Barclays Bank and the Implementation of Information Technology

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the role and impact of Information Technology (IT) in the banking sector, with a specific focus on Barclays Bank. It begins with an introduction highlighting the importance of IT for modern banking, including big data analytics, data warehousing, and improved service quality. A literature review explores various aspects of IT in banking, such as online banking, increased efficiency, inter-branch cooperation, and the use of internet and intranet technologies. The report then delves into the ethical and social issues associated with IT in banking, including security concerns and the pressures faced by IT experts. Different network technologies like LAN, WAN, MAN, PAN, and VPN are discussed. The report also covers the importance of intranet in banks, along with the stages of the system development life cycle as implemented by Barclays. The analysis and discussion section emphasizes the crucial role of IT in banking operations and the benefits of IT implementation for banks like Barclays, including its extensive branch network and streamlined processes. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the significance of IT in the banking industry's success.

Introduction to
Information Technology

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................1
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION. .................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCE ..................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Banking industry is the backbone of financial institution of country which is
afflicted by challenging forces. In today's era, information technology has been termed as
very important aspects for the successful functioning of banking sector. Information technology
has helps in development of big data analytics along with data warehousing and data mining
solution as to bring improvement inequality of service and fast processing banking operations.
There is heavy investment by banks in informational technology with expectation of
improvement in banking performance. The implementation of information technology in
banking sector refers as the use of sophisticated information and better communication
technology which enable banks to offer customer in secure, reliable and affordable manner to
maintain sustainability and gain competitive advantage. With the help of information technology,
banks increase in penetration, productivity and efficiency of offering services and satisfaction to
customers. In this repost, various ethical and social issues faced by bank will be discussed along
with different type of technology used in banking industry. The report will focus on British
multinational investment bank ans financial service, Barclay. Further, the repost will success
about the importance of internet and intranet in banks along with different stages of system
developments cycle in term of Barclay.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Information Technology has opened new markets and services for the banking sector.
Few examples are online banking and internet banking. Information Technology has increased
the speed & reliability of the financial operations that strengthens the banking sector. According
to Avgerou and Walsham, (2017) in banking sector where the bank possesses a number of
branches that have vast financial resources, Information technology has benefited banks in
operating on large scale. Barclays bank has 1600 branches across UK and total of 4750 in 55
countries. Information Technology helped the bank in operating the resources at a larger scale.
IT has made the process and operations of Bank Industry quick and easy. As per the view point
of Baptista and Oliveira, (2015) the information technology has reduced the customer's visits to
branch and thus reduces the human interaction. As the banks have their websites through which
customer's can ask for their queries and their will be no lines in the bank. Banks at the right time
grabbed this opportunity and now is amongst the top banks in UK. The bank started their own
online banking application through which customer's can track all the transactions. Bank opened
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their ATM's at different places, that reduces the customer's visit at the branches with less human
interaction.
As per the view point of Chew, Tan and Hamid, (2016) through information technology
inter branch cooperation has improved. Banks has multiple branches, so previously it was
difficult to communicate with all the branches and if any fraud occur or any problem. No branch
can blame other one but with the introduction of IT in banking every small record of each branch
is entered the computer system that are secured. This way each branch is responsible for their
own mistakes, this reduces the possibility of frauds and misappropriation.
According to Dutta, Geiger and Lanvin, (2015) Online or Internet banking has been an
effective medium for the banks to promote their different schemes. Previously when the
customer's go to bank, so they can see the posters or can know through newspaper
advertisements. With the commencement of online banking the customer's get update on their
websites or via SMS. Through this medium the banks was able to address to a huge number of
customer's. Bank started the feature of online banking for their customer's and introduced their
policies or schemes via mobile applications this attracted other customer's as well and thus
increased the banks customer's.
According to Fethi and Katircioglu, (2015) through Information Technology has
integrated customer data that helps them to offer customized services to the individual
customer's. This will increase the affordability and credibility of the banks as when more and
more customers are connected to their banks, this will increase the goodwill of bank. Banks
provides customise services to their individual customer's and this has increased the trust and
loyalty of customer's in the bank and those customer's have even shared their experiences with
family and friends that increased the banks' customer's. As per the view point of Guo and Liang,
(2016) with the emergence of information technology in banking it has helped the banks to
restore new data's as well as old data's safely. As previously the banks have to record everything
in papers and it was hard calculate the interest and maintain record of so many customers
manually. With the introduction of online banking the work stress has been reduced of
employees at Bank and has made it easy and simple.
According to Kathpalia, Seth and Verma, (2017) information technology has many
benefits but on the other hand there are various ethical issues that are faced by the customer's
such as security. With the emergence of internet the hackers have found it easy to hack the
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computer systems and get any information. It is easy for hackers to get access to user's profile
and collect data for selfish reasons. The money can be easily transferred to the desired account of
the hacker, this affects the banks credibility and the customer's trust in online banking services.
