Information Technology and Business: A Comprehensive Analysis

This report delves into the significant role of Information Technology (IT) in the success of businesses, focusing on a case study of H&M. It explores how IT drives innovation, enhances communication, and improves operational efficiency within the retail sector. The report examines various networking technologies like MAN and WAN, and discusses the importance of internet and intranet for business operations. Furthermore, it addresses ethical and social issues associated with IT, such as data security and sustainability, and outlines the different stages of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The analysis highlights the positive and negative impacts of IT investments, emphasizing the need for effective management to mitigate potential drawbacks and maximize benefits for organizations like H&M. The report underscores the importance of strategic IT implementation for achieving competitive advantage and sustainable business growth.

INFORMATION
TCHNOLOGY

ABSTRACT
Information Technology have become an important part of every business a and also has
become a modern need for businesses to carry out their business operations. It also serves many
benefits within any industry or business and can support a business to achieve its objectives and
gain higher profits. Information Technology can help the companies to achieving the success or
can be a reason of failure of business a company is in. Also, there are various ethical and social
issues faced by organisations in order to run a business. There are various types of networking
technologies that can be used by companies to improve their business practices. Also, any
business to operate it can face various ethical and social issues which needs to be minimised to
operative effectively. IT can serve both positive and negative impact to business and investing in
it can bring potential benefit and drawbacks for the organisation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
Role of IT in success of business.................................................................................................4
Social and ethical issues pertaining to operate business..............................................................5
Types of networking technology.................................................................................................5
Importance of internet and intranet for H&M..............................................................................6
Different stages of System Development Life Cycle..................................................................7
DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS...................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Information Technology is a sector which deals with computing process including the
software, hardware, telecommunications etc which is generally involved in the transmission of
information or any other system which facilitates an effective communication. In current IT
plays an important role in the success of business and also play a key in achieving higher profits
and gain competitive advantage. By using IT in business it gives an ability to make business to
operate effectively and faster. In this report H&M is taken as an organisation which is a
multinational clothing retailing company in UK. Present report discusses the role of IT in failure
or success of business and also includes ethical and social issues which pertain to business.
Present report also differentiates between different types of networking technologies and also
discusses about the important of internet and internet within a business. Also, present report also
includes the different stages of system development life cycle.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Role of IT in success of business
As illustrated by Mursu Soriyan and Korpela, (2018) IT plays an important role in the
success of business, as it drives innovation and innovation acts as part for business success. IT
has dramatically changed the entire business scenario and can also lead to the success of H&M.
As H&M is multinational retailing clothing company it can result in a tremendous growth in
their business and its operations. One of the most important role it can play is that it can effect
company's ability to communicate effectively with their customers. In present scenario it has
become necessity for firms employees to interact with their customers, clients quickly and
continuously in which IT play an important role and can lead to the success of business. If H&M
uses better technology in order to interact with customers it will surely benefit the business
because better communication creates strong public image. IT also plays an important role in
increasing the efficiency of business as it can help the company to preserve its resources like
physical space and time, and understand its cash flows. For every retailing company needs to
have proper inventory management and IT can help H&M to manage their storage costs of
holding product which can positively effect their profitability and can lead to the success of
business. As per the views of Anaya, Dulaimi and Abdallah, (2015) IT can help H&M in
creating a dynamic team in their workplace which can result in making better innovations have
better interactions with each other due to effective IT system. Like H&M's factory manager can

communicate with their coordinators at different location and this can help in building of trust
and on time deliver of products to retail stores. Another important role which IT can play for
success of H&M is security, IT can help the company gathering, storing and retrieving the data
safely which are subjected to threats and vandalism. At present information is every thing which
can lead to success of business and security is really important in which IT plays an important
role.
Social and ethical issues pertaining to operate business
As illustrated by Sargolzaei and Nikbakht, (2017) Information technology can help H&M
in making the business a success and even it will not be possible for a company to exist in
market. Improper use of IT can create problems for the company as it can raise various ethical
and social issues. One of the basic factor which can result in ethical issues is lack of information
ethics system i.e. inability of a system to safeguard society and individuals by using information
system. In appropriate s IT system can result in breaching of system by hacker and get what ever
they want which can result in social issues and ethical issues for company. Also if H&M's
information system is not secure company won't be able to protect it's and customer's data which
can result in getting of personal information of customers by cyber criminals and that give rise to
social and ethical issues for company. As, H&M is in retailing where customer's post their
personal information like address, credit card number and if company's IT system is not secure it
can give rise issues social and ethical issues like unauthorised access to customer's personal
information. As per the views of Chuang and Huang, (2018) another social and ethical issue
which can be faced by H&M is sustainable practices, if their IT does not support the
sustainability it can result in social and ethical issues which can harm the brand image of
company. At sustainability depends on technology and company's IT system should help the
company to achieve its sustainable goals like making their communication, transporting as well
their IT sustainable.
Types of networking technology
As per the views of Cui, Yu and Yan, (2016) there are different types of networking
technologies which can be used by the organisation and one of the best networking technology
which can be used by H&M is Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) which is a computer network
that interconnects users with a computer resources within in a geographical size of a
metropolitan area. It has then networking size more than LAN and normally consists of networks

