benefits of technology in business essay

benefits of technology in business essay

Exploring the Transformative Benefits of Technology in Business

1. Introduction to Technology in Business

Key to the benefits derived from the use of information technology is the enabling of radical and creative benefits to be obtained for those firms who are willing to take advantage of the information technology that is available. However, this role requires that certain measures be taken to ensure that the use of the information and technology bring about the desired consequences. In this area, a major issue concerns the way in which businesses should build and manage the information technology. Businesses which have the vision and enterprising spirit to exploit the information technology being developed can further make a substantial leap in the benefits to their users. Similarly, the tremendous push that the political authorities have given in many countries to open systems standards and interfaces has in turn facilitated the development of information technology.

As businesses throughout the world look to improve both productivity and processes, many are focusing on how the use of information technology can help them reach their goals. The value of information technology is confirmed by the rapid growth in investment in information technology and the almost exponential increase in the use of the technology. The growing importance of information technology is further reflected in the rapid increase in the use of personal computers by businesses and in the growing use of automated communications. This growing use is reflected in recent surveys regarding future investment in information technology by businesses, which again shows a rapid growth in investment in this sector. The research also suggests that this rapid growth will continue at least until the end of the century as businesses increasingly turn to information technology to help them address both the challenges and the opportunities faced in the global market.

2. Enhancing Efficiency and Productivity

Accuracy and detail are frequently difficult to achieve when benchmarking business performance data due to differences in the level of industry detail included in data available for benchmarking and the differences between operations, even within detailed industry categories. Exploring company operations and performance using more detailed analytics of their operational data opens up investigation and access to more company-specific details about business operating patterns and activities without needing to use self-estimates of time use or accuracy. Very often, these detailed comparative benchmarking applications and techniques involve spatial comparisons, utilizing data in a mapped format to explore regional economic and business performance. Nearly three-quarters of all British businesses accessed the internet from their geographical fixed location, leading to growth in data traffic and accounting for nearly 50% of the total value of telecommunications sales in 2012.

Access to information is an inevitable benefit of technology that is transforming modern business. The digital footprint that businesses create through their commercial operations and connections with their suppliers, customers, and other businesses is a storehouse of information that can be exploited to improve business operations. The speed and convenience of digital international logistics and the spread of e-commerce provide many benefits, including enhancing market access. As businesses begin to understand the transformative power of this otherwise often unused and undeveloped business intelligence, these information flows are contributing to efficiency or productivity enhancement and transforming their business operations, often in unexpected ways.

3. Facilitating Innovation and Creativity

The web does not just enable specific business processes – it enables business model transformation. It facilitates collaborative business models, as evidenced by. It supports user-driven innovation models, where firms table hard problems and customers expend ‘innovation sweat-equity’ in contributing towards a solution. In a traditional economy firm executives, serving as ‘economic captains,’ are paid to solve hard problems on behalf of firms and their customers. In an attention and communication economy, customers can communicate directly with other customers; and in a market for innovation, firms can source good ideas from external product and service design teams. While technology might not fully relieve managers from the pain of hard collaborative work, it often enables firms to tap into unusually rich veins of intellectual capital. Companies like InnoCentive, Open Innovation and YourEncore are connecting businesses with science and technology experts from around the world to apply their entire range of knowledge to specific technical problems. Firms – we are told – are software in the sense that business managers increasingly rely on freely available ideas, components, and subsystems that can be combined and transformed into unique value propositions.

Technology is not just about automating the status quo – it also enables business managers and leaders to discover more creative and productive ways of empowering their workers and executives to make and execute decisions. It helps to transcend the strictures frequently imposed by outdated management paradigms and hierarchy. Technology, and the internet in particular, give employees the power to find and engage in productive conversations with business leaders, and this works at an organizational and cross-organizational level. A hands-off management style that encourages knowledge workers to innovate and take risks may create an environment with more opportunities for strategic success. Virtual teams can be formed to pursue specific projects. Due to the fact that technology minimizes the managerial exit costs associated with non-collocated workers, firms can hire workers in distant lands who can help them solve operational problems and provide them with fresh insights.

4. Improving Customer Experience and Engagement

Websites have also traveled over the social networks. The more clicks, the more traffic, and the more business. Given the huge increase in use and the increase in content consumption, it is clear that social networks are something we should consider to include in as many options as possible. They are, in a way, new entryways to our website. Not only can these act like verbal publicity (all businesses can present their practicability in the social network), but this can also have a small bar for actions taking place in the customer window, such as likes from social networks, which is constantly active.

As a consequence of the changes in customer behavior, technology has created an imperative for businesses: adapt or die. The business world today is currently experiencing rapid changes that occur as a consequence of this rapid interest in the internet. Now, technology is able to help business owners and representatives to engage with their customers in many ways. Chances of engaging with the customer are much higher, especially on a website with various social media icons. A locked and blocked wall is what customers usually find on a company’s profile. Businesses can break the lock or, better yet, provide various incentives to make people go through the website or social network but to receive emails from them.

5. Ensuring Data Security and Compliance

In the information society, technology is vital to business strategy. E-business, CRM, BI, SCM, and ERP within public and private sectors can be key investment opportunities. Technology benefits come through the combined emphasis on linking strategy, accounting, finance, IT/people/organization, assuring in-depth skill levels, exercising values such as speed and innovation, training people both to deal with tomorrow’s most important problems, and developing foresight into long-term knowledge. While e-commerce promises organizations the opportunity to obtain significant access to qualified information in new and more efficient ways, the technology must be secure. Organizations must facilitate and manage the legal and ethical issues related to technology. The ability to manage these issues is a clear competitive differentiator and an indicator of market leadership. Data is so important that, in some respects, it assumes the value of a “corporate asset”.

Technology is a powerful lever for growth and innovation in business. However, success is only as good as the overall design. For optimal impact, companies must design for the challenges of data security, compliance, and risk. At EY, we integrate people, organizations, processes, and technology to minimize exposure, abide by industry regulations, and address these challenges effectively. Today’s business environment requires new levels of flexibility, efficiency, consistency, and management insight. Modern, integrated information systems are critical to meeting these demands. Technology integration among applications can hold the key to rapid and agile business performance.