Role of E-Technologies in Business Organizations

E-technologies have changed functionality of contemporary business organizations which has ultimately helped the business enterprises to expand their business along with reaching to their desired goals and objectives in an effective and efficient manner. E-technologies include usage of computers and software with the objective to store, transmit and manipulate data. Along with this, these tools are considered as the subset of information and communication technology (ICT). Technology impacts every realm of human existence i.e. from harnessing the resources of nature to contribute to it in terms of doing for society. In past few years, technology has immensely grown which has generated various ideas, opportunities and scope to grow and expand for every aspect. From humans to business enterprises, every aspect of the world has been affected by technology; thus, usage of technology has been increased as it helps to attain positive outcomes along with enhancing the performance (Wagner, Beimborn & Weitzel, 2014). 

Along with the impact of technology on business organizations, there is much importance of suppliers of technology providers. For example, an organization is using Gmail Suit for maintaining their personal email server, thus, in relation with this, Google plays vital role in order to maintain the quality of their services along with providing new and advanced features as per the dynamic environment. This will help both the provider of technology as well as the receiver of technology in terms of retaining its customers and to engage its clients. As every technology has its pros and cons, thus, major challenge in front of suppliers of such technologies needs to analyse the threats and risks associated with every technology so that appropriate technology could be supplied to the organizations as per their requirements.  

In terms of organizations, technology has a deep impact. As every technology has its pros and cons but if the overall impact of technology will be evaluated, it will be concluded that technology has created direct relation with ease and efficiency. Technology not only affects organizational performance at micro level but it also affects intra-organizational level along with macro level which mainly includes global trends and mechanisms. Technology has benefitted business enterprises which has increased organizational efficiency through which opportunities for expansion has been increased and organizations are executing their tasks in an effective manner. The major contribution of technology is internet and today it has acquired big space in organizational functionalities as well as in an individual’s life. This helps organizations to gain enough information regarding different aspects so that appropriate and relevant strategies could be adopted. This helps the organization not only to grow but it also helps the organization in different ways such as managing human resources, functionalities and resources so that these could ultimately generates positive results for the organization (Matt, Hess & Benlian, 2015).

Impact of Technology on Business Enterprises

Technology helps business enterprises in following ways:

• Human resources: This is considered as one of the major pillars of an organization and its functionalities are directly linked with organizational success. With the help of technology, organizations are performing their functionalities with perfection and with fewer chances of errors. Information technology has generated various automated systems through which human resource department could easily execute their functionalities such as salary calculation, marking attendance, employee evaluation, etc. in an ease and effective manner (Garrison, Wakefield & Kim, 2015).

• Communication: Another major advantage of technology is communication. Technology has influences communication in an effective manner. In an organization, communication plays vital role in terms of sharing information from top level to bottom level and vice versa. Apart from this, communication is also necessary for the objective of making clear objectives along with communicating the same with the employees so that same direction could be followed by in order to attain desired goals and objectives. Emergence of E-mail, mobile phones, instant messaging applications, and other tools have immensely changed the system of communication. Previously, when technology was not much used in the organizations, they use to operate at small level and for communication to the clients; business letters and telegrams were used for sharing general information and crucial information respectively. After the introduction of technology in business, organizational performance have been improved as numerous mediums of communication have been originated which ultimately helps the top level management to communicate with their employees so their plans could be converted into reality (Ross, 2016).
• Marketing & Branding:Branding and marketing is another crucial aspect for an organization in terms of enhancing organizational performance. Marketing and branding by any organization is done to influence target audience to purchase their products and services. With the introduction of technology, effectiveness of marketing and branding has also grown. Primary mediums available in the marketing and branding with the effect of technology are internet marketing, digital social media tools, email marketing, etc. With the help of these tools, organization could easily approach to its target audience through which desired goals such as enhancing sales, revenues, profitability and setting up an effective brand image could easily be established. Most of the people use social media today and with regards to this, organizations could easily promote its products and services amongst the target audience (Zhou, 2016).

One of the biggest contributions of technology in marketing and branding is social media. It is one of the strongest tools used in marketing and promotional campaigns of the organizations. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and professional social media networks such as LinkedIn are some of the major platforms for executing marketing and branding in an appropriate manner. 

Apart from these benefits at micro level, technological impact on macro level is also huge. With regards to this, technology has generated various new, innovative and advanced measures for executing functions of business. While evaluating the positon of information technology at global level, it is being evaluated that information technology has acquired its separate place as an IT sector. At the global level, technology helps the business enterprises to expand their business operations in the national as well as in international market. Along with this, organization could easily gain sufficient information regarding the chosen market conditions, existence of competitors, their practices and strategies, market share acquire by them, etc. In relation with this, organization which is planning to expand its business in particular market could easily be able to adopt relevant and effective strategies through which desired goals and objectives could be attained (Agarwal & Brem, 2015).

Apart from the market research, information technology plays vital role in various sectors such as in quality management, research and development, etc. With regards to this, organization could easily enhance its overall efficiency through which desired goals could be attained. This ultimately leads the organization towards sustainable growth and development through which competitive advantage could also be attained. As discussed, there are various cons related to the utilisation of technology, organization needs to manage a team that could be sufficient enough to utilise an appropriate technology at right time so that tasks could be executed in an appropriate manner as per the expectations (Webber, Raghu & Edwards, 2015).

