Information Technology Impact Analysis

This assignment requires you to analyze the profound impact of information technology (IT) across diverse sectors such as employment, education, and healthcare. It delves into how IT influences these fields, highlighting both positive and negative aspects. Additionally, the assignment necessitates a comprehensive explanation of data processing and storage within contemporary IT systems.

INFORMATION
COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. ICT and its applicability in business environment..................................................................1
2. Network and its topology and type in a firm...........................................................................1
3.1 Importance of accessing to information for BAE's aircraft section using DIKW hierachy. 2
3.2 Data management cycle which is followed by BAE.............................................................2
3.4 Issues related to legacy system and its possible solution......................................................4
3.5 Value of ICT for management of BAE.................................................................................4
4. BYOD and its pros and cons...................................................................................................4
5.1 CRM phases that can be implemented to increase base customers.......................................5
5.2 Customer relations using online shopping sites....................................................................5
5.3 Ethical behaviour that is applicable while engaging with consumers in social media
environment. ...............................................................................................................................5
6. Business intelligence and its use in an organisation...............................................................5
7. Several trends in ICT..............................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Information is a processed data that has some meaning. It can be used for coming to a
conclusion. On the other hand, communication is a method of exchanging information via
writing, speaking or some other means. Technology through which information is exchanged
between two or more individuals present at near or far distance is known as Information
Communication system. It is extended version of information technology (IT). Linking of
devices such as mobiles, computers etc. using cables, wireless mediums or telephone network so
that information in the form of audio and video can be sent is achieved using ICT (Bilbao-
Osorio, Dutta and Lanvin, 2013). This report highlights the use of ICT among business
community and daily life in South Africa. It also showcases various network topologies that are
implemented in Companies so as to meet its ICT infrastructure requirement.
1. ICT and its applicability in business environment.
ICT is a technology that is used for storing, receiving and manipulating information as
required, transmitting from one place to another. There are several components of ICT that
includes hardware, software, people, procedure, data etc. Role of IT has increased in the business
environment and its usage have increased up to large extent (Bloom, and et. al., 2014). It is used
for communicating internally as well as externally in the business procedures. Functions like
marketing of products and services and information management can be effectively done by
making use of this. Top management has to communicate through various levels of the
organisation which can be made efficient by making use of ICT.
2. Network and its topology and type in a firm
Network is considered as the interconnection of devices or system so as to transmit,
receive, store and manipulate information or data. Interconnection is arrangement of devices or
systems that has nodes and lines for connecting (wired or wireless) and is arranged in a proper
manner. This arrangement is known as Topology. There are several topologies that are used for
this interconnection in an organisation such as Star, bus, hybrid, ring, tree, mesh etc. Every
organisation needs to connect its systems in a proper manner so as to make flow of information
easier and fluent (New technology and respect for privacy at the workplace 2017). For an
organisation who has just open its brand in other side of the city, as a line manager I would
suggest to connect its systems on WAN. And the best possible topology is Hybrid technology. It
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is slightly messy but it eliminates the drawbacks of other topologies. It helps to provide network
as per requirement. In this topology, local systems could be connected with Bus topology
whereas two different networks can be connected through tree topology and hence whole
interconnection becomes the mixture of two topology (Chesley, 2014). As hybrid technology is
highly flexible, reliable and has been tested through years and company can accomplish its
network requirements for its future expansion plans.
3.1 Importance of accessing to information for BAE's aircraft section using DIKW hierarchy.
Like every other company BAE has a very large amount of data with it. It needs to be
stored without redundancy so as to make data more meaningful. DBMS tools are used by the
company for providing access to the data to every employee sitting far across from each other.
Since the company has its working in many countries of the world hence can make use of these
tools to access data quickly and accomplish task easily. DIKW hierarchy which stands for Data
information, knowledge and wisdom hierarchy is used for understanding the importance of
accessing information (Haddon, 2016). It tells that how data can be transformed into information
which becomes knowledge after some time and ultimately results in wisdom. It is a
representation of each level by the other lower level.
