Digital Business: Analyzing Trends, Cybersecurity, and El Salvador

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of digital business, focusing on key trends such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, digital streaming, and contactless transactions, using Amazon as a case study. It evaluates digital business models in relation to cybersecurity and ethical behavior, assessing the influence of collaborative relationships and strategic alliances through digital technology. Furthermore, it discusses the impact of cryptocurrency on business, with a specific focus on El Salvador's adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender, highlighting both the opportunities and challenges associated with digital transformation in the modern business landscape. The report emphasizes the importance of secure and reliable digital practices for maintaining customer trust and driving revenue growth.

Digital Business

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
Overview of key trends and benefits of digital technology as well as their implications on
managing businesses effectively .................................................................................................1
Critical evaluation of digital business model in relation to cyber security and ethical behaviour
of businesses................................................................................................................................3
Assessment of the influence of new collaborative relationships and strategic alliances through
digital technology ........................................................................................................................4
Critical discussion of of the impact of crypto currency on business and impact of El
Salvador’s legal tender of adoption ............................................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Digital business is an exercise to apply virtual changes in organisation in order to
increase profitability (Andriole, 2017). It principally comprises of transformation of
organisation's processes and re innovating them in order to provide better insights and
experiences to their varied stakeholder. It is beneficial for organisations in order to grow and
develop their business activities in a strategic manner. It also assists establishments in expanding
their brand name and reach new customer base. For better understanding of digital
transformation practices adopted by corporations, Amazon is taken into consideration. Amazon
is an American based multinational technological company established in 1994. company deals
in provides an online marketplace and mainly concentrates on cloud computing and artificial
intelligence in their business operations.
This project highlights overview of key trends and their advantages as well as
implications in managing business operations efficiently. This project also comprises of digital
business models and their related key issues in organisation. It also assess collaborative
relationships and strategic alliances through digital technology. This project also depicts impact
of crypto currency in business operations. It also evaluates El Salvador’s legal tender of adoption
in detail.
MAIN BODY
Overview of key trends and benefits of digital technology as well as their implications on
managing businesses effectively
Digital technology aids an organisation in enhancing their level of creativity and
distribution of data as well as knowledge in an effective way (Chaffey, Edmundson-Bird and
Hemphill, 2019). It essentially comprises of computing and communication which help
businesses to enhance their profitability as well as productivity levels. Various key trends of
digital technology in relation to Amazon are discussed below:
 Artificial intelligence and machine learning- It essentially used in speech recognition,
navigation application, personal assistants in smart phones (Dery, Sebastian and van der
Meulen, 2017). It is principality used by managers of Amazon in detecting insights about
consumer perceptions and market trends which help them to enhance their support
service. Through efficient understanding of artificial intelligence, mangers of Amazon
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provides their better consumer experience by exploring their mobile application and
website. Consumers can easily use their mobile applications through speech recognition
system. It is implicated in Amazon which helps its managers in collecting data of their
consumer. This practice helps them to analyse buying patterns of their existing users and
also provides them recommendations for new product. They can collect personal data,
shipping address, buying frequency of their consumers. This helps managers of Amazon
in operating their business effectively around a globe.
Advantage- It is advantageous for Amazon as it helps in reduction of human errors in
their business operations. It has made shopping experience of their consumers better which helps
them to enhance their brand image globally. This exercise has also attracted varied potential
customers to their website for shopping which helps them to increase their customer base. Cloud computing- It can be described as a technology that is used by organisations in
order to store and manage their data on various remote servers (Gruber, 2019). It is
beneficial for organisations as it assists in adoption of faster innovative practices and
analysing flexible resources. It is used by corporates through a middleware software that
provides a seamless connectivity between varied linked devices. Amazon provides its
own cloud computing platform called as Amazon web services. It offers specified
organisational tools to store big data and content delivery to establishments. It uses
configured tools and individual server maps in order to provide excellent customer
services. Amazon has also came in collaborations with several technology vendors in
order to store differential data of their customers and other stakeholders on a world wide
basis.
Advantage- An efficient cloud structure is advantageous for Amazon as it ensures to
enhance their productivity levels and provides accessibility of their stored data anywhere in the
whole world (Heavin and Power, 2018). It also provides an strategic competitive edge to
Amazon apart form their competitors. Amazon web services provides managers to store
unlimited data of their consumers in order to enhance their shopping experience.
 Digital streaming – It states the use of digital channels for providing content to viewers
Komljenovic, 2021). This content is in the form of movies, web series, television series
and many more. Amazon also has its digital streaming channel called as Amazon Prime
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which provides entertainment to users. They also provides live streaming of cricket or
football matches to their users. It helps them to gain more users towards their brand.
