The Global Consequence of Information Systems - Report Example

Information Technology – Exploring Both Sides of the Coin Information technology has long been used by us and the results have mostly been fruitful. When times have been challenging, the IT tools have been brought out to bail companies, governments and even individuals out of the difficult situations. However, these tools at times have proved to be a little futile in bringing about solutions and rather become the causes of wastage and depletion. At a time like this, when the world is going through such a severe economic crisis, it is found that many companies and governments are turning to hi-tech to look for quick solutions. However, as it is being observed, not always can the tools of information technology be sound enough to bail them out. Often, some rather detrimental consequences are also seen, which cause more harm than good. The world is standing at the threshold of change, and with the economic meltdown here, things are not very easy to carry out. Survival has become difficult. At such a time then, it is not unusual for an organization to seek assistance in high-tech. As a result, more and more dependency is being seen on computers and other tools related to information technology. The many new, innovative and often boastful tools have therefore become the backbones of the organizations. Sadly though, not all live up to the expectations and the consequences brought along are way too dangerous. While it is very important and even useful to employ the various information technologies, all efforts should be made to ensure the proper and adequate employment of these. This is vital because if an IT tool is not used correctly and to its true potential, it can lead to a lot of unnecessary wastage of resources. And at the time of an economic slump such a condition is not desirable by any standards. The Indian government recently launched a laptop that cost no more than ₤7. Absurd as it may sound to many, the laptop actually worked and was mainly created to cater to educational needs at schools and universities. The government said that the laptop would help the students to communicate better with the faculty and vice versa. They were also indented to help in forming a better communication web amongst the various educational institutes. It was a wonderful, pioneering idea but sadly it wasn’t exactly practical. Many questioned the authenticity and genuineness of the price. While a screen itself cost more that ₤7, how could the entire computer be produced and then sold at such a low price? This question led to many viable doubts like whether the savings of the government were used to fund the project, which according to some was no more than a calculator! If that indeed was the case, the government surely could not have gained out of it – after all at the time of an economic slowdown it would not be the best option to waste money on a hi-tech tool that would just merely act as a calculator or a translator! In another blaring instance of information technology leaving serious consequences, the American government announced the introduction of high speed broadband all over the country to facilitate better communication to boost the organizations and individuals who were suffering due to the recession. The concept was novel and seemed to be very useful on the outside. Not only technology wise, but it proved to be helpful even as the project would pave the way for a lot of employment. With new broadband connections being set up, there would surely be a lot of digging work, installation work, and so on. In the deal, the rate of employment would surely go up and that would go a long way in easing out the economic slump. But if you take a closer look at the broader picture, you will see some very evident drawbacks of this plan. While a lot of money was assigned to the installation of the fast broadband, it was seen that the majority of the money went into the subsidiary work like paying salaries to the people involved in the installation work, etc. This points towards a lot of wastage of valuable government money that could otherwise be utilized in other necessary areas. This project also has another negative consequence. While the installation of fast broadband by the government would be great for everybody, a lot of the smaller, private broadband providers would be badly hit. And at the time of recession, something like this is not desirable at all. The government, by implementing fast broadband, may well prove to become a monopoly and thereby kill off the smaller firms. Governments have not been the only bodies making these largely apparent blunders. At a time like this when the world is going through a terrible economic meltdown, a lot of companies are adapting a lot of policies to help in cost-cutting and even survival. Of these methods, a very common practice that has emerged is that of freelancing. This is a good option, definitely, as it provides widespread employment to a whole lot of people. With the advent of information technologies such as VoIP call, people can access company databases, etc from home. This helps in cost cutting as the employer does not need to incur the costs of running a full time office with all the office equipment and substructures. Freelance professionals are hired and made to do work on a pay-per-business basis. Thus, the company does save a lot of money as there is no need to provide them with the basic work infrastructure like computers, electricity, and so on. Office spaces also cease to be mandatory and the firms indeed stand to gain from this. So what’s the problem, you ask? Well, it really is quite simple. If you see the long term consequence of this, you would indeed be alarmed to notice that a lot of paradoxical and contradictory effects actually result out of such types of communication models. Not only money, but also the credibility of the company is lost when the information system is found hacked. And quite interestingly, a vast majority (80% to be precise) of all the information that is leaked is leaked by employees and not by hackers. This is possible as mostly all employees, be it full time or freelance, of the company have access to the vital accounts and so can quite easily engage in tasks such as misappropriation of funds, outflow of vital company information, and so on. In such a scenario, one can't help but wonder as to whether the consequences of the information systems actually work in favor of those who engage in them or they are responsible for more harm and wastage. It is almost like creating one faulty system to cover up for another, and then staying put on the argument that you are right. It’s almost like saying, “I am a poor man, but I would gladly give ten shillings to find out who sent me the insulting Christmas card I received this morning”. Perhaps George Grossmith had perceived such a situation when he quite famously uttered those words a hundred years ago! The information systems have indeed brought about a problem – with the wide reach of the internet, the whole world has become an electronic village and every village-fool has access to the internet. If information systems are to be incorporated into the corporate world, all efforts should be made to get the ones that actually are meant to work for us, not against us in any way! The automobile industry, it is said, was one of the first industries