Revenue, expansion Profit Capabilities, facilities and services Type of transaction No transaction B2C, C2C, C2B, G2C, e-CRM B2B, B2E, supply chain, c-commerce, G2B Portals, e-learning, m-commerce, I-commerce Nature Publish information Process transaction Collaborate Integrate, provide services Target Pages Process transaction Digital systems Digital environments Concentrate on Web sites Web-enabled existing systems, dot-com Business transformation consolidation Internal and external integration Time 1993-1994 1995-1999 2000-2001 2001-2005 The implementation of Internet Technologies Below are few examples of organizations that are making use of the internet technologies to increase their sales. In addition, the table also demonstrates the reasons of changing traditional business practice with internet business: (Stair & Reynolds, 2003, pp.17-18) Name of Business Objective Description of Internet Usage Godiva Chocolatier Augment sales and profits This corporation has built a very gainful web site that helps customers purchase and get delivery of chocolates. According to “Kim Land”, director of Godiva Chocolatier, “in the beginning this system was aimed at making money.” And within two years, online sales reached to more than 70 percent each year. Environmental Defense Alert the public to environmental concerns This corporation successfully made use of the internet to send alerts to the people regarding the exercise of catching sharks, removing their fins for soup, and returning them to the ocean to die. In addition, the internet site also facilitated people fax approximately 10,000 letters to members of Congress about the practice. According to “Fred Krupp” the executive director of the Environmental Fund, “the internet is the vital term of ‘think global, act local.’” Buck man Laboratories To improve the process of employee training This corporation has implemented the internet to instruct workers to sale mainly chemicals to paper companies, instead of bringing them to Memphis for training. According to one executive, “their retention rate is much elevated, and their removed a week in Memphis, which meant big savings.”By making use of the internet they have decreased the hourly cost of training an employee from $1,000 to only $40. Siemens Decrease costs By implementing Internet, this corporation, which constructs and services power plants, was capable to diminish the expenditure of entering orders and dealing customers. In addition, the internet solution expenditures about $60,000 compared with a traditional solution that would have cost $600,000. Goldman Industrial Group Save time and money This corporation produces machine tools and was able to reduce the time it takes to fulfill an order from three or four months to about a week by making use of the internet to assist organize elements and production with its suppliers and at its plants. Partnership America To take better decisions This corporation has created a web site for wholesalers of computer equipment and supplies. In this way, the wholesalers are able to make use of the web site to make appropriate decisions about the attributes and costs of different parts of computer equipment. The system helps wholesalers to link to Partnership America’s web site using cell phones.. Altra Energy Technologies Get energy to companies that need it This corporation has built a web site to assist companies buy oil, gas, and wholesale power using the Internet. The role of Internet Technologies in Business Above given table shows that the internet has become an essential tool for organizations in less than a decade because it became open for public and business usage. Additionally, a number of researches have been carried out to recognize the technology and its effects on business from a broad variety of viewpoints. However, since this tool propagates with an increasing array of modern and more stylish technologies, there is a need for a universal viewpoint from which we can understand the quickly developing technology. In addition, the rate of internet adoption in most operations and logistics categories still remain comparatively lesser than those in marketing and sales. In this scenario, the adoption of the internet technologies still remains in a childhood where the internet technologies are mainly utilized for distributing information instead of maintaining and organizing a variety of business processes/operations along the value chain. Moreover, in the beginning corporations used the internet mainly for informational reasons for the reason that it is easy and low-cost, and its outputs are supposed as rapid and large. However, when the corporations become more acquainted with the internet, they use internet technologies to sell products or offer services. In this scenario combining internet technologies with existing technologies and databases become necessary. Finally, the corporations understand that the internet tool is not only for the communication and distribution of data and information over the networks however the internet ultimately becomes a framework on which all applications and technologies are integrated and combined (Koh & Nam, 2005; Moen et al., 2008; Pattison, 1997). Individuals are adopting the internet by the hundreds of thousands for the reason that people like to shop for goods, products and services on the web instead of going to the local store for the shopping. In this way, they save their time and money. Additionally, easy access to information, products, goods and services provides customers much more control and choices, therefore, organizations must find out a great deal more well-organized techniques of catching the customers’ attraction and maintaining customers trust. In addition, the internet technologies (specially, the web) offers corporations a more functional and competent business platform as compared to traditional ways for conducting business for selling products, goods, or services to consumers. Moreover, the rapid growths in the internet technologies are offering businesses with the opportunities or capabilities to access the worldwide markets and reach millions of customers by investing a minor investment (Rao et al., 1998; Sawyer, 