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Information Technology can't really give strategic competitive advantages because most
competitive advantages does not last more than a few years and soon become strategic
necessities which just raise the stakes of the game.In most applications, the internal IT
organization is responsible for the selection, management and support of technology in the
business environment. As an internal support function, the IT operation must be organized,
and run with optimum efficiency, aligned with business needs, vision, and objectives.

The explosion of Internet and e-commerce has opened up a surplus of opportunities for all
types of businesses. New management methodologies, such as Six Sigma are easier to
implement due to statistical software. Also, companies are able to train their own employees
using in-house Six Sigma software programs, and as a result, save money on labour costs.

It is difficult to think of a situation where businesses can do without technology and

computers today. It is extremely difficult to say whether businesses depend on computers or
computers created business opportunities.

Both men and women in business have adapted successfully to new technology. But the SBA
report cites the general decline in skill levels of people, which may eventually result in an
overall reduction of income levels. It seems that people get used to technology doing all the
work and tend to neglect their skill development. It is up to individual companies to make
sure that their employees are still able to do crucial tasks without the assistance of computers,
if necessary.

We look in detail on why is that IT is important or vital for an organization or why it cannot
help an organization.


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?ur world today has changed a great deal with the aid of information technology. Things that
were once done manually or by hand have now become computerized operating systems,
which simply require a single click of a mouse to get a task completed. With the aid of IT we
are not only able to stream line our business processes but we are also able to get constant
information immediately that is up to the minute and up to date.

The implication of IT can be seen from the fact that it has penetrated almost every aspect of
our daily lives from business to leisure and even society. Today personal PCs, cell phones,
fax machines, pagers, email and internet have all not only become an essential part of our
very culture but also play an important role in our day to day activities. With such a wide
scope for the purpose we shall focus on the impact of the internet in information technology.

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In globalization IT has not only brought the world closer together, but it has allowed the
world's economy to become a single interdependent system. This means that we can not only
share information quickly and efficiently, but we can also bring down barriers of linguistic
and geographic boundaries. The world has developed into a global village due to the help of
information technology allowing countries like Chile and Japan who are not only separated
by distance but also by language to shares ideas and information with each other.

With the help of information technology, communication has also become cheaper, quicker,
and more efficient. We can now communicate with anyone around the globe by simply text
messaging them or sending them an email for an almost instantaneous response. The internet
has also opened up face to face direct communication from different parts of the world thanks
to the helps of video conferencing.

Information technology has also helped to computerize the business process thus
streamlining businesses to make them extremely cost effective money making machines. This
in turn increases productivity which ultimately gives rise to profits that means better pay and
less strenuous working conditions.

Besides that it helped to bridge the cultural gap by helping people from different cultures to
communicate with one another, and allow for the exchange of views and ideas, thus
increasing awareness and reducing prejudice.

Furthermore, IT has made it possible for businesses to be open 24 x7 all over the globe. This
means that a business can be open anytime anywhere, making purchases from different
countries easier and more convenient. It also means that you can have your goods delivered
right to your doorstep with having to move a single muscle. Probably the best advantage of
information technology is the creation of new and interesting jobs. Computer programmers,
Systems analyzers, Hardware and Software developers and Web designers are just some of
the many new employment opportunities created with the help of IT.

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Technology may allow one worker to produce the same amount as two or three workers
without technology. This increase in productivity can make certain jobs obsolete or out of a
job, leading to layoffs and unemployment. Furthermore, once the initial cost of installing new
technology has been paid, the cost of maintaining the technology is often lower than the cost
of paying for an equivalent amount of labor productivity. Long-term saving makes
technology attractive to large businesses, sometimes to the detriment of workers.

However information technology may have made communication quicker, easier and more
convenient, it has also bought along privacy issues. From cell phone signal interceptions to
email hacking, people are now worried about their once private information becoming public
knowledge. Industry experts also believe that the internet has made job security a big issue as
since technology keeps on changing with each day. This means that one has to be in a
constant learning mode, if he or she wishes for their job to be secure

New technologies sometimes involve high upfront costs. Hiring new workers can be
relatively cheap in the short term compared to the financial outlay required to purchase
technology. A new worker typically works a few weeks or a month before he is paid,
meaning the worker generates income before a company has to spend money. Technology
requires a large initial investment before the technology actually assists with production.