to have been hit by the economic crisis. A Russian car company that had been badly hit tried to cut costs by downsizing the employees. This was not done properly and once again a jarring consequence of the ill-fitted information systems was noticed. The employees who had been asked to leave still had active user accounts in the company which they used for defamation, out of spite. The company’s reputation suffered greatly and it also saw some rather unfortunate monetary losses. With the world nearly becoming a slave to the computer, such practices seem to have become almost cancerous. Economics slumps are definitely not easy to overcome for any nation. Nonetheless every nation hopes at difficult times like these, the corporate world would work in sync with the governments and work towards the betterment of the economy of the country. But is that really happening? Let’s picture this: a company that’s new or small, is almost in doldrums following the recession, and is desperate to keep itself alive. As a result, work is outsourced to countries like India or China where cheap labour is available, tax structures are more suitable and where employee concerns need not be addressed. With the help of technological aids, a lot of work is being done through outsourcing. Here too, VoIPs, teleconferences and internet communication makes it possible to convey and receive the required data. All in all the company stands to gain – the work is being done and the costs are cut down marginally. But there just seems to be a small little problem – in this whole deal, the economies of India and China seem to have gained more than that of the home country’s. The local people were still left unemployed, the taxes were paid to the foreign governments. The proprietors of the modern day information systems sure believe in this! So what if such practices meant a complete destruction of the labour unions? The corporate world doesn’t seem to mind – for them it rather has made life simpler – no more having to deal with the demands of the labour force. They don’t even have to go through the unpleasant routines of dismissing people face-to-face. All they need to do is shoot out mass e-mails informing the employees about work termination. If only they understood that had things been so simple, the world wouldn’t have had become so complicated and we could very well do without the complex simple information systems. This perhaps is the best example of an oxymoron being implemented by a true bunch of morons! In one of the newer forms of information systems, it is being seen that the world is taking a step behind. The barter system that existed hundreds of years ago is making a splendid come back. Who said history doesn’t repeat itself? With this occurrence, history and even its predecessors are having ball repeating themselves! Recently it was seen that people belonging to similar communal backgrounds were engaging in the lending and borrowing of ‘money’ amongst themselves. The economic recession has made the times very difficult and with banks refusing loans left, right and centre, backwards seems to be the only way to go! So these forms of bartering, which are carried out on mutual trust and respect, are fast becoming popular. Though plastic money (the currency issued by the government) does not exchange hands, a different type of exchange policy is followed where services are procured as exchanges for favours. This way, a lot of money is saved as the participants of this system do not have to pay income tax, sales tax and other premiums, that regular transactions require. While on one hand this form of information systems proves to be beneficial for some, on the other hand it has some rather bizarre consequences. For starters, one can't help but notice the absurdity of the practice! If this system prevails for long, we may pretty soon have a world void of any economic constraints. Every company will issue its own ‘currency’ and no one will bother about the real money that the governments and banks have on offer. And with the almost complete disappearance of income and sales taxes, the economic conditions of the countries will never improve. Sounds scary? It may, but to those who are so rampantly engrossed in the practice, it may just sound like fun – fun like it was to see the stock markets crash day after day! With the world standing at the threshold of a new beginning, there indeed is a lot of change waiting to happen. But the change needs to be positive and not forced by any standards. So while on one hand information systems can go a long way in ensuring smooth operations, we must be very careful in selecting the correct kinds of information systems. It must also be remembered that slavery has long been abolished and should not be brought back in any form – we should not become slaves to our computers! Computers and other information systems should be devised to help us and not to make life more complicated. Another thing that needs to be remembered is that the world is already going through a crisis, and nothing should be done to make the situation worse. If you need to implement an information system to aid your business, only go for the viable options. Do not blindly follow trends because the others have done so. Outsourcing may be a practical option for your competitor but not for you. Think every action over, lest you want to make blunders over and over again. Information systems have been primarily been made to aid the world in this modern era. And the usage of the system should be limited to that. Unnecessary usages should not be encouraged where human incompetence is brought about. It has also been seen that information systems cause a sense of decaying patriotism in a lot of people. They simply stop working for the betterment of the country’s economy and focus on building up selfish profits. Such shocking global consequences of the information systems should be done away with at all costs. So in conclusion it can safely be said that not all types of information technology is harmful, rather only a very small percentage of it is. So while we need to be very receptive of the helpful information systems, we need to be very careful about the harmful ones as well. However the assessment must be done from a very neutral point of view, without any pre-conceived notions or prejudices. Only then can the useful results of the global information systems be differentiated from the consequences of the same. In a situation of credit crunch, technologies can be very helpful as an accelerator to overcome this period. However it contains negative impact, some of which may not be visible to the naked eye. Works Cited I Angell, The New Barbarian Manifesto, Logan, 2000 R Coase, The Firm, the Market and the Law, University of Chicago Press 1988 Kearns, G.S., Sabherwal, R., Antecedents and Consequences of Information Systems Planning Integration, South Florida Univ., St. Petersburg; http://www.jamia.org/cgi/content/abstract/14/5/542 Ben-Akiva, M., De Palma, A. and Kaysi, I., 1991, Dynamic Network Models and http://www.fratfiles.com/topics/Negative%20Effects%20Of%20Technology/100 I Angell, The Future of Money, Financial Times, December 22, 1997 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/02/india-computer-cheapestThe http://www.reliancesecurity.co.uk/rss/news/2009/2/reliance-high-tech-to-host-complimentary-security-cost-cutting-seminar/ Read More

