Introduction to Information Technology

This report provides an introduction to information technology and its role in organizations. It covers topics such as the role of IT in business success and failure, ethical and social issues, networking technologies, importance of intranet and internet, and stages of system development life cycle.

Introduction to
information technology

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................3
Identification of role of IT within organisation............................................................................3
Ethical and social issues ..............................................................................................................4
Networking technologies..............................................................................................................6
Importance of intranet and internet..............................................................................................6
Stages of system development life cycle......................................................................................8
Analysis and Discussion..................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Information technology is the study, development and management of computer based
information system which is particularly used by an individual or organisation for their personal
as well as professional use (Abraham and et.al., 2017). Main objective of information technology
is to help individual in order to carry out the work in more productive way to attain business
objectives and goals. Improvement of efficiency and productivity by using technology is the core
focus of IT. This report is based on Tesco which is a British multinational groceries and general
merchandise. The organisation was founded by jack Cohen in the year of 1919. This report is
going to cover the role of information technology in the success and failure of a business
furthermore, social as well as ethical issues which are associated with running a business. On the
other hand, it will cover, type of networking technologies as well as importance of in internet and
intranet in business. At last, it will determine stages of system development life cycle.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Identification of role of IT within organisation
As per the views of Chris MacKechnie, 2019, with the help of IT a company can do its
various tedious task in an easy way. Business can perform its marketing, researched. Through
technology and can take better and easy decision for the organization (Information Technology &
Its Role in the Modern Organization, 2019). Efficient decision will lead company to the success.
Role of Information Technology in Success of a Business:
 Real Time Customer Satisfaction: When the customers will be satisfied or get their
grievances solved on a real time bases due to the presence of technology then the level of
customer satisfaction will grow. This growth will help the company to achieve the
heights of success.
 Global Reach: With the help of Information Technology a company can increase its span
of working not limited to any particular location (Biswas and Muthukkumarasamy,
2016). When it will have the global reach definitely the profits of the company will
increase which then ultimately will lead to business growth.

Role of Information Technology in Failure of a Business:
Information Technology does not only lead to growth of a company but sometimes
proves as a reason of failure in the organization. Some of the reasons in respect of this is
discussed below:
 Improper Utilization: Technology is something which needs to be utilized in a proper
way but when used in improper way it will lead to failure in business growth. Proper
technical is very important in every organization for its development.
 Technology Enhancement: This refers to analysing the current updated technology
surviving in the market (Gaimon and et.al., 2017). It is something which changes very
frequently. If a company is not updated with the technology or is still using outdated
version in it, then will not have any scope of growth to the firm.
 Complexity: When the technology adopted is complex or hard to understand then it will
not give productivity in working and will bring hurdles in work. If this happens to the
company, then experiencing growth may be a dream for it and will lead to failure of the
business.
Ethical and social issues
According to Ingvar Karlsson, 2020 it arises when a question mark rises on the ethics and
morals of the workings of a company which can presents a negative image of them into the
market. In a very competitive market or in a tough war century it was very challenging phase to
maintain the ethics in the company and to set a good brand image in the market for the survival
(Ethics and Information and Communication Technology, 2020). In context of IT, the ethical
issues can be raise in the context of its effective accessibility. Sometimes these issues leads to
such a big disturbance which needs to take to the court and requires legal intervention.
Some of the ethical issues related IT are:
 Access Issue: For a large organisation as TESCO it is hard to maintain data or
information related to their products and customer manually. Thus, such companies use
IT to manage their business practices in more effective manner. In this context the major
issues they are facing are related to effective access of IT which is a big and is very hard

to manage. If this issue occurs in a company it can be a loss of brand image to the
organization which is an unaffordable serious issue in respect of technology
enhancement. Networking on internet cannot made a secured authorised access for any of
the organisation. Thus, it is needed for a Tesco to take care of effective access of internet
for their customers and company as well.
 Harmful Actions: harmful action related to negative consequences of IT which can be
loss of property, loss of important information, undesirable substantial impact etc. It also
includes theft of data, forfeiture of ownership, etc. which happens due to viruses in the
computer systems in the organization. This generally done by the professional or
experienced hacker (Harati and et.al., 2019). To get out of these kinds of issues TESCO
needs to install virus protections in its systems and tries to restrict the outsides to use the
company's information. Thus principle of ethics restricts any of the outsider to access the
data of any organisation, its employees or general public.
Social issues
Social Issues refers to those issues which affects the society people or country's citizens.
It happens when such issues hurt the feelings and sentiments of general people or are against
their ethics. Social issues in the context of IT create a negative impact on the society which the
society does not likes (Krisdiyanto and et.al., 2018). Analysing a social issue is a biggest
challenge for the company's as sometimes a normal thing or a situation to one cannot be a normal
or not able to accept the same.
Social issues related to IT:
Some of the Social issues faced by TESCO are mentioned under:
 Patent: The biggest issue in Information Technology is of Patent Rights. It is difficult for
an organisation to deal with ethical issues. In today's world securing patents are the
toughest challenge for any company but especially companies like TESCO which is a big
giant. It is so because at the time of getting patent the company needs to disclose all the
details related to the software to the programmer in order to develop a patent software
which a programmer can misuse.

