Introduction to Information Technology

This report provides an introduction to information technology, its role in business success, ethical and social issues faced by businesses, different networking technologies, and the importance of Internet and Intranet in the entity. It also discusses the phases of the system development life cycle.

Introduction to
Information technology

ABSTRACT
Information Technology is an umbrella word which was coined to make difference
among purpose-built machines that are designed for performing restricted scope of functions
together with general purpose computing techniques which programme for multiple tasks. Sports
Direct is selected retailer for the project. It is popular and leader in UK's retail industry for
selling sports related products. The report covers role of IT in business success and importance
of Internet to that of Intranet. It also highlight various networking technologies and details about
SDLC process.

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................1
Identification of role of IT in success of company......................................................................1
Finding ethical along with social issues concerned with running businesses..............................3
Identifying and differentiating among various kinds of networking technologies......................4
Discussing importance of Intranet addition to Internet in the entity...........................................5
Listing and explaining distinct stages of system development life cycle....................................7
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................9
Discussion of potential benefits along with drawbacks of the company making investment in
IT..................................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Information technology can be represented as a wider term which include designing,
development, set-up and using elements with computing addition to telecommunication. In other
words, it is any computer based technique which is used for storing, acquiring, transmitting and
manipulating any information (Beynon-Davies, 2020). For developing knowledge for
Information technology, Sports Direct is considered entity. It is UK's largest retailer that sells
sporting goods across the globe. It operates with diversified portfolio of fashion, sports, lifestyle
fascias, fitness along with brands.
The report identifies role of IT in organisational failure or success, ethical and social
challenges related to business. It also involve comparison of various networking technologies
and importance of Intranet and Internet in company. At last, it explains phases of system
development life cycle.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Identification of role of IT in success of company
According to Afzal (2015), success of every organisation is dependent of Information
Technology in present world. With changes in business environment, businesses do make
investment in technology along with selects an innovation path which enhances market share,
competitiveness, financial figures and overall profitability. In modern era, information
technology is main technique that helps an establishment to gain success by identifying and
making optimum usage of opportunities for analysing data to plan journey for future accordingly.
In relevance to Sports Direct, the company uses digital marketing that lets managers to promote
offerings to overseas market while sitting at home or office. Moreover, cloud computing as well
as modern communication approaches are also used by managers that enables to form
multinational business and achieving successful victory. The ways in which information
technology plays crucial role in success of Sports Direct are as follows:
Decision making: Accuracy along with speed are key to make decision to attain
organisational success. While performing practices, all successful companies have to go through
intense research process in marketing that helps managers to devise adequate decision. In this
context, marketing team of Sports Direct performs market research via group discussions, online
surveys and blogs using sites on World Wide Web as well as in person interviews. Presently,

Google Analytics, Microsoft CRM Dynamics, etc are great online tools for extracting important
data that impacts decision making positively. Moreover, these online tools ensures accuracy of
data through reducing risk of errors resulting in way towards success.
Driving innovation: Information technology plays magnificent role of driving innovation
in the company and it is determined that innovation is a way for success of firm. In an
establishment, computers are used for recording day to day inventory or transactions, financial
planning and other related information (Burbules, 2018). By suing information technologies,
professionals of Sports Direct make smart online recruiting choices, think out of box for
strategies, implementing plans creatively and hence forth. Computer applications addition to
global brain have influenced the organisation to switch towards active learning along with
improvising the ways its people learn new things. In the retail business, information technology
drives innovation in form of E-commerce, VoiP communication and so on that improves data
storage,wider information distribution along with faster processing that makes implementation of
activities effectively leading to business success.
Resource management: Information technology makes practices of human resource
managers easier which is key role for success of entity. In large companies, it is difficult for
superiors to manage all organisational resources manually. For this, Information technology
performs essential role to automate complex issues through launching user friendly solutions. All
thanks to cloud technology that enables IT department of Sports Direct to install cloud based
ERP solutions. With this, managers are able to manage together with monitor resources in virtual
manner anywhere through using Smartphones or personal computers. When resources are
effectively managed than workings are completed prior to deadline without compromising with
quality in products that motivates employees and helps business in reaching great heights
successfully.
It becomes easier for company such as Sports Direct to attain success by using
Information technology. The mentioned roles played by Information technology assist to an
organisation in reaching towards predetermined objectives within set time frame. Moreover, the
ways IT tools are introduces and install in the establishment defines success or failure of it in
market.

