Comprehensive Report: IT Impact on Business (HC1041, T1 2019)

This report examines the significant impact of Information Technology (IT) on business operations, using the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) as a case study. It begins by highlighting the importance of IT for business success, emphasizing its role in enhancing efficiency, communication, and data management. The report outlines the requirements for successful IT implementation, including planning, cost analysis, equipment selection, training, and maintenance. It details the various applications of IT within CBA, such as internal record-keeping, customer service platforms, and mobile banking. The report also analyzes the numerous benefits of IT, including increased revenue, improved time management, and enhanced competitive advantage. Furthermore, it addresses the potential risks associated with IT, such as security breaches and system failures, and discusses the necessary measures for IT maintenance and risk mitigation. The report concludes by emphasizing the crucial role of IT in driving organizational growth and providing recommendations for effective IT management.

Running Head: Information Technology for Business 1
IT Impact on Business
Students’ Name
University
Course
Date

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................5
The Body.........................................................................................................................................5
Importance of Information Technology...................................................................................5
Requirements for Information Technology Application........................................................6
Use of Information Technology in Business............................................................................7
Benefits of Information Technology.........................................................................................8
Information Technology Risks..................................................................................................9
Information Technology Maintenance.....................................................................................9
Conclusion Recommendation.....................................................................................................10
References.....................................................................................................................................11

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List of abbreviations
IT – Information Technology
CBA – Commonwealth Bank of Australia
CEO – Chief Executive Officer
CCTV – Closed-Circuit Television
SAP System – Systems, Applications, Applications

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Executive Summary
This report outlines the impact of Information Technology on Business. The report has
explained the Information Technology system of the Commonwealth Bank Australia and why
the organization is required to implement the Information Technology system. The organization
has experienced most advantages of employing Information Technology on these current days;
the market is competitive since it has recognized the growth of the organization. This is in term
of market growth, revenue increase, and advantage of both employee and customer use. Not only
that also the risk Commonwealth Bank experienced and how the organization has taken actions
to ensure effective monitoring of the system is maintained.

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Introduction
Information Technology is one the most concept which involves the use of current
innovation, science, and creativity in different fields of human life. Despite, the high growth of
Information Technology (IT) concept in the present world, it has influenced the business sector
in the way or the other, if not the failure is the success of the business. The most affected
direction of the company is that IT contributes to the success of the business performance when
it is well developed and implemented within the business operations (Kasemsap, 2018). This
means despite, the size of the business IT will contribute to the growth of some factors like
increase productivity of employees and other resources within the business producing both
tangible and intangible benefits.
To analyze more impacts of IT in business, this report will outline the IT influence
through the use of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia as one of the business in the world.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia needs an IT concept to improve its performance and sustain
the high growth rate of customers in the market through the provision of high-quality products
and services.
The Body
Importance of Information Technology
IT is an essential concept to all business operations; therefore, it is recognized as the
primary factor which contributes to the success of the business to survive (Goel and Sunena,
2018). Commonwealth Bank was required a “change maker” so to survive in the current market
of Australia. After the economist of the CBA had detailed discussion, they conclude that the
technology changes are driving the new economy, therefore, the Bank to survive for the future
success was require to adapt the IT innovation in its operations. Thus, the business considers

