Business Environment Efficiency And Productivity Essay.

Need of IT in Media Industry

Discuss about the Business Environment Efficiency and Productivity.

Rapid changes in the business environment have force companies to adopt advanced information technology for the purpose of improving the efficiency and productivity of the whole organization (Haines, 2007). This report focuses on the impact of information technology on the business of Telstra in media industry.

Need of IT in Media Industry

Telstra is considered as the leading telecommunication and media company of Australia. It offers different communication services in the telecommunication market. The company facilitates the customers to get connected with other people in a convenient manner. There is a  need of introduction of a new technologies by the company in its products for the purpose of gaining competitive advantage over other players in the market. There is an occurrence of remarkable developments in the technology of communication (Bradberry, & Greaves, 2009).

There is an emergence of new technologies in the telecommunications such as use of satellites, compact discs, cable television, and other computer and digital technology. It has brought revolutionary changes in the media industry. By the use of advanced technology, people can share information with other people at distant place in microseconds. This helps them to make quick decisions. Information technology has facilitated in carrying out different business operations of media industry such as printing, video visuals, storage of large data and centralized publishing of the newspapers and magazines (Haines, 2007).

With the help of information technology, the company provides an opportunity to its customers to choose from different cloud platforms provided by different providers across the globe and make decisions related to the choice of the best fit. Besides this, it also help customers to get connected with the company through its website.  It help customers to communicate with the experts related to their field. In addition to this, there is a usage of Internet of Things by the company for the purpose of bringing transformation across all the industries which results in the improvement of the operational efficiency, customer experience and making of fast decisions by the users of the product (Essvale Corporation Limited, 2006).

It has evolved as a machine to machine which results in enhancing the connectivity among large number of customers by the merging of two technologies i.e. cloud computing and big data. It facilitates in generation of the two way data traffic from a single platform by the use of multiple sensors (Ozlem, 2011).

Importance of IT for a business

Adoption of advanced information technology by the company helps employees to communicate with each other and share their views and opinions which in turn results in making decisions in an effective manner. Along with this, it also help the company to store large volume of data and information in an easy manner which can be accessed by the authorized people at any point to make better decisions. It helps in improving the operational efficiency of the organization as there is an occurrence of less errors in storing of the information due to the use of automated processes. It help business to reduce the overall cost of the organization and helps in attaining competitive advantage over its rivals in the industry (In, 2013).

For the application of IT in the business, there is a need to provide training to the employees regarding the skills that are required to perform different operations of the business using the IT. There is a need of upgrading the skills and attitudes of the employees aligned with the needs and requirements of IT in the business. Besides this, in order to implement information technology in the firm there is a need to install the equipments in the organization on which there is an incurrence of the installation cost by the company (Gouge, 2006). 

In order to implement the advanced technology in Telstra, the company has organized different training programs in order to upgrade the skills of their employees so that they can easily perform different tasks by the help of the technology being implemented in the organization. It is required by the organization to provide information related to different technologies that are being implemented in the organization to its employees so that they are familiar with the technology and perform their tasks in an effective manner.  Along with this, there is a requirement to incur cost in the equipments and designing of the software by engaging the employees who will be the users of the technology in order to gather information related to different problems faced by them (Gouge, 2012).

This facilitates in providing user friendly technology to the organization which results in increasing the productivity of employees of the organization. In order to implement the information technology in the business, there is a requirement of planning regarding the equipments required, employees such as programmers which interact with the users in order to understand their requirement and develop the software aligned with the needs and wants of the users (Tansey, 2003). The business also needs to consider that the equipments used by the business is supportive to the technology being adopted by Telstra.

Requirements for the application of the IT in the business

There might be a possibility that the information technology system is not installed in a proper manner. For this purpose, the company might install the information system at some processes and gradually installed it to the whole organization. It is essential for the organization to run a pilot test by creating prototypes and applied it to certain processes. This helps in effective and successful implementation of the information technology to the organization (Ozlem, 2011).

Telstra is considered as the single user of information technology in Australia. The company employed approximately large number of employees who uses different IT applications for the purpose of carrying out different day to day activities such as mainframe based systems, word processing, emails and spreadsheets. It has a largest Microsoft Mail site in the world. The company has integrated its systems, processes and networks by the use of Overall System Architecture. This system helps in providing highest quality customer services. Besides this, by the use of different IT systems, managers and employees of the organization access the relevant information required by them in a timely manner for the purpose of making appropriate decisions (Acton, 2012).

