HC1041 - Information Technology for Business: Impact Report

This report examines the role of Information Technology (IT) in British Airways, a major airline. It begins with an introduction to British Airways, highlighting its goals and challenges, including a significant data breach in 2018. The discussion section explores the necessity of IT for the airline, emphasi...Read More

Running head: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR BUSINESS
Information Technology for Business
Name of the Student
Name of the University
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Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................2
Discussion..........................................................................................................................2
Does your chosen business need IT?...........................................................................2
Importance of IT in Business Survival...........................................................................3
List of things needed for applying IT in British Airways.................................................4
Method of using IT in British Airways.............................................................................5
Benefits of implementing IT in British Airways...............................................................5
Risk in British Airways due to IT....................................................................................6
Method of monitoring and maintaining business of IT...................................................7
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................7
References.........................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
British Airways is considered to be flagship airline that aims to provide flights to its
customer to more than 400 cities on global platform. The main goal of this airline organization
is to become as one of world most responsible airline company (Schwalbe 2015). The
organization does not have any objective but it intends to become as the global premium
airline services. British Airways aim to provide choice of long-haul customers that are
premium to this organization (Luftman, Lyytinen and Zvi 2017). British Airways aims to meet
the overall needs of the organization where the margin can be improved by the help of
revenue stream. In the year 2018, British Airways focused on the fact hackers can carry out
attacks on their website and mobile application. The passengers of this airline company
complained that their financial and personal details have been stolen (Dutta, Geiger and
Lanvin 2015). Their booking details has been compromised as a result of activity of any
hacker. Attacker can easily gain an easy access to the payment data of their customers.
In the coming pages of the report, an idea has been provided with respect to need of IT
in British Airways. After that, an analysis has been done with respect to role of IT in survival of
business. A list of factors has been discussed which should be taken into account for applying
IT in British Airways. Both benefits and risk that can arise due to IT in British Airways has
been provided.
Discussion
Does your chosen business need IT?
Yes, British Airways require Information Technology to carry out day to day activities.
Information technology in this Airline Organization can bring huge number of capabilities at
the airports which were not initially there (Avgerou and Walsham 2017). Communication is a
vital aspect when it comes to travel and technology is focusing on certain number of ways by

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which they can improve communication between both airport authorities and their consumers.
Information Technology at airports can provide much more satisfaction to customers. By help
of mobile devices, passengers can keep a track of different activities of their flight (Saunders
and Brynjolfsson 2016). Information Technology in British Airways can provide a range of
services like online booking and proper distribution of information.
Online Booking: Information Technology can be used by the passenger of British
Airways for keeping a track of the updates of their flight. Online booking option at British
Airways will cut down the need of passengers for standing on a Queue for booking a flight.
Internet has ultimately helped us to organize the flights as per the need (Baller, Dutta and
Lanvin 2016). This particular step will save the time of the passengers as he or she does not
need to travel to airport. Apart from this, passenger can also cancel the flight by using mobile
phone or similar gadgets.
Distribution of Information: Social media tends to play a key role in improving
communication among the people. By making use of technology, airport representative of
British Airways can easily establish communication with the passenger (Trantopoulos et al.
2017). Digital communication is possible by making use of different social platform where
information can be provided to wide range of customers without any kind of issue. Social sites
have also helped the airports to improve the standard at the time of providing services.

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Fig 1: British Airways
Source: (Lee, Thomas and Baskerville 2015)
Importance of IT in Business Survival
Information Technology can play a key role in understanding the overall effect of
individual and business in various region of the world (Lee, Thomas and Baskerville 2015).
Information Technology has come up with methods by which business can grow affecting
their market and products. It is all about addressing a list of ways by employees can establish
communication and complete their jobs in present organization (Wu, Straub and Liang 2015).
There is some special software which can change the best practices within the organization.
Communication Technology can play a key role in survival in the present business world.
Development in mobile phone technology has made changes in the way people can
communicate with the client, customers, and strategic partners. With the development of
internet, it has opened up a wide range of option for communication (Alreemy et al. 2016).
Information communication technology can result in providing much better solution which is
needed for the success of the organization.

