The Role of Information Technology in Business: Ethics and Networking

This report delves into the significant role of Information Technology (IT) within organizations, focusing on its impact on business success, ethical considerations, and various networking technologies. It explores how IT facilitates efficient information management, decision-making processes, customer support, and marketing strategies, using Marks and Spencer as a case study. The report also addresses ethical issues such as responsibility, accountability, and liability associated with IT usage. Furthermore, it identifies and differentiates between various networking technologies like LAN, WAN, and PAN, while also highlighting the importance of the internet and intranet in business operations. Finally, the report outlines the different stages of the system development life cycle, providing a comprehensive overview of IT's multifaceted influence on modern businesses.

Introduction to
Information
Technology

ABSTRACT
The report discusses about the use of information system into an organization. The
information technology brings success to the business through managing their information,
decision making process, customer support, in marketing and the so on. The use of information
technology also carries some ethics which the user needs to follow. These ethics can be
accountability, liability, responsibility and etc. There are also many types of computer network
which us been used to create the connectivity among the computers, some of these includes
LAN, MAN, WAN, PAN and etc. The report also discuss about the use of internet and intranet.
Apart from this the system development life cycle is also been mentioned into the report.

Contents
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................................4
Discuss the role of IT in the success or failure of a business...................................................................4
Ethical and social issues that pertain to running businesses.....................................................................6
Identification and differentiation between different types of networking technologies...........................7
The importance of internet and intranet into business..............................................................................8
Different stage of system development life cycle....................................................................................9
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS...........................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Information Technology refers to the use of computer system in which the people can
store, save and share the data and information which can help the people in their work or
activities. Computer system has the capacities to perform the task for humans which can make
their work easy to perform. For example, it can perform calculations within seconds, helps the
human in sharing the data or information, and stores a huge amount of data for the people which
can help them in making the right decisions for the people. For reference purpose this report has
taken an example of a company Marks and Spencer. Marks and Spencer is a British
multinational company which specializes in fine quality clothing, home products and food
products. The company serves worldwide with a total number of stores of 1467. The company
was founded in the year 1884 by Michael marks and Thomas Spencer.
This report discuss about the importance of Information technology into the success and
failure of company, the ethical and social issues that pertain into a running business. The report
also includes the different types of networking technologies along with the importance of
internet and intranet into the business. Apart from this the report also includes the different
stages of system development life cycle (Aasheim and Williams, 2019).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Discuss the role of IT in the success or failure of a business
According to Caligtan, 2012. Information technology is responsible share, save and store
their information and data which helps the business in saving the important information. These
important information and data helps the business in making the correct decisions for the
organization. The information system is very much beneficial for the company in many ways,
some of them includes:
Decision making: To make the right decision speed and accuracy works as a heart for making
decisions. To get success into this competitive market, every business has to perform a process
of comprehensive market research which helps the management in making the right decisions for
the company. There are many ways through which market research can perform for example
through online surveys, forums, articles, group discussions and the so forth. At this time the
methods like Big Data, Google Analysis and Microsoft CRM Dynamics are some methods which
are used to extract the information that can impact the business in making the decisions. The data
which is stored ad process are of minimal risk from human errors and it contains the response
from potential audience. That data or information is very much accurate as it has minimum risk
for manipulation.