Finding ethical along with social issues concerned with running businesses
While running a business, various are faced by managers within rapid changing duration.
In digitalised era, Information Technology is essence for all entities performing practices as it
assist in proficient working for elevating results and minimising requires time frame to operate in
business field (Chou and et. al., 2019). In context to Sports Direct, some of ethical and social
issues faced at the time of running business are as identified:
Social issues:
It is termed to a problem which impacts various citizens in the society. Within present
day society, various issues are faced by managers to run business. It is course of action
implemented by people or companies which leads to adverse influences on society as well as its
belongings. For Sports Direct, identified social issues are mentioned below:
Hacking: It is an attempt for exploiting a private network together with computer system
of an individual or company. Moreover, hacking is an unauthorised access or control of
networking system for various illicit purposes. This is perceived as key social issue that
administrators faces while carrying out business activities as when some third party enters into
computer system fro obtaining required information then it breaches confidentiality of
information about clients, employees and others. Sports Direct being largest sports retailer have
faced the social issue of data breach when an outsider gained access to portal of staff and
unencrypted data of nearby 30000 employees (Zorv, 2017).
Fraud: It is also a spurious social issue which evolve in rise of easily accessible
computers along with Internet (Funk and et. al., 2018). The most prevalent addition to
problematic of multiple fraudulent activity faced by running organisation is recognising theft
wherein an details of innocent humans are harvested by external or third party for using the data
for malicious purposes. Within Sports Direct, the social issues emerged while carrying out illicit
online transactions along with other damaging practices which leads to serious ramifications.
Ethical issues:
According to Sharma (2020), ethical issues are said to situation in which moral conflict
occurs as well as should be addressed promptly. Moreover, it is the circumstance that questions
moral standard of an organisation. In association to Sports Direct, some of ethical issues are as
found:

Personal Privacy: This is an essential component of ethical issue faced by enterprise
using Information technology. It facilitates users that have their own operating system, tools
related to hardware and software, etc for accessing servers which are interconnected by
networks. Sports Direct is a large company whose network is distributed on large scale within
which transferring data in big quantity leads to hidden cases of disclosing information along with
violating privacy of groups and people. This is seen as major ethical challenge faced by
managers of Sports Direct for maintaining privacy addition to integrity of data.
Harmful actions: In computer ethics, harmful actions are damage or negative
consequences of Information technology including loss and destruction of property, leakage of
confidential information, undesirable sustainable impacts and so on (Grünewald-Schukalla and
Fischer, 2018). All these principles of ethical actions confine outsiders from usage of IT in
manner that results in loss to some employees, general public and users. In association to Sports
Direct, these actions engrosses intentional destruction as well as alteration of programs that
drives serious loss to organisational resources.
Identifying and differentiating among various kinds of networking technologies
The term networking technologies refers to technology which assist in exchanging data
among small to that of large information. Network technicians have knowledge about
installation, configuration along with troubleshooting various network technologies in business.
Effective networking technology permits organisations to send information in digital manner
through information systems (Hamidi and Chavoshi, 2018). In Sports Direct, main purpose of
using various networking technologies is to send and receive information digitally as well as
extending communications. Some of networking technologies used by IT team of Sports Direct
are identified and differentiated below:
Basis LAN
(Local Area
Network)
WAN
(Wide Area Network)
MAN
(Metropolitan Area
Network)
Meaning It is also popular with
the name of IEEE 802
network. It refers to a
networking technology
It is defined to
telecommunication network
which extends connectivity
over wider geographic area
It is networking
technology which which
interconnects users with
resources of computer

