The Role of Technology in Large and Small Businesses - Assignment Example

Computers Name: Course: Tutor: Date: The essence of any business is to provide the most efficient services to its clients through their most appropriate technology and business policies. Technology is of great importance when dealing with clients, as well as production means. Each of these important aspects requires that a company understands its preferences and to what lengths the business is willing to go to meet its goals. The company is required to manage its computer resources and its storage of important business data. The benefits of adopting a new system for Bazaar Ceramics are numerous though there are also some risks that may be incurred. But given the increasing benefits that a company benefits from, adopting this new technology will be essential. The company will benefit from faster deployment of new business capabilities, lower-risk business innovation, global scale outreach, more intelligent IT spending and easier automation of IT services and information from the relevant sites. Some of the risks to be incurred include outsourcing to an external provider which gives the flexibility but does not eliminate the risks incurred; storage of data outside the company may be of great concern and the probability of vendor lock-in due to the different services provided by each vendor. With such details, the company can make better decisions on how to develop the technical ability of the company. The main aim of this report is to explore the benefits of adopting a different strategy on the technological front. Technology is very essential in the current business world with each company seeking to address its issues from a technological point of view. Each company looks for ways of saving more while using the least cost to maximally achieve the greatest results on the same. Technology has made business faster with the internet revolutionizing the way business is being done. Interactions within and without have become easier, faster and more secure with each party expressly meeting their demands with such minimal supervision but with constant communication being core. Thus, speed, cupped with technology adds flexibility and responsiveness to interactions. It also allows for far-reaching collaboration with different applications connecting larger business networks. This allows for the blending of talents and abilities which makes innovation quite an important aspect of the company. Adopting the proposed system will be important in realizing these goals and the report herein will look at all these important attributes that make up this important technological drive. Therefore, the benefits herein will ensure that the reasons behind such a proposal will be adequately addressed with each point being explored further to ensure all risks and benefits are addressed before a conclusive decision can be made regarding the same. Each decision has to be viewed in relation to the business core policies, goals and objectives with the best decision made in favor of these rather than individual interests. The benefits are immense. First and foremost is the idea of reduced IT costs. The development of IT in the world has changed the pace and face of businesses in the world. This company has also not been left behind in this. The continued application of IT in almost all the departments proves this. These benefits have led to the concentration of most of the company’s resources and revenue into ensuring that the company has adequate IT personnel, equipment and up-to-date system software. With the increase in web-enabled devices, the issue of data access will be made easier. This can be applied in the company too. The need to reduce costs in every possible manner is every company’s drive. The costs of IT need to be maintained as low yet efficient as possible to ensure the business does not come to a standstill. With a new system, the costs of system upgrades, new hardware and software and expertise consultations will be drastically reduced since these will be included in the contract with the service provider chosen. The company will no longer be in need of the expert staff hence reduction in wages spent on such. Further, in view of the IT budgets, there are two important categories that inform the company on how to spend in relation to the IT department. First, there is spending that is tied to the basic IT infrastructure and applications like emails, and the spending on new applications that provide new business capabilities. Every business wants to cut the first spending trends and increase on the second. This company can attest to this theorem. This helps largely in decision-making and budget preparations. Scalability is another advantage that is well achieved in this case. The global reach and scale means that a company ought to maintain its services on a flexible yet competitive trend. The company has a higher possibility of gaining more value for their data and innovations by reaching out to more clients in the world due to the scalability offered by the proposed system’s services. Even without engaging in upgrades to ensure the system is running, the company embarks on other issues while the service provider handles the system upgrades. This frees up time for other activities which assist in the growth of the company. This leads to another advantage which is business continuity. This also helps in easier access, minimized downtime and less loss of productivity. Risks cannot be avoided with any new venture a company takes. The fact that the services will be outsourced could prove quite a concern to the company as a whole. Privacy is at most threatened in case the provider seeks to delve into a company’s inventory and seek to blackmail the company. The provider may also not live up to the expected standards and this could hurt the business operations. The applications could also be faulty or down all the time, hence eating into the company’s expenses and possible cuts in revenue. Thus, the company must engage in looking for the appropriate vendor whose long-term goals do not include leaving the service provider platform as this could affect the business severely. Thus, the service level agreement must be equally exploited and understood to make sure that the company understands what it is up against and how it can meet its goals. Methodology The data for this study was collected mainly through two avenues or methods. Structured questionnaires and interviews were the main data collection methods. Since our respondents were divided into three main classes, they were interviewed at slightly different times. They comprised of 20 entrepreneurs staff members with at least 2 years’ experience in business operations, 40 university students were also selected randomly and comprised the group of 800. The final group was composed of a group of entrepreneurs having more than 10 years’ experience in business operations. In this study, we appointed enumerators to distribute questionnaires. 