The Different Kinds of Technology Being Used in Business - Research Paper Example

Running Head: USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN BUSINESS Use of Technology in Business of the of the Use of Technology in Business Introduction Technology has become a very important component of our lives in today’s world. Technology has made an impact on individuals of every walk of life. Technology is mainly utilized by people in order to bring improvements to their surroundings. Technology is being used to manage everything which we experience. In the contemporary world of business, the most popular topic that we come across these days is of technology, the businesses having superior technology is being flourished faster than other companies, since use of technology diminish cost, amplify production process and make use of lesser resources. This is the reason, majority of companies are ready to spend huge amount of their capital on R&D (research and development). Thesis Statement ‘Re-adjusting a companys technology designed to optimize its business-process in meeting its business objectives’ Technology and business Technology and the Internet have had a profound effect on service marketing (Bitner, Brown & Mueter 2000). In an increasingly networked world information of varying quality is being aggregated for business use. Senior managements course of action is clear: (a) view; (b) manage and (c) deliver information as a competitive weapon. Information technology (IT) change is all-pervasive or ubiquitous. Consequently it is important that employers engage in change process in thoughtful ways–respecting and holding to ideas and practices of the past that have enduring value while also attending to emerging ideas and necessary changes in practice. The changes now experienced are no one-time affair. All business organizations must expect accelerating change and continuing efforts for renewal. Gildea (2005) explained that it is not getting people to learn C++ but trying to figure out how to do things all the time and differently. As another example of the technology-attachment linkage customers buying online often rely on a limited set of mediated channels that regularly lack the actual interactivity needed to effectively make purchases and address customer service questions. Similarly employees considered traditional office staff or more virtual workers rely extensively on various mediated channels that may do more to provide information overload than actually facilitate meaningful connections with other aspects of the organization. (Wolff, 2005, 29) Today the Internet is used for a wide variety of purposes including email surfing the World Wide Web chatting in chat rooms doing research and retrieving information games gossip and more. The impact of the Internet appears to be widespread with a large number of companies striving toward an e-business (i.e. business conducted over the Internet) and e-commerce (i.e. transactions or sales conducted over the Internet) solutions. With all of the many things people do on the Internet the largest growing area includes that of business activities online. The Internet’s impact is most obvious in business-to-consumer or so-called B2C (i.e. companies who sell to consumers online) transactions however there have been realizations for progress in business-to-business or B2B (i.e. companies that sell to one another online) value chains as well. There are many different predictions on the future growth in these areas. The Gartner group predicts that the global B2B marketplace will be worth greater than $7.3 trillion or 7 percent of the entire global wealth by the year 2004 (Memishi 2000). According to Greenfield and Toole (2000) E-commerce the sale of products over the Internet has exploded with every major retailer linking its future to dotcom sites. It was estimated that there were at least 275 540 000 individuals online as of February 2000. Sales of products online more than doubled in 1999 from $14.9 billion in 1998 to nearly $37 billion. E-business short for electronic business refers to business carried out over the Internet (Pfenning, 2000; Trombly, 2000; Webber, 2002). Ecommerce short for electronic commerce refers to transactions of buying and selling done via the Internet (DeFigueiredo 2000; Greenfield & Toole 2000; Lerouge & Picard 2000; Webber 2002). A business can be an e-business and not conduct e-commerce but a company that conducts e-commerce must by definition be an e-business. As with any emerging field e-business is a landscape waiting to be plotted. Many buzzwords and terms afoot in todays marketplace are redundant and confusing so a few emerging definitions need to be understood. Dotcoms is a term used in the literature to refer to two dissimilar things. First it is used to refer to an e-business model of companies who operate solely on the Internet (DeFigueiredo, 2000; Greenfield & Toole 2000; Gulati & Garino, 2000; Internet week Editors 2000; Kanter 2001; Lerouge & Picard 2000; Morrish 2001;Webber 2002) which is the definition that was utilized in this research study. This term is used interchangeably with the term pure-play Internet retailer (Morrish 2001). According to Venkatraman (2000) a second reference in the literature to dotcoms is used simply to refer to what an e-business is (i.e. a company operating on the web). There is a third 38 reference as well to dotcom meaning to give a traditional firm an Internet strategy (Morrish 2001). This is one drawback of research in the field of e-business where most terms are emerging rather than truly defined and set in stone and many terms are used interchangeably. Dotcoms are exactly the opposite of bricks-and-clicks; it is a business lacking a storefront business for companies to enter into to do business. These companies are sometimes known as pure Internet companies or Internet companies and the term dotcom are also used analogously in the literature with startups and dotcom (Mass 2000) in the e-business environment. The best examples of dotcom companies include eBay.com Amazon.com Cdnow.com Fatbrain.com and Yahoo.com. These companies have