Impact Of IT On LYFT: Benefits, Risks And Ethics

Benefits of IT for LYFT

IT technologies are being used in almost all the industries as it has become the need of the modern day business. There are several benefits of using IT technologies when the companies adopt it. However there are challenges that companies face while implementing the IT technologies such as security and privacy of data. Within this report there will be illustration of the way in which LYFT has faced the negative side of the use of IT technologies in the form of data breach where their employees have stolen large amount of consumer’s private data.

“LYFT” came under the eyes of the people when news came out in 2014 that this company’s employees have been accessing the private data of the customers. Somehow the employees of the company got access to the private data of the people they serve using which they started spying on their customers (Edelstein, 2018). This news came out when one of its employees acted as a whistle blower where he states that through the app of LYFT the personal data of their consumers were taken and it was given to their employees. LYFT made it more unethical when they issued a statement that any employee making these kinds of allegations will be dealt strictly. The case got bigger when they found that even the details of Mark Zuckerberg were available with the employees of the LYFT.

In the transportation industry, IT strategy has become a mandatory or core strategy of the company. This is because the modern day transportation services are running with the IT technologies where there is higher use of personal data of the consumers. It is also mandatory for the global companies like LYFT to have a centralised database where they can store all the information and data generated through different business units in different parts of the world especially the real-time data (Trigub, 2017). Since the bulk of the data that is being generated cannot be handled and evaluated with the help of manual methods hence it becomes critical for the transportation businesses to make use of IT technologies.

The competition in the market has increased tremendously and hence companies have to be sure that they are running their businesses with efficiency. For this there is a need of use of IT technologies such as data technologies as the amount of crucial data that is generated in the business is quite large and without these data the business in modern days is quite tough. This ensures that a company will be able to design their business process in such a manner that they will be able to satisfy the needs of the consumers. All the strategies that ensure survival of the company must be made on the basis of the data that is available with the firm (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta, 2019). IT technologies also help the transportation company improving their working capability such as it helps in improving the working methodology which has direct impact on the customer satisfaction such as navigation of the transportation so that customers can reach to exact place. If this technology is not used then whole existence of the modern day transportation services will under a threat.

Risks of IT for LYFT

IT system implementation that helps a firm in protecting the data needs following steps to be undertaken:

• Cost analysis: The new data technologies such as Big data analytics are of higher cost so a large sum of money needs to be invested on it. This can be resolved by managing the internal funds as LYFT has good financial condition.
• Planning: Resource planning is critical before implementing the data technologies. The Major reason for it is the fact that there are many staffs that might not be so familiar with the use of data technology which is essential for even ensuring privacy and security of data (Nie, 2017). There must be a clear plan about the ways in which the technology will be going to get implemented.
• Designing: There is a need of purchasing the IT system that meets all the needs of the company including the data technology. In this they can take the help of the third party so that they can suggest the flexible IT infrastructure meeting all business needs of the company.
• Equipment: There are several IT equipment that will be required along with the data management system and data software. This must be supported by the network technology equipment.
• Installation: In order to install the technology company must take the help of third party vendors. Before installation the roles and responsibilities of everyone in the installation and training process needs to be explained so that they do face any critical challenges in implementation of technology (Zhou, et al 2016).
• Training: There are many new things about technology which needs to be explained to all the employees and for this a training mechanism needs to be developed especially for the privacy of the consumers.

IT is utilised by different stakeholders of LYFT in different ways:

• Workers: This firm’s employee are using IT technologies so as to ensure that they are able to provide best of services to the customers. IT technologies make their work process easier. It technologies are also used by them for communicating with each other and with customers.
• Consumers: Consumers are using the IT technologies for availing the services. They can book the rides with the help of IT technologies as well as they can track the rides, make payments with the help of IT technologies (Dotterud Leiren and Aarhaug, 2016).
• Management: They are taking the use of IT technologies so as to manage the operations and bringing control over their business. The use of Data technologies is helpful in making decisions that are more evidence based. For example the strategies for marketing can be made with the help of data technologies.
• Suppliers: Suppliers is taking the help of technology in order to reduce the coordination problem of the company especially managing the supplies in order to fulfil the demands.