Marketing and Business Growth: Marketing is very much essential for any business.
Marketing process educate the targeted customers or groups about the products or the services
which are offered by the company (Brown and et. al., 2012). As in the case with marks and
Spencer, the company has to market about its recent trend in clothes showing its theme, also the
company markets about the offers and discounts which it would going to release. Through
marketing the company tells its audience about the message which it wants to convey to its
tragedy customers, may be its about discounts, new offers, new products or themes, all these are
done with right kind of advertisement and promotional activities (Caligtan and et. al., 2012). At
the modern times digital marketing plays an important role as all the companies are shifting to
digitalized world and they are doing the marketing through the help of digitals. Here the use of
Information technology plays its role. Through it the companies makes the marketing at the
digital platforms. Therefore the company, marks and Spencer perform its digital marketing
through the use of these information technology.
Customer support and satisfaction: Satisfaction given to the customers would ultimately
results into the success of business. When a customer is happy with the product or service
provided by a company he becomes a loyal customer to that company and also works as a
marketer as he perform mouth advertisements by recommending the products or service to his
relatives and known. The satisfy the customers properly every company is having the customer
support for itself to listen to their customers and to solve their issues, and the same apply with
marks and Spencer. The company’s customer support can be provided through the help of
information technology only. It provides the proper channels for communication to customers
without going out of their respective premises. Some examples of these channels are email,
social, media, multimedia message by smart phones and the so on. Customer relationship
management systems held up the important information about the customer attitude and behavior
which also shows the direction towards the future needs of customers.
Sometime the business experience failure due to information technology. This failure can be due
to following reasons:
Wrong choice of technology: The technology which is opted by the business should be up to its
requirements. If the organization makes any sort of mistake in choosing the right kind of
technology then the company might have to face the some failure into the achievement of its
objective. The technology used into the operations is not useful or required by the organization
then it can result into failure for the business (Marinagi, Trivellas, and Sakas, 2014).
Improper use of technology: If the employees or the workers don’t know how to use that
technology into operations or there is some lack of training which is provided to them by
organization would also results into a failure for business. The organization needs to give a
proper training to the employees so that they can make the optimum use of technology provided
to them but if they don’t know how to use it properly they would not be able to complete the task
with the required efficiency which might can create the problem for the company.

Ethical and social issues that pertain to running businesses
When using the information technology into the operations there are many ethical and
social issues which is associated with the use of information technology and the organization has
to take them under account while using it.
The ethical issues are as follows:
Responsibility: There must a person who needs to take the responsibility for the technology
which is been introduced into the organization. The person who took the responsibility they have
to take the entire associated burden regarding the technology. The responsibility includes proper
installation of technology, proper training given to the employees or work force with regard to
technology that how to use it, making the employees understand about how the organization
would be benefited from this technology and so on (Moll aand Abareshi, 2012). This is a very
huge responsibility which someone needs to undertake. As in the case with marks and Spencer, if
the company comes up with new software in managing their information system they first need
to make people understand about the usage of that technology and provides with necessary
training to make sure that the change must implement smoothly.
Accountability: The Company needs to get accountable for the technology which it is adopting
into its operations. Accountability includes giving the appropriate reasons to the people who
anytime oppose to their technology. There should be a right kind of accountability through which
the company can give a legitimate reasons and explanation towards the technology it adopts. The
company marks and Spencer is legally accountable for the technologies it is been using in its
operations.
Liability: The company is liable if it use any kind of technology or information false
interpretation. The company would be legally liable for their work and the technology which
they are using into their system. It is the ethical duty of the company o undertake all the
associated responsibility upon their shoulders.
Some of the social issues may include:
Illegal accounting schemes: There are companies which adopts illegal accounting schemes or
software by inserting it into their systems which is a great social issue. The company modified
the software or the technology which is illegal. The company does for some illegal changes into
their accounts and operations to make some illegal profits or increase in production (Osswald
and et. al.,2012). This has creates a legal social issue into the market and the companies are now
have legally liable to use the technologies or software which is legally approved by the
government.
False misrepresentation to shareholders: Through the use of some illegal software the
companies used to present false data and information to their shareholders which are an illegal
and unethical habit of the company to perform. The company presents these false data or

