The Internet as a Powerful Technological Revolution - Coursework Example

The Internet as a Powerful Technological Revolution Name Course Tutor Date Introduction In early 90’s, businesses were faced with competitions from emerging businesses and the need to dominate the market share (Oliveira & Martins, 2010, p.1337). Experts reasoned that the only way business could achieve all was through making their structure, function and management efficient. Experts understand that making management efficient result to just-in-time inventory replacement and cost saving (Melville, Kraemer & Gurbaxani, 2004, p.294). The secret to all these have been discovered in implementing technology in all business processes. The emergence of technologies such as internet has even taken competition in business sector a notch. Chua et al. (2005, p.264) contends that businesses that have no intention of adopting are likely to survive competition in the next 10 years. New digital technologies are reducing face-to-face communications between companies, business partners, suppliers and customers. Based on the analysis, this paper will assess whether all aspects of business processes are impacted on by technological change. It will also discuss the benefits and constraints of large organizations adopting Cloud and mobile technologies. All aspects of business processes are impacted on by technological change Business processes is defined as the range of related, planned tasks or activities which generate a specific product or service for particular customers (Ray, Barney & Muhanna, 2004, p.25). There are three forms of business processes including management processes, operational processes and supporting processes. Management process consist of strategic management and corporate governance, operational processes comprise of purchasing, manufacturing, marketing, advertising and sales, and supporting processes include recruitment, technical support, accounting and call center. All these processes must be in line with another and flow to create efficiency. Hence, I agree with the sentence that all aspects of business processes are impacted on by technological change. Since the emergence of internet, business managers have found it good to align technology with all aspect of business processes so as to gain competitive edge. According to Zammuto et al. (2007, p.750) Worldwide impacts of the internet are acknowledged and well-established. The rate of infiltration of the internet is phenomenal; nearly a third of population can now access the internet. The manner in which business is carried in the digital era has transformed owing to the fact that many individuals can present log in to the interne Melville, Kraeme & Gurbaxani (2004, p.312­). Many businesses have created IT departments within the organization in order to create a platform through which the organization runs its business processes. Also IT managers have gone ahead to conduct IT training to most of staff members to create a technology savvy workforce. Management has been listed as one of the important component of business process sealing with strategy management and corporate governance (Ray, Barney & Muhanna, 2004, p.29). Strategy involves use of internet to target your customers, management stock, produce goods within the specific period, market them and sell. Goals of the company can also be shaped by the use of internet. For instance if a company want to manufacture a certain number of product to rich their customers at specific date yet they realized this cannot possible manually, their will adopt technological machine to help them meet this goal. Marketing goals can also be achieved through use of technological platform. For example employ facebook or twitter to help reach a number of people over a period of time. Use of Internet in Corporate governance has been on the rise as 21st century unfolds. Today if you look at the company website, you are likely to see a tab created specifically for corporate governance. Under this tab, board of directors is listed. Example of such company is GlaxoSmithKline which has a tab under its website showing board of directors. Structure of the company is also drawn to guide anyone interested in working with the company. Displaying these information ensures that it can be accessed in every part of the world. IT can now be used in operational processes to purchase, manufacture, market, and advertise and sales products (Zammuto et al. 2007, p.756). The manager does not need to meet the supplier to conduct; he can choose to communicate using use phone technologies or use purchasing management systems to buy raw materials. Similarly, supporting processes like hiring and accounting have been impacted by advancement in internet technologies (Ray, Barney & Muhanna, 2004, p.31). Today many invite candidate applications through email and even conduct some interviews via the phones. Also various accounting software and applications have emerged making the works fast and efficient. Melville, Kraemer & Gurbaxani (2004, p.291) claim that a company applies sophisticated technologies with diverse weights and relevancies for the last product in each stage of the value chain in the organization. Technology mainly pervades the organization’s value chain because each stage sets up and uses technology from logistics, productions, performance metrics, and sales including their interrelationships. Benefits and constraints of large organizations adopting Cloud Currently, cloud computing is one of the most talked about topics amongst enterprise information technology experts. Pauly (2011) pines that cloud computing is improving worldwide and offers the following products; resource and service