The Role of IT, Ethics, Networks, Internet, and SDLC in Business

This report provides a detailed analysis of the role of Information Technology (IT) in business, encompassing various aspects such as its impact, ethical considerations, and the types of networks utilized. The report begins with an introduction defining IT and its significance in modern business operations, followed by a literature review that explores the role of IT, ethical and social issues, different network types (LAN, MAN, WAN), the internet and intranet, and the software development life cycle (SDLC). The analysis and discussion section applies these concepts to Tesco, a multinational retail organization, examining the role of IT within the company, associated ethical and social issues, network implementations, and the use of the internet and intranet. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and includes a list of references. The report highlights how IT enhances business efficiency, data management, and customer experience, while also addressing ethical concerns such as data privacy and employee monitoring. The report also examines the SDLC and its steps.

REPORT WRITING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................1
Role of IT in any business...........................................................................................................1
Ethics and social issues of IT in any business.............................................................................2
Networks and their types.............................................................................................................2
Internet and intranet.....................................................................................................................3
Software development life- cycle................................................................................................3
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION...................................................................................................4
Role of IT in Tesco......................................................................................................................4
Ethics and social issues in Tesco.................................................................................................5
Networks and their types in Tesco...............................................................................................5
Internet and intranet in Tesco......................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REREFENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Information technology can be defined as use of systems or computers that can be used
for storing, transmitting, retrieving and manipulating data or information which is further used
either for business operations or for personal use. Information technology is a sub- set of
information and communication technology (Halbouni, Obeid and Garbou, 2016). IT plays a
vital role within an organization as it is used in almost all the operations and functions of the
business. Not only this, in fact implementation of IT within business has become important for
organizations because of increasing competition within market. Proper implementation
information technology within organizations helps the company in protecting integrity of data so
that it can be protected from any kind of threat. Today due to advancement in technology with IT
system, business of an organization can simply stops as it is integrated in all the functions of a
business such as HR, finance, operations, communications, sales and others. This report will
focus upon role of IT within an organization, Ethics and social issues of IT, Networks and their
types, Internet and intranet and Software development life- cycle. Organization laid emphasis
upon in this report is Tesco. Tesco is a British multinational retail organization that was founded
in 1919 who’s main headquarter is in Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. They are one of
the largest retailers present in the world. They serve in various countries of Asia and Europe.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Role of IT in any business
According to the view of Amade, Painho and Oliveira, (2018) IT plays an important role
within a business as it not only helps organizations to run their operations and processes
smoothly and with accuracy but also helps in driving innovation and invention which further
helps the organization to move forwards towards the path of success. It helps an organization to
become more productive, helps in saving money of the organization, increases their overall
performance, increases customer experience, enhances overall organizational communication,
improves decision making and many more. Implementation of IT within business has also helped
the organizations to increase flexibility within in working in many ways such as employees can
work from any location, communicate or transfer message or data from any where regardless of
their location, flexibility in working hours and many more. Majorly implementation of
information technology within organisations has enhanced. It can be used for conducting virtual
conferences, meetings with employees, clients or customers regardless of their locations.
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Efficiency of daily operations has also enhanced. With the help of effective information
technology companies complete their task or activities much quickly and at cheaper rate. It has
also increased efficiency and capacity of organizations data storage system i.e. data or
information can be stored, captured much easier and in a secure manner. Other than this IT also
plays an important role in enhancement of their customer experience i.e. with the help of IT
companies are able to provide excellent customer service, easier customized marketing and has
also helped companies to move online and provide their products and services to the customers
online.
Ethics and social issues of IT in any business
As per the view of Parise, Guinan and Kafka, (2016) there is no doubt that IT is important
for business organizations but usage of IT within business has created various kinds of social and
ethical issues within business. One of the main ethical issue that arises within organizations is
terminating or firing employees for positing something on social media. Today social media has
made it much easier for people to connect with each other. Many companies are continuously
tracking their employee’s social media post and if they find anything posted upon their timeline
related to their organization or work then companies either punish their employees or terminate
them for the same. It is an ethical issue because people or employees are free to speak and share
their thoughts with everyone but organizations take it in another way and if it impacts their
overall brand image then employees had to suffer for it. Other than this there are many other
ethical and social issues such as today many organizations use IT for storing personal
information of their customers and employees on the name of security. They continuously
monitor their employee both online and offline activities which is an ethical issue. Many
organizations use this information for business purpose but they do realize that this information
is valuable for other. For profitability of business some companies sell this data to other
organizations without even letting their customers or client know it which is one of the issues
which is created because of IT usage in business organizations.
