Impact of Information Technology on Businesses and Ethical Issues in the Digital World

This report discusses the use of information technology in businesses, specifically in the context of TESCO Plc. It covers types of software that could be used by businesses, ethical and social issues in the digital world, and the impact of information and communication technology on businesses in facilitating response to customer needs. The report also discusses the role of IT in facilitating managers to manage business.

Introduction to
Information
Technology

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
Types of Softwares that could be used by the businesses...........................................................3
Ethical and Social issues in the digital world..............................................................................6
Impact of Information and communication technology on Businesses in facilitating respond to
customer needs............................................................................................................................8
Role of IT in facilitating managers to manage business.............................................................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Information technology refers to the use of computers to facilitate the creation,
processing, storage and retrieval of different types of electronic data and information. IT is
mostly used by the business organizations to support the big data that is kept by the large
companies. It helps the businesses in increasing productivity and improving performance by
saving time and efforts and enhancing customer experience. It facilitates the managers in
decision making process as well (Neralla, 2022). In the retail businesses, it can be used in the
management of financial and accounting systems , personnel systems and distribution &
warehouse management. This report will deal about the use information technology in context
with TESCO Plc. It is a UK based multinational public limited company headquartered in
England and dealing in the products like grocery, clothing , home and food products. The report
will cover types of application softwares that could be used by Tesco and ethical & social issues
in the digital world. It will also discuss the impact of internet and intranet on business. Further,
the role of IT in helping managers will also be discussed.
TASK
Types of Softwares that could be used by the businesses
Business organizations need to use different types of softwares to support the business
operations like accounting and finance. It would ensure the effective storage, processing and
retrieval of information for the large multinational business organizations like TESCO.
Particularly in the retail industry, information technology holds much more importance. It helps
the retail businesses to undergo the considerable changes by the impact of consumer behaviour
(Juraschek, 2022). As TESCO is a retail business, the retail softwares will provide the benefits in
terms of automation so that the businesses will be able to automate the store tasks like inventory
auditing, billing, pay records, pricing regulations etc. Real time visibility will allow the
businesses to monitor their warehouses and shop floors in virtual mode and identify timely the
conditions out of stock so as to ensure the avoidance of downtime.
The retail softwares can be used by the businesses in areas like Inventory management
supply chain and marketing management, human resources management, enhancing customer
relationships etc. The introduction of softwares for retail businesses like TESCO will help the
organizations in improving efficiency and quality of services while ensuring savings of money

and efforts. In context with TESCO, it can use the following softwares to improve the
functionality if its multinational business having stores worldwide -
 Payment processing software - This is a type of retail software that interconnects the
businesses or retail stores with the banks and payment systems. It supports many
functions of retail stores like credit card processing and online payments. It also
facilitates the stores in maintaining storage of customer payment records. It is mainly
used for ensuring customizable invoice creation (Voronova, Khareva and Koshkin,
2022). It can also be used for bank reconciliation and formation of reports about the
routine transactions of stores. TESCO uses TESCO club card pay i.e. TESCO Bank
mobile banking app to support all these functions. It has also partnered with Payments
provider master card to create its digital payments offering.
 Inventory management Software – These softwares ensure monitoring of warehouse
stocks and ensures automation of some processes in the warehouse and thereby by
facilitates in saving time and efforts of labour in the movement of goods. It helps the
businesses in supply chain decision making by the synchronization of stock with orders
that facilitates prompt updation of inventories. The automation in report generation
provides real-time visibility for planning procurement and ensures inventory
optimization. It ensures customer satisfaction by offering expiry tracking to avoid the
issues of delivery of inferior quality products. TESCO can also use these softwraes to
provide good shopping experience to the customers and develop a large customer base
thereby.
 Point of sale Software – In the retail industry, these systems involve hardware as well as
software such as barcode scanners, computers and tablets to be implemented in the
physical stores. It helps in financial processing, management of discounts and returns of
products. It facilitates the customer in making orders and and ensure their payment even
without the cashier assistance (Afeti and Owusu, 2022). It helps in saving time.,
eliminating queues at stores. They can be supported by mobile as well as desktop POS
systems. In context with TESCO, it uses TPS's in their Electronic point if sale systems to
scan the barcodes. The company also offers Self service checkouts services to the
customers that helps the customers in saving time and resolving feedbacks as well.

