Individual Report: Information Technology Analysis for HSBC Bank

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of information technology (IT) within the context of HSBC Bank. It explores the role of IT in the bank's successes and failures, highlighting strategies like the 'Cloud first' approach and customer relationship management. The report delves into ethical and social issues related to IT, such as cybercrimes, unauthorized access, and data loss, while also outlining ethical principles relevant to running a business. It differentiates between LAN, MAN, and WAN networking technologies, emphasizing the importance of the internet and intranet for business operations, including effective communication and digital marketing. Finally, it examines the stages of the system development life cycle within HSBC, providing a holistic view of IT's impact on the financial institution.

Individual Report
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Abstract:
This report has described all details of information’s technology which are being used by
many organizations or smoothing their operations. It also describes the importance of
intranet and internet along with different types of networking. Information technology has
potential to continue to dramatically transform how companies work and live.
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Table of Contents
Abstract: 2
INTRODUCTION 4
TASK 4
Role of IT in the success and failure of an organization 4
Ethical and social issues that pertain to running business 5
Differentiation between different types of networking technologies 6
Importance of intranet and internet in your business 8
Explanation of different stages of system development life cycle 9
CONCLUSION 10
REFERENCES 11
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INTRODUCTION
Information technology can be defined as a process and way of using computers for storing,
transmit and sending information’s (Schwalbe, 2015). This individual report is based on HSBC
which is a British multinational investment bank and financial service holding company. Its
headquarter is in the United Kingdom and established in the year of 1865. This report is going to
show some importance and s=disadvantages of information technology in the context of HSBC
which helps it in its success and failure of business at some stage. There are 3 types of
networking like LAN, WAN and MAN which have several features. It will also show difference
between internet and intranet and their increasing importance for businesses. Both have quite
difference as per the accessibility and scope. Lastly, this report will show some stages of system
development life cycle in the context of HSBC like analysis, design, development
implementation etc.
TASK
Role of IT in the success and failure of an organization
Information technology is all about computer based information system which includes
design, implementation, development as well as management of all activities. By making an
effective use of computer to store, retrieve and manipulate information’s an organization make
its business more successful and all activities easiest. In the context of HSBC bank of UK it can
be said that this bank also focusing on using and developing information technology in its
business.
Success of business: It belies that information technology consists of a series of communication
and interaction between organizations, people, hardware, data and social environment. All
connected technologies of information’s have made it more able to make growth and success
(Mocetti, Pagnini and Sette, 2017). In the success story it is also stated that it makes it able to
communicate and reach to its all potential customers. It saves it and customer’s times as well as
cost. It has also used some strategies related to information technology such as Cloud first
strategy which helped it out in some manner which are described as follows:
Delivering improved capability: With the help of cloud servicing provider technology,
it has made it able to deliver services to customers of equivalent speed, cadence, cost and quality.
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Transforming cost model: On demand consumption model supported it to leverage
lower prices for commodity services.
Customer relationship management: The main purpose and responsibility of HSBC is
to satisfy its customers and improve relationship with them. With the help of customer
relationship management system they try to capture every single interaction which the company
have with its customers.
Failure of business: It has also shown some reasons of failure of information technology such as
involvance and overlook of the human factors. This bank also faces some problems by situations
of the society in which it operates. But it tries harder to make them sure that each of the society
is given equal opportunity and chance to use resources of the company. Increasing importance of
cloud computing and information technology is decreasing direct contact of customers with bank
that leads to less sophisticated understanding of their needs. It is also stated that the recent
agreement between Visa and MasterCard on one security standard only there is a risk of fraud
and other security in this type of technology (Ghosh and et.al., 2015).
Privacy: It is well known that information technology has increased effectiveness of
communication but along with it it is increasing privacy related issues. E-mail hacking and other
issues are making people more worried about their personal information which can get leaked.
Unemployment: Increasing use of information technology in all functions and operations is
creating the problem of job redundancies. There are several middle and lower level of jobs are
being done by information technology which causing people to become unemployed.
Ethical and social issues that pertain to running business
There are several ethical as well as social issues related to information technology that
occur in the path of the success. Ethics means to understand the difference between the right and
the wrong and act as a free moral agents. Ethics in information technology is all about to protect
society and people by making an effective use of information system responsibly. Some ethical
and social issues related to information technology are discussed as below:
Cyber crimes: There are several types of cyber crime which are increasing due to increasing use
of information technology. Some types of this crime includes: click fraud, identity theft, hacking,
computer virus etc. After getting unauthorized access, hackers can do whatever they want to do
as they can steal sensitive and personal information’s of customers etc. There are several banks
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and companies who offer pay per click advertisement. Click on fraud link can create several
problem for users and the company as well.