As per Malaquias and Hwang, (2016) emergence of information technology has increased
pressure on IT experts. Since the system has to be active all day, this has increased pressure on
the experts. IT experts have to make sure that system is available all day i.e. 24 hours, that
requires a necessary standby team of experts to resolve any issue that might came in between the
operations. This pressure develops and result in stress and workload which might bring
imperfection in the working.
As per the view point of Dutta, Geiger and Lanvin, (2015) there are various network
technologies such as Local Area Network(LAN) that is the smallest & single site network. LAN
connects the network devices on a short distance. In this system the computers are
interconnected and geographical region like home, school, office is at a distance of 1 km. Evert
terminal is connected to the main computer system called as Server. LANs are owned and
controlled either by an individual or by an organization. The author describes about other
network technologies as well like WAN is called as collection of LANs. WAN is like internet
that spans the world. LAN is connected to WAN through a network device known as Router.
Example of WAN is mobile broadband, private network. The data is centralized in WAN
networks, so the companies don't need back-ups.
Malaquias and Hwang, (2016) described Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) that is
designed for city or town. It connects the area which is larger than LAN, but smaller than WAN.
The main purpose of WAN is sharing software & hardware resources by different users. Cable
networks are the example of MAN. Computer system connected in MAN use fibre optic cables.
Personal Area Network (PAN) are small networks for communication, which reaches to
individual persons only. Example are wireless USB, Bluetooth. Virtual Private Network (VPN)
technology use internet for inter & intra organization communication. VPN networks are private
yet virtual.
According to Zeidan, Boechat and Fleury, (2015) banking industry has shown high level
of interest in the development of intranet. The author also stated that Intranet use to offers
immediate and low cost connection to have segmentation for distributive information in broad
variety as ranging from the company directives to all department with commercial document
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and internal regulation. On the other hand the Shaikh and Karjaluoto, (2015). argued that the
gains of intranet are made at the cost flexibility and freedom of user. The author also added that
with the connection through intranet , any compromised machine have the access to shared
information on network. As per the view of Schwalbe ,(2015)banks uses the intranet software
which include the comprehensive documentation, procedure along with policy management
functionality. The author also stated that with implementation if bank intranet employee
directory is maintained along with employee profile which used to feature profile photo with
branch and personal information. On the other hand Saeidi and et.al, (2015) argued that sharing
files increase the risk along with productivity. It is easier to delete or damage the files stored in
intranet due to peer challenges. The author also stated that the maintenance of intranet is costly
as it includes the software up gradation , training among employees and intranet modification
and improvement consultancy. On the other hand, as per the view of Avgerou and Walsham,
(2017) internet helps the banking business to expand in all directs having the diverse products
offered to different segmentation of society. The author also stated that the with the
implementation of internet, bank can offer inline banking and fast credit services to customer
which will help to increase the good will of banks eyes of customer. Ion the other hand Baptista
and Oliveira, (2015) argues that there is maximum chance of fraud taking place in online
banking services along with technology service interruption and lack of personal banker
relationship.
Due to development of technology is there , the people are more evident for switching
over the Morden way for each purpose. According to Chew, Tan and Hamid, (2016), in this
technology driven world the demand for implementation of software and system development is
steadily growing. The author also stare d that the development is highly intelligent and precise
process encapsulated as system development life cycles. As per views of Dutta, Geiger and
Lanvin, (2015) the development cycle in procedure of software basically structures in
methodical way. However, the Fethi and Katircioglu, (2015) argued that the implementation or
programming of software can be stressful for the developer specially when there is requirement
of coding in different parts of a project. As per the view of Shaikh and Karjaluoto, (2015) there
are 7 stages of system development of life cycle that are planning, system analysis and
requirement, system design,development, integration and testing, implementation or coding and
maintenance. Author stated that planning is initial phases to find out the scope of population
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along with determination of solution. In this stage the resources, scope, cost, benefits and risk are
to be considered. The second stage is regarding system analysis and requirement in which
performance of software and various stages are analysed and notes were made for further
requirement. The Saeidi and et.al, (2015) argued that system analysis pay more focused on
feasibility study of project which includes organizationally, economically, socially and
technological aspect. The third stage is about system design where the blue print includes design
of application,network, database and user interfaces and system interfaces. Fourth stage is about
development and building of information system in which hardware has been purchased and
software is coded with loading on testing platform. Integration and testing is terms as fifth steps
to make sure that system ca work flawlessly with existing patter in office. As per views Fethi and
Katircioglu, (2015) implementation and maintenance are further steps. Implementation is termed
as the longest stage system development life cycle along with source coding and decoding. The
last step is regarding the maintenance process which includes the procedure for resolving errors.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION.