Networks and their types
Arthur, (2017) Explains that, a network can be defined as a group of computers that can be
used as a set of common communication protocols for digital interconnection of systems that can
be used for sharing resources, data or for communication purpose. A network helps in allowing
users to connect and communicate with other though different computers and medium. There are
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various kinds of networks that can be used by organizations for different purposes but most
commonly there are three major types of networks that are used by business organizations. three
main type of networks are: LAN (local area network), MAN (metropolitan area network) and
WAN (wide area network). LAN is a kind of network which is frequently discussed and used
within organizations. It is one of the simplest types of network which is used for connecting a
group of computers or devices across a short distance. It is majorly used within buildings in
order t communicate, share information or resources with each other within a close distance.
Enterprises also uses LAN in order to securely transfer their information or data. Another type of
network is MAN which is a larger network then WAN which is majorly used for an entire
geographic area like a town or a city. Third type of network is wide area network which helps in
connecting computers or devices across a longer distance. With the help of WAN large number
of devices can connect with each other even if they are miles apart.
Internet and intranet
According to the view of Santoro and et. al., (2018) internet is a kind of a global system of
interconnected computer networks that majorly uses internet protocol in order to link to devices
globally. It is used by organizations to connect different network of computers simultaneously.
Internet is a public network that can be used by anyone. Whereas, intranet is a type of network
which is used by organizations privately. It can be accessed by limited number of people and
provide limited number of information from its users. Organizations uses both internet and
intranet but for different purposes. Intranet is a private network which is only used by employee
or staff members of the organization. IT provides different kinds of information and services to
the employees that cannot be accessed by people outside the organization. It is one of the main
things which is adopted by organizations as it helps the organizations in maintaining internal
communication and collaboration with people within an organization. Intranet with business
organizations is majorly established with the help of LAN or WAN. Whereas internet is used by
companies to maintain communication and collaboration with other companies for business
purpose, joint project and for many other purposes.
Software development life- cycle
According to the view of Assal and Chiasson, (2018) software development life cycle can
be defined as a kind of a process which is majorly used by organizations for development of
high- quality software’s. it is used by organizations so that they can maintain high quality of
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software’s that meet their customers expectations and can be completed within a defined time
period and within specified overall cost of the project. It helps in explaining a detailed plan that
helps in explaining ways in which a software can be developed, maintained, tested and replaced
after a certain time period. It helps in explaining a methodology with the help of which high
quality of the software can be maintained and completed. SDLC consist of following steps that
are used by organizations for development of a software. These steps are: planning, defining,
designing, building, testing and development. At planning stage requirement gathering and
analysis is done in which all the requirements of the software are gathered and analysed so that
quality planning can be done and risk associated with the project can also be defined. Next stage
is defining of requirements in which SRS is developed which consist of all kinds of requirements
that are required to be developed. In designing stage designing of the product which is required
to be developed is done. In nest stage development of the software is done. In nest stage testing
of the software is done unit and unless all the requirements are meet and at last stage as per the
feedback of customers changes or development within the system is done.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Role of IT in Tesco
IT plays a vital and important role within retail organizations like Tesco. IT helps Tesco
is management of most of their retail operations. Not only this, information technology also
helps Tesco to gain control of data and information required by them. Due to increasing
globalization of retailing sector, importance of IT for such organizations is increasing.
Information technology has made it much easier for Tesco to gain market knowledge of their
competitors, their customers’ needs and requirements which further helps them to gain
competitive advantage and also helps them to sustain within the market environment in which
they operate. Some of the main reasons because of which importance of IT for Tesco increases
are: IT helps Tesco in increasing companies’ capabilities by enhancing speed and flexibility of
an organization so that they can respond to changing trend and market evolution in a proper
manner (Amin, 2017). It is also used by Tesco collection and analysis of their customers data so
that they can use this information to analyse their customers needs, requirements, desires in a
proper manner. there are various kinds of information technology systems that are used by Tesco
for various kinds of business operations such as for inventory management, customer
relationship management and many more.