sharing, auto-scalability and external information storing. The cloud end-users are able to use and access these resources anywhere and always. The cloud knowledge was first established in 1970 while the major development in this information technology field took place in 2000. Establishment has had several benefits in business process and within general organizations. Some of the benefits of cloud computing to the organization comprise of cost reduction, data integrity, centralization of data, agility and scalability (Pauly, 2011). The implementation of the cloud applications have influenced the cloud computing market to develop innovative tools which are able to operate in an ever more cloud-based business infrastructure. According to Pauly (2011) adopting technology in an organization is normally set to reduce the operation cost. A cloud delivery models transforms capital expenditures to operational expenditures. This is said to low barrier to entry because the infrastructure is normally offered by the third parties and does not require to be bought for one-time or irregular demanding computing tasks. Cloud provides safe location for storing files without need for carrying them in the hard drives. They also provide data integrity in because it’s difficult to locate file stored online unless someone has your password. Some of the storage known today includes drop box and Google drive (Low, Che & Wu, 2011, p.1010) Cloud also provides safe haven for remote files which can be located in any part of the world. Instances can be online backup resources like the Mozy and JustCloud which permit access of remote files and also assist firms with disaster recovery. Adoption of cloud within the organizations encourages centralization of the data unlike traditional forms of storage. This provides a framework of data control to make sure there is security of data and no manipulation can take place. Cloud applications have provided business the platform to change with the ever changing environment which is crucial for business to survive (Low, Che & Wu, 2011, p.1014). In a nutshell, cloud computing provides organization with business ability to improve with ability of the user to re-offer technological framework resources. Low, Che & Wu(2011, p.1019) posit that cloud application has increased the scalability of business systems, networks and process in terms of storage in order to accommodate the need for extra storage. Such application includes online databases and web servers. However, cloud computing also faces some constraints which also affect organizations which rely on them. Some of the constraints include security issues, internet outages, compatibility issues and unpredicted costs (Low, Che & Wu, 2011, p.1016). Security is normally the major concern in cloud application, especially if the company is directly dealing with confidential data such as customer details. It is a reality that cloud information can be access anytime anywhere; nevertheless at times the system can experience serious dysfunction. Managers must always be responsive of the reality that cloud and any other technology is usually susceptible to outages (Oliveira, & Martins, 2010, p.1346). Companies sometimes face challenges of incompatibility between its hardware or software and cloud applications. In another perspective, it has been argued that cloud can significantly reduce operation costs, although the cost may become more compared to what the company bargained for. Moving to cloud platform is often an understated costs. Mobile technologies provide organizations with a competitive edge over their competitors Mobile technologies which is able to support computing utilizing portable devices via wireless networks, has manifested itself as the next boom of revolution in information technology sector (Nah, Siau, & Sheng, 2005, p.86). Mobile technology consist of technological infrastructure for the connectivity like Wireless Application Protocol, 3G, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Bluetooth, including mobile information gadgets like the mobile phones, laptop computers and PDA (Siau, Sheng, & Nah, F2004a, p.67). By expanding and aligning Internet and computing into wireless medium, mobile technologies allow consumers to access to applications and information anywhere and anywhere, which offers great flexibility in information sharing, communication and collaboration. In the Mobile technology sector, Smartphones are gaining popularity within the business sector (Nah, Siau & Sheng, 2005, p.88). Many businesses now understand the importance of Smartphone to gaining competitive advantage. Some of the ideal applications of smarphones comprise of mobile access to organization’s Intranet, mobile brokerage product and services, electronic purchase application systems and mobile banking and payment services. A recent survey by Sage established that 66 percent of organizations claimed that mobile technologies hold a positive impact on workforce efficiency (Oliveira & Martins, 2010, p.1341). Additionally, 70 percent claimed that mobile gadgets are improving their degree of the customer service to higher levels. Today most people own Smartphone making it good for marketing. The advantage comes in through its mobility nature. In that a company that adopt mobile technology can use it in the field to showcase what it offers. Similarly use of mobile technology improves communication between the company and customers (Gebauer & Shaw, 2004, p.22). It’s cheap to send multiple short messages to thousands of customers than to provide an advert on television. It should be noted that the current smartphones such the iphone 5S and galaxy notes now has the PowerPoint application which