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several importance which the Bank will have to enjoy despite surviving in the economy. Why is
it essential for the Commonwealth Bank? It will facilitate efficiency and comfortable in
performing its operations in an improved way. All this is achieved through the use of a computer
system, and other automate programs which will support multiple operations to be performed
once and systematic. Through the use of IT knowledge, it will facilitate smooth communication
between the Bank and its customers. The technology builds a dynamic environment within the
environment, thus improving the business culture and relation among employees of a different
culture (Miklosik et al., 2018). Technology is essential in the Bank since it will provide easy and
quick research which is carried out within an environment of mass data storage and with the
large population within the bank client (Howell, van Beers and Doorn, 2018). Also, IT is
essential since it provides security to the financial data, thus reducing the competition in the
market.
Requirements for Information Technology Application
Commonwealth Bank of Australia to enjoy the high importance is required to design and
implement IT knowledge by applying it successful to its daily operations. To perform all this
successfully, several resources are needed to be considered according to features of the bank
environment. The size of Bank will matter a lot, thus influencing the rest of resources like cost,
planning, designing, required equipment and its installation, training, maintenance, and
monitoring of the implemented knowledge (Santana et al., 2018).
To apply IT knowledge well is required to plan according to the problem to be handled
and the size of organization crossing all department in the Bank. After the planning is over
through involving all required party of the Bank, next is to outline the cost which is required to
implement the plan after the problem is well clarified. Cost also it will depend on the design, the

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design is the architecture layout which is going to be implemented according to the organization
layout. This design will differ according to each department since the conception of internet
baking cannot be the same as of that ATM layout design. After designing now, the equipment
will be well identified since the design will give a precise number, measurement, and quality of
the equipment required. This may include computers, accounting software’s, CCTV, type of
cables, security software, and the specialized personnel to install them accordingly.
After the IT is fully installed is now ready for usage but to have an effective result and
positive growth of the system, staffs and another individual in the Bank who are going to the
system are required trained. The documentation report should always be available during training
since it outlines from the first step of the system designing and development up to the final stage
of installation and implementation (Taherdoost, 2019). The expert who developed the system and
who are specialized with banking system are required to train and notify the rest of employees
what is required to operate and apply the system successfully. The maintenance of the IT system
is required to be monitored and evaluated regularly by the professional to ensure the Bank has
enjoyed the full benefit of applying IT using the limited resource with the Bank.
Use of Information Technology in Business
Commonwealth Bank Australia uses the implemented IT system both internally and
externally, all with mutual benefit to the Bank. Employees and complete management use IT
system in their daily activities like record keeping, retrieving and selecting specific data from the
organization database, the Bank internally uses IT platforms to integrate multiple operations like
front office services with back-office services with the Bank. Through the use of IT, knowledge
employees will track accounts performance easily for every client as per the requirement.

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Employees use an IT system to register new customers and open accounts which are easily
monitored through use of the implemented banking IT system (Eichhorn and Tukel, 2018).
Also, the IT system is useful to bank customers. The Bank has developed Mobile banking
system which is portable to the customer's mobile gadgets, therefore, customers use M-banking
to access banking service like deposit, cash withdrawing, checking the bank statement from
his/her zone of comfortability. Customer will enjoy using Bank website platform and other
developed social media to access faster, accurate, and update of the Bank and how it is
performing to market.
Benefits of Information Technology
The Bank is experiencing a lot of benefits due to the usage of modern IT knowledge in its
operations compared to the traditional means of performing their services. Apart from improving
the service efficiency, the use of IT has many benefits to the Bank like increased the revenue,
improvement of time management, increased flexibility, reduction of production/operation costs,
increased the competitive advantage to the market, attracting more investors, and proving quality
services amongst others.
Commonwealth Bank CEO announced "statutory net profit of $4.535 billion" after the
tax deduction at the end of the year 2014 December. This was considered as the growth of 8%
compared to the previous year 2013. Also, another announcement of the increase was a
successful investment of "SAP core system," which results in the reduction of operations cost
and more penetration of the Bank to the market. They are the growth of 75% of "take-up of e-
docs" which has increased flexibility in the loan department, thus improving loan facilities. All
these benefits were reported by the Bank CEO, Ian Narev, and continued to report all these