Information technology in banking industry has been termed as essential aspects for the
successful functioning of banking sector. Information technology has helps in development of
big data analytics along with data warehousing and data mining solution as to bring improvement
inequality of service and fast processing banking operations. The implementation of information
technology plays an important role in the success of banks. With the implementation of
technology in Barclay has 1600 branches across UK which includes all about 4750 branches in
different countries. With the implementation of technology, Barclays has found easy and quick
process in managing operation all over the different branches. Information technology has help
the bank to resolve the queries and garb the competitive advantage to become the amongst the
top banks in UK. The information technology gives the chance to bank to start their own online
application to track all transaction of customers . Information technology has reduced the waiting
lines in bank along with personalized human interactions. The IT has help the bank to have
improvement in inter branch cooperation as it was previously very difficult to communicate to
all branches situated in different parts at the time of any misconduct and fraudulent practice take
place. IT has help bank in identifying various issue and resolving them which will increase
affordability and credibility of the banks. Banks have started the feature of online banking to
their customers with accessibility of via mobile applications this attracted other customer's as
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well and thus increased the banks' customer's. IT has help the Barclays banks to mover form
manual work to technological work. The banks turned out to technological upgrade along with
big data analytics. As previously the banks have to record everything in papers and it was hard
calculate the interest and maintain record of so many customers manually. Now data of customer
are stored through big data analytics along with data warehousing and data mining solution as to
bring improvement inequality of service and fast processing banking operations.
Due to implementation of IT , several ethical and social issues that are faced by the
company is managing various operation and decision taking process of the Barclays. One of the
major issues faced by customer is regarding the confidentiality and security of personal
information and data of customer (Zeidan, Boechat and Fleury, 2015). Barclays has to look after
the security of data from hackers as it effects banks credibility and the customer's trust in online
banking services. Barclays have the team of IT experts which will make sure the availability of
service i.e. 24 hours. The IT teams is required to by necessary standby team to resolve any issue
that might came in between the operations. Due to IT technology, there is requirement of training
and development of employees for the effective use of IT technology which turned out to be
costly in some developing countries for Barclays. Barclays tend to use the technologies such as
WAN ( wide area network) and Metropolitan Area Network (MAN). WAN is to be considered
as the collection of LAN ( local area network). The data is centralized in WAN networks, so the
companies don't need back-ups. The main objectives of WAN is sharing software & hardware
resources by different users.
Barclays have the implementation of the intranet and internet in the banking system of
organization. The intranet helps the banks to have segmentation for distributive information in
broad variety as ranging from the company directives to all department with commercial
document and internal regulation. This helps the banks to have coordination between all the
levels of management which includes about the maintenance employee profile which used to
feature profile photo with branch and personal information (.Shaikh and Karjaluoto, 2015. ).
This helps in having centralized system in increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of Barclay
and keep track records of employee through bank intranet employee directory. On the other
hand internet has been turned as the essential lifeline for survival of banks in this competitive
world. The implementation of internet help in the banking business to expand in all directs
having the diverse products offered to different segmentation of society. Barclays can offer better
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credit facilities along with access to online transaction at any moment of time. Barclays make
the software upgrades to protect it from any type of hackers and have secure transcription
process. the internet implementation has raised standard of living of customer by providing them
varsity of products and services.
There are various system that are needed to be developed in the banks along with systematic
procedure. The software development life cycle has systematic set of procedure that is required
by company to see at the time of implementation ODF software. The process can be turned out to
be costlier but proper establishment of software will bring effectiveness and efficient in banking
organization (Schwalbe, 2015). The banks should properly identify the need of software along
with feasibility of software in terms of organization, economical, social and technological
aspect. Implementation is termed as the longest stage system development life cycle along with
source coding and decoding. The last step is regarding the maintenance process which includes
the procedure for resolving errors.
CONCLUSION.
In the above study we have concluded that information technology have the positive as
well negative impact in the proper functioning of organization. Banks has multiple branches and
it was difficult to communicate with all the branches in case of any fraud occur or any problem.
No branch can blame other one but with the introduction of IT in banking every small record of
each branch is entered the computer system that are secured. Information technology helped the
Barclay bank to resolve the queries and garb the competitive advantage to become the amongst
the top banks in UK. On the other hand the maintenance of information technology is costly as
it includes the software up gradation, training among employees and intranet modification and
improvement consultancy ( Isaeidi and et.al., 2015.). Barclays have the standby team of IT
experts which make sure the availability of service to resolve any issue that might came in
between the operations. The highly intelligent and precise process encapsulated of system
development life cycles have the proper software coding and decoding which make the
organizational process more precise along with efficiency and effective. So the implementation
of the informational technology in banking sector- a case on Barclays have both positive and
negative aspects which help will affect the market position of banks in future terms.
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