customers use with projector to display company goods and provide guidance on usage. On the other hand, mobile technologies can be used for cloud computing to access company database and to store information. Oliveira & Martins (2010, p.1345.) states that mobile technologies such smarphones, iPad, laptops can be used to take pictures of a product and post them on social media such as twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, etc for marketing. The role and responsibilities of an accountant in today’s organization that adopts Technological change Computing is transforming how the accountants conduct their work. The good old years of accountants using ledgers and books are long gone as financial reports and evaluation have adopted computerized technology (Niles, 2013). As the technological development continue to enhance how firms operate, the accounting job is adopting new solutions and software not only to advance, but also to provide solutions to the needs of clients. Cloud computing service providers have since offered numerous services to satisfy the accountants and accounting firms needs. Kar (2012) claims that CCH Technology Survey of 2012 established that the mobile and cloud are among the top rising technologies that the accounting and tax professionals relies on for value and productivity they deliver to their clients. The roles of accountant remain the same except that it is now carried on technological platform. Accountants no longer perform manual calculations but conduct those calculation in computers and powerful electronic to break down the large data. Various software already exists which have interface for calculations. In that context, the role of accountants is only to make entries and transaction for the computer to do calculations. Some of the known accounting software includes QuickBooks Pro, Apache OFBiz, FrontAccounting, LedgerSMB, Cheqbook, iBank and Oracle E-Business Suite (Oler, Oler & Skousen, 2010, p.637). Such accounting software conducts calculations regarding payrolls, invoices, taxation etc. as such, in this technological era, the accountant role is to feed the information of the days worked, tax deduction and the machine does by itself and displays, after which the accountant save and prints it (Oler, Oler & Skousen, 2010, p.639). Technology is prone to failures, hence the work of accountant is to reconcile and verify the figure. They are responsible for carrying out audits and also prepare soft annual financial reports for managers who communicate them to public. Other roles include posting share prices to the websites. Conclusion Based on the assessment of pertinent researches, vital success factors for adoption of technology in companies especially cloud computing and mobile technologies have gone up in the 21st century. The adoption of information technology certainly changes considerably the nature of employment environment and operation for workforce. People have advanced their technical knowledge and have increased rate of doing things, communication, production, marketing and selling. While cloud computing have increased the capacity of storage, it has also exposed companies to security and privacy breaches. Mobile technologies have developed fast and considerably, and have demonstrated great potential for the organizational application. As shown in this assessment, mobile technologies can be employed as a strategic means for competitive advantage. References Chua et al. (2005). The evolution of e-commerce research: a stakeholder perspective. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 6, 262-79. Gebauer, J., & Shaw, M.J. (2004). Success factors and impacts of mobile business applications: results from a mobile e-procurement study. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 8, 19-41. Kar, S. (2012). Tax and Accounting Firms Embracing the Benefits of Cloud, Mobile Technologies. Retrieved on 11th July 2014 from http://cloudtimes.org/2012/11/14/tax-accounting-benefits-cloud-mobile-technologies/ Low, C., Che. Y., & Wu, M. (2011). Understanding the determinants of cloud computing adoption. Industrial management & data systems, 111, 1006-1023. Melville, M.N., Kraemer, K., & Gurbaxani, V. (2004). Review: information technology and organizational performance: an integrative model of IT business value, MIS Quarterly, 28, 283-322 Nah, F., Siau, K., & Sheng, H. (2005). The value of mobile applications: a study on a public utility company. Communications of the ACM, 48, 85-90. Niles, D.L. (2013). Embrace technology – it’s the future for accounting. Retrieved on 11th July 2014 from http://www.educationpost.com.hk/resources/accounting/130927-accounting-tips-embrace-technology-its-the-future-for-accounting Oliveira, T. & Martins, M.F. (2010). Understanding e-business adoption across industries in European countries. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 110, 1337-1354. Oler, D.K., Oler, M. J. & Skousen, C. J. (2010). Characterizing Accounting Research. Accounting Horizons, 24, 635–670 Pauly, M. (2011). T-Systems Cloud-Based Solutions for Business Applications. Cloud Computing: Principles and Paradigms. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken Ray, G, Barney, J.B., & Muhanna, W.A. (2004). Capabilities, business processes, and competitive advantage: choosing the dependent variable in empirical tests of the resource- based view. Strategic Management Journal 25, 23-37 Siau, K., Sheng, H., & Nah, F. (2004a). The value of mobile commerce to customers, Proceedings of the Third Annual Workshop on HCI Research in MIS. Washington, DC, 65-69 Zammuto et al. (2007). Information technology and the changing fabric of organization. Organization Science, 18, 749-62 Read More