Impact of Information Technology on Businesses: Literature Review and Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of information technology on businesses, including a literature review and analysis of the impact of IT in enhancing business operations, identifying ethical and social issues in the virtual world that impact business, different types of computer networks and their impact on businesses, and the impact of artificial intelligence in enhancing businesses. The report also includes a case study of HSBC Holdings company and their use of IT to improve their business operations.

Introduction to information
technology

TABLE OF CONTENT
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................3
NTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
Theme 1: Discussing the impact of IT in helping businesses to enhance their operations:.........4
Theme 2: Identifying importance of ethical and social issue in virtual world that impact
business:.......................................................................................................................................5
Theme 3: To identify and discuss different types of computer networks with their impact on
businesses.....................................................................................................................................6
Theme 4: To discuss the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in enhancing their businesses...7
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION...................................................................................................8
Theme 1: interpretation:...............................................................................................................8
Theme 2: interpretation:...............................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

ABSTRACT
Information Technology is considered as very important aspect for the companies as this enables
the businesses to grow by increasing the efficiency. The Information Technology has increased
the opportunities for the companies and this provides the platform where the company can
collect, store and process the data for better performance in the future. This project will provide
all the necessary information related to the information technology which will help the company
to adopt as this will help them in achieving the leading position in the highly competitive
marketplace. Through this report, the company can analyse the impacts which influences the
company to improve its efficiency.

NTRODUCTION
Information technology involves using of the computers for creating, processing, storing,
retrieving as well as exchanging all the forms of electronic data as well as the information. IT is
considered as the part of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The IT system
is basically the information system, a communication system and the overall computer system
which includes such as hardware, software as well as the peripheral equipment. The IT makes
sure that the networks, data as well as the applications of the overall organisation system all are
connected and functions effectively (Mohammad and Surya, 2018). The IT is very important for
the companies because it is said that the data has the power in all over the world and due to this
there are many companies who remains competitive when they have the ability of collecting the
data and then turning it to the meaningful information.
HSBC Holdings company is the British Multinational Universal Bank as well as financial
services holding organisation. This company has been organised within the three business groups
such as Commercial Banking, Global banking as well as Wealth and Personal Banking
(PURCHASE). This report will discuss the literature review as well as discussion and analysis
for the objectives framed.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme 1: Discussing the impact of IT in helping businesses to enhance their operations:
According to Abed, (2021), Information Technology is one of the most common but important
term in business world where firm try to manage their operation with the help of IT and
advancement in this field. Every firm carry knowledge of IT, some with basic knowledge to
manage website and some multinational organization have knowledge like big data mining and
understanding customer behaviour with digital touchpoint. There are certain impact highlighted
by author, these are: Automation of business operation, certain business operation have gone
easy with the help of IT, businesses have reduced major work load with advancement in
technology. Information management was not easy task, here firm need to manage collected
information using technology. Before inclusion of information technology in the business, it was
challenging performing certain task.
For example understanding consumer behaviour, after IT, business can collect consumer
data including personal information and other details. Firm can use this data to manage their next
operation and enhancing business growth. Another impact can be seen customer satisfaction

which is major factor to bring growth in the business, it is very clear that IT advancement is used
to satisfy customer with full support. There are many business operation which is supported with
IT. For example; digital touchpoint including IT managed website, webpage designing and even
social media inclusion, IT allow firm to increase their growth. Business growth is now
completely depending on use of the latest information technology, firm can not deal in towards
advance market if they lack behind in managing useful information and technology.
Another impact can be seen on management of resource, it is very clear that firm is using
IT effectively to manage financial resource, human resource and other resource which need help
of IT to be managed. Information technology collect data and store it for further process. For
example; IT collect information regarding employee and their performance, HR use this
information to make certain decision. However, IT is advancement is technological area which
means certain software and advancement is used to manage business operation.
Theme 2: Identifying importance of ethical and social issue in virtual world that impact business:
According to Saeidi and et.al., (2019), Virtual world is one of the most common term in business
area where digitalization is promoted, business who deal in virtual or digital area know certain
ethical and social issue that will impact their business growth. Use of technology have become
common, advancement in digital technology allow business to perform certain task effectively.
Every business deal in market and consider customer and their information at every stage,
consumer carry certain information which is useful for business, information which is mainly
used in marketing process in which firm try to perform marketing using information provided by
the customer.
There are three main ethical and social issue that impact firm's performance mainly due
to virtual world, these are: Privacy breach: It is very clear that due to advancement in digital
technology, privacy is one of major issue which is impacted because user share those
informations which is critical. Mainly in banking sector, privacy does play vital role as customer
are trusting bank to secure their confidential information. Privacy breaching can be seen when
customer get cyber attack, this all start when customer try to violet terms and condition and
subject risk associated with the market. For example; customer try to open unknown link which
provide easy assess to hacker in the account. Apart from this, another issue is related to leak of
confidential information. Due to proper and updated software and system, leak of confidential
information can be seen in which organization fail to provide security to customer.