 Retail Management Software – They are the big digital platforms for retail businesses
that combine the set of tools for managing the business functions. It facilitates the retail
stores by providing different services like customer relationship management, inventory
management, verification of stock, marketing management, report generation and
management of big data. It is a comprehensive platform that can be used by the
businesses to ensure support of IT to many business functions. It ensures transparency of
relevant information about the business such as about customers, finance and products
etc. TESCO Plc, is recommended to use this application software as this platform
integrates many services at a single source and provides convenience to the business to
support many areas of business such as marketing, finance, customers relationship
management etc.
 Retail ERP systems - It is Enterprise Resource Planning software that combines
components for monitoring all the stages of business. Those components or business
modules include customer and employee management, financial resource management
and supply chain management etc. It helps in resource planning such as collection of
customers' data such as purchase history, preferences and tastes and location for planning
marketing campaigns to promote the products and planing strategies for sale and pricing.
It also helps in the human resource planning by facilitating internal communication.
Financial planning can also be done through this software that supports and
provides accurate money flows and commercial transactions. Planning of inventory
management is also convenient using this software by making balance between orders
and warehouses due to its support regarding records and manipulation of order and
inventory optimization. By including the expiry dates of products, its product
management module categorizes the product and also controls their life cycle. In context
with TESCO, it has successfully implemented the use of Oracle and SAP business objects
polestar applications. These enterprise systems help TESCO in flexibility in the resource
planning.
 E-commerce Platforms – Due to the rising demand of selling of online products and
services , many retailers have entered in the E-commerce retail industry. Through these
platforms, they are able to create more interaction with the customers and able to take and
resolve their feedbacks that help them in enhancing customer value and ensuring

customer loyalty (Gkikas and Theodoridis, 2022). The official account of company on
social media platforms allows it to interact with customers and take their reviews
regarding its products and services. TESCO has invested heavy amount in E-Commerce.
The company offers a mobile app and website i.e. www.tescoplc.com that allows the
customers to order products online form computer or mobile and take their delivery in the
stores. The E-commerce services of the company include products catalogue , shopping
carts , payment processing, customer management , searching options etc.
 Retail CRM (Customer Relationship Management) - It is a retail software that allows the
businesses in customer management through offering them real time experience of
products and providing customer interactions, keeping track of the sales etc. This
software helps in enhancing customer loyalty for the businesses. It helps in storing the
information and contact of the existing and potential customers , recording the service
issues and marketing campaign management as well. TESCO has also introduced a CRM
technology for improving the customer service for all who buy either directly from stores
or through the websites. It has adopted this software in all its call centres for supporting
its electronics division.
Ethical and Social issues in the digital world
In the digital world , there are various ethical issues concerned with the technology such
as safety and security of data, misuse of the personalized data, right of access to information that
the company needs to solve to be able to conduct the business operations more effectively and
efficiently. So the businesses need to make efforts for ethical decision making and practices to
avoid the ethical issues while using technology for business. The digital world or technology
surfers from various ethical and social issues. Some of them are mentioned below in context with
TESCO plc. -
Ethical Issues
 Information Privacy and security – The businesses use various online mediums and their
own websites to collect the customers' data. When the users browse through the internet
sites and make online purchase , they enter their information on the website of company
and engage with different businesses online through social media and other online
mediums. The company gets information for hyper personalize the customers experiences
but there remains uncertainty regarding the privacy of that information (Triplett and et.

al., 2022). For example, Facebook had also faced ethical issues many times due to selling
of personal data that it gathers on the platform. TESCO Plc. has cookies available to its
TESCO mobile that helps in keeping the online information safe about company as well
as customers.
 Lack of Oversight – Many companies operate with hybrid stack consisting of the
integration of third party and own technology. It frequently creates confusion regarding
the responsibility lies in relation to the governance. The companies conduct its functions
by outsourcing the activities with the help of third parties. As the company uses big data ,
there is a concern of cyber security of information. To mitigate this issue in the
technology business, TESCO and the third party must share the responsibility and must
be accountable for the assigned responsibilities.
 Artificial Intelligence – Although artificial intelligence offers many benefits to
businesses, still there is a fear if these systems cross the ethical practices. There are
different concerns for facial recognition such as misuse of information, racial bias and
restriction of personal freedom. It creates lack of privacy because of its ability to track
movements and activity. Some of the security threats to AI applications include system
manipulation (Mâţă, 2022). Data privacy, data corruption and poisoning etc. The
companies need to consider these ethical issues and ensure safety of their privacy
information by utilising Identity and access management (IAM). TESCO Plc. must create
BOYD (Bring Your Own Device) policies to ensure safety an privacy of business and
customer information. However , to ensure safety, TESCO is also using ERP and CRM
systems to ensure safe and secure way ton quick payments.
Social Issues
 Communication Breakdown – Technical errors can cause communication disruption in
the organization that can give rise to conflicts among the top management and employees
due to unavailability of proper and accurate information due to technical errors. It also
create concern for employees of remote locations to disseminate the information to their
families and other concerned people.
 Defamation of Characters – Technology facilitates interaction with the big companies,
leaders and other eminent personalities that can cause misuse of official accounts and can
bring defame to the companies. For example, the social media platforms are open to