Advantage- It is advantageous for Amazon as it helps to increase customer engagement
towards their e-commerce website and digital streaming platform. Content posted or launched on
digital platforms are available instantly to viewers. It provides a better streaming experience to
their viewers and does not contain lot of storage space in mobile phones. Contactless transactions- It is described as a technology which enables individuals to
transact payments of their orders through a contactless chip which is embedded in smart
cards (Kortelainen, Happonen and Hanski, 2019). These cards essentially uses radio-
frequency identification technology in their operations. It helps individuals to remain safe
especially at the time of corona pandemic. It also reduces the risk of fraud in these
transactions. Amazon has recently launched its contactless platform system known as
Amazon One. In order to sign up in these system, users just need to insert their credit
card and then hold their hand on to the camera of checkout counter. System can scan their
hand and their payment gets accepted. Consumers can pay through using mobile wallet
and Amazon pay for their varied payment transactions. Through this, managers of
Amazon can effectively operate their business virtually on a global basis.
Advantage- It is advantageous for Amazon as it provides their customers a better experience of
safe and accurate payment transactions. This practice helps them to attract more customers
towards their brand and retain them by providing an excellent digital services.
Critical evaluation of digital business model in relation to cyber security and ethical behaviour of
businesses
Digital business models is described as an framework which is needed for creating value
for the development of benefits provided to customers through using virtual technologies.
Individuals and organisations face varied significant issues in digital technology while managing
their business operations effectively (Loonam and Et. Al., 2018). These key issues comprises of
complexities in software and technology, lack of efficient strategy and security concerns. It is
essential for organisations to develop their website and software in a simpler way so that it can
be used efficiently by users. Some of digital business model which can be used for solving
differential virtual issues relating to business operation of Amazon are discussed below:
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 Freemium model- This business model suggests that at initial stage, users get free access
to website services (Minter, 2017). But later on, they have to pay for some specific
features or they have to sign up for going premium. Flicker, Ever note, Spotify are some
of its examples. It helps businesses in reaching to large number of users and keep them
engaged with brand in order to retain them for along time. It allows to get access of users
information while they are having free-trial of services. Amazon can use this model for
engaging individuals for their digital streaming channel. This can increase reach of more
consumers to their brand. E-Commerce model- This business model states that a brand uses official website or
virtual store in order to sell their products or services (Osmundsen, Iden and Bygstad,
2018). This model is used by managers of Amazon in an effective manner. This model
helps them to generate mote revenue. However, this model comes with an drawback that
is it can impact personal computing safety of individuals. As hackers can attack on
servers in order to take personal data of consumers from company. This data is then sold
to third parties in order to influence individuals to make a purchase by showing them
advertisements on a continuous basis. While transacting also, hackers can hack
individual's system in order to get their bank account numbers and passwords.
 Platform business model- This model suggests that a company provides a platform to
brands or small retailers in order to sell their products (Sacolick, 2017). These platform is
provided for individuals also to come in shop their needed products. These business
model is applied by managers of Amazon in order to generate more revenue and
profitability. By using this business model, managers of Amazon have to store and mange
lots of data of their different stakeholders. They have to adhere with data protection law
which prohibits any organisation to use personal information of their consumers without
their consent. They have updated their system and use configured tools for providing
secure and reliable shopping experience to their consumers. Use of secured configuration
tools and updated artificial intelligence version can help managers of Amazon to secure
their website and consumer experiences from cyber attack. Amazon act as a facilitator
between selling companies and consumers.
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Assessment of the influence of new collaborative relationships and strategic alliances through
digital technology
Collaborative relationships are described as a complex process which forces two or more
individuals to enter into a specified contract and perform according to its terms and conditions
(Singh and Hess, 2020). In order to maintain better and long-lasting collaborative relationships, it
is needful to have clarity in communication and understanding. There should be clear
communication channels in order to properly maintain proper interactions between both the
parties.
Strategic alliance is described as an exercise where two companies come together in
order to perform together mutually decided project (Steininger, 2019). Under this alliance, each
organisation has its own identity and interdependence. For a given project, tasks are divided
among them as per their competencies and field of knowledge. Each party is answerable to each
other. This is significant to facilitate organisation's access to global markets by catering each
other's consumers.
Top management of Amazon has enter into strategic alliance with Black Berry QNX in
order to become leader in security services and software. These two are collaborating with each
other in order to launch cloud-connected software platform which will help Amazon and other
organisations to debug any technological issue from their website as well as to make it more
secure (Vukšić, Ivančićand Vugec, 2018). This strategic alliance can help various organisations
in unlocking new revenue generation streams. This helps to make consumer experience better
and secure.
Amazon has entered into another strategic alliance with Kohl brand in order to increase
their customer base through e-commerce platform (Yablonsky, ed., 2018). This strategic alliance
have aligned omnichannel capabilities of Kohl with Amazon's massive customer base as well as
loyalty. This practice has helped managers of Kohl to engage large number of consumers
towards their physical stores on a world wide basis. Through this, Amazon has provided branded
products to their consumers on a large basis.
Top management of Amazon has come into collaborative partnerships with Berkshire
Hathaway in order to gain access of pharma and health sector. This collaboration has led to
establish new health care venture called, Haven. This is established in order to provide simple
and easy access of health care to consumers at lower cost.