3.2 Data management cycle which is followed by BAE.
Data management cycle is used for reducing inconsistency and redundancy. Data
Management Cycle that is followed by BAE are CATIA CAD/CAM and Siemens's Team center
product life cycle. Team center data base has tools for roll up capabilities and mark-up. These
empowers employees to visualise and determine the impact of changes in component design and
selecting configuration in real time. It acts as a single repository that can be used for making
decision at the required time.
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3.3 Steps applicable to create a data warehouse for BAE.
Drawing 1: Data warehouse for BAE
Steps are as follows:
1) Data is originated from several components in a firm that includes manufacturing, sales,
website transaction, customer accounts.
2) Mixing historical and present data so as to ensure redundancy.
3) Data are also collected from internal sources which goes into processing center where it
gets evaluated with the data from external sources.
4) A specified storage is provided where the data is stored after it gets evaluated.
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SALES MANUFACT
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CUSTOME
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ACCOUNT
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WEBSITE
TRANSACTI
ONS
PROCESSING CENTER
Present and
Historical
data
Data through
External
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DATA STORAGE

3.4 Issues related to legacy system and its possible solution.
Storing of data was a manual before introduction of such DBMS tools. This posed a
problem for managing redundancy and data inconsistency. It was a serious legacy issue for the
company. While going through the cited case study lesson that is learned is that a single DBMS
is very useful for storing data and manipulating it as required (Holtgrewe, 2014). For a company
legacy system that needs to be generated must have to centred so that all can get access to the
information while ensuring that required data is only accessible at various levels. Data
customization and data structuring can become easier with the use of this Legacy system.
3.5 Value of ICT for management of BAE
ICT plays an essential role in the management of the BAE business. It helped company in
making flow of information easier. It has not only helped company in communication but also in
managing and manipulating data that could be used for decision making process as it can be
accessed from anywhere. Manual maintenance of data was not possible due to use of manual
system earlier as it was not centralised and any information generated at one unit can be accessed
at the same time at unit which is at distant place. This resulted in reducing the productivity of the
company (Peeraer and Van Petegem, 2012). Which results implementing plans on time and
expanding its empire in this competitive environment.
4. BYOD and its pros and cons.
One of the growing trends in business community is making use of BYOD. In this trend
company allows employee to bring their devices like electronic accessories in the company and
connect it to business network. BYOD is a smart concept but it has pros and cons.
Pros of BYOD:
 It lowers company's expenditure on the electronic devices such as laptops.
 It increases the efficiency of employee as most of the people are familiar with their own
device due to their ease of working on familiar technology.
Cons of BYOD:
 It has increased the chances of data leakage.
 Different devices work on various technologies hence may not work on the similar
operating system or platform that is used in the company.
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5.1 CRM phases that can be implemented to increase base customers.
Customer relation is one of the important part of company business operations.
Management of customers relations is very important as far as company’s reputation is
concerned. It helps to develop stronger bonds with consumer (Pratt and et. al., 2012). It helps to
retain base customers, increase business relations and make interactions which helps them in
getting feedbacks from customers which ultimately helps in developing products according to the
market. Telecommunication company of South Africa CRM helps to acquire details about more
number of people which can be used in future for their marketing purpose. They use their call
centres for making this process easier and solving customers query.
5.2 Customer relations using online shopping sites.
Online shopping sites have become the need of companies these days. They are not only
used for selling products or services but also to enhance customer relations. There are various
ways of making customer relations through online sites, but two of the most used ways are using
online shopping sites as well as through social media.
These online shopping sites provide a business platform where company can take
feedback from their customers and design products accordingly (Rice and Leonardi, 2012). By
using these sites company takes the basic information of the consumers which can be used for
future marketing purpose. One of the largest online portal which can be used for these purposes
is Takealot.com. Pages like Facebook of this website helps website in posting new updates about
their product and services.
5.3 Ethical behaviour that is applicable while engaging with consumers in social media
environment.