It was a wonderful, pioneering idea but sadly it wasn’t exactly practical. Many questioned the authenticity and genuineness of the price. While a screen itself cost more that ₤7, how could the entire computer be produced and then sold at such a low price? This question led to many viable doubts like whether the savings of the government were used to fund the project, which according to some was no more than a calculator! If that indeed was the case, the government surely could not have gained out of it – after all at the time of an economic slowdown it would not be the best option to waste money on a hi-tech tool that would just merely act as a calculator or a translator!

In another blaring instance of information technology leaving serious consequences, the American government announced the introduction of high speed broadband all over the country to facilitate better communication to boost the organizations and individuals who were suffering due to the recession. The concept was novel and seemed to be very useful on the outside. Not only technology wise, but it proved to be helpful even as the project would pave the way for a lot of employment. With new broadband connections being set up, there would surely be a lot of digging work, installation work, and so on.

In the deal, the rate of employment would surely go up and that would go a long way in easing out the economic slump. But if you take a closer look at the broader picture, you will see some very evident drawbacks of this plan. While a lot of money was assigned to the installation of the fast broadband, it was seen that the majority of the money went into the subsidiary work like paying salaries to the people involved in the installation work, etc. This points towards a lot of wastage of valuable government money that could otherwise be utilized in other necessary areas.

This project also has another negative consequence. While the installation of fast broadband by the government would be great for everybody, a lot of the smaller, private broadband providers would be badly hit. And at the time of recession, something like this is not desirable at all. The government, by implementing fast broadband, may well prove to become a monopoly and thereby kill off the smaller firms. Governments have not been the only bodies making these largely apparent blunders. At a time like this when the world is going through a terrible economic meltdown, a lot of companies are adapting a lot of policies to help in cost-cutting and even survival.

Of these methods, a very common practice that has emerged is that of freelancing. This is a good option, definitely, as it provides widespread employment to a whole lot of people. With the advent of information technologies such as VoIP call, people can access company databases, etc from home. This helps in cost cutting as the employer does not need to incur the costs of running a full time office with all the office equipment and substructures. Freelance professionals are hired and made to do work on a pay-per-business basis.

Thus, the company does save a lot of money as there is no need to provide them with the basic work infrastructure like computers, electricity, and so on. Office spaces also cease to be mandatory and the firms indeed stand to gain from this. So what’s the problem, you ask? Well, it really is quite simple. If you see the long term consequence of this, you would indeed be alarmed to notice that a lot of paradoxical and contradictory effects actually result out of such types of communication models.

Not only money, but also the credibility of the company is lost when the information system is found hacked. And quite interestingly, a vast majority (80% to be precise) of all the information that is leaked is leaked by employees and not by hackers. This is possible as mostly all employees, be it full time or freelance, of the company have access to the vital accounts and so can quite easily engage in tasks such as misappropriation of funds, outflow of vital company information, and so on.

Read More