which can be interconnected in a particular city which offers a connection to internet. This type
of networking technology can be use by H&M for as small as group of buildings and can be as
big to cover an entire city. MAN either can be owned by the company or can be provided by the
network providers and can facilitate the company to share information within the organisation
within the range of 50 kms. It can help the company to send local emails fast and easier which
can reach up to the speed of 1000Mbps and different users of the company can share their
internet connections which means that multiple user of H&M can get same high speed of
internet. It can increase the speed of company sharing its information faster in its different
location which can help the company in getting connected with their clients and customers. But
there are some disadvantages of MAN, once it is installed in the company it can become bigger
which can become difficult for the company to manage it. It requires technical people to setup
MAN and requires large number of cables to install it which can create jumbling in the
workplace.
As illustrated by Wong, (2017) another networking technology which can be used by
H&M is Wide Area Networks (WAN). It is a computer network which can allow H&M to
connect its computer within a large are such as a region or a country or even a entire world. This
is consider as the best way of sharing of information within the organisation like voice, data,
videos, image etc over a large area. There are also some limitations in this networking
technology such as it is less secure than MAN and always needs antivirus and firewall in order to
minimise the security issues.
Importance of internet and intranet for H&M
As elucidated by Ronchi, (2018) intranet can be referred as digital wear-house for storing
and retrieving the information. It can be of huge importance for H&M as its can serve for very
important purpose of the company which is sharing of information as well as computing the
resources among the employees. One of the huge importance for using intranet is that it is easy to
install and can save huge amount of money and time for the company. H&M can use intranet for
one-to-one communication, video conferencing, publishing of information and sharing of
information and searching of data base. As H&M is retailing company and deals with many
customers so this can be of huge importance for the company in present business scenario and
can help in gaining the competitive advantage over others.

As illustrated by Chen and Kamal, (2016) internet is one of the powerful marketing and
communication tool which can help H&M's business to grow and can help to achieve it
profitability goals. In order to increase its profits company can carry-out its marketing activities
on internet in order to attract huge audience base by using internet based apps like Facebook,
Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. It can also help to get connected with their customer and
answer their quires instantly which is one of the best way to achieve high customers satisfaction.
Internet can also help H&M to increase its online business and reach to every corner of the world
and has reduced the cost of business and improved customer service and can also improve the
process of information of the company. Internet has a very broad scope and can be used for
various purposes in a business and business may come to halt in the absence of internet.
Different stages of System Development Life Cycle
As per the views of Seo and et.al., (2015) SDLC is referred as a framework which
involves various steps of developing a system for H&M and it covers a detailed plan for
building, deploying as well as maintaining the system for the company. It includes the six stages
and starts with a planning stage which is really important for system developers to plan as system
planing will help in analysing the purpose and calculating of strengths and weaknesses of the
plan. In analysis stage the performance of the system is analysed at various level and notes are
made for any additional requirements. This stage is really important before proceeding to next
step which can lead to the success of project. After analysis there comes a design stage which
involves building of architecture of the project and also removes the flaws within the project by
setting the high standards and attempting to achieve these standards. This stage forms a crucial
stage of the SDLC for the company any flaw in the design can lead to failure of the system
which may cost to H&M. In the fourth stage of development and implementation, is a stage
where actual task of development of system begins with data recording going in the background.
When a system is developed then system is being implemented and product has to go under pilot
study in order to check the functionality of a system. After system implementation, it goes
through then stage of testing where a system is being tested for checking errors and if it occurs
then it is rectified instantly. The last stage of SDLC is a maintenance stage, once a system has
passed all the stages of development without any issues then it has to undergo the process of
maintenance. In this stage system is being maintained regularly and is being upgraded when ever
up-gradations are required from time to time which will increase the system's adaptability to

adjust the change. So, there are six steps of system development life cycle and H&M has to
undergo these steps in order to develop a new system for the organisation.
DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
It can be analysed that information technology has become a basic necessity for running a
business in an effective manner and can play an important role for H&M's business success. As
IT plays an important role in the success of business and can improve company's process of
communication which can result in achieving various objectives of the company. So, H&M's
investment in IT can potentially beneficial for the company, also, with the help of IT system
company can improve its business process as it will improve its interaction with their clients and
customer can prove beneficial for the company. But on the other hand one of potential drawback
for the company can be that, it can be very difficult for H&M to develop a perfect IT system
which can lead to the success for the company as it must be capable interact with other systems
of the company. Also, developing an IT system can prove costly for the company and its failure
can result in the huge loss for the company. By investing in IT H&M can minimise its social and
ethical issues, there various IT systems which can help the company to meet its ethical and social
standards which can prove beneficial for the company. But on the other IT system can itself give
rise to various ethical and social issues like privacy and security which are always vulnerable to
threats. So, investment in IT can have potential drawbacks for H&M which is vital for the
company to minimise after investing in IT.
One of the major potential benefit for the company in investing IT can be use of
networking technologies which can increase the efficiency of the business and can make sharing
and transferring of information much easier for the company. Only one thing which can prevent
H&M for investing is that in both technologies MAN and WAN is that there is lack of security
and can be easily hacked by cyber criminals which can make their system vulnerable to attacks.
So, investment can bring potential drawbacks for the company. Also, intranet and internet can be
potentially beneficial for the company can help in gaining the competitive advantage over others
and can make their business operations much easy. By investing is IT H&M can develop their
own system as per the suitability of business which can potentially increase the efficiency of the
company but failure in system can bring huge loss to the company.

CONCLUSION
Present report concludes that there are various roles which IT can play in the success of
business as it can increase the efficiency of the business to higher level. Also, IT can give rise to
various issues like social and ethical which is vital for the company to minimise them in order to
make their IT system more effective. It can also be concluded from he report that there are
different types of networking technologies which can be used by company like WAN and MAN
which can help the organisation to share and gather information instantly. Also, use of internet
and intranet can serve a great importance for the company as it will help in improving the
process of communication and methods of business operations. Also, they can serve as a best
tool for achieving the competitive advantage for a company. Present report also concludes that in
order to develop a new a company has to go through the six steps of system development life
cycle in order to develop a proper system in the organisation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
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