Emerging Technology - The Development of Technology and Information Infrastructure - Essay Example

The Running Head: Emerging Technology Your name: Course name: Professors’ name: Date: Introduction In the early days of civilization before the introduction of currency, most transactions were carried out in the form of barter trade. After that, currency was introduced as a form of exchange of goods and services; there were business set ups after the advent of money, the perceptions of many businesses started to change towards how business was conducted, but more so since in the last 30 years with the emergence of technology most businesses have turned around. With the introduction of Information Technology (IT) most businesses have been globalised, they are now able to do business internationally; they are not limited to their areas of their establishment. Nowadays, businesses are inextricably entangled with new technology, from a small home office, to international companies which have multiple monolithic legacy application. It is not logic today to be in business without dealing with the issues of technology, the way companies do business today is totally different 10 years ago. The development of technology and information infrastructure has greatly impact how companies operate. It is worth appreciating that technology has dictated all company’s performance. This essay focuses in depth on these questions: Describe Porter’s competitive forces model and his value chain model, and explain how IT helps companies improve their competitive positions. In addition identify and provide examples of five strategies those companies. How can IT alter an individual’s work and how can a manager ensure that the impact is positive rather than negative? Also, what current technologies do you predict will show the most impact on the way work is done, and why? When considering the idea of whether the use of information systems are a strategic tool, a survival tool or both – take a stance and provide support for your position. Value chain analysis The five forces analysis and the value chain analysis are Porter’s strategic models. In his model of industry analysis, Michael Porter believes that the industry is affected by a combination of five forces. He suggested that a manager who intends to gain a competitive advantage over rival players in a given industry can benefit from the understanding of the market modalities as given by this model. The forces however revolve around the competitive degree of rivalry that exists within the industry. The forces include supplier power (presence of substitutes, threat of forward integration, differentiation of inputs, and cost of inputs in relation to product price); barriers to entry (economies of scale, switching costs, absolute cost advantages, brand identity, capital requirements, and expected retaliation); threat of substitutes (switching costs, price performance, perceived level of product differentiation, and buyer inclination to substitutes); bargaining power of customers (threat of backward integration, bargaining leverage, availability of substitutes, buyer price sensitivity, and brand identity); degree of rivalry (sustainable competitive advantage through improvisation, exit barriers, product differences, brand identity, economies of scale, industry growth rate and diversity of competitors) (Porter, 1996). The above analytic model of industries provides the state of an industry at a given point in time. This is because businesses are never static as they keep on changing especially with the technological advances that are being adopted by every facet in the business arena. Fear of redundancy and competitive advantage from technologically advanced companies has become a constant threat to firms that are yet to embrace technology. In his second strategic model of value chain analysis a firm’s goal of attaining competitive advantage and create shareholder value, Porter presents the business as a series of activities. These sequence of value-generating activities are ‘primary’ activities include inbound logistics (receiving and warehousing of materials); operations (processing inputs into finished products); outbound logistics (warehousing and distribution of goods); marketing and sales (meeting customer needs and making sales); and Service (after sales services). The primary activities are supported by firm’s infrastructure, human resource management, technology development, and procurement. The firm can therefore confidently pursue competitive advantage through cost advantage (by better understanding costs and minimizing them in the value-adding activities) and differentiation (giving greater concern to those activities linked with its core competencies to gain an advantage over his competitors). Porter in his analysis of internet adoption is of the view that there is need for strategy in order for technological advancement to succeed. However, research has shown that IT is a tool that ought to be embraced by any company in any industry. The adoptions of this technology, especially by the pioneers attest to the fact “everything changes” considering that they no longer feel the effect of switching costs. Apart from the fundamental changes, IT renders old rules about companies and competition obsolete (James, 1995). Concerning competitive strategies porter analyses them at different organizational levels. At the business unit level being the primary context of industry rivalry, porter indentifies three generic strategies including cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. The other strategies can be formulated in the corporate and functional/departmental levels. How it influences individuals and impacts of current technologies in a company Information technology has massively influenced the development of working conditions in all companies. Any company failing to devote resources to enhance its technologies in all aspects will always lose its important competitive advantage. Information Technology alters individuals work in many ways, some of these important ways included; improvement of how one communicates especially to the client, bridging the gap between the supplier, client and all other relevant links that enhances the business. This way an individual is able to perform his work without worrying about information flow. With availability of information, an individual can use them to evaluate company’s current state of performance and the predicted future expected performance of the company. Availability of information can help in doing so since; the prediction of crisis such as economic crisis which has currently influenced the world’s economy and it subsequent trends can be easily evaluated and tackled well. It is important to note that though information flow is crucial in a company. The same technology providing information flow through advanced technologies of the internet is also a source of services that will impact negatively to the workers productivity. There are several social sites that have drained human resources in terms of their productivity hours. These sites include facebook (the world most popular