Unauthorized access: There are several people of rural areas who do not have proper
knowledge of using internet. Due to lack of understanding they enter easy username and
password which makes easy for hackers to access unauthorized link. Lack of resources within an
organization can put the company in danger. So, its important for teh company and users to
follow the best security practices (Vayena and et.al.,2015).
Data loss: Some situations like fire, flood can damage the data with the hardware. Hackers or IT
can have techniques to steal data and hack accounts of customers. HSBC is more concerned
about this issue so it is now more focusing on implementing the best and standard security
practices. In addition, with the help of biometric identification it can also makes harder for
attackers to get unauthorized access.
There are some principles of ethical analysis which need to be followed and considered by
HSBC to running their business smoothly.
Responsibility: The main responsibility of HSBC in the context of ethics is to accept the
potential duties, cost and obligations for making decisions.
Accountability: They are accountable to mechanism for identifying their responsible parties.
Liability: It is the liability of HSBC to recover all damages which are being caused to their
customers
Due process: In this principle, companies require to have proper and deep knowledge of laws as
well as abilities to appeal to higher authorities if appropriate (Smith and Wong, 2016).
Differentiation between different types of networking technologies
There are mainly 3 types of networking that are being used by several organization as per
their size and scope of the business. LAN (local area network), MAN (metropolitan area
network) and WAN (Wide area network) are three types of networking.
Local area Network: This type of network mainly links to network devices in a way by which
personal computers of an organization and an individual and workstations can share tools and
data. In this type the number of personal computers that are linked to this network has limitation
so, data transmits at a fast rate. It covers a small part of an area that is why it is called local area
network and are privately owned. It can be used at home, hospitals, organization small size of
building, schools etc. Twisted cable is being used in LAN so, it covers a short distance and it
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also becomes easy for users to minimize errors and noise as well. It is a broadcast network by
which messages and tools are being sent to all connected hosts. Ethernet cables and Wi-fi are
some type of devices are used in LAN (Singh and Singh, 2015).
Metropolitan area network: As compare to LAN, this network covers a large area and
smaller than WAN. It mainly connects 2 or more than 2 computers that are apart but resides in
the same or other cities. It serves as a internet service provider but becomes harder for users to
maintain it. It depends on the size and owned by may or may not be single owner. It is costly as
compare to LAN and rate of transferring data is also moderate. It has of 2 types such as
distributed queue dual bus and switched multimegabit data services. Cable and modem devices
are used in MAN.
Wide area network: From the name it can be said that it covers a large geographical area This
type of network also may or may not be privately owned. Communication medium which is
being used in this network is satellite link and PSTN. As it covers long distance, so it has louder
noise and there are more chances of errors in it. Satellites, microwaves devices are being used in
this type of network (Wang and et.al., 2016).
Basis Local area network Metropolitan area
network
Wide area network
Ownership Private ownership Private or public
ownership
Public or private
Speed High due to short area
coverage
Moderate Low due to widet area
of coverage.
Allows It allows single pair of
some devices to
communicate.
In this type, multiple
computers can
interact.
This allows huge
group of computers to
communicate and
share data at the same
time.
Uses School, hospital,
home, college etc.
City and small towns. Country.
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Importance of intranet and internet in your business
It is well known to many companies and people that internet plays a vital role in our daily
life. Without internet, we can not think about living as most of the business and other activities
are depend on internet. Digital marketing, internet banking, e-commerce businesses are on the
rise. It is all because of making an effective use of internet. Some benefits and importance of
internet are described below:
Effective communication: One of the most important benefit of using internet in business and
banks is it makes communication more easy. It helps organizations to listen queries of their
customers any time and provide them better solutions. With having high speed of internet,
businesses can even help online meeting with other businesses which save their time and cost
(Luthra and et.al., 2018). E-mail and social media platforms are some ways of interacting with
each others.
Latest marketing strategy: Digital marketing or E-marketing is on rise and has changed
the way of promoting company’s products. Those businesses who make use of internet and have
online presence they are more likely to attract wider range of customers. E-mail marketing,
business websites, social media platforms are some ways and parts of internet by which Banks
and most of the companies market and improve their brand image.
Internet banking and improve productivity: Internet banking , mobile banking are some
types of banking services. It makes owner and users to speed up their transactions. With this
help, an individual can transfer and get amount in their account anytime as they do not require to
go to the bank.
Intranet is quite different from internet as internet give wider access to website and to a large
population. On the other hand, intranet is limited and restricted but can be safely privatized as
per the needs. It provides secure and safe space for storing and developing electronic materials.
