The Importance Of Information Technology For Business Survival

1. Does the business need IT?

1. Does the business need IT?
2. Why Information Technology is significant for business survival?
3. What is required to apply in IT in the business?
4. How does the business use IT?
5. What are the benefits and advantages does IT bring to business?
6. What type of risk does Information Technology brings to business?
7. How can the business maintain and monitor the Information Technology?

Having innovation in business is a great way to succeed in these digital age. The path to the innovation in business entails doing something different, and better in order to make a positive difference in value, or productivity by use of the emerging technology of the world. The technology which has proved itself for the last decades is the Information Technology. It has changed both the lives of the individuals and the businesses. Now days the business planning, the systematic planning, the real time monitoring, and an instant customer support cannot be optimized without the use of the IT.( Bates, 2002) the use of IT is both cost effective and an opportunity of doing business. The success of the business will depend on the use of the IT, it has provided many tools for solving the complex business problem that have been very effective. In addition, through digital marketing it can help a business to market on its products and services more effectively. (Devaraj and Kohli, 2003) Through the technology of the cloud computing and the use of the modern communication technology, it enables a business to form a global organization, to manage it and monitor effectively through virtual offices without necessary being there. It enables the management to work from any part of the world. In terms of decision making it increases speed and accuracy, through providing framework of comprehensive market research process that enables the management to make the right decision. .( Bates, 2002) The information Technology has revolutionized on the health sector, today, an example in the health sector is at the uniting care Aging Centre that provides aged care services in the New South Wales and Australia have implemented electronic clinical system which is very effective in solving customer problems. (Mitchell, Lardear and Schonbach, Tremont, 1997)They adopted it as a result of pre-dominate, manual and inconsistent processes and practices. The adoption of the Information Technology in their business has enabled tasks to be handled quickly before the deadline. In this paper, it will highlight the information technology in the health care. Moreover, it will show why it is important to have it in business, what is required to apply IT, the benefits and advantages, the types of risks it brings in the business, and ways to maintain and monitor IT in business.

2. Why Information Technology is significant for business survival?

Every successful business needs IT. The Information Technology drives the innovation and that innovation brings the success to the business. The core formula for the business success today is drive innovation with the use of IT. (Devaraj and Kohli, 2003) The first concept of a startup in any industry is to be able to figure how to make a smart IT recruiting choices. Without any backbone of the aspect of IT in that business, it surely will not go far. Therefore, for the Aging Centre to make their processes more efficient they adopted the use of IT in the business, which made the staff to complete the project before deadline and under budget.

The use of the information technology is essential in business survival in many aspect. One of such areas is on the marketing and the business growth. The success of the business lies on the marketing in which enables the management to be able identify the target audience, discover on their needs, and a marketing campaign in order to persuade them to get them. In addition, it has enabled on the improvement of the customer support. (Devaraj and Kohli, 2003) The customers are able to receive support from many channels like; telephone, emails, or even the social media. The use of IT is essential for the survival of the Aging Centre health care since, it helped in their efficient of their processes that were very cumbersome and inefficient. For them to improve, they had to implement the software otherwise they could not survive because of the competitors.

In the application of the Information Technology, there are various components to look at; the cost, the planning, the design, the training of the staff and the installation of the system. On the cost, it is important that the business looks for the system that is cost friendly to them without affecting their cash flow or resources on expensive one. (Øvretveit, Scott, Rundall, Shortell, and Brommels, 2007) The planning of the IT does be done systematically putting in mind each process is important in the implementation for optimal performance. Moreover, the system should be designed depending on the specification and the needs of that health facility they are offering. It should suit their requirements, and the nature of their business. (Goldschmidt, 2005). The installation process, should be done well, putting in place back up system for monitoring and protecting the information of the clients, there should be also security measures to protect that information from being breached. In addition, all the staff should be trained on how to use that particular system so that it runs smoothly without compromising the information of the customers.

3. What is required to apply in IT in the business?

The uses IT in business both internally and externally. Internally it is through the staff or the employees using the system to carry their duties. The use of the IT by the staff provide great accountability in regards to the assessment of the quality and the planning of the care. It also to provide the best practices and process models to be effectively achieved by the employees, through the use of the technology as compared to the manual practices which were cumbersome, time consuming and could easily be replicated. Externally, the suppliers and customers can use IT asking for the orders of the products, booking appointment for the patients. (Øvretveit, Scott, Rundall, Shortell, and Brommels, 2007) This way they can know when to go and the doctor, as comparison when they go and find a long queue. The suppliers, can use the system to get information of a given business and see if there is opportunity, to provide products and the services to that business.