Ethical behaviour not only involves making interactions with consumers. It is ethically
incorrect to promote product beyond customers permission. When talking about social media a
company cannot post anything on the consumers websites. Other ethical behaviour that a
company must follow is that there must be no stealing of data of the connected customers from
there social media sites.
6. Business intelligence and its use in an organisation.
Technology, architecture, set of data, application and process that are used by an
organisation to support collection, data analysis and presentation of information gather from
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business activities is known as business intelligence (Roztocki and Weistroffer, 2015). These
information are used by an firm for making smart decision as per requirement that includes
operations as well as strategic decisions. Marketing mix such as pricing and positioning can be
done using BI. These internal and external data collected in a firm is accumulated so as to get
full view of its operations. It helps organisation in predicting future growth possibilities in term
of product suitability in new market.
7. Several trends in ICT
There are numerous trends that are prevalent in an ICT. In that here two trends are
discussed:
Mobile Technology: In today's world of technology mobiles have reached to every
individual as well as they have access to internet which empowers them to check many products
available by different sellers around the world. In banking industry companies are making use of
mobile apps for the internet banking and customer service (Shirazi, 2012). These apps are used
for making online transactions, payments, customer care services as well as other utility services.
USB 3.0: It is used in banking industry for interfacing of computer and other devices and
provides a transfer speed of around 5Gbit/s around ten times faster than its predecessor USB 2.0.
These are made to transfer information at faster rate as the Banks needs to increase the rate of
transactions hence use of this technology for its operations.
CONCLUSION
This report summarises that use of ICT is increasing in today's business environment. It is
highly useful for both organisations as well as consumers. This is illustrated in the case study of
BAE which says that how single data base management tool which was centralised which helped
in making decision making process faster and hence resulted in increased productivity of the
company. It assists company in its marketing process.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bilbao-Osorio, B., Dutta, S. and Lanvin, B., 2013, April. The global information technology
report 2013. In World Economic Forum (pp. 1-383).
Bloom, N., and et. al., 2014. The distinct effects of information technology and communication
technology on firm organization. Management Science, 60(12), pp.2859-2885.
Chesley, N., 2014. Information and communication technology use, work intensification and
employee strain and distress. Work, employment and society, 28(4), pp.589-610.
Haddon, L., 2016. The social dynamics of information and communication technology.
Routledge.
Holtgrewe, U., 2014. New technologies: the future and the present of work in information and
communication technology. New technology, work and employment, 29(1), pp.9-24.
Peeraer, J. and Van Petegem, P., 2012. Measuring integration of information and communication
technology in education: An item response modelling approach. Computers & Education,
58(4), pp.1247-1259.
Pratt, M., and et. al., 2012. The implications of megatrends in information and communication
technology and transportation for changes in global physical activity. The Lancet,
380(9838), pp.282-293.
Rice, R.E. and Leonardi, P.M., 2012. Information and communication technology use in
organizations.
Roztocki, N. and Weistroffer, H.R., 2015. Information and communication technology in
transition economies: an assessment of research trends. Information Technology for
Development, 21(3), pp.330-364.
Shirazi, F., 2012. Information and communication technology and women empowerment in Iran.
Telematics and Informatics, 29(1), pp.45-55.
Thong, J.Y., and et. al., 2011. Consumer acceptance of personal information and communication
technology services. IEEE transactions on engineering management. 58(4). pp. 613-625.
Vaishnavi, V.K. and Kuechler, W., 2015. Design science research methods and patterns:
innovating information and communication technology. Crc Press.
Wu, R.C., and et. al., 2012. Effects of clinical communication interventions in hospitals: a
systematic review of information and communication technology adoptions for improved
communication between clinicians. International journal of medical informatics. 81(11).
pp. 723-732.
Online
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New technology and respect for privacy at the workplace 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/comparative-information/new-
technology-and-respect-for-privacy-at-the-workplace>. [Accessed on 1st September
2017].
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