A Report on Smart Technology and its Applications in the Workplace

This report provides a comprehensive overview of smart technology's integration into the workplace. It begins by examining the use of technology in improving workplace efficiency, focusing on web-based email services like Gmail and Yahoo, and cloud storage solutions such as Dropbox and Google Drive. The report then delves into the applications of technology, specifically social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and their impact on business operations. It highlights the advantages and disadvantages of each platform, including their roles in communication, marketing, and recruitment. Furthermore, the report addresses the implications for personal and professional security, emphasizing the risks associated with data breaches and distractions. The analysis underscores the transformative effect of smart technology on business practices, emphasizing the need for organizations to adapt to these changes to enhance efficiency and competitiveness.

SMART TECHNOLOGY
IN THE
WORKPLACE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Use of technology in improving workplace efficiency...............................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Use of technology and its application at workplaces..................................................................4
Implication to personal and professional security through use of these websites.......................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Business and its related activities are changing throughout the globe. It is necessary for
organisations to make changes in terms of procedures they apply for there day to day activities.
Company's needs to use more of technological means in their operating procedures. Not only
production department but other departments also needs to inculcate use of technologies in their
working mechanism. Smart technologies helps company in making their operations easier as
well as increasing efficiency of each department. Email service providers like Google and Yahoo
are providing assistance to marketing department in promotion purpose (Axsen, Orlebar and
Skippon, 2013). Cloud storage service providers like Dropbox and Google drive help in storing
various informations of the company. Social media sites such as Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn are
used by the company in making their promotional campaigns attractive and reaching to new set
of customers. This report showcases that use of technology in the workplaces have changed the
ways of doing business throughout the world. It also illustrates that implementing smart
technology makes business procedures easier and effective.
TASK 1
Use of technology in improving workplace efficiency.
Every organisation needs to implement proper technological equipments so as to make
their business procedures easier. These up gradations are done in various organisational field.
Appropriate use of technology makes operations easier and helps in improving workplace
efficiency. It helps company in reaching to new customers and help consumers in selecting
among various product options present in the market. Use of technology in marketing and HRM
purposes saves a lot of time of the company's officials (Bandyopadhyay and Sen, 2011). This
helps company in finding appropriate employees as well as people in finding appropriate jobs.
Some of the options that are available in market that can be utilized by the company is illustrated
here.
Web Based Email
Use of email in the company is not just restricted to having conversations between two
employees but has a larger scope in today's world. Web based email services are especially used
in companies these days for marketing purpose i.e. in reaching to customers with advertisements
of new products and services that they have launched. It helps in connecting to the larger set of
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people that too to each people individually. There are various email providers in the world but
here services given by two of the most famous (Gmail and Yahoo) are given and there features
are being compared:
Features Gmail Yahoo
Maximum size or capacity It provides a maximum size of
up to 7 GB.
It has a size capacity of 4MB
to 100 MB if they are are not
free based user whereas free
based users gets approx 2GB.
Inbox chat feature Present with this provider. It is also having this feature.
Search bar for sent mails Have this feature It is also having this feature.
SMS chat present present
Phone calls Have this feature This provider does not
provides this feature.
Mobile version It can be operated through
mobiles.
It can also be operated through
mobile phones.
Security Much secure than Yahoo
because it has lesser session
expiry time (Bembridge,
Levett-Jones and Jeong,
2011). It is easier for the users
from the nets of of phishing
attack.
Less secure than google due to
its longer expiry time.
Flexibility of attachment Present Present
Creation of folder Gmail understanding of
difference between two similar
kinds of folders is poor that is
it can sent emails from two
similar sources to same folder
Understanding of this
complexity is much more in
Yahoo.
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irrespective of the content
(Barnard, et al., 2013).
Drag and drop menu This service provider does not
have this feature.
Yahoo provides this feature.
Advertisements Gmail is advertisement free. Yahoo comprises of different
ads like pic ads or one liners.
Speed Mails through Gmail is faster
as there is no advertisement
and hence the data requirement
is less.
Yahoo is slower due to larger
ads and takes more
downloading data.
Usefulness of these can be seen through these points:
 It is used for increasing efficiency in the communication process within the firm. Various