There are several benefits of intranet for businesses as companies can reduce their errors and
speed up their workflows. Some intranet applications include network folders in which multiple
workers can get access on the same file. In other ways it refers a private network that can be used
by businesses for internal communication (Paltalidis and Cristina, 2017).
 It is also stated that this network helps companies and banks in engaging their employees
and improve overall business productivity.
 It also helps employees to find any type of information’s quicker and easier.
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 It supports automate operations as well as daily workforce in order to make them able to
take better decision.
Explanation of different stages of system development life cycle
There are mainly 7 stages and phases of system development in the context of HSBC and
banking sector. The main aim of following all stages is to make users able to transform a newly
and innovative developed project into an operational one.
Planning: In this step the main purpose of HSBC is to identify the scope of the main problem
and determination of solutions. There are some factors and elements which are being considered
here such as cost, time, benefits etc.
System analysis: In this 2nd step, team members consider the main functional requirements of the
new project. They also analyse system which includes analysing all needs of the end user. The
main aim of analysing system is to meet requirements and expectations of users (Smirnov and
et.al., 2016).
System design: This stage describe in details like features, specifications and operations that can
satisfy the functional requirements of the above and proposed system which will be in place.
Development: In this step, individuals start to work in real manner. In the initial stage it marks
the end of the process. This stage also shows the start of the production.
Integration: After making develop of the system, this stage focus on testing of the system which
is mainly carried out by the specialist and quality assurance for making sure that system can meet
the desire of users and customers. It can also help the company in accomplishing their goals.
Implementation: When the majority of the code is being written then they implement the
system. Before implementation of the system they make sure that they have completely moved
the data and all components from the old system into production. After then they place all data
into the new system by which this step is called implementation.
Maintenance: This stage is being used after the submission of system to the end user. When end
user can fine tune the system, if they wish by company to add some more features and
capabilities then the company add and maintain them to meet additional users requirements (van
Haaster and et.al.,2017).
So, it can be said that software development life cycle plays a vital role when the company
requires making changes in any phase of the software development life cycle. It is a time
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consuming process and also some steps among 7 are quite difficult to follow and implement. But
by following each step, HSBC can develop its system.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been summarized that information technology played a vital
role in banks and other organizations. It made them able to communicate and reach to their
customers in an easiest manner. It has also shown some advantages and disadvantages of IT
along with social and ethical issues. Privacy of personal data, cyber crime, hacking of account,
and unauthorized access are some types of issues which have been faced by many users and
companies. Further, this report has discussed and differentiated different types of networking like
LAN, MAN, WAN. All these type of data were being divided on the basis of coverage of
geographical area. It has also shown the importance of internet as well as intranet for businesses
as it made them able to accomplish their goals in an easy manner.
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REFERENCES
Books and journal
Ghosh, P. and et.al., 2015. Exploring the moderating role of context satisfaction between job
characteristics and turnover intention of employees of Indian public sector banks. Journal of
Management Development. 34(8). pp.1019-1030.
Luthra, S. and et.al., 2018. Analyzing challenges to Internet of Things (IoT) adoption and
diffusion: An Indian context. Procedia Computer Science. 125. pp.733-739.
Mocetti, S., Pagnini, M. and Sette, E., 2017. Information technology and banking
organization. Journal of Financial Services Research. 51(3). pp.313-338.
Paltalidis, N. and Cristina, A., 2017. Evaluating the Impact of Networking Security Issues on
Business Productivity and Efficiency. Achieving Software Quality in Development and in Use,
p.95.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Singh, G. and Singh, M.L., 2015. Modeling FWM and impairments aware amplifiers placement
technique for an optical MAN/WAN: Inline amplifiers case. Optical Fiber Technology. 24.
pp.64-69.
Smirnov, A. and et.al., 2016. Towards life cycle management for product and system
configurations: required improvements in business processes and information systems. Procedia
CIRP. 48. pp.84-89.
Smith, L.C. and Wong, M.A. eds., 2016. Reference and Information Services: An Introduction:
An Introduction. ABC-CLIO.
van Haaster, B. and et.al.,2017. Development of a methodological framework for social life-
cycle assessment of novel technologies. The International Journal of Life Cycle
Assessment. 22(3). pp.423-440.
Vayena, E. and et.al.,2015. Ethical challenges of big data in public health.
Wang, W.M. and et.al., 2016. Structures and magnetic properties of several phenoxo-O bridged
dinuclear lanthanide complexes: Dy derivatives displaying substituent dependent magnetic
relaxation behavior. Dalton Transactions. 45(19). pp.8182-8191.
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