which interconnects
systems in restricted
area. It link devices
within building or
office.
with objective of computer
networking. It is established
with rented
telecommunication circuits
(Leung and Chen, 2019).
within geographic region
that is of metropolitan area
size which can be
individual large city or
multiple cities.
Covered
Distance
The distance covered
by LAN technology in
particular geographical
area is around 2 miles
or 200 metres.
The distance which WAN
technology covered is
restricted to area of 200
kilometres or 100 miles.
The type of networking
technology serves larger
geographical area among 5
to 50 Kilometres in range.
Technologies
involved
In LAN, key
networking
technologies involved
are Wi-Fi, Fiber Optic
Cable as well as
Twisted pair are taken
into consideration by
managers of Sports
Direct.
In WAN, types of
networking technologies
involved are Public WAN
and Private WAN. In Sports
Direct, Public WAN is used
in which technologies
involved are packet
switching, router, Overlay
network and Multi protocol
Label Switching.
It involves united joint of
numerous LANs through a
device that is Bridge
which forms MAN. It
involves technologies such
as Municipal wireless,
Interplanetary Internet and
Asynchronous Transfer
Mode.
Discussing importance of Intranet addition to Internet in the entity
Internet
Grünewald-Schukalla and Fischer (2018) defines Internet as a system architecture which
revolutionised communications along with methods of commerce through permitting multiple
computer networks across the globed to interconnect. It is international wide area network which
connects various computer systems and includes multiple high bandwidth data lines. In business,
Internet is interconnected computer networks which uses protocol suite in order to communicate
among devices addition to networks. In context to Sports Direct, main purpose of usage of
Internet is for providing overseas access to information and communications. It is essential for

the retail enterprise to make effective utilisation of Internet for expanding business and
maintaining surveillance. Certain importance of Internet for Sports Direct are as follows:
 Marketing and advertising: Internet helps business to advertise together with promote
its commodities around world for getting attraction of wider customers. In Sports Direct,
main importance of Internet is to communicate with target audience that is sitting at
different part of world and promoting products in such manner that influence them to
start their purchase journey.
 Providing superior customer experience: Internet enables organisations to grab
attention, retain addition to engage customers with low costs and effective manner
(Locke and Cave, 2018). For Sports Direct, Internet plays important function is building,
delivering and maintaining superior customer experiences. Within the entity, managers
uses website, social media pages and pay per click tools to connect as well as reach right
audience at right time that provided exceptional experiences to customers. Communication: Internet is important as it makes communication cost efficiency along
with quick. By using Internet, business managers are able to talk or communicate with
wider group of people residing at far places across the globe with little cost.
Organisations can video chat, share presentations, conduct meetings and so by sitting at
their places or native location. In relevance to Sports Direct, internet technologies are
used by administrators in form of video calls, digital conferencing, Skype Internet and
hence forth which makes communication instantly virtual.
Intranet
As per Malaquias, Malaquias and Hwang (2018), intranet is termed to a computer
network that shares information, operational systems, computing services and collaboration tools
within premises of company by excluding external people. Organisation wide Intranet constitutes
significant focal point of internal collaboration along with communication. It is installed with
technologies of LANs and WANs. Moreover, there are various modern intranets that posses user
profiles, mobile apps with notifications, search engines, blogs and planning of event with
infrastructure. In association of Sports Direct, main objective of using intranet is to ease
collaboration, share document and communication for human resources with the establishment.
The concept has changes the ways through which an individual looks towards things. Key
importance of Intranet in Sports Direct are underneath:

 Internal communication: The main importance of Intranet is that it consolidates internal
communications on organisational intranet that ranges from IT updates to leadership
news to human resources which Intranet makes easy way for collecting key information
at one location. Moreover, Intranet allows internal communication department of Sports
Direct to emphasis their efforts, resources, etc and clearing any misunderstanding
between employee base related to from where to search latest news.
 Employee engagement: In an entity, Intranet plays important function of keeping
employees engaged in activities including events, photo galleries, contests and polls. This
is seen as an effective method to get manpower coming back to internet all day. At Sports
Direct, use of Intranet helps in creating dedicated locations for activities like social center
and treating overall intranet such as primary engagement vehicle or leveraging
engagement characteristics together with solutions across multiple areas.
 Assisting manpower finding information: Intranet is rich consortium of data and
information. It include everything from updates of Social Committee to recent dental
form (Pietrobelli, 2018). In Sports Direct, Intranet is important as it comprises all the
information which is valuable to assist manpower get work complete as well as stay
connected towards softer business side. The company have intranet with easy interface
addition to rich search tool that enable human resources to stay connected and searching
required information.
Listing and explaining distinct stages of system development life cycle
In accordance to Osbourn (2020), system development life cycle refers to structure model
to manage project which outlines stages that are needed to build IT system from initiation to
inspection to end outcome. Objective behind it is to enable adequate production of high defined
quality solution that meets together with exceeds expectations of clients in all stages within
provided variables, resources, budget and timelines. The stages are as listed and explained
below:
Planning: This is crucial stage in SDLC process as it engrosses identifying along with
stating scope of project for determining comprehensive action plan, pinpointing issues and many
more. Planning stage outlines the situations which will occur in entire life cycle together with
defines success of whole project. Moreover, time-frame, security team structure and other factors
are accounted by managers of business at planning phase.