site) among others. There are other negative impacts of technology because any introduction of new technology will mean that the existing human resource will have to be trained to appreciate the technology. It is at this point that managers are supposed to came in and play their pivotal role. Managers should ensure that technological development should impact positively to his workers in bid to improve their productivity. He should ensure that; there is adequate technical, information and human infrastructure. By taking these advantages, productivity will increase without any questionable reason. On the other hand managers should be people with knowledge and ability to use existing and upcoming technologies to gain competitive advantage. The manager should spearhead the sensitization of appropriate technological adoption by his workers. Adoption of the new technologies normally provides a company with a wider scope of the market and more information concerning it. To further reiterate the importance of new technologies, it is vital to note that the incumbent are reluctant to adoption of technologies new in the market. Most technologies are however adopted with time based on their efficiency and replacing old ones, a situation referred to as ‘disruption’. There are wide varieties of new technologies that have been adopted widely all over the world due to their features. A good example is You Tube; this technology enables video capture from mini digital cameras and makes it faster to upload the content into the internet. You Tube has succeeded in conveying message all over the world and making marketing even easier. Early this year during the introduction of stimulus plan, the sitting US president Obama used the You Tube to pass over his message. The other new technology that has swept through the marketing the recent past is the Wi-Fi operations. Almost all modern Computers and Laptops are Wi-Fi enabled. This technology enables the a virtual creation of a wireless local area network(WLAN).This ability enables the computer to access any available wireless network access source without any physical connection. This linking wirelessly eliminates the cost of cables like those in a wired network. WiMax is the current technology which substitutes the Wi-Fi since it covers a relatively wider scope in the geographical network. There is a technology which is slowly being adopted by all developed and a developing country, this technology is based on what is called Internet Protocol (IP). This is whereby voice is mapped on the IP and resulting to voice over the internet protocol (VoIP). This reduces companies cost of telephone bill and improves efficiency of service delivery. Information system as a survival and strategic tool I consider information system as both a strategic and a survival tool. There are several reasons to back up this idea. A company’s competitive advantage which makes it survive and be strategic is at all times based on their technological infrastructure, growth and efficiency. Companies that do not have well developed information system are normally vulnerable not only to their vital security information that determines their survival but also their strategic plan. A company’s vital information can be used by opponents’ to bring down the company. Therefore a company’s survival is entirely based on information system to safeguard their vital information (Rigakos, 2002). The flow, storage and accessibility of information in a company can be used to project the future goals or visions of the company while analyzing the company’s current and past performance. It is therefore evident that a company entirely depends on information system for its strategic plan. Companies such as General Motors (GM) have failed and consequently declared bankrupt because of the failure of their past strategic plans. Moreover Delloitte and Touche LLP researched and developed report in 2007 addressing important issues of security and its consequences as part of enterprise risk management (ERM). Most firms well equipped with technology can easily survive through economic crisis by altering the way they compete, focus and innovate. Since strategic plans of companies determines their existence in the future, the adoption of modern technology is crucial ,for firms that aim at maintaining its existence in the ever growing competition and diminishing market(Porter,1996). There are several statistical software that can be used by employees of a company to determine the performance and the expected or the projected. With regard to survival of firms, well developed technological infrastructure always determines their survival during an economical crisis like the current recession which has seen several companies lay off their human resource. The company’s information flow always improves its efficiency and reliability to its clients in the ever diminishing market and increasing competition. Information system offers a reliable tool to stabilize the company through challenges faced .Most prominent companies in the world like Microsoft have utilized technology and the availability of information system of which they have been major pioneers to survive in the market. The world famous search engine Google has properly utilized technology to solve needs of all people and in the event surviving for the period of time it has managed. Information is a time referred to as cutting edge by scholars who understand its importance. The most important part of a business (market) can be accessed via the internet which is part of the information system. Nowadays with the development of technology, online transaction is made possible. There are several ways to make payments and carry out transactions via the internet. Most international money transfer is made possible through the internet. Some of the known ways to carry out money transfer includes E-gold, PayPal, wire transfer and payoneers among others. Some banks also allow debit card transactions. With these possible money transfers, company’s survival can be enhanced through its market abroad and the possibility of carrying out transactions. Conclusion To conclude, it has been established according to porter that how strategy and competitive advantage is gained. Discussed at length is the focus on IT and information systems and it has been seen that information plays a great role in companies survival and also its future sustainability. Lastly it does not go without mentioning that the rate at which companies adopt technologies is proportional to the rate at which they grow in market, sales and profit. Reference List James, M. (1995). The Great Transition: Using the Seven Disciplines of Enterprise Engineering. New York: Amacom Porter, M. E. (1996). What is strategy? Harvard Business Review, November-December, 61-78. Rigakos, George. (2002). The New Parapolice: Risk Markets and the Commodification of Social Control. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Wiseman, C. (1988) Strategic Information Systems, Irwin, Homewood, Illinois Elizabeth K. Somogyi, Robert Galliers. (1987). Towards Strategic Information Systems, (Taylor & Francis) Read More