Companies installing new technology must bear the cost of training workers to use it.
Upgrading from an existing technology to a new one slows productivity in the short term. In
some cases, new technologies may not be more efficient than old technology, which can
result in wasted investment and training hours. For instance, many businesses opt to run their
computers on outdated operating systems and software, even though upgrades are available.
Converting to new software takes time and money and the benefits might be minimal.


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Sustainability or also known as profitability of competitive advantages does changes the
business models. A competitive advantage is an advantage over competitors gained by
offering consumers greater value, either by means of lower prices or by providing greater
benefits and service that justifies higher prices. In order to maintain this competitive
advantages and profitability in the organization there are five strategies that can be followed.
Firstly is the change in organization refers to the authority in the organization. For an
example from a centralize management to decentralize management, whereby the authority
changes in making decisions or generating new ideas to the company. This is because an
organization needs changes in the level of management for better maintaining of the company
as we cannot always depend on the other level of management in any decision making or
problem solving.

Secondly is technology adaptation. An organization need to adapt to the latest updates in the
Information Technology world if not it¶s very difficult to survive. For an example using
management information system in maintaining the company¶s profile, documentation or the
whole systems of the company. Besides that, in using financing and accounting system to
maintain organizations budgeting , profit and loss, billing , inventory and many more.

Thirdly is the market survey. This is one of the important step to maintain organization
profitability and competitive advantages. This is because in order to give the consumer
satisfaction, we must survey first who is our competitors, what are they offering, how much is
the value, where are they and by doing this surveys we can easily predict how we going to
enter the market which more benefits than our competitors.

Fourthly is product re-shaping. There should be product re-shape in order to attract more
consumers. As we know consumers will be bored using the same product often, they always
look for something new, more features, creative and innovative. An organization can re-shape
the existing product o service in adding up some features or design or they can even introduce
new product. For an example Nokia came out with this model Nokia5200 hand phone in
2006, and later on after 3 months they introduce Nokia5300 model and they just add this
feature called Express Music (Mp3). This called re-shaping with existing product.

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Lastly is the Total Customer Satisfaction (TCS) or Customer Relationship Management
(CRM). These two strategies are used to know how the organizations satisfy their consumers
through their services or product. For an example the buyer might give out the product
according to customers¶ needs but the quality differs. And also to know the bridge gap
between the company and consumers. For an example promoting new ideas or even bringing
ideas from the consumers itself.

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Furthermore it is important for an organization to invest in IT world. An IT investment pose

the critical success to one¶s company and it must match the culture and organizational
structure of the agency. At the present time on every successful corporation background
company has invested substantial amount of cash in Information Technology. Their aim is to
surpass other small organizations that cannot afford to invest in IT. Its main objectives is to
build an everlasting image, create new software or hardware to occupy a place in relating
market to competing product or develop new software that yield a high return on investment
in market. Company also might gain extensive of recognition from public as this investment
would slightly increase the market growth in return contribute to an overall growth in market
share. This leads to healthy increase in economic thus generating much revenue in cycle with
economy policy. The cost would be unhealthy of competition among other companies as it
would leads to monopoly. For an example the Microsoft Company has been dominating the
world market for relatively some time. Another major concern would be the law suit. Its
predictable as competition is high as it turns into cut throat competition as each company
trying to preserve the prestige of one¶s organization thus leading to controversy.

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G‘ As a winding up, last two decades have marked an enormous increase in the number
of home computers. With IT, computer owners have invariably taken to
entrepreneurship in many varied fields. Thanks to the growth of technology,
computers and the Internet, new methods have been developed for processing
everyday business activities easily. Without the introduction of technology, routine
tasks would otherwise have taken and enormous amount of time and specialization.
Undoubtedly, the computer represents the top technology development in the last
century as it relates to businesses today, both large and small. Advances in the field of
technology have created a vast number of business opportunities. The fundamental
reasons for the popularity of computers with small businesses are their efficiency,
speed, low procurement cost and more than anything else, capability to handle
multiple tasks with little chance for error. The advent of the Internet has also
substantially contributed in bringing down the costs of communication and marketing.
In a nutshell, technology has reduced the overall cost of business operations.It is
difficult to think of a situation where businesses can do without technology and
computers today. It is extremely difficult to say whether businesses depend on
computers or computers created business opportunities.

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G‘ Smallbusinessbible.org: Some Advantages and Disadvantages of Information

Technology.

G‘