Analysis: When planning is completed them the next is analysis. Herein, the team is
required to perform proper analysis of system's functional requirements for ensuring that all the
expectations of potential audiences will be meet effectively. Further, the expectations are
finalised, documented and feasibility study is performed to make sense from various standpoints.
Design: When analysis is competed and requirements are defined then design stage starts
(Van Brummelen and et. al., 2018). In this, all the set approaches including systems' network,
security, architecture and user interfaces are designed in the manner which will meet all
requirements along with enable upcoming updates.
Development: It marks last of preliminary element of process along with signifies
starting of production. Later, codes as well as fine tunes are written for technologies includes in
project. It is most busiest phase of entire life cycle stage.
Integration and testing: At this stage, testing and integration concerned with the system
is done. Furthermore, all associated procedures are assessed to analyse whether it performs and
deliver expectedly as per requirements. In a company, main responsibility of the stage is on
quality assurance.
Implementation: The stage is of rolling out new systems in productive environment by
replacing old one. The stage is prepared through moving new data or components at place of old
one.
Maintenance: When all are released then software system proceeds towards continuous
maintenance. The software commodity requires to be checked for bugs along with updated with
various features. In business, software system requires to work as per changing attitudes of its
users.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Discussion of potential benefits along with drawbacks of the company making investment in IT
As an organisation develops, its needs, requirements and priorities changes (Van
Brummelen and et.al., 2018). In relevance to Sports Direct, it is analysed that investment in
Information Technology benefits the business in achieving competitive benefits, building agility
to respond towards ever complex world, improving morale of all resources, opening security
against violations and making greater productivity.

In present world, investing in IT is quite expensive as it requires huge monetary resources
and contribution of human resources to implement and make necessary changes in their working
styles (Chou and et.al., 2019). By implementing in IT solutions, there are various limitations
associated with it. The drawbacks concerned with investment in IT are that it will make business
more complex, big risks and cyber sickness that can makes the company unproductive and
unable to tackle pertaining situations.
CONCLUSION
From the report, it is concluded that information technology helps the organisation to
practice activities according to changing behaviours of users. Decision making, resource
management and driving innovation are eminent roles played by IT in business success. Internet
is important in entity to provide superior experiences to customers, communication, marketing
and advertising. At same time, Intranet is important for engaging employees, helping staff to find
information and internal communication. SDLC is a conceptual procedure which explicitly
breaks all stages for developing and installing a system.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Beynon-Davies, P., 2020. Business information systems. Red Globe Press.
Burbules, N., 2018. Watch IT: The risks and promises of information technologies for education.
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information and communication technology (ICT): the mediator role of organisational
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and accountability of information exchange in health professions education. Academic
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Hamidi, H. and Chavoshi, A., 2018. Analysis of the essential factors for the adoption of mobile
learning in higher education: A case study of students of the University of Technology.
Telematics and Informatics. 35(4). pp. 1053-1070.
Leung, L. and Chen, C., 2019. E-health/m-health adoption and lifestyle improvements:
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health-related information activities. Telecommunications Policy. 43(6). pp. 563-575.
Locke, S. and Cave, J., 2018. Information Communication Technology in New Zealand SMEs.
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Malaquias, R. F., Malaquias, F. F. and Hwang, Y., 2018. Understanding technology acceptance
features in learning through a serious game. Computers in Human Behavior. 87. pp.
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Pietrobelli, C., 2018. 12 Technology Transfer for Developing Countries. Technology transfer.
Van Brummelen, J., and et.al., 2018. Autonomous vehicle perception: The technology of today
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