been referred to in the literature as having "transformed business dynamics opened new line of business aspirations and become characteristic of a new workplace approach" (Kanter 2001 p.71) and creating a new economy (Comolski 2000). Yet they of any other business model have also received a great deal of criticism in the literature as well. Brick-and-mortar businesses on the other hand are companies that exist solely as storefront businesses where customers and suppliers can access them (Greenfield & Toole 2000; Levinson 2000; Mitchell 2000; Vizard 2000). These companies utilize none of the power of the Internet and World Wide Web to further their profitability and accessibility. Bricks-and-clicks (Gulati & Garino 2000) are e-business models of companies that blend their brick-and-mortar businesses while using the power of e-business solutions to use distribute and create information (Mass 2000). These types of companies are also referred to as clicks-and-mortar (Gulati & Garino 2000; Kanter 2001; Morrish 2001) or bricks-to-clicks (Lerouge & Picard 2000) and wanna-dot (Kanter 2001) businesses as well. Bricks-and clicks are companies who have chosen to integrate or spin-off their brick- and-mortar business with an e-business. B2B or business-to-business e-businesses are companies that sell to one another online (Cunningham 2001; Lerouge & Picard 2000; Memishi 2000; Morrish 2001). B2C or business-to-consumer e-businesses are companies who sell to consumers via websites (Lerouge & Picard 2000; Morrish 2001). Some writers argue that integrating both B2B and B2C capabilities may become essential to respond to customer demands and streamlining their supply chain management (Lerouge & Picard 2000). C2B refers to trade between consumers and businesses and is best exemplified by companies like Priceline.com. C2C refers to trade between consumers and is best exemplified by companies like eBay. E-tailor is a term designated to companies who are involved in on-line retail business transactions (Chen 2000). This is simply another designation on the landscape of e-business models which really would include B2C transactions (Morrish 2001) but is usually used in reference to companies who make the bricks-to-clicks transition or integration. An example of an e-tailer would include companies like walmart.com sears.com and barnesandnoble.com. B2G or business-to-government services are companies who sell to governments via websites (Cunningham 2001). P2P or peer-to-peer e-businesses are websites where individuals trade goods with each other like Napster or eBay (Cunningham 2001). Auction sites could be lumped into this peer-to-peer category in general. For the purposes of this research the focus is on the dotcom and bricks-and-clicks business models; the analysis does not proceed to the level of whether the companies are B2B B2C C2B or C2C. On the more mysterious side portals are another e-business model on the cluttered landscape. The term portal means gateway (Morrish 2001) and a portal in the Internet world provides an entrance into something. Portals started out as transitory sites such as search engines; they grew from pure indexes into information centers providing news views and relevant information (Cunningham 2001). One example of a portal in todays e-landscape would be Yahoo. E-marketplaces are websites where buyers and sellers trade their goods online (Memishi 2000). The sites are most notoriously characterized by an online mall. The best 41 way to think of these businesses is as a shopping mall of stores usually in a particular industry or market segment grouped to provide easy access to related goods and services. E-business success is defined along the same line as previous researchers in this field (Lerouge & Picard 2000) as well as by traditional business success measures as the extent to which an e-business initiative adds value to the organization by increasing earnings per share return on investment market share customer satisfaction as well as the extent to which it contributes to the desired image in financial and marketing term the degree to which it differentiates the company from the competition and the degree to which it improves business process and delivery time. E-business success is also defined by soft measures including the quality of products and services innovation customer satisfaction customer retention employee satisfaction employee retention empowerment and overall organizational performance. In turn E-business failure is defined as an inability to achieve e-business success. One facet of the e-business landscape is its diversity. Companies of all sorts of shapes and sizes exist. An e-business model is simply "the approach a company takes to become a profitable business on the Internet” (Trombly 2000 p. 61). A new business model is one that will "offer on a sustained basis an order of magnitude increase in value propositions to the customers compared to companies with traditional models" (Venkatraman 2000 p. 20). With the alphabet soup of buzzwords out there used to describe different aspects and subgroups or categories of e-business there are many options for companies choosing to become electronic. The most common e-business 42 models include two categories bricks and clicks and dotcom e-businesses each with subgroups of models including B2B B2C C2B C2C portals and E-marketplaces. E-business models not only face different types of challenges but they therefore also have different factors of success and failure. This does not assume however that one model would be more successful than another based simply on the model itself. Of all the e-business models research on dotcoms is richest. Many themes of possible factors of success and failure for dotcoms can be found in the literature. The list of possible factors found in the literature include: (a) the type of products and services delivered; (b) building capital and reaching a critical mass; (c) building a strong brand; (c) strategy; (d) managing fast growth and scaling; (e) the team; (f) managing success in an uncertain environment; (g) capitalizing on the medium of the Internet