There are many cases in banking industry in which due to outdated technology and
advancement in software, bank failed to provide extra security to customer impacting their
privacy and leaking their confidential information. At last, third party involvement is major issue
which can be seen in the business where customer and firm get attacked from third party who is
acting as agent between both party. However, there is no third party between bank and customer,
but third party like insurance company become danger for both customer and bank. If attack
happened, neither bank is responsible nor customer which make this case more complex and
impact the firm performance.
Theme 3: To identify and discuss different types of computer networks with their impact on
businesses
According to the view point of Sivarajah and et.al (2020) computer network refer to the set
of computer system which shares the resource that are given by the network point. It is
interconnected computing tools which transfers the data with other parties, where its system
consists of communication protocols for transforming the data over the wireless technologies.
there is different type of computer network is available which are personal area network, local
area network, wide area network, metropolitan network. Author further proposed that PAN refer
to the computer network which generally developed around the person, it involves the computer,
phone and digital assistant it can be utilised for developing the communication among the
personal devices for forming the digital network. Regarding its impact over business, it is
beneficial for the businesses as with this easy connectivity between the systems can be done
which can easily free the space. Whereas LAN consist of the group of system and other
peripheral devices that are associated with each other within a limited area, it is one of the most
common network which is used for sharing the resources like files and other applications.
Regarding business, it makes the corporation more productive, through this business can easily
provide the personalised services to their target consumers through mails, web forms. MAN
network which is required to develop network with good data connectivity. WAN is the IP based
network which is used for connecting the more than one business locations. It gives the positive
impact as it allows to securely transform the data.
Author Purnama, (2020) argued that along with the benefits which the LAN network
offers there are some disadvantages which it offers as it requires the greater degree of
maintenance and also required a constant requirement for the updating. Therefore, for the