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These collaborative relationships and strategic alliances provides managers of Amazon to cater a
massive number of consumer base in order to generate more revenues and profitability. These
helped Amazon to grow and develop their business operations effectively in the era of
digitalisation. These has also supported digital transformation practices in organisation. Through
the help of developed artificial intelligence and cloud computing they can store big data in an
easy manner.
Critical discussion of of the impact of crypto currency on business and impact of El Salvador’s
legal tender of adoption
Crypto currency is described as a string of encrypted data that is considered as a currency
unit. Transactions of crypto currency is controlled and managed through a block chain network.
Bitcoin, Monero , Ether are some of the most common crypto currencies. It provides potential for
high returns to individuals. It is risky too as these are not regulated by any sort of regulatory
body as well as does not have specified rules and regulations. It is helpful for businesses as it has
reduces documentation and other legal formalities of cross- broader transaction. Businesses can
easily store this currency in specified digital wallet by selling or purchasing products or services.
It is easy to access and can be changed in a reliable manner with currency of other countries.
Impact of crypto currency such as Bitcoin on businesses like Amazon are discussed below: Payment method- Businesses uses cryptocurrency as real currency and provides goods
and services to their consumers in exchange of them. This has become a popular payment
method. It is an easy way for individuals to pay cryptocurrency in return for goods and
services. This practice is seem to be excellent in a shorter route as markets rate of this is
very high. However, in a long run, when crypto market crashes, it will come a problem
for business houses to sell them even at a base price. In relation to Amazon, managers are
experimenting with this currency to align this with their web service network as that they
can also gets its benefits. They are also planning to accept cryptocurrency as a payment
method in return of products and services. Managers of Amazon are working on
development of Ethereum blockchain in order to provide improvised version of bill
payment and data security. Personal investments- Business houses can make personal investment in cryptocurrency
in order to gain high returns. As returns of cryptocurrency is very high in marketplace. It
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is desirable for businesses to invest in them in order to make extra profits and be ahead of
their competitors in a long run. However, businesses should remember that this type of
currency can fluctuate with times and be ready for its further consequences. In relation to
Amazon, managers are not planning to invest in well-established cryptocurrency like
bitcoin. They are planning to bring their own currency in this market known as Amazon
coins.
 Mining threat of cryptocurrency- This suggests that crypto mining can poses a threat of
cyber security which is known as crypto jacking. Businesses which are involved in crypto
mining are operating with a threat of cyber security. Hackers can attack their system with
some malware inj order to get access to their system which contains personal information
of their consumers. This practice can harm their image too in along run. Corporates
should be aware of this and adopt a reliable system in order to protect themselves from
any cyber attack. In accordance with Amazon, manager are planning to come with
different type of cryptocurrency and blockchain practice through their web service
scheme. They are planning to provide secure and reliable experience to their consumers.
El Salvador is a country situated in Central America has announced to adopt bitcoin as their
official currency by replacing US dollar on September 2021. In 2001, El Salvador has adopted
US dollar as their legal currency by announcing that their currency is not delivering them desired
value because of high inflation rates. It has incurred huge cost when they have announced US
dollar as a legal tender. It does not make any sense to make Bitcoin as their legal tender. As
cryptocurrency fluctuates greatly and there is a fear of market clash any time. Even it was not
obliged well by their domestic residents. As they do not want to make any changes in their
currency. This has creates a lot of chaos in country. As people have to deal in new currency
which is digital and a complex process to understand. Mining of cryptocurrency can cause
environmental degradation in society. Adoption of this practice has makes transaction cost high
minimizing creditworthiness of currency in international transactions.
It has been concluded from this that decision of adopting cryptocurrency as a legal tender
is not a good decision by officials of El Salvador as it fluctuates greatly with time and does not
come under any regulated body. This can make chaos in country as citizens are not ready to
adopt any new currency while transacting them. In case, if crypto market crashes, value of
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Bitcoin also degrades with time. This practice led country to come in that situation again where
their currency value declined.
CONCLUSION
From the above presented report, it has been conclude that digital transformation is an
practice of converting business operations into virtual means. It comprises use of various servers,
computing devices and internet. Artificial intelligence is considered as the practice of applying
digital means into improvising various business operations for gaining more revenues and
profitability. Cloud computing is described as an practice of storing and managing personal
information of consumers effectively in order to make it secure and safe from external cyber
attacks. There are various key issues in operating business operations through digital means.
These issues are loss of data , lack of reliability and cyber attacks. Cryptocurrency can be used
by business to make investment on personal basis. This is no safe as this market fluctuates
greatly and is not regulated by any statutory authority. Bitcoin is one of leading cryptocurrency
which helps individuals to earn high returns on their investment. It can impacted businesses in a
significant basis as this lead them to either make high profits or high losses. It has also make
shopping experience easier as companies can accept this for exchanging products or services.
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