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List of things needed for applying IT in British Airways
With the development of technologies, British Airways need to have latest innovation
which is needed for building competitive advantage along with access to new market
opportunities (Lee, Thomas and Baskerville 2015). British Airways need to address a list of
points for applying Information Technology in their business like
Proper Definition of Strategy and Needs: In the instance of technological
development plan, this particular aims in defining the technological needs (Saunders and
Brynjolfsson 2016). This particular aspect can be used for providing much better
communication between the employee and new products that are needed for technological
development.
Development and Proper Implementation of Calendar: Implementation of
technology in British Airways requires huge amount of time and resource. Each of the
implementation plans should cover a proper detail of task description that needs to be
complete (Luftman, Lyytinen and Zvi 2017). Apart from this, this also aims in analyzing the
needs of the business which is to be taken into account at the implementation time.
Training: If the employees at British Airways are unable to operate and make use of
new IT then it can result in counter-productive. Employees at this Airline organization can
become less productive and unsatisfied with their job until and unless they receive proper
training for new IT system (Cui et al. 2015). In British Airways, technology should be
considered to be an important part of technological implementation plan. Employees should
be given proper training events so that they can keep their employees informed about the
budget.

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Fig 2: British Airways
(Source : Mills 2017)
Method of using IT in British Airways
Development of Technology in airline industry has provided the passenger with much
better travel experience.
Connectivity: It can be stated as one of the biggest trends in the airline industry
because passengers, employees, suppliers and professional make use of digital tool and
devices for establishing connection among themselves (Wachter 2016). Connectivity aims to
foster growth in the whole airline industry by enhancing the travel experience of the
customers. This particular step will ultimately boost customer loyalty in British Airways.
Passenger empowerment: With increase in computation power there can be
enhancing of customer experience which will allow the passengers to stay updated on
business development. Empowerment of passenger can be considered to be driving force in
airline technology (Mills 2017). Nowadays, passenger wants convenient which is need for

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providing user-service solution. Updates on computation technologies can provide passenger
with much better flexibility.
Benefits of implementing IT in British Airways
Information Technology implementation in British Airways can provide huge number of
benefits like
Display of Dynamic solution: Dynamic display can be stated as another effective
method of technological development at the instance of air transport. It mainly helps in
creation of proper transport impression, good content and much better flexibility (Lange et al.
2015). It mainly tends to ensure the passenger can have the required information regardless
of the fact that they can reach the terminal building or not. Technology has created space for
large digital media. Display solution can become much more interactive at the time of
incorporation of touchscreen option.
Processing of Passenger Information: At present, customer around the globe
require transparent services. Customer service aims to ensure that they have all the required
information about their flight (Schwalbe 2015). Technology has created a platform where
passengers can check all the required details before reaching the airport. Technology has
completely removed huge amount of paperwork. It has ultimately created remote space for
self-bagging among all the available things (Dutta, Geiger and Lanvin 2015). It will ultimately
be time-saving making the facilities on airport to operate in more efficient way.
Risk in British Airways due to IT
Cyber Risk can expose regulatory liability: British Airways tend to hold huge
amount of data which belong to crew and customers (Avgerou and Walsham 2017). This
particular airline organization aims to engage customers on e-commerce platform. The
organization aims to store huge amount of potential data ranging from credit card detail to
even medical information. If the data of the customer is lost anyhow then it can result in

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exposure of liability of regulator (Baller, Dutta and Lanvin 2016). This particular airline
organization is completely based on range of jurisdiction
Cyber Risk can leave British Airways more liable to client and customers : Any
kind of exposure of regulatory misuse of personal data can result in legal action in this
organization (Trantopoulos et al. 2017). At present, the legal landscape is evolving which has
created a room for large number of claims which is taken into account in this given scenario.
Incidental cost which is there for responding the cyber incident. British Airways should focus
on providing services related to credit card monitoring and remediation plan which can affect
the customers at much high position.
Fig 3: Data Breach at British Airways
(Source : Avgerou and Walsham 2017)
Method of monitoring and maintaining business of IT
Information Technology infrastructure can be stated as a system foundation of a firm
which aims in delivering proper structural services to its members (Wu, Straub and Liang
2015). It comprises of list of hardware, software, network-based resources, and services. IT