a. Benefits

On the benefits, the organizations can harness IT resources to reduce the cost. The use of the IT infrastructure, the tasks can be centralized at one location, therefore the process become less cumbersome since one can do all the tasks at a single point. Moreover, economic efficiencies can be achieved by through migration of the high cost functions to online environment. (Goh, Gao, and Agarwal, 2011) In the case of Aging health care, the use of the IT in the business, help reduce the tasks undertaken, more so keeping the patients records, booking them, and administration of the drugs. (Chaudhry, Wang, Maglione, Mojica, Roth, Morton, and Shekelle, 2006) Another benefit, IT brings efficiency and flexibility. The use of streamlined work flow system, having shared and collaborative work environment can help achieve this efficiency and flexibility. It can help the staff to process a great level of the work over a shorter deadline. In terms of the revenues it increases profitability. It is possible since, there is no wastage of the resources, therefore there is optimal allocation in the work place enabling the tasks to be undertaken within the shortest time and on a large scale.

b. Advantages

On the advantages, the information Technology brings productivity to the business. The use of the systems have enabled the employees to collaborate effectively, even across every distances. Moreover, it has enabled automation of the many mundane on the business tasks, hence freeing the employees to concentrate on the tasks that are important. (Heathfield, Pitty, and Hanka, 1998) Nevertheless, it offers better communication in the business. Connection of the devices enables staff to be connected whenever they go, thus reduction on the time taken to undertake a meeting when called. Moreover, technology offers communication opportunities, allowing the business to host meeting online, through video conferencing to share information.

4. How does the business use IT?

The implementation of the Information Technology in business, if not proper handled can bring forth risks that may be risky to the business. Some of these risks may be associated with the breach of security. This can happen through a malware or a virus that is introduced to the system by a hacker, and still the data. (Heathfield, Pitty, and Hanka, 1998)This may result to consequences on the business, especially if the patients’ information is stolen and they sues the organization for breach of confidentiality agreement, by exposing their data. Moreover, there may be corporate espionage especially when the staff steal or release the information of the patients. It becomes an issue since the privacy of the patient is no the wrong hands. Another risks associated with IT are hardware or the software failure, resulting to the loss or the corrupt of the patient data. (Goh, Gao, and Agarwal, 2011) Nonetheless, there could be risks of the human errors. This happen when the staff incorrectly input the data on the system, or the issuer of the incorrect data processing on the system.

Each organization is unique and they have their unique requirement for the Information Technology. The best way to maintain and monitor the technology is to have an accessible plan. The steps to handle this is to have a security IT monitoring hardware, in order to mitigate the security breach and vulnerabilities. In addition, it is important to have a backup monitoring of IT (Heathfield, Pitty, and Hanka, 1998). This is essential since the important assets for any organization, it their data, and the data is protected. In the case of Aging health care Centre they need to implement their plan of action to prevent the vulnerabilities and breach. They can do this by highlighting the following steps; defining on the accessibility of the technology strategies, identifying the requirements, designing, and developing the system and maintaining on the technology through continues learning process.

Conclusion

In this report, it has looked on the use of the IT in the business, with emphasizes on the benefits and the advantages it brings to the business. It has also looked on the requirement of the implementation of the system to the business. Nonetheless, there was need to look at the risks it brings to the business and how to manage and monitor the system. Aging Centre needs also to have a technology plan to mitigate any vulnerabilities in the business.

References

Bates, D.W., 2002. The quality case for information technology in healthcare. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 2(1), p.7.

Chaudhry, B., Wang, J., Wu, S., Maglione, M., Mojica, W., Roth, E., Morton, S.C. and Shekelle, P.G., 2006. Systematic review: impact of health information technology on quality, efficiency, and costs of medical care. Annals of internal medicine, 144(10), pp.742-752.

Devaraj, S. and Kohli, R., 2003. Performance impacts of information technology: Is actual usage the missing link? Management science, 49(3), pp.273-289

Goh, J.., Gao, G. and Agarwal, R., 2011. Evolving work routines: Adaptive routinization of information technology in healthcare. Information Systems Research, 22(3), pp.565-585.

Goldschmidt, P.G., 2005. HIT and MIS: implications of health information technology and medical information systems. Communications of the ACM, 48(10), pp.68-74.

Heathfield, H., Pitty, D. and Hanka, R., 1998. Evaluating information technology in health care: barriers and challenges. bmj, 316(7149), p.1959.

Mitchell, A., Lardear, J.L. and Schonbach, D.I., Tremont Medical, 1997. Personal health care system. U.S. Patent 5,590,648.

Øvretveit, J., Scott, T., Rundall, T.G., Shortell, S.M. and Brommels, M., 2007. Improving quality through effective implementation of information technology in healthcare. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 19(5), pp.259-266.