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Ethics and social issues in Tesco
There are various kinds of social and ethical issues that re associated with Information
technology that can occur within Tesco because of usage and implementation of IT within the
organization. Tesco collects information of their customers so that they can analyse their buying
behaviour, needs and desires in a much better manner. But many times, they use this information
for other purposes as well which is unethical. Most of the times their customers are not even
made aware of the purpose for which their information will be used (Lee, 2017). Today due to
advancement in technology today many organizations are focusing upon taking their business
online. This has again created another ethical issue for Tesco i.e. they keep a track of their
employees online and offline activities which creates another ethical issue. This is majorly
because employees are allowed to communicate with any one and can share their experience
with anyone but if they share any kind of information related to the organization and its
operations and if that information impacts overall reputation of the company then that employee
has to suffer from a punishment which is unethical. Other than this Tesco stores all kinds of
information of their employees and customers but due to this threat of information theft or
hacking increasing if security of their information system is not proper and appropriate. It is one
of the major issues because theft of employees or customers information can be misused if it is
not secured or protected properly.
Networks and their types in Tesco
Tesco uses more than one type of network which is not only used for connecting all the
stakeholders of their organization but it is also used for management of all the business functions
of Tesco. Tesco uses local area network in order to connect all of their systems or personal
computers to connect with each other using a central hub or servers within a building. They use
both WAN and LAN to collect all of their equipment’s and systems with each other. They use
LAN to connect all the system within a building and uses WAN to connect those systems with
other stores or offices present globally (Safa, Von Solms and Furnell, 2016). Other than this
Tesco also uses WAN to connect their central systems and cash registers with WAN so that they
can track their sales in real time globally. But majorly they focus upon using WAN as usage of
WAN is much cheaper and with the help of WAN any kind of information can be shared to their
other employees working for them globally.
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Internet and intranet in Tesco
Internet is one of the most important things which is required by business organizations
today. Tesco uses both internet and intranet for carrying out their business operations smoothly.
Majorly Tesco uses internet to carry out majority of their business operations. They use internet
for management of their website, enhance communication with all the stakeholders of the
company globally. Not only this, Tesco also uses internet for sales, marketing and promotion of
their products and services. They also use internet to gather information about their competitors,
clients, customers, government regulations in order to develop awareness of their market. They
have used internet to develop their own network for enhancing secure and enhanced internal
communication within all the employees of the organization working for them globally. On the
other hand, Tesco has their own intranet platform which is used by them for boosting their
productivity and employee engagement (Mensah, 2018). It is used as a central hub by the
organization for collection ad retrieval of information and resources so that employees can do
their job easily and quickly. Intranet platform of Tesco known as ourtesco.com helps in
providing their employees a central hub in which all of their staff related information, products
and service- related information, event related information and all the administrative information
including pay slips, business conducts and many more are stored. This platform is used by
human resource department of the organization as it not only helps them to successfully achieve
their main human resource objectives but also helps in enhancing overall employee employees of
their staff members in a much better manner.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been summarized that information technology is one of the
most important things which is required to be implemented and used within a retail sector
organization. Retail sector organizations uses information technology for various business
operations, achieve desired results with more accuracy. It has been concluded that usage and
implementation of information technology within organizations has raised various kinds of
ethical and social issues that can affect an organization and its stakeholders in many ways. It is
important for organizations to focus upon both social and ethical issues so that their negative
impact upon business can be reduced.
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REREFENCES
Books and Journals
Amade, N., Painho, M. and Oliveira, T., 2018. Geographic information technology usage in
developing countries–A case study in Mozambique. Geo-spatial Information
Science. 21(4). pp.331-345.
Amin, M.H., 2017. Harnessing Information Systems & Technology with Supply Chain
Management for Performance Excellence in Retail Sector. Journal of Business and
Social Review in Emerging Economies. 3(2). pp.179-184.
Arthur, S.M., 2017. Sustainable supply chain: Maintaining a competitive advantage in retail
organizations.
Assal, H. and Chiasson, S., 2018. Security in the software development lifecycle. In Fourteenth
Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security ({SOUPS} 2018) (pp. 281-296).
Halbouni, S.S., Obeid, N. and Garbou, A., 2016. Corporate governance and information
technology in fraud prevention and detection. Managerial Auditing Journal.
Lee, J., 2017. Strategic risk analysis for information technology outsourcing in
hospitals. Information & Management. 54(8). pp.1049-1058.
Mensah, P., 2018. Exploring the Strategies Computer-Technologists Need to Establish a
Computer-Refresh Cycle in Retail Organizations (Doctoral dissertation, Colorado
Technical University).
Parise, S., Guinan, P.J. and Kafka, R., 2016. Solving the crisis of immediacy: How digital
technology can transform the customer experience. Business Horizons. 59(4). pp.411-
420.
Safa, N.S., Von Solms, R. and Furnell, S., 2016. Information security policy compliance model
in organizations. computers & security. 56. pp.70-82.
Santoro, G., and et. al., 2018. Big data for business management in the retail
industry. Management Decision.
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