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infrastructure in British Airways mainly comprises of hardware, software and lastly network. IT
infrastructure can be considered to be very much simple like connected system output along
with providing network of computers in individual machine (Alreemy et al. 2016). IT
infrastructure in British Airways can be monitored by the help of ITSM and ITIL. ITIL aims to
provide IT service management that comes with set of guidelines that can create standard
which is required for IT services.
Conclusion
From the above pages of the report, the point can be concluded that this report is all
data breach at British Airways. The hackers at British Airways focused on the point that the
hackers carry out malicious attack on their both mobile and website application. The data
breach at British Airways took place in the year 2018 where financial and personal details of
passengers were compromised. The hackers have easily gained access to the payment data
of more than 38000 customers. Cybersecurity firm realized the point that hackers can easily
make changes with respect to the 22 lines of code for holding the financial and personal data
of passengers. The report provides an overview with respect to need for IT in the chosen
business. Both benefits and risk of IT in British Airways has been discussed in brief. The last
section of the report deals with respect to method by which business can monitor and
maintain IT.

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References
Alreemy, Z., Chang, V., Walters, R. and Wills, G., 2016. Critical success factors (CSFs) for
information technology governance (ITG). International Journal of Information
Management, 36(6), pp.907-916.
Avgerou, C. and Walsham, G. eds., 2017. Information technology in context: Studies from the
perspective of developing countries: Studies from the perspective of developing countries.
Routledge.
Baller, S., Dutta, S. and Lanvin, B., 2016. Global information technology report 2016. Geneva:
Ouranos.
Cui, T., Ye, H.J., Teo, H.H. and Li, J., 2015. Information technology and open innovation: A
strategic alignment perspective. Information & Management, 52(3), pp.348-358.
Dutta, S., Geiger, T. and Lanvin, B., 2015. The global information technology report 2015.
In World Economic Forum(Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. P80-85).
Lange, K., Geppert, M., Saka‐Helmhout, A. and Becker‐Ritterspach, F., 2015. Changing
business models and employee representation in the airline industry: A comparison of British
Airways and Deutsche Lufthansa. British Journal of Management, 26(3), pp.388-407.
Lee, A.S., Thomas, M. and Baskerville, R.L., 2015. Going back to basics in design science:
from the information technology artifact to the information systems artifact. Information
Systems Journal, 25(1), pp.5-21.
Luftman, J., Lyytinen, K. and Zvi, T.B., 2017. Enhancing the measurement of information
technology (IT) business alignment and its influence on company performance. Journal of
Information Technology, 32(1), pp.26-46.
Mills, A.J., 2017. The Gendering of Organizational Culture: Social and Organizational
Discourses in the Making of British Airways☆. In Insights and Research on the Study of

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Gender and Intersectionality in International Airline Cultures (pp. 37-47). Emerald Publishing
Limited.
Saunders, A. and Brynjolfsson, E., 2016. Valuing Information Technology Related Intangible
Assets. Mis Quarterly, 40(1).
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Trantopoulos, K., von Krogh, G., Wallin, M.W. and Woerter, M., 2017. External knowledge
and information technology: Implications for process innovation performance. MIS
quarterly, 41(1), pp.287-300.
Wachter, R., 2016. Making IT work: harnessing the power of health information technology to
improve care in England. Report to the National Advisory Group on Health Information
Technology in England. London: The Stationery Office.
Wu, S.P.J., Straub, D.W. and Liang, T.P., 2015. How information technology governance
mechanisms and strategic alignment influence organizational performance: Insights from a
matched survey of business and IT managers. Mis Quarterly, 39(2), pp.497-518.