levels of employee can interact with each other using mails. This facilitates one to one
conversation by providing required secrecy (Brody and Rubin, 2011). It also helps
individuals in sending various documents.
 In marketing function it helps company in reaching out to new customers with their new
plans and project. It helps reaching to customers who have allowed to receive a mails
with their new products and services.
 It assists company in making their customer service more interactive which helps to
achieve customer satisfaction.
There are various other form in which technology can help organisations one of the other
problems associated with the companies is the storage of daily data that is collected through
various operations of the firm (Carpi, et al., 2011). Cloud storage service provides excellent
solution to this problem. Cloud storage is one of the revolutionary innovations in the IT field.
Storage needs are increasing everyday and these storage devices are bulkier and costly.
Especially this problem arises with small firms which have space complexity i.e. having less
space to store these data. There are several service providers of cloud storage. They all gives
space for storing files and documents online. These services are free to certain amount then they
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charges money for extra storage space. These file can be accessed any time by any stake holder
having access to it. Their use can be illustrated through these points:
 With the use of modern gadgets like smart phones, Laptops, tablets data can be stored
and access as an when required from the cloud storage.
 These are used to make back ups of the file. This safeguards files from getting lost or
misplaced if computer crashes of any other mishaps.
 Accessing of these files becomes easier that too multiple stakeholders can access to these
documents at the same time.
 Bigger attachments on mail can be stored through cloud storage.
There are various cloud service providers among them features of Dropbox and Goggle drive has
been compared.
Features Drop box Google drive
Restriction of file size With website it is 10 GB and
none with app.
Storage up to 5TB.
Free storage Data up to 2GB Data Up to 15 GB
Possibility of extra storage Available Not available
Paid plans 1 TB storage on payment of
10$ per month
100 GB for 2$ per month and
10$ for 1 TB.
Supporting operating system Mac, Linux, IOS, Kindle fire,
Android, Blackberry,
Windows.
Android, Mac, IOS, Windows
TASK 2
Use of technology and its application at workplaces.
In the era of technology, use of modern methods of doing business has also increased. It
has become part and parcel of organisational works. Technologies combines whole lot of people
through various websites (Diaz, et al., 2012). Technological access to large number of people has
helped company to reaching out to large number of people with one click.
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These technology can also be misused and can have adverse effect on companies
business. As one of the greatest threat is of data secrecy (Elias, Smith, and Barney, 2012). Use of
modern gadget and its access to large number of people has made companies more vulnerable to
data being stolen.
Applications of these technologies at workplace:
 It helps in limiting mobility of employees of company as they can interact with each
other through video conferencing.
 Communication within the organisation has become faster.
 It assists people in finding jobs where as companies make use of these for posting
vacancies and recruitment procedures. Selection, recruitment and training process has
become easier with use of smart technology in work place.
Social media, one of the biggest platform for the organisations to connect to the people.
Endorsing and marketing procedures have become easier with these websites (García-Peñalvo,
Colomo-Palacios and Lytras, 2012). New products, services, policies and plan can be
communicated to the masses by making use of these websites. Among several social networking
sites few are discussed here:
 LinkedIn: It is an employment and business oriented social site. This networking site can
be accessed through use of mobile apps or websites. It is comparatively more
professional social networking sites than others. Employers post their jobs and employee
post their CV's on this site. LinkedIn is best in finding new job opportunities due to its
simplicity and portal for new jobs.
Advantages of using LinkedIn:
1) It helps to connect to millions of companies throughout the world.
2) Finding jobs and recruiters is comparatively easier.
3) Check companies new plans and policies.
4) It helps to provide effective communication between HRM department and potential
employees
Disadvantage of using LinkedIn:
1) It is difficult to search appropriate jobs in between post flood.
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 Facebook: It is biggest social networking sites throughout the world with approx 1
billion users. Every company these days have their Facebook page this helps company in
connecting with their employees and customers (Hacker, 2017). This helps company in
making their promotional activities to reach to large set of people by posting relative
video and pictures. It has a drawback of being lesser professional but still very effective
in making good customer relations.
Advantage:
1) Company can post their product details and advertisement campaign on this website.
2) It helps in getting feedback from customers about their new product launch.
3) It helps in connecting employees and hence sharing their views becomes easier.
4) It helps company in making one to one conversation with customers.
5) It can be used to note down the customer response on any product or service launch.
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source 1: LinkedIn login