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positive benefits were as a result of successful and effective implementation of improved IT
system in the Bank (Laing and Dunn, 2018).
Information Technology Risks
Not only the benefits which IT knowledge brings to the organization, but also, it has
loopholes if not keenly monitored, which will bring threats and risk to the business. This means
if IT systems in the Bank and not well designed, implemented and maintained, they will
contribute to the negative effects to the organization like security issues, privacy matters,
confidentiality, hardware and software failure, system hacking, viruses, and malicious risks; all
this is due to poor management (Chae, Koh and Park, 2018).
CBA has experience IT risk within the developed system which they discovered coding
error within the software which stayed inside the system for the rest of four years. Many
customers were very distressed financially by the error, thus bring trouble to the bank
management. Also, CBA had experienced $700m penalty due to "ATM fraud case" which was I
result of IT risk to utilized the available loopholes. All this means that the organization is
experiencing insecurity cases if it failures to take serious action immediately (Geddes, Schmidt
and Steffen, 2018). The threat of losing a customer due to lack of trust and confidence with the
Bank was the next step to follow. The Bank is supposed to have reliable and effective measures
to control the implemented IT system.
Information Technology Maintenance
Due to the Information Technology risks and threat the CBA experienced is required to
carry out a well-detailed investigation on how to cover those loopholes. Is important to have
monitoring and continuous maintenance of the IT system once it has been implemented. All this
task is supposed to be assigned to the experts within the organization.

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CBA had to implement new policies which will monitor the IT system within the
organization using new rules and expert who will handle the system. Another measure which
CBA use is to employ and acquire IT system from the reliable source and with clear
documentation, the CEO announced that all IT software would be purchased from licensed
bodies. Finally, frequently operation is carried out to monitor the progress of the system without
failure of the schedule (Alsolai and Roper, 2019).
Conclusion Recommendation
In summary, Information technology is an essential concept for all organization
operations as identified by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. To implement an IT system
successfully to the organization operation, it requires several resources like planning and design,
skills, equipment, cost, and finally implementation and being monitored progressively to ensure
effective results are realized. The organization should be always ready to handle the negative
impact of IT like related risk and threat of IT and improve the means of controlling them despite
their advantages within the organization.

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References
Alsolai, H. and Roper, M., 2019, April. Application of Ensemble Techniques in Predicting
Object-Oriented Software Maintainability. In Proceedings of the Evaluation and Assessment on
Software Engineering, pp. 370-373.
Chae, H.C., Koh, C.E. and Park, K.O., 2018. Information technology capability and firm
performance: Role of industry. Information & Management, 55(5), pp.525-546.
Eichhorn, B. and Tukel, O., 2018. Business user impact on information system
projects. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 11(2), pp.289-316.
Geddes, A., Schmidt, T.S. and Steffen, B., 2018. The multiple roles of state investment banks in
low-carbon energy finance: An analysis of Australia, the UK and Germany. Energy policy, 115,
pp.158-170.
Goel, M.S. and Sunena, M., 2018. Role of Information and Communication Technology in the
survival of small business. International Journal of Research, 5(4), pp.3038-3042.
Howell, R., van Beers, C. and Doorn, N., 2018. Value capture and value creation: The role of
information technology in business models for frugal innovations in Africa. Technological
Forecasting and Social Change, 131, pp.227-239.
Kasemsap, K., 2018. The role of information system within enterprise architecture and their
impact on business performance. In Global Business Expansion: Concepts, Methodologies,
Tools, and Applications (pp. 1078-1102). IGI Global.
Laing, G.K. and Dunn, B.F., 2018. Organisational Narcissism: A Review of the Indicators in the
Major Australian Banks. e-Journal of Social & Behavioural Research in Business, 9(1).

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Miklosik, A., Evans, N., Hasprova, M. and Lipianska, J., 2018. Reflection of embedded
knowledge culture in communications of Australian companies. Knowledge Management
Research & Practice, pp.1-10.
Santana, E.F.Z., Chaves, A.P., Gerosa, M.A., Kon, F. and Milojicic, D.S., 2018. Software
platforms for smart cities: Concepts, requirements, challenges, and a unified reference
architecture. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 50(6), p.78.
Taherdoost, H., 2019. Importance of Technology Acceptance Assessment for Successful
Implementation and Development of New Technologies. Global Journal of Engineering
Sciences, 1(3).

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