information to their shareholders so that they did not take their investment back and the goodwill
of the company does not get harm.
Identification and differentiation between different types of networking technologies
There are many types of network technologies, some of them are as follows:
PAN: It stands for personal area network. The littlest and most essential kind of system, a PAN
is comprised of a remote modem, a PC or two, telephones, printers, tablets, and so on., and spins
around one individual in one structure (Roco and Bainbridge, 2013). These kinds of systems are
commonly found in little workplaces or living arrangements, and are overseen by one individual
or association from a solitary gadget.
LAN: It stands for local area network. It is one of the most widely recognized, one of the most
unique and perhaps the least difficult kind of systems. LANs associate gatherings of PCs and
low-voltage gadgets together across short separations (inside a structure or between a gathering
of a few structures in nearness to one another) to share data and assets. Endeavors commonly
oversee and look after LANs. Utilizing switches, LANs can interface with wide zone systems to
quickly and securely move information.
WAN: Wireless Area Network, it stands for. Working like a LAN, WLANs utilize remote
system innovation, for example, Wi-Fi. Normally found in indistinguishable sorts of uses from
LANs, these kinds of systems don't necessitate that gadgets depend on physical links to associate
with the system.
CAN: It stands for campus area network. Bigger than LANs, however littler than metropolitan
region arranges, these kinds of systems are regularly found in colleges, huge K-12 school locale
or private companies (Stein and et. al.., 2015). They can be spread over a few structures that are
genuinely near one another so clients can share assets.
MAN: It stands for metropolitan Area network. These kinds of systems are bigger than LANs
yet littler than WANs – and consolidate components from the two sorts of systems. Keeps an eye
on range a whole geographic zone (regularly a town or city, however here and there a grounds).
Proprietorship and upkeep is dealt with by either a solitary individual or organization (a
neighborhood gathering, an enormous organization, and so on).
WAN: It stands for wide area network. Marginally more unpredictable than a LAN, a WAN
associates PCs together across longer physical separations. This permits PCs and low-voltage
gadgets to be remotely associated with one another more than one enormous system to convey in
any event, when they're miles separated. The Internet is the most fundamental case of a WAN,
associating all PCs together around the globe. As a result of a WAN's huge reach, it is normally
claimed and kept up by different overseers or people in general.

SAN: It stands for strong area network. As a devoted fast system that associates shared pools of
capacity gadgets to a few servers, these kinds of systems don't depend on a LAN or WAN
(Tarafdar, Gupta and Turel, 2013). Rather, they move stockpiling assets from the system and
spot them into their own superior system. SANs can be gotten to in a similar manner as a drive
connected to a server. Sorts of capacity region systems incorporate combined, virtual and bound
together SANs.
The technology network which is been used by the company marks and Spencer has
installed into their stores is LAN, local area network. In this type of network the store covers the
network system of the whole store and provides the facility to store, share and save the
information as and when the employees needs to enter it. The network diagram provides the
accurate speed to the store so that the activities or the transactions of the company can be
performed with ease.
The importance of internet and intranet into business
The Internet serves organizations by making open doors for systems administration, data
recovery, interchanges, showcasing and deals. Organizations can utilize the Internet to offer their
items to inaccessible clients. They can utilize the Internet to accumulate data and connect with
clients, customers, government and different individuals from the business, building
consciousness of their market (Tiwana, Konsynski and Venkatraman, 2013). Organizations can
likewise utilize the Internet for inside interchanges and other electronic exercises, which
numerous independent companies do in lieu of building up their own systems. It is a network
which is available to the outside world. The company can access to the sites which is available
for the outside world also. The internet is used for accessing the data and information which is
available for the entire general world. Through the use of internet the people can access to the
sites which is available at internet, they can visits the sites and see the products and services
which are available for them to buy. Likewise, the company marks and Spencer with the help of
internet can access to different sites or information which is worldly available.
Whereas the Intranets serve an association's computerized interchanges needs. They
likewise give a safe space to putting away, getting to and creating electronic materials. Utilizing
intranets to supplant more seasoned business arrangements can deliver large gains in
effectiveness by accelerating work processes and lessening mistakes (Upadhya and Vasavi,
2012). Some particular intranet applications incorporate system envelopes where different
workers can get to similar documents, disconnected sites that can be tried for usefulness before
going live, computerized reference databases for looking into statistical data points, inside email
frameworks and texting programming. The intranet is useful in connecting one or more computer
networks among them so that they can share, store and save the data into the main serve. All the
information or the data which is been inserted into the computer system gets ultimately saved to
the man server of the company. The intranet connects a particular office computer system. This
system is useful for the companies for their operations and activities. Intranet connects the store
or office as one. As in the case with the company marks and Spencer, the company uses the