2010; Summers et al., 2003, p.391). Internet technology can be considered as a most powerful marketing tool and with the emergence of the internet a number of researchers forecasted the death of the traditional marketing function. Additionally, the organizations have created and implemented contemporary internet marketing strategies to incorporate modern technologies (such as web 2.0) for achieving benefits of internet and attracting customers; product strategy demonstrating steadiness and promotion foundational upon well-organized websites. Since the internet is a extensively used platform and companies utilizing it are always potentially communicating and dealing with international audiences. Consequently, it can create more global competitive environment. On the other hand, there are differences in how the internet is implemented or used in creating marketing strategies. For instance, according to the results of a comparative research on Australia, UK, and New Zealand, corporations in all three countries typically make use of internet for marketing communication however the use of internet for performing transactions was much higher in UK as compared to New Zealand and Australia (Lagrosen, 2005; Sheth & Sharma, 2005; Summers et al., 2003; Adam et al., 2002; Lagrosen, 2005). Why Corporations use Internet Technologies: According to (Koh & Nam, 2005), firms use internet technologies for the following reasons: Public Uses: Carrying out customers surveys Collecting customers data Collecting customers suggestions/feedback Recruiting and hiring new employees Distributing virtual coupon to customers Establishing chat rooms Developing online group using social networks Broadcasting voices sound over internet Virtual publishing such as annual reports Supporting Internet news group Inter-Organizational Uses Voice conversations on the web and with entities outside the corporation Posting request for proposals and other documents to the clients Checking inventory of a supplier Giving access to a supplier to the corporation’s inventory Giving inventory information to customers Online business meeting with stakeholders and company partners Coordinating manufacturing schedule with business partners Producing new products in cooperation with a business partner Discussing strategies regarding current products or services with a strategic partner Carrying out bidding process with suppliers Intra-Organizational Uses Producing operational information Teleconferencing over the internet within the corporation Voice conference over the web within corporation International voice conversation over the web Scheduling meeting with employees inside the corporation Allowing sales staff to access inventory database Managing workflow within the corporation Coordinating communication regarding the projects using the web Web 2.0 A basic development of the Web that has made this probable is acknowledged as "Web 2.0."  The main and fundamental processes and technologies at the back of Web 2.0 offer a richer user experience as well as make use of information in exclusive ways.  Though, the paradigm of Web 2.0 is more than just technology, because it includes social interactions as well as a multiplicity of business models.  Web 2.0 is one of initial ideas to unite social, technical and business theories (Shah et al., 2005). With the implementation of web 2.0 technologies at business a company can face some negative aspect that corporations while entering into a new market segment. The new technology in not enough we also need some strong differentiating features in either service or technology, without these it will turn out to be more hard to capture sufficient users to continue a Web 2.0 business.  As we look around we can be able to view only a small number of flourishing pure Web 2.0 corporations.  Web 2.0 corporations can also discover accomplishment by capitalizing on an existing marketplace share and only translate their business technology to the Web 2.0 world through initiating the programming interfaces as well as permitting open edits to their web pages. However in present economy that is facing some economical down in these conditions the new technology implementation and transformation seem at a high business risk. In this scenario there is need for high business research before the acceptance of more reliable business model that can effectively sustain and manage the business in a much better way. Additionally, the technology of the web 2.0 promises better business advantages but it is need of time to take some wise decisions regarding business technology transformation. In addition, Web 2.0 offers next step in the social and business networking; here users will move from posting content to a single website and instead of having content (comments, reviews, email, discussions, etc.) that is able to be incorporated across a range of sites. Moreover, Web 2.0 technology is a collection of different technologies (i.e. social networking sites, blogs, etc) thus through this technology organizations can have better business management and new technology implementation (Axelrod, 2009; Shah et al., 2005) and (Hinchcliffe, 2006). Conclusion The implementation of the internet technologies can be seen in every walk of life. Now organizations more and more are adopting latest technologies to survive and gain competitive edge in ever increasing competitive world. This report has discussed the role of internet technologies in the business. This report has discussed various ways in which internet technologies can be used in the businesses. There are many examples of businesses that have successfully implemented internet technologies to gain benefits. Now customers want easy ways of shopping thus organizations are shifting from traditional business practice to a novel business platform. In the beginning internet has been used as a marketing tool but now trend is changing and it is used in every department of a business. In the last this report has discussed the concept of Web 2.0, which is a latest internet technology. It is a collection of different technologies and helps businesses market their products. 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