Disadvantage
1) It provides threat to data secrecy as any plan or confidential data can be stolen by hacking the
websites (Moshiri and Simpson, 2011).
2) It sometimes waste time of workers as they may get indulged in unnecessary conversation
with clients.
 Twitter: It is a social networking site that provides a platform for sharing view on
company's policies and plans. It helps in making one line statement on which replies can
be given. This website is generally used by Top management so as to covey message to
their followers about any decision.
Advantages of using twitter at workplace:
1) It is a site that provides specific information about the idea that leaders have about company
future.
2) It helps in getting quick feedback from follower about organisations plans.
3) It can be used to make suggestions from the employees.
4) It provides freedom of speech to every stakeholders and helps to know their perception about
the posts (Niyato, Xiao and Wang, 2011).
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source 2: Facebook login

Disadvantages of using Twitter
1) As there is no restriction on replies so there can be garbage replies to any post.
2) It sometimes lead to unnecessary conversations among group of people.
Implication to personal and professional security through use of these websites
There are various threats to personal and professional security that is posed by use of these social
sites at the workplace. Sometimes while performing a specific task in an organisation use of
these websites can lead to reduce the concentration of employee towards their work. Posting of
pics or videos at Facebook about the operations of company can lead to vulnerability towards
protecting trade secret.
CONCLUSION
Business operations have changed throughout the world with the use of technology. Smart ways
of doing business cannot be achieved without smart technology implementation in the work
procedures. Use of these technologies makes working process faster as well as effective.
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source 3: Twitter login

Technologies like web email services made communication easier within the organisation as well
as with their clients or other stakeholders. Drop box and Google drive helps company in their
data storage. These cloud file storage services helps in saving data due to any mishap by
providing back up to these. Multi users can access these data anytime, from any where with the
use of modern gadgets. Social networking sites like Facebook, twitter or LinkedIn helps in
companies in connecting to larger number of customers and promote their products through
promotional videos or pics. These websites also help employee and employer in finding their
requirements regarding jobs.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Bandyopadhyay, D. and Sen, J., 2011. Internet of things: Applications and challenges in
technology and standardization. Wireless Personal Communications. 58(1). pp. 49-69.
Barnard, et al., 2013. Learning to use new technologies by older adults: Perceived difficulties,
experimentation behaviour and usability. Computers in Human Behavior. 29(4). pp.
1715-1724.
Bembridge, E., Levett-Jones, T. and Jeong, S.Y.S., 2011. The transferability of information and
communication technology skills from university to the workplace: a qualitative
descriptive study. Nurse Education Today. 31(3). pp. 245-252.
Brody, C.J. and Rubin, B.A., 2011. Generational differences in the effects of insecurity,
restructured workplace temporalities, and technology on organizational loyalty.
Sociological Spectrum. 31(2). pp. 163-192.
Carpi, F., et al., 2011. Dielectric elastomers as electromechanical transducers: fundamentals,
materials, devices, models and applications of an emerging electroactive polymer
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Diaz, I., et al., 2012. Communication technology: Pros and cons of constant connection to work.
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Elias, S.M., Smith, W.L. and Barney, C.E., 2012. Age as a moderator of attitude towards
technology in the workplace: Work motivation and overall job satisfaction. Behaviour
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García-Peñalvo, F.J., Colomo-Palacios, R. and Lytras, M.D., 2012. Informal learning in work
environments: training with the Social Web in the workplace. Behaviour & Information
Technology. 31(8). pp. 753-755.
Hacker, S., 2017. Pleasure, power and technology: Some tales of gender, engineering, and the
cooperative workplace (Vol. 5). Routledge.
Moshiri, S. and Simpson, W., 2011. Information technology and the changing workplace in
Canada: firm-level evidence. Industrial and Corporate Change. 20(6). pp. 1601-1636.
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Niyato, D., Xiao, L. and Wang, P., 2011. Machine-to-machine communications for home energy
management system in smart grid. IEEE Communications Magazine. 49(4).
Oldham, G.R. and Da Silva, N., 2015. The impact of digital technology on the generation and
implementation of creative ideas in the workplace. Computers in Human Behavior. 42,
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Uckelmann, D., Harrison, M. and Michahelles, F., 2011. An architectural approach towards the
future internet of things. In Architecting the internet of things (pp. 1-24). Springer
Berlin Heidelberg.
Venkatesh, V., Thong, J.Y. and Xu, X., 2012. Consumer acceptance and use of information
technology: extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology.
Online
How Smart Technology Will Shake Up the Workplace 2017 [Online] Available
through:<http://www.baselinemag.com/innovation/slideshows/how-smart-technology-will-
shake-up-the-workplace.html>. [Accessed on 22nd August 2017].
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