In today’s business environment, business enterprises use technology mainly for storing consumer’ s data, marketing and promotion, communication as well as for gaining relevant information regarding the market’s environment. With regards to this, organizations requires to avail cloud storage services in relation with storing consumers’ data so that the data could be used in long run for producing products as per consumer’s demand as well as to attain competitive advantage in the target market. In relevance with this, it is necessary for the suppliers of the technology to analyse the risks and threats associated with the technologies so that the companies which are availing the technologies could enjoy maximum benefit in order to accomplish their desired goals and objectives (Renn, 2017). 

Using Technology for Marketing and Branding

Companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. are some of the major players of cloud related services and this technology has helped business companies to store plethora of data related to their consumers and other sort of data. For providing these types of services, cloud operating companies charge certain amount in order to keep their clients’ data secure, safe and ready to access anytime from anywhere. When a company pays off for availing certain type of services, there are certain obligations which should be fulfilled such as data will be secure, safe and it will not be leaked, thus, it is crucial for the organization to analyse to determine appropriate risk and threat factors so that organization could be able to gain desired goals and objectives along with developing Hyperloop of positive synergies (Aitsi-Selmi¸et. al., 2016).

In order to overcome the threats and risks associated these technologies, suppliers of technologies like cloud and server services needs to adopt certain effective and advanced measures in order to develop their reliable image amongst their clients. For example, Facebook is one of biggest cloud service provider but recently Facebook’s own data has been leaked due to which Facebook is facing loss of financial as well as reputation goodwill. Following are certain measures which could be adopted by the suppliers of technology in order to overcome with the threats and risks associated with the technologies:

• Security firewall: This is the most important and primary tool which should be adopted by every supplier of technology as well as by their clients in order to prevent from illegal activities like unauthorised access, third party access without permission, lost or leakage of data, misuse of data, etc. Firewall will help the suppliers of technology to provide an authentic and effective measure through which a secure and safe platform could be provided to the consumers. This measure will also help the organization to develop reliable image amongst its users along with gaining the opportunity to sustain in the dynamic business environment for longer period of time (Livingstone & Smith, 2014).
• Error detection:This measure will help the organizations to determine errors and glitches available in their technologies. With regards to this, organizations who provide cloud computing, server and related services could detect errors if any before providing the services to its consumers. In relevance to this, gap would easily be identified and appropriate steps could be taken to resolve the issues so that the consumers could get an effective and efficient platform to store their consumer and other sort of data.
• Encryption method: This method will help the cloud services providing companies to enhance their security measures in order to meet with their client’s requirements as well as to keep the data safe from hackers. When consumers transfer their data to cloud servers, cloud service providers convert that data into codes so that if any hacker will tries to hack consumer’s data, they could not access it as the data will be encrypted with security codes. Ultimately, it will help both supplier to provide safe and secure platform and to receiver in terms of transferring and storing their data on a secured platform which could only be accessed by official user (Hillson, 2017).
• Advanced  security systems: In order to avoid the major risks and threats related to the usage of technology like hacking, leakage of data, etc., organizations could adopt advance security system such as protecting user’s data by face id unlocking system, finger print scanning, etc. This will help the suppliers to make an authentic platform of storing data. With the help of advanced security measures, only official and authentic users will be able to access their data and these security measures will not be able to hack, thus, organizations could easily enhance its goodwill amongst its users which will ultimately enhance overall organizational performance (Jouini, Rabai & Aissa, 2014).

From the aforesaid information, it could be concluded that e-technologies have significant impact over organizational performance. In modern business environment, usage of e-technologies have been grown up immensely and with regards to this, opportunities for organizations have also been increased rapidly which ultimately helps the business enterprises to expand their business appropriately in the domestic as well as in international market. This essay concludes the impact of e-technologies over modern business operations along with the measures taken by suppliers of these technologies to mitigate the threats and risks associated with these technologies.

References 

Agarwal, N. and Brem, A., 2015. Strategic business transformation through technology convergence: implications from General Electric’s industrial internet initiative. International Journal of Technology Management, 67(2-4), pp.196-214.

Aitsi-Selmi, A., Murray, V., Wannous, C., Dickinson, C., Johnston, D., Kawasaki, A., Stevance, A.S. and Yeung, T., 2016. Reflections on a science and technology agenda for 21st century disaster risk reduction. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 7(1), pp.1-29.

Garrison, G., Wakefield, R.L. and Kim, S., 2015. The effects of IT capabilities and delivery model on cloud computing success and firm performance for cloud supported processes and operations. International Journal of Information Management, 35(4), pp.377-393.

Hillson, D., 2017. Managing risk in projects. Routledge.

Jouini, M., Rabai, L.B.A. and Aissa, A.B., 2014. Classification of security threats in information systems. Procedia Computer Science, 32, pp.489-496.

Livingstone, S. and Smith, P.K., 2014. Annual research review: Harms experienced by child users of online and mobile technologies: The nature, prevalence and management of sexual and aggressive risks in the digital age. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 55(6), pp.635-654.

Matt, C., Hess, T. and Benlian, A., 2015. Digital transformation strategies. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 57(5), pp.339-343.

Renn, O., 2017. Risk governance: coping with uncertainty in a complex world. Routledge.

Ross, D.F., 2016. Introduction to e-supply chain management: engaging technology to build market-winning business partnerships. CRC Press.

Wagner, H.T., Beimborn, D. and Weitzel, T., 2014. How social capital among information technology and business units drives operational alignment and IT business value. Journal of Management Information Systems, 31(1), pp.241-272.

Webber, B.L., Raghu, S. and Edwards, O.R., 2015. Opinion: is CRISPR-based gene drive a biocontrol silver bullet or global conservation threat?. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(34), pp.10565-10567.

Zhou, B., 2016. Lean principles, practices, and impacts: a study on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Annals of Operations Research, 241(1-2), pp.457-474.