100 questionnaires were answered and returned by the respondents. The respondents were also interviewed during the process. These questionnaires were used as part of the primary data for this study. The interviews were recorded for further analysis and comparison to the questionnaires since they both had similar questions. The instrument we used was developed only after thorough and comprehensive literature review. Even then, I had to develop several items as the lead researcher, so as to fully realize the goal of my research. The interviews had roughly the same questions, however in this case they were open ended. Below is a brief questionnaire. Please tick (√) where appropriate Basic Details: 1. Department  IT/Computer Science  Finance  Human Resource  Student affairs (Exams, Library)  Procurement  Other 2. Gender  Male  Female 3. Age  less than 20 yrs  21-30 yrs  31-40 yrs  41-50 yrs  Above 50 yrs 4. Level of Education  Doctorate  Masters  Bachelors  Tertiary  Other 5. Role in software system quality assessment  Project Manager  Developer  System administrator  Network administrator User support/technician  User  Other Section B: 1. Select the need for quality assessment for software that are developed in your institution Reason Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree Need for better service delivery Need to streamline processes and operations Solve limitations of current system bugs Need to have systems that address all issues of users Better understanding of the exisiting problems Have a competitive advantage over other institutions Better improve software quality assessment standards 1. Select the extent of agreement with the factors below regarding successful implementation quality assessment reviews for software systems. Please tick (√) where appropriate No. Factor Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree 1 Better software procured 2 Reduced cost of automation 3 Enhance performance and service delivery 4 Improved user perception of automation 5 Presence of expertise who champions the system implementation 6 Use of appropriate changeover process 7 Proper planning and coordination 8 Realistic project timelines 9 Adequate communication between project team members and management 10 Ability to retain technical staff i.e. minimizing project staff turnover 11 Support from user departments SECTION C (For IT Staff Only) 1. i. How many months was quality assessment planned to take?  Less than 6 months  6-12 months  18 months  24 months  More than 24 months ii. How many months did the software quality assessment actually last?  Less than 6 months  6-12 months  12-18 months  18-24 months  More than 24 months 2. How many modules were evaluated for quality compared to your initial projection?  100%  75%  50%  25-50%  less than 25% 3. Please rate the degree of your agreement with the following statements i. The software quality assessment was completed within budget  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Neutral  Agree  Strongly agree ii. At the present, quality assessment of software is effectively undertaken  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Neutral  Agree  Strongly agree iii. With quality assessment, most software systems were without bugs  Strongly disagree  Disagree  Neutral  Agree  Strongly agree 4. Top management support refers to the fact that the software system quality assessment to receive approval from top management. Please rate the level of top management support for the project  Very dissatisfied  Dissatisfied  Neutral  Satisfied  Very satisfied 5. Business process reengineering refers to aligning the company business processes with the system that will be implemented. Please rate the importance of business process reengineering for your project.  Unimportant  Of little importance  Moderately important  Important  Very important 6. Are you satisfied with how the institution-wide is committed to the new computing system implementation?  Very dissatisfied  Dissatisfied  Neutral  Satisfied  Very satisfied Analysis of data collected Opinion Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent Strongly agree 300 42.9 42.9 Moderately agree 155 22.1 65 Not sure 122 17.4 82.4 Disagree 65 9.29 91.69 Strongly disagree 46 6.6 98.29 Totally disagree Total 12 700 1.71 100 100 Limitations The applicability of the findings of this study suffers certain inalienable limitations. The sample size used for the study was relatively small in comparison to the larger population that was left out. This affects the generalizability of the results. Secondly, the questionnaire design could have been altered to extract more details and give a clearer picture. Finally, the data was obtained via the use of enumerators. This gave the information some possibly significant deficiencies, despite the use of interviews. Some of the departments to be considered in making decisions concerning a change of the system include the sales and marketing department, financial department, human resources department and most significantly the IT department. This is so since these departments have already identified and appreciated IT as key to realization of their set objectives. For instance, the marketing department appreciates the internet as key to its communication matters and as a sales tool. Timeline Subject Estimated time Literature review 2 months Proposal writing 3 weeks Development and refinement of questionnaire and interview questions 2 weeks Seek permission from ministry to conduct research 2 days Carry out pre-test for the questionnaires 1 week Administration of questionnaires and interview sessions 1 month Analysis of data collected 3 weeks Write up of results and findings 2 weeks Presentation of findings 1 day Conclusion The role of technology in both large and small businesses has increased remarkably. Where the assets of businesses were once primarily represented by bricks and mortar, manufacturing materials, rolling stock, and physical inventories, many of the more profitable businesses today claim technology as their primary asset. Technology and other types of intangible assets or intellectual property serve as the keystone of most large and small businesses all over the world. For example, technology assists in improvement of efficiency and effectiveness. Incorporation of technology such as emails, internet, telephones etc helps to improve the service delivery of businesses. It’s therefore, of utmost importance for Bazaar Ceramics to focus towards adopting a new system. Read More