every one, TESCO also has official accounts on many social media platforms and it is a
social issue that the company can get bad, even worse reviews of customers publicly
through comments that can cause or bring defame to the company.
 Human dignity – Businesses use Robotics for caretaking tasks such as retail businesses
use robotics in their warehouses to manage the inventory movement to save time and
labour efforts. It provides benefits to the businesses in terms of saving of time, but it
causes lack of human interaction and cause fear to human dignity as well (Lv and et. al.,
2022).
Impact of Information and communication technology on Businesses in facilitating respond to
customer needs
The use of information and communication technology in the business ensures
improvement in the lines of communication and in responding to the customers' needs. In this
the companies proactively interact with the customers via an app or through the website or social
media platforms and keep their customers informed about the products of company and about the
marketing and promotional plans as well (Cabral and Marques, 2022). Some positive as well as
negative impact of information an communication technology are explained hereunder -
Positive Impact
In the customer service industry, technology is used to increase the efficiency of
customer interactions with the businesses. The business organizations use chatbots to respond to
the customer needs and their preferences by marinating customer interactions and development.
The use of chatbots by the company facilitates customers in instant and effective communication
with the company by the use of live chats or social media interaction. They also help the
customer services agents in meeting the rising demand of their services (Fenjan, 2022).
The quick respond to customers' needs through this technology helps the businesses in
enhancing customers' experience and in increasing customer satisfaction that helps in adding
value for the customer and makes them loyal to the company. It helps the company in developing
a large customer base in the target market. Technology affects every aspect of customer
experience right from the order placing and facilitating to resolve the queries and feedbacks i.e. it
helps them across their entire journey with the businesses. TESCO plc. offers its customers with
many technological advantages like self checkout points, Customer relationship management
(CRM) that help the company adding value to the customer' experience.

Negative Impact
Companies are striving to introduce technology to improve their customer service
through offering mobile app service, website access and social media interaction with the
customer. But customers sometimes have worse experience with the company due to low
running of the app or website or extra ads on the mobile app due to which they are not able to
register their products or place the orders, it creates dissatisfaction among the customers
regarding the customer service of company (Chaker and et. al., 2022). Most of the customers feel
discomfited at the automated interactions of technology or mobile applications because of
disruptions in properly registering the information that the customers want to convey to
company. This makes the customers feel undervalued and avoided that can cause loss of
potential customers for the company.
As TESCO is facing the issue of quality product and service , it needs to introduce
technological advancement in the business to enhance customer experience. For example, the
company can introduce VR dressing rooms for the customers to provide them real-time
experience while shopping. It will add value to the customers' experience and make them loyal
towards the company.
Role of IT in facilitating managers to manage business
Information technology plays a great role in management of the business and facilitate
the managers in managing functions of organization. It helps the managers in decision making by
offering the tools like ERP softwares and Decision support systems that facilitate the managers
in observing the performance data of company in real time so as to take more informed decisions
(Rangarajan and et. al., 2022). As IT helps the managers in decision making, communication ad
controlling they get encouragement and enough time to discus and plan about the new resources
in an innovative way. The following points describe role of IT in helping managers to manage
business in context with TESCO plc. :
 Business communication: IT help the manager of Tesco in improving the
communication for business deal and provide the platform such as conferencing software,
email, video chat, company intranet and so on. The managers are able to communicate

with the employees and make collaboration in their work. The managers also use the
social media platforms in order t to redress the grievances of the employees.
 More efficient daily operation: In relation to Tesco, the mangers are able to get their
work done faster with the help of information technology. It improves the efficiency of
operations with help of various types of software provided by an organisation such as for
inventory management the managers are provided software to check the real time level
(Jiang and et. al., 2022). The software also help the manager in managing the human
resources, monitor supply chain and many more.
 Better decision making: In context to Tesco, information technology helps the managers
in taking effective decisions for the growth of the company. IT help the mangers in
making database for the related information of the products. All this help them in making
promotion of the products of the company and also provide support to the customers of
an organization (Bassett, 2022).
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that Information technology has played
a great role in increasing the productivity of business and increasing its performance by the use
of different softwares such as ERP software and other automation processes. It also helps in
improving customers' services by the use of different application softwares such as inventory
management systems, payment processing software, Retail ERP and Retail CRM software that
enhance the customers' experience by adding value to them and ensure customer loyalty thereby.
The ethical and social issues of the digital world have been discussed to be mitigated and ensure
safety and privacy of the big data information of company regarding its stakeholders. There are
some positive as well as negative impacts of information technology regarding the customer
service. It enhances customer service by offering the applications like chatbots and access to
company's website but have some negative impact as well regarding the technical issues of
mobile applications.

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