business it cost more when using this network. author also said that WAN network is relatively
slow and more complicated in order to deal with. Also for the business it requires the higher
setup cost and also there are more maintenance issues as well. Regarding MAN network, it is
more prone to cyber-attacks and also it is very difficult to manage.
Theme 4: To discuss the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in enhancing their businesses
As per the view of author Gil and et.al (2020) Artificial intelligence refer to the simulation
of the human intelligence which is processed by the machineries and other systems. It consists of
the expert systems and other natural language processing, machine learning which is the subset
of AI that uses the mathematical data models for helping the machines to learn without any
instruction. It has greater impact over the business it enables the organizations to save time by
automating all their business functions and better lay out of their task. It helps in enhancing the
overall business productivity and also increase the operational efficiencies, enables the firm to
make the better and quick decisions on the basis of the result from the cognitive technologies. It
not only improves the business efficiency but also helps in enhancing the work place
environment, it helps in utilising the talent acquisition programs, assists in recruitment process
and also Chabot’s helps the workforce in learning new knowledge and in performance
evaluation. AI enables the businesses to manage their repetitive tasks so that their employees
concentrates over developing the solutions for addressing the complex problems. It also
undertakes the predictive maintenance as the algorithm is based on the big data technology to
predict the equipment failures, so that organisation can proceed to update the machineries to
avoid any kind of risk.
On contrary with the above statement author Clarke, (2019) said that although AI offers
the benefits to business but there is some potential risk which is associated with it, it is found that
firms are replacing human force with the AI bots it is the loss of job for the people. Other
disadvantage is that its machineries and other equipment are more expensive and its maintenance
also requires a good range of investment. Any failure in this can lead to vulnerable
consequences. Another drawback of AI in business is that morality and ethics for the human
beings are more important but for the AI it is complicated to incorporate with such. Rapid
success of AI has enhanced the numerous concerns as one day it will enhance uncontrollably and
usually diminished the humanity.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Theme 1: interpretation:
Information technology is one of the most common but important term in business world in
which firm try to focus on advancing their tech and reaching business success. It is very clear
that information technology provide strong base to business operation and allow them to become
stable, role of IT is critical in banking industry. Information management is most important task
for every bank because information like account details, confidential information of customer
and many other critical information is stored under IT department of bank (Sanaei and Sobhani,
2018). HSBC is one of those bank who focus on getting technological advancement to keep their
customer satisfied in terms of privacy and security.
This bank has extra locking feature who require two-step authentication to allow
customer assessing their bank detail, with high tech security, HSBC bank tend to cover important
area of banking industry which provide them business growth and stability. HSBC have bran
image and reputation in the market which help them to attract customer, focusing on USP of
HSBC, this bank provides more security than central bank just because of their IT advancement
boosting their business growth in the market. IT helped HSBC to increase their business
operation, this company spend heavily on advancing their system and security. HSBC use digital
advancement to manage their operation allowing them to reduce cyber attack, IT of HSBC also
cover financial management in which facility of automatic financial management is provided to
customer allowing them to manage finance according to their need under IT advance which keep
demand of customer safe.
Theme 2: interpretation:
Digital advancement is beneficial for every business organization, virtual world is most common
word in business area in which firm try to manage their dealing using technological
advancement. However, dealing in digital world is risky because firm might face cyber attack
impacting their performance in the market (Ziyadin, Suieubayeva and Utegenova, 2019). Every
bank face three most common but important ethical and social issue due to advancement in
digital and virtual world, these are: breaching of data, it is very clear that digital world is not
quite safe, data breaching is one of the most common issue which can be seen in banking
industry. HSBC know data breaching is most dangerous thing for their brand image and
reputation, however this firm has certain cases in which data breaching was done.

HSBC may have advancement in technology but due to cyber attack, this organization
also have faced data breach impacting their performance in the market. Another issue can be
seen when business fail to keep confidential information of customer, due to lack of
technological advancement, many banks and lost confidential information and data of customer
impacting their reputation in the market. HBSC have certain cases in which leak of data by one
of their employee can be seen, DOJ have order an investigation for HSBC to cover important
area. Apart from this, last ethical and social issue is related third party involvement in which
bank and customer get attack by third party who have high interest in both dealing. For example
insurance companies between customer and HSBC bank are third party which may become the
biggest issue for both party impacting their dealing.
It has been evaluated from the above discussion that information technology has major
impact over the business, it has offered the range of advantages to business (Lovén and et.al
2019). It has enhanced the data security with this organisation can easily store their critical
information in protected computer database, another benefit is that it is able in encrypting the
data for security concern for that authentication is required to access it, therefore only
organisation have the authentication information so it will prevent from any malicious activity.
Above have discussed the different type of computer network that have potential impact over the
business (Neri and et.al 2020). Computer network eventually improvised the business
communication, contemporary networks enables to transfer the data in real time to any physical
location. Hence, HSBC which deals with the banking products, they offer their services
worldwide for that reason it will be better for them to provide real time services by using suitable
computer network. above have discussed the different type of computer network which are PAN,
LAN, MAN and WAN (Gillath and et.al 2021). Out of all the network LAN network can be
beneficial for the firm because it is more secured than wide area network, while using WAN
companies do not have as such control over their network. as well as MAN network is expensive
out of all network and it might not have incorporated by the businesses.
HSBC will get benefit from investing in IT, because IT offers the lots of advantages
which is impossible for the traditional non-technical process to give. While investing in this
company can easily save money, as it helps in maximising the productivity of firm by
streamlining the business processes. With this usual business reports and other task that requires
the manual research can be available at single click on mouse. It also helps in saving the money