itself; (h) keeping an eye on the horizon; (i) handling issues of privacy; (j) creating and managing partnerships; and (k) not treating the Internet as a get-rich scheme. One possible success or failure factor for companies pursuing e-commerce e business activities that can be found in the literature is the type of product or service delivered. DeFigueiredo (2000) referred to an e-commerce product continuum encompassing four types of products sold on the Internet including commodity products 43 quasi-commodity products look and feel goods and look and feel goods with variable qualities. DeFigueiredo reported that on the web all items are not equal in terms of ecommerce success and can be determined by the consumers ability to determine the quality of products sold online. The literature in the area of bricks-and-clicks e-business success and failure is rich. Several possible factors of success and failure can be gleamed from the literature. One major theme found in the literature for bricks-and- clicks success is the e-change process followed. According to this line of reasoning for companies who are transforming from brick-and-mortar business operations to a seamless integration of bricks-and-clicks there is ultimately a change process which the company must endure in order to realize its new organizational form. According to Kanter (2001) all types of conventional businesses declare themselves born-again dot-coms. However, the truth is the majority avoiding the profound alteration required to actually fight. But change is not only for bricks-and-clicks just different change. E-enablers themselves are a great example since "not amazingly the technology companies that are bringing everyone else to the Internet use have become trend setters themselves. Still e-business transformation is difficult for them (Kanter, 2001, p. 92). Challenges in implementing E-commerce Most companies have recognized the potential of B2B e-commerce, but there are major challenges in its implementation. The challenges are as follows 1. Technological Challenges 2. Business challenges 3. Permissible and regulatory challenges 4. Behavioural challenges Technological Challenges The main challenges experienced by such organizations in terms of technology are 1. Security 2. Incorporation of system 3. Content management 4. Backup recovery and disaster recovery plan Security Providing adequate security to IT resources is an important issue. Adequate measures must exist to provide security to database, networks, function, imbursement system and contract system. Incorporation of system Most organizations run a multiple of mismatched system, information definitions and communications sets. Organizations must integrate its systems to consolidate the information. Content management Ability to update and provide reliable information in real time is also a challenge faced by companies implementing B2B e-commerce. Companies that do not have properly managed internal operations are not able to realize full benefit of B2B e-commerce. Recovery of data and disaster recovery plan Adequate backup and disaster recovery system must be in place to allow companies to back in business with minimum loss of data and time in case of any eventuality. Business challenges Among business challenges, managing changes is a big challenge. Resistance to change may come from within the organization and from external partner to the company. Speaking in the context of supply chain the resistance may come from buyers, sellers or e-Markets. Law and regulatory challenges The lawful and regulatory challenges in implementing B2B e-commerce involve electronic copyright, policies and procedures, tariffs and privacy to name a few. These arise because there is a lack of consistent rules and procedures. Behavioural and educational challenges Companies have to instruct their staffs and business partners once again to adapt and become conversant with the technology of B2B e-commerce. Staffs will need to learn new proficiency set and adapt to new way of doing business. Conclusion After viewing above discussion, one can easily say that the implementation of technology has completely transformed procedures of business. Technological advancement has played an integral part in shaping the entire world into a global village and generated digital economy. By employing technology companies get a brilliant chance to develop their markets, cut down their costs, enhance competence, raise contentment and work together in a healthy atmosphere with business partners and their competitors. References Barney, Jay. (2006) Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage Journal of Management, 100-123. Bitner, M. J., Brown, S. W., & Mueter, M. W. (2000). Technology infusion in service encounters. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28(1), 138-49. Dabholkar, P. (2000). Technology in service delivery: Implications for self-service and service support. In T.A. Swartz & D. Iacobucci (eds.), Handbook of services marketing and management (pp. 103-110). London: Sage. DeFigueiredo, J. (2000). Finding sustainable profitability in electronic commerce. Sloan Management Review 41(4), 41-52. Gildea, D. (2005), ‘A ready-made accounting services department’ p.10-25. Greenfield, H., & Toole, J. (2000, July/August). Clicks vs. bricks: A bankruptcy comparison. Commercial Law Bulletin, 15(4), 10-12. Kanter, R. (2001). Ten favorite ways to fail and avoid deep change. Harvard Business Review, 91-96. Keating, R. (2006). Build a reputation worth branding. Foundry Management & Technology, 134(4), 32-31. Kim, H., Xu, Y., & Koh J., (2004). A comparison of trust building factors between potential customers and repeat customers. Journal of Association for Information Systems, 5(10), 300-320. Memishi, R. (2000, January). B2B exchanges survival guide. Internet World, 7(1), 48. Trombly, R. (2000, December). E-business models. Computerworld, 34(49), 61. Webber, D. (2002). Evolving with Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Health Forum Journal, 45(1), 10-15. Wolff, B. (2005), ‘Becoming the accounting firm of tomorrow’, June 2005, p.29. Read More