Information Technology In Business: Benefits, Risks, And Monitoring

Storing and Protecting Information

Question:

Discuss about the Information Technology Leads to Grow the Business.

It has been observed that the organizations which invest in Information Technology, their market shares, financial figures and competitiveness get increased automatically. Recently, online shopping, social networking, digital marketing, cloud computing etc. are the examples of change that come through the information technology. There are number of tools provided by IT to scale up the business of an organization. In today’s world, digital marketing is one of the best tools that are used for promoting the products or services in the global market just by sitting at home only. Cloud Computing helps to organize a global organization by managing and monitoring the virtual offices across the world.

Using Information Technology in QANTAS has made the life easy as no one has to stand in long queues for any type of enquiries or booking. It reduces the lot of human efforts and time to stand in queues.

IT helps this business in the following ways:

Communication: Communication is the most important component of IT in business as there is need to maintain interaction between a customer and a supplier. (Richard, n.d.) For e.g, employees of Qantas Airlines may interact through email which a good means of communication to share some information or details for their use. In this way, communication helps in the growth of business and keeps the people connected with each other.

Inventory Management: Inventory Management is also one of the most important part of IT in which organizations take care of the stock (kumar, 2014) by keeping enough stock. Qantas Airlines also perform inventory management by enquiring about all the flights with available seats. The inventory for airlines is classified into the service classes and there might be upto 26 booking classes and each class may have different prices and different booking conditions. Inventory control is used to check the availability of seats in different booking classes.

Data Management: Data Management (kumar, 2014) is done in order to maintain all the data related to business of an organization. It can be done with the help of various tools. In Qantas Airlines business, there is a need to manage lot of data related to the customers, company, airlines, and much more. Lots of customers visit the website daily and register themselves on the site, lots of customers book the flights daily. So, all the data has to be stored somewhere, data management helps in deciding everything about the data. So, a proper data management should be done.

Management Information System: Management Information System (MacKechnie, 2012)is used for companies to track the data of sales, expenses and productivity. It is the information which is used to track profit over time, and to identify where improvement is required. So, in Qantas, it is important to analyze the data to know about its profit. For e.g., it is important to know that which flight is booked most of the times so that accordingly that flight may remain available all the time to earn more and more profit.

Automated Process

Customer Relationship Management: Customer Relationship Management (MacKechnie, 2012) helps in building the strong relations between customers and the organization. It is used to capture every interaction that company does with a customer. For e.g., CRM is used to record all the calls between a customer and company so that enriching experience is possible. In Qantas Airlines, Customer support provides several different phone numbers of different countries that provide a call back service. Once a customer calls on that number, they will get a call back from the number and CRM then is used to capture every interaction that a company does with customer.

Requirements of Information Technology In Airlines Business:

Hardware: Hardware is required in any kind of business. For e.g., to book flights, one needs to have a hardware device like laptop or mobile phone.

Software: Software is the most important requirement of an IT because everything is done software. Software is an application that has several functionalities. Software will be required to book flight, check the flight status, track the flight etc. Airlines business usually require an Enterprise Requirement Planning Software which is a business management software used by an organization to store, manage and interpret the data.

Training: Training should be provided to users and the staff members about the software so that they could know how to use the software and could not face any difficulty while using it.

Data Storage Requirements: A lot of information or data is required to store in an organization. Similarly, in Airlines Business, important data like customer details, flight details, tracking details, booking details etc. has to be stored. So, lot of servers and storage devices will be required in an organization.

Information Technology is used by Business in many ways. Different people use it for different purposes as follows:

Staff: Staff of an Airlines Business uses IT to see who has booked the tickets. Staff checks the inventory for availability of seats and accordingly approves the booking and sends the message to the customer whether their booking has been confirmed or not. There are various other duties that a staff has to perform. Other duty of the staff is to check the updates required, so that customer may not face any kind of difficulty.

Customers: Customers make use of IT in Airlines Business to book the flights, check availability of seats and flights, track their flight, check their booking details, etc. They are the persons who play a great role in the growth of business. If they are satisfied, business is in its right path of growth.

Benefits of bringing Information Technology in Business:

Information Technology has made it easy the way Business used to handle everything. It has made lives easier. Some of the benefits that IT has brought to business are as follows:

Storing and Protecting Information:

Electronic storage system is provided by (Sheahan, 2000) Information Technology to store and protect company’s sensitive or confidential information. For e.g., Information Technology has made the lives easier by storing all data into a computer system or specific storage devices instead of storing on paper. In Airlines Business, all the data related to flights, customers are stored to specific electronic storage devices.