intranet to connect the system of its store so that they can save, share and store the information
which is useful for the company (Venkatesh, Thong and Xu, 2012).
Similarities between internet and intranet
 The intranet uses the same protocol which is been used in internet such as TCP/ IP.
 The intranet uses the same web browser which is been used by the internet to visits the
web sites.
 Intranet uses the same way to send the message which is been used by the internet for
messaging.
Difference between internet and intranet Internet is used by the general public whereas the intranet is being used by the private
organization only. The internet is being used by everybody but intranet is been used by
only few people which are authorized to have access.
 Internet provides a wider range to access the information and data but the intranet has a
limit into their information provided in it.
Different stage of system development life cycle
The system development life cycle is an undertaking the board model that characterizes
the stages engaged with carrying a task from origin to culmination. Programming development
groups, for instance, send an assortment of systems development life cycle models that
incorporate cascade, winding and spry procedures. Systems development life cycle stages
incorporate arranging, system examination, system plan, development, usage, coordination and
testing, and tasks and upkeep. There are many stages for system development life cycle which is
as follows:
Analysis: First the company analysis the deficiencies which they have into their system. The
defects can be detected by the people who uses the software or by the software control force.
Plans and Requirements: The system development life cycle is an undertaking the board model
that characterizes the stages engaged with carrying a task from origin to culmination.
Programming development groups, for instance, send an assortment of systems development life
cycle models that incorporate cascade, winding and spry procedures. Systems development life
cycle stages incorporate arranging, system examination, system plan, development, usage,
coordination and testing, and tasks and upkeep (Ye and Wang, 2013).
Design: The proposed system is structured. Plans are spread out concerning the physical
development, equipment, working systems, programming, correspondences and security issues.
Development : The new system is created. The new segments and projects must be gotten and
introduced. Clients of the system must be prepared in its utilization.

Testing: All parts of execution must be tried. On the off chance that important, modifications
must be made at this stage. Tests performed by quality confirmation (QA) groups may
incorporate systems joining and system testing.
Development: The system is fused in a creation situation. This should be possible in different
manners. The new system can be staged in, as indicated by application or area, and the old
system step by step supplanted. At times, it might be more financially savvy to close down the
old system and execute the new system at the same time.
Upkeep and maintenance: This progression includes changing and refreshing the system once
it is set up. Equipment or programming may should be redesigned, supplanted or changed
somehow or another to more readily fit the necessities of the end-clients constantly. Clients of
the system ought to be stayed up with the latest concerning the most recent adjustments and
techniques.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS
With the advancement into technology, all the companies or the organization has adopt
the information management system into their working. Every business knows the importance of
Information technology system as it helps them in saving, storing and sharing the information.
The information technology has brought various advantages to the organization; some of them
are as follows:
Sharing, storing and Saving: In this the information or the data is been shared, saved and store
to one device to another so that the required people can also have the access to these information.
Low Cost: The cost for the technology is a one time investment done by the company. It saves
the cost for maintained of data or information.
Low maintenance: The maintenance which is been done by company to secure their data is also
very low. As now the company does not have to write their transactions on paper and they does
not have to maintain those papers.
CONCLUSION
From the report discuss above, the importance of information technology has been
mentioned above. The information technology has helped the business in taking the better
decision making for the business, marketing, customer support and so on. opting wrong and
improper use of information technology can result into a big failure for the company. The report
includes many ethical factors which one needs to keep in mind for information technology, these
are responsibility, liability, accountability. The report also includes the system development life
cycle for an organization.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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