THE ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION
 
A business organisation is an entity created and maintained to achieve an objective. A business, regarded in certain circles as enterprise or firm is an organisation engaged in the trading of goods, services, or both to consumers. A business entity is an organisation that is formed in accordance with the law in order to engage in business activities, usually the sale of a product or a service.

Beneficial Effects

Business is any economic activity with a target of producing goods and services for the satisfaction of human needs and wants. It is important to mention here that goods and services produced are directed at a particular market segment for direct or indirect consumption over a definite period of time. To satisfy the segment businesses deal with, it will be prudent to apply information technology to meet the needs of modern and international competition.

Information technology offers innovative approaches to satisfying customer value which eventually lead to the achievement of set targets.

It has been noted time and again that the main objectives of a business organisation are to make a satisfactory level of profit, grow and stay in business. In the modern management, information technology has become the lifeblood for the attainment of these goals.

Denis P. Curtin et al (1998) have defined Information Technology as “the creation, gathering, processing, storage and delivery of information and devices that make all these possible”.

According to the British Department of Trade and Industry, Information Technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numeric information by a micro-electronics based combination of computing and telecommunications.

Telecommunication which is mentioned in the definition above refers to communication technology and it consists of electromagnetic devices and systems for communicating over long distances.

To brass tacks, information technology has served useful purposes in business growth and development. These roles are:  

Communication

Information technology has facilitated Communication in Business – reports, circulars and other type of correspondence and is sent over distances within seconds. In modern business transactions, failure to employ these essential facilities in communication will have negative impact on the business performance.    

Research and Development

For an organisation to make progress, it has to be involved in continuous research and development. This will unveil new opportunities which will help push forth the orgnisation to greater heights. Information technology has been a catalyst in research and development. The benefit here is that, an organisation is able to access accurate and reliable information with resources on the internet.

B2B Commerce

Originally, the term was used to describe electronic communications between businesses or enterprises in order to distinguish it from the communications between businesses and consumers "business-to-consumer". In due course, it came to be used in marketing as well, describing only industrial or capital goods marketing. In contemporary usage it describes all products and services used by organisations. Many organisations have therefore come to terms with B2B which talks about purchasing and sale of goods/items over the Internet. It describes commercial inter-organisational transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, and between a wholesaler and a retailer. Information technology plays an exclusive role in making all B2B possible.

Security

Information technology tools offer a lot of protection to information assets in business transactions. One significant role of information systems in business is the use of biometric and surveillance systems to secure an organisation against theft and harm from unscrupulous people.

Biometrics consists of technology for recognizing human-based intrinsic behavioral traits. This is an information technology tool that can secure organisations in their routine interactions with the business environment. The use of ezwich to send and receive money at the tap of the finger on a device is the usefulness of biometric transactions. The advantage is that, it is a remedy against theft and impersonation in the business world because the device detects natural objects and can pinpoint the person involved in a particular transaction at a given time.

Storage

Information technology is also very vital in the recording and storage of all business documents for future reference. Files have often been stored in manual file covers and folders and kept on shelves to gather dust as the situation is often depicted. Modern information technology tools such as the computer offers an exclusive advantage. Some records such as those stored on the excel application program can be updated at the option of a user when stored for the longest time possible.

Accuracy

Information technology offers precision in office work. It gives more accuracy than the traditional methods of handling information in the office.

Office Automation

Office automation is an information technology system designed to efficiently capture and handle information at source.

In a nutshell, the roles of information technology on business growth are:

• Dissemination - Sharing research and business data among colleagues and like-minded individuals.
• Communicating with others and transmitting files via E-mail.
• Requesting and providing assistance with problems and questions.
• Marketing and publicising products and services.
• Gathering valuable feedback and suggestions from customers and business partners.
• Entertainment such as internet games, music, video for amusement.

Nyan J. K. and Sefenu J. C, (2008) have offered the following beneficial effects of information technology.

(a)    It increases the flow of information.

(b)   It allows many tasks to be performed much more quickly and with greater accuracy, cutting costs and reducing the risks of errors.

(c)    It enables personal letters to be produced simply, thus providing the receiver with a better image of the sender.

(d)   It can reduce the need for travel to personal meetings.

(e)    It increases the security of the transfer of confidential documents

(f)    It makes possible changes in a company’s financial or stock position to be recorded and circulated with the minimum of paperwork.

(g)   The production of high-quality printed materials such as sales leaflets, company reports or political pamphlets in a process known as desk-top-publishing.

(h)   Information has improved the accuracy and timeliness of organisational communication.

O’Brien A.  J. (2003) offers tangible and intangible benefits of e-commerce (component of information technology) system a.

The tangible benefits are:

·         Increase in sales or profits.

·         Decrease in information processing costs.

·         Decrease in operating costs.

·         Decrease in required investment.

·         Increase in operating efficiency.

The intangible benefits he offered include:

·         Improved information availability.

·         Improved abilities in analysis.

·         Improved customer service.

·         Improved employee morale.

·         Improved management decision making.

·         Improved competitive position.

·         Improved business image.

Vices posed by Information Technology in Business

Information technology in the modern day exists as both a virtue and a vice. The virtues have been outlined above. The vices associated with the emergence of information technology are:

Health Problems

Users of information technology tools such as computers are exposed to eye strain, back ache, head ache, fatigue and the effects associated with radiation.

Computer Crime

The computer has been used by scandalous persons as an instrument of crime. Various kinds of computer crime include:

·         Unauthorised use and conversion of software and data over networks

·         Software plagiarism

·         Blocking other users from accessing own data

·         Theft of intellectual property

Hacking

Hacking is the unauthorised access and modification of networks to steal data. Hackers employ tactics to uncover vital information belonging to other users. Hackers also attack other websites and loading it with unnecessary information and in the end the website slows down. Sometimes they also fake e-mail addresses to trick other users to give them vital information so that they can attack databases of profitably organisations.

Cyber Theft

Computer criminals also use unlawful entry techniques to attack and access the database of organisations to transfer funds.

Loss of productive hours

Many workers browse the net, read and send e-mails during working hours. Others visit entertainment sites and get absorbed to the extent that a lot of working hours are lost. Information technology has made available pornographic sites. Some people visit these sites to the detriment of their work.

Financial limitations

Most of the software used is very expensive. Organisations battle it out on a daily basis when it comes to replacements, training and updating of the latest software. For example, a lot of tertiary institutions spend huge sums of money updating their software and purchasing antivirus programs for their computers.

Computer Viruses

A computer virus is a hidden instruction found in a computer and causes damage to programmes and files in other computers. A virus usually attaches itself to a removable storage facility such as pen drives, CDs, memory cards etc and copies itself into another computer’s operating system. At the end the virus is likely to harm the software. Computer viruses are continuously damaging important business documents.

Spam or Junk Mails

Spam messages are unsolicited e-mails sent by internet criminals probably to get sensitive information so that they can steal from other computer users. This is also a serious problem on the internet. Junk mails are constantly used to defraud business organisations.   

Unemployment

Computer automated systems are gradually replacing human beings thus posing serious unemployment problems. However, these systems are noted for higher productivity compared to human effort. 

In a summary, it must be restated that information technology has been misused in a number of ways. Health related issues are cropping up as a result of the interaction with information technology tools. Internet criminals and pirates are typical cases of the misuse of information technology. Junk mails, financial limitations and virus activity are the forms of abuses associated with the use of information technology. The other most important misuse is the spread of pornographic material via the internet.   

Sulemana Haruna