Work Remotely

Automated Process:

Information Technology provides automated processes (Sheahan, 2000) for automating some processes so that person may keep on doing other tasks simultaneously. For e.g., in Airlines business, booking process is an automated process.

Work Remotely:

Remote access is provided by Information technology so that work can be done from home or anywhere. For e.g., Booking of flights can be done anywhere or anytime from a laptop or a phone device.

Reduced Effort:

Information Technology reduces the human effort to a great extent because with the help of IT, a person does not need to stand in long queues for booking a ticket.

Cost Effective:

IT in Business Process increases the productivity so it becomes cost effective and provides profit to the company.

Creation of more jobs: With the introduction of Information Technology in Business process, it provides offers to the computer programmers, analyst, web designers etc. a great opportunity to work for an organization so that technology may improve more and more.

If there are number of benefits brought by Information Technology in Business, then there are chances that it also brings up the risks in Business by Information Technology. Some of the risks brought by Information Technology into Business are as follows:

Hardware Failure: There might be a case that if hardware gets some problem or it gets failed, then problem might occur. For e.g., if Airlines industry face hardware failure, then user may find difficulty in booking the flights.

Software Failure: Software failure is one of the biggest risk as if software does not perform properly or has some error, then functionalities of software cannot be accessed.

Confidentiality: There might be a risk to confidential data of an organization if an attacker attempts to steal the confidential or sensitive information. For e.g., if data is not in encrypted from and sent to the second party for some purpose, then third party i.e. attacker may intercept the data and steal the important information. So, data must always be stored in secure form.

Malware: Most of the time PCs or other devices get malwares due to performing work at home. So, proper consideration should be given while working at home as data may be lost, hardware may get impacted and productivity may get lost.

Improper Training: Sometimes, training is improper due to which user and employee do not understand how to use the technology and affects the productivity of the business.

Business can maintain and monitor IT in several ways. Some of them are explained below:

Asset Reporting: Hardware and software assets are monitored 24/7 so that it may be analyzed that what needs to be improved.

Security IT Monitoring: Security of hardware is monitored daily so that engineers could reduce the issues before any attacker attempts to exploit it.

Automated System IT Monitoring: In this type of monitoring, activities of system are monitored 24/7 so that problems can be identified and corrected before affecting the growth of business.

Backup IT Monitoring: Data is one the important asset in an organization, so it necessary to take care of data. That is why, in this kind of monitoring, backup systems are monitored daily so that if there occurs any issues, they could get resolved.

Security Patch Management: There is a security patch policy which is implemented on a network and critical patches are then applied automatically to keep the system up to date.

Protection from Virus/Malware: For protecting from viruses or malwares, it is necessary to install an industry-based Antivirus or Malware software so that system may remain protected.

Wireless Network Security: It is necessary to implement the security on wireless network so that they become invisible and inaccessible for the third parties. This helps in securing data sharing on wireless networks.

Conclusion:

This reports covers the analysis of an Australia based Airline company which makes use of Information Technology in its company. So, the report covers how information technology plays role in the growth of an airline industry. This report discusses about the various benefits brought by IT in business, who is benefited by IT in business, risks that are brought up by Information Technology into Business, how business can monitor and maintain the Information Technology.

References

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Richard, L. (2012). Information Technology & Its Uses in Business Management. [online] Smallbusiness.chron.com. Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/information-technology-its-uses-business-management-51648.html [Accessed 25 May 2016].

Business 2 Community. (2015). The Importance of Information Technology In Business Today. [online] Available at: https://www.business2community.com/tech-gadgets/importance-information-technology-business-today-01393380#tY7K79VjFMrpViaQ.97 [Accessed 25 May 2016].

MacKechnie, C. (2012). Information Technology & Its Role in the Modern Organization. [online] Smallbusiness.chron.com. Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/information-technology-its-role-modern-organization-1800.html [Accessed 25 May 2016].

Sheahan, K. (2000) What Are the Advantages of Information Technology in Business?. [online] Smallbusiness.chron.com. Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-information-technology-business-774.html [Accessed 25 May 2016].

Mizoguchi, T. (2012). Information Technology Risks in Today’s Environment. 1st ed. [ebook] Deloitte & Touche LLP. Available at: https://chapters.theiia.org/san-diego/Documents/Seminars/SD_IIA_ISACA_Event_041112_Deloitte_IA_Top_Ten_Risks.pdf [Accessed 25 May 2016].

Information Technology Group. (n.d.). IT Monitoring and Maintenance – Information Technology Group. [online] Available at: https://www.itgct.com/services/it-monitoring-and-maintenance/ [Accessed 25 May 2016].