LYFT can use IT technologies for several advantages:

• It improves the control of the management over the processes that are running in different parts of the world as IT systems helps in monitoring all the business activities while sitting at one place.
• With the help of IT, it is easier to set up better communications between all the stakeholders which being more coordination and efficiency in the work process (Verhoef, Kooge and Walk, 2016).
• IT system reduces the dependency on the human in various kinds of processes such as financial management, data and feedback collection. This reduces the chances of errors which enhances the overall operational efficiency of the firm.
• IT makes the avigation easier even in the areas that are not known to the drivers.
• Information technology system ensures that there is proper resource utilisation by optimising the processes on the basis of the data (Yazici, Kamga and Singhal, 2013).
• IT technologies are helpful in doing personalised marketing which enhances their chances of sales.
• IT systems also allows the management to work on forecasting that will help the company to be ready with their resources so that they can provide desired services to the people on time (Finn, Wright and Friedewald, 2013).

With the use of IT system the companies are prone to many kinds of risks. Due to lack of understanding about the privacy ad ethics the employees of LYFT used the data in an unethical manner. Such incidents create a risk of image failure in front of the people. Some other types of risks which the LYFT business model faces are:

• Privacy: Since the data of the consumers are not handled properly hence the the privacy concerns will be higher increases. For example LYFT has information related to the movement of people so they have an idea about what things a person is doing in their private life especially position, this is breach of privacy (Ives, Palese and Rodriguez, 2016).
• Security: Since the numbers of attacks on the systems have increased hence the challenges related to security of data has also increased.
• Confidentiality: Since large among of personal data is stored at their data banks hence if its gets leaked then it will be breach of confidentiality (Nunan and Di Domenico, 2013).

With the help of more automatized technologies they will be able to monitor each and evert aspect of their business. It is also critical to take use of data management system as it helps in maintaining and monitoring the IT system by documenting everything. They also need to have an ethics team that evaluates the way in which data is being used in the organisation and informs the stakeholders if there is any inappropriateness (Bélanger and Crossler, 2011).

Conclusion

In conclusion it can be stated that IT has several types of advantages for the LYFT as it fulfils many of the needs of the company. It is not only necessary for the organisation but it is also essential for the survival of the company. The risks related to privacy, security and confidentiality of data remains in front of the LYFT when they take use of the data technologies. It is advised that the LYFT makes an ethics team that is only have the responsibility to monitor the way in which data is being utilised as it is necessary for reducing the negative impact of utilising data.

References

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Dotterud Leiren, M. and Aarhaug, J., 2016. Taxis and crowd-taxis: sharing as a private activity and public concern. Internet Policy Review, 5(2), pp.1-17.

Edelstein, S., 2018. Lyft Investigates Claim That Employees Improperly Accessed Customer Data. [Online] Available at: https://www.thedrive.com/tech/17993/lyft-investigates-claim-that-employees-improperly-accessed-customer-data. [Accessed on 15^th May 2020]

Finn, R.L., Wright, D. and Friedewald, M., 2013. Seven types of privacy. In European data protection: coming of age (pp. 3-32). Springer, Dordrecht.

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Pearlson, K.E., Saunders, C.S. and Galletta, D.F., 2019. Managing and using information systems: A strategic approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Trigub, D., 2017. LYFT: USING TECHNOLOGY TO CONNECT AGING PERSONS WITH TRANSPORTATION ON-DEMAND. Innovation in Aging, 1(Suppl 1), p.70.

Verhoef, P., Kooge, E. and Walk, N., 2016. Creating value with big data analytics: Making smarter marketing decisions. Routledge.

Yazici, M.A., Kamga, C. and Singhal, A., 2013, October. A big data driven model for taxi drivers’ airport pick-up decisions in new york city. In 2013 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (pp. 37-44). IEEE.

Zhou, Z., Dou, W., Jia, G., Hu, C., Xu, X., Wu, X. and Pan, J., 2016. A method for real-time trajectory monitoring to improve taxi service using GPS big data. Information & Management, 53(8), pp.964-977.