 Literacy Level: It is not easy that at every location everyone is highly literate or is aware
about information technology. Company sometimes needs to deal with such people who
are not highly aware about information technology who could be employees or customers
of the firm. This sometimes becomes a social issue for TESCO which they need to
resolve in very sensible manner without hurting the feelings or emotions of people.
Networking technologies
The organisation is having many Networking technologies to help them in improving the
quality of work. They use Internet and Intranet to improve the work and there are many
employees in the organisation which will help them in understanding the needs of customers.
TESCO is having many employees and they have to monitor the performance and they use
different Networking technologies in the organisation. The organisation is having many issues
and they will be solved with the help of the employees who are skilled to work. The employees
are important for the organisation and they are connected with customers and the organisation
are helping them to increase the performance.
TESCO has many employees and they have to coordinate the work which will use
different Networking technologies to increase the quality. The organisation has to understand the
needs of customers.
Importance of intranet and internet
Internet is a global network that provides a variety of information and communication
platforms as well as consist of interconnected networks that uses standardized communication
protocols (La, 2018). It is a grid of interconnected computer networks which uses internet
protocol suites like TCP or IP for communicating with other networks and devices. It includes
various high bandwidth data lines which encompasses the backbone of Internet.
In recent time, use of internet has increased tremendously. There is a growing
importance of digital marketing, internet marketing and various other e-commerce business
models (Mozaffar and et.al., 2017). Internet is known as the easiest way for a business to connect
it with its customers and clients. Businesses can easily get customer data on internet and easily
evaluate their buying behaviour. Internet provides a new and innovative way of doing a business.
Uses of Internet

According to Hannah Price, 2020 More than 1.8 billion people uses internet worldwide.
So, it becomes important for businesses to take the benefits of internet and gain a competitive
advantage of it over its competitors (11 undeniable benefits of an intranet, 2020). Few of the
internet uses for a businesses are enlisted below:
 Research Competition and Clients- Huge amount of data is available on internet and
businesses can use internet in researching more about the competitors and the prospective
clients. Also, it allows the businesses to compare companies perform with that of its
competitors.
 Buy and Sell- It is the basic use of internet for a business, as it provides a platform for e-
commerce websites to sell their products and services. Online selling removes the need of
maintaining Brick and mortar stores. It also eliminates middleman the direct sales are
made to the customers.
 Advertising- Businesses can attract more new customers with the use of internet. It
allows the marketers to reach its potential customers in a more effective and efficient
way. It is a most affordable tool for organisations for advertising their products and
services offered.
Intranet
It is a private network used for sharing information, corporate tools, operating
system and other services within the enterprise (Noble, 2017). It is used to ease the working of
groups and teleconferences in the organisations. It improves the organisational communication
system and allow the employees to get an easy access to the important links, forms, information
and applications through the databases which provides company records. It also improves the
level of security as by establishing a database helps on maintaining all databases of the users who
are allowed to access these network.
Importance of Intranet in a Business
Intranet is important for a business organisation for a variety of reasons and few of the
reasons are listed below:

 It smooths the day to day working of a business by making repetitive tasks easier to
perform.
 It builds up a good communication among the employees and directors also it facilitates a
fast flow of information within the organisation.
 It enhances the engagement of employees by reducing and centralizing “locked up”
information.
 It improves the corporate culture of a business with the use of intranet and focuses on
increasing widespread participation and interaction within the organisation.
Stages of system development life cycle
System development life cycle is also known as application development cycle. As this
process includes various stages that is planning, analysing, designing, implementing and
maintenance of the information (Rajaraman, 2018). The system cycle is applied on the
configurations of both hardware and software. As it can be composed only hardware or only on
software or both hardware and software. This life cycle consists of seven stages starting with
planning and ending with operations and maintenance. Let discuss about these stages:
 Planning: It is the first stage of system development cycle. It identifies new techniques to
be used in the business. This is the first plan which is to be made by the managers to
acquire the resources, to bring new infrastructure, to improve in services etc. The aim
purpose of this stage is to identify the problems and solutions. Strategy related to
resources, time, costs and other items are considered in this stage.
 System requirements and analysis: This is the second stage in which business works on
the problems which are identified in the planning stage (Tiwari, 2016). That what is the
best suitable option for that problem. This is the stage which analyse then needs of the
users so that they can meet the expectations of the projects.
 System design: This third stage need necessary features, specifications and operations of
the projects that can satisfy the requirements of functional system. It is the process that
defines the elements of a system like modules, architecture and interfaces. It assures to
satisfy some specific needs and requirements of the business units.

 Development: It is the fourth stage where software is developed in context with the
project requirement and prototyping them into working codes. It marks the ending of the
initial development process.
 Testing: This is the fifth stage, here testing of code quality, platforms in developing
codes and evidences of secured development principals are being tested. It is also called
as quality assurances stage.
 Implementation: It is the sixth stage where majority of the work codes for the program
are developed and when the production of the program starts components of the old
system are being replaced with the new ones via direct cut over.
 Maintenance and operations: This is the last stage which allows the end users to fine
turn the program it they want to enhance performance, develop new capabilities or meet
extra requirements of the users.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
The organisation has to understand the needs of employees and they are using
information technology to give them good products and services. The organisations have many
employees and they have different need which will help them to improve the performance. They
have to reduce the cost of the organisation and this will help them in giving good products. The
employees will help the organisation in giving the best products. The customers are important for
the organisation and they will help in increasing the performance.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been summarised that information technology play an
essential role in a business and individual’s working practices. main objective of this system is to
manage and improve quality of work by implementing innovation in it. These kind of practices
are beneficial for a business organisation to apply desired changes by analysing business
requirements and needs. Thus it could say that IT helps an organisation to maximise productivity
and growth opportunities for a firm.

REFERENCES
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