on postage, as Email is the rapid and more effective as compared with standard postal solutions.
Above report have also interpreted the range of discussion over the artificial intelligence
technology, it has completely streamline the business process, also helps the firm to incorporate
with their desired goals and objectives (Juber and et.al 2022). By investing on AI HSBC firm can
be able to reduce the human errors, this technology has potential benefits it offers the accuracy
and precision data that will assist the firm in making their business decisions. Using this
technology will help in increasing the business productivity as it is able to carry out the task with
good pace that is not possible for the human to match with it. AI will also assist the workers to
move to greater value task which technology can’t do (El Haoud and Bachiri, 2019). Therefore,
having this technology as workplace HSBC will easily minimize their prices that is linked with
performing mundane, and other repeatable task.
Information technology is also helps in driving the better communication at workplace,
cloud computing is now enabling the workers in the workplace to communicate and interact with
each other, with this they can also communicate with their customers and other stakeholders
irrespective of their physical location (Paisley and Sussman, 2018). Mobile phones and VoIP
(voice over internet protocol) have wipe out the use of traditional landlines and enables
unprecedented independent to the workers to work from anywhere and Email is the fast and
rapid interactions which incorporates with the immediate answers. Therefore, HSBC company
should nee to invest on this technology with this they can easily communicate with their prospect
clients and consumers through the use of Social media technology, hence they will be easily
reach to larger audience with the use of information technology. investing on this HSBC will be
able to improvise their business productivity as they can quickly access to their files and at
workplace employers will be able to provide the immediate feedbacks over the collaborative
projects. Real time and video conferencing communication will help in reducing the error and
assists in successfully carrying out of the business task (Ferro, 2019).
AI and other technology is also worth for company’s investment it makes the workplace
productive which leads to innovation in services. Having IT facilities at work place HSBC can
easily improvise their internal aspects, by getting right information that is accumulated from AI
will assist the firm in their hiring process of candidates (Shemesh and et.al 2019). Overall they
will get numerous advantage by using IT facilities, it helps in monitoring business functionalities
and also helps them to gain the future achievement.

Drawback of investing in IT:
Costly: Digital advancement is costly process in which firm have to invest more and more in
advancement, it is very clear that running business with the help of IT impact finance because
even small software is costly enough and maintaining these software is more costly (Kraus and
et.al., 2018). HSBC may face drawback of investing in IT, they might need to have sufficient
budget to make their business technologically advance. Investing in IT is critical process, firm
need to either update old technology or need to replace with new technology which impact their
overall budget for business management. There are certain other drawback of IT but costliness is
one of the biggest drawback which impact firm's performance in the market.
Complex: Its is very clear that digital advancement is complex, investing in IT may be beneficial
for firm but managing IT is complex process in which firm need to have skilled IT speclist who
have ability to manage such dealing. HSBC bank can invest in IT to make their process smooth,
however, they need to face high level of complexity. HBCS bank need to hire IT specialist who
have skills to manage their system, these specialist may demand high rate which again become
costly. Employee of HSBC might not carry enough knowledge to manage IT of the company,
firm need to reduce complexity with the help of training and development.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that it is very important for the businesses in
present era to understand the importance of the information technology and adopt this. This helps
the business for growing the business and store all the meaningful data for the future use.
Information Technology helps the businesses to enhance the overall operations of the company.
The IT systems provides many benefits to the companies as this enables them to increase the
operational efficiency as well as improves the overall productivity level of the company. This
report has discussed the impacts of the Information Technology on the businesses for enhancing
the operations of organisation as well as the identified the issues which will help the businesses
to run effectively and smoothly. Along with this, the report has also illustrated the different types
of the computer networks which are available to the businesses by stating their impact on the
businesses. Later on, the impacts of the Artificial Intelligence has on the businesses for providing
the growth to organisation has been discussed in above report.

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