In addition to this, the information technology architecture helps in aligning the systems with business processes. Besides this, the hardware platforms are compatible with the core applications. The company has implemented different It solutions customized to the needs of the individuals. In addition to this, electronic mail is sent to individual businesses and is not firm wide due to presence of differences in the email software and platform. In order to meet the demands of the customers, the company has used OSA which helps in tracking the changes taking place in the tastes and preferences of the customers by the way of receiving feedback from them in an electronic form (McComb, 2003).

This helps in solving the queries of the customers in an effective manner to attain high level of customer satisfaction. In addition to this, the company has also provide a facility to its customers to order the products online which is convenient for the customers as they can compare different products offered by different providers and make a selection of the best product that helps in creating value for them (Born, (2012).

Effective implementation of the advanced information technology in business helps in reducing the cost of the business as there is an elimination of the paper work. Besides this, there is a requirement of less number of employees as the processes of the business are automated. This result in the reduction in the labor cost and has a great impact on the overall cost of the business. Along with this, the operational efficiency of the employees have been increased which leads to an increase in their productivity.  In addition to this, Telstra has implemented standardized operating environment which has helped in providing effective and consistent corporate wide approach to IT (Botha, Bothma & Geldenhuys, 2008).

Usage of IT by the business

There is an increase in the cost savings, level of skills and effectiveness of the business of Telstra. Along with this, it also results in the reduction of the costs incurred to provide training to employees for the use of the IT in the business. Implementation of information technology systems in the business also helps in increasing the sharing of the information with different employees so that they can make effective decisions in the organization. Along with this, the standardization of the operating environment has also helped in integrating different networks in an easy and effective manner (Haes & Wim, 2016).

The company provides information and interacts with customers through electronic mails that helps in providing high level satisfaction of the customers.  The use of information technology helps in providing relevant information regarding different products offered by the company and comparing it with other products offered by other companies in order to make effective decisions regarding the products to be purchased that creates value for the customer (Essvale Corporation Limited, 2006).

It also helps in minimizing the occurrence of the errors due to recording of the information in an electronic form.  It helps in building strong relations with customers and other stakeholders as the information has been shared with them through the use of information technology. Besides this, it also help in handling customer objections in a proper manner as the information is being sent and received in vey less time which results in increasing the performance and productivity of the employees of the organization (Corporation Essvale, 2011).

There are several risks that are faced by the company due to usage of IT in the business. Customers are reluctant to provide personal information by the way of online mode as there is a possibility that the information is being shared by an unauthorized person. It is requisite for the business to keep confidentiality of the information provided by the customer intact. There is a requirement for the business to maintain the security of the system in tact so that the information shared by employees and customers of the organization is secured (Gingrich, 2003). 

There might be an occurrence of violations of regulatory and legal reforms. The brand is not being protected and piracy of the information is being done. There might be a possibility that the customers might receive fraudulent messages regarding the company due to the occurrence of unauthorized access to the information shared by the user.  There might be a possibility that the critical information related to business is being lost. Besides this, there is also a possibility that different IT systems in the business is not being integrated properly  due to which information cannot be shared among the employees in timely manner (Bradberry, & Greaves, 2009).

Advantages of IT to a business

For the purpose of monitoring the performance of the IT systems, the IT department of the organization monitor the performance of different IT systems in a regular manner in order to provide secured IT environment in the organization. The performance of all the IT systems is regularly monitored by the IT department as majority of the work processes are dependent on the IT infrastructure of the company. Besides this, the IT systems are secured by generating password to all the systems so that the information stored on the system cannot be accessed by the unauthorized person. The performance of the systems are measured and compared with the standard and if any deviations are found out then the IT department take actions to prevent the deviations. This helps in increasing the productivity of the systems in the business (Targett, Grimshaw. & Powell, 2013).

Conclusion

Nowadays, increased use of internet and information technology has resulted in the increased use and implementation of the information technology by the businesses. It has been concluded that implementation of the IT systems in the organization helps in reducing the overall cost of the organization as there is a need of skilled employees at low level and reduction in the use of paperwork in the organization. Besides this, it also results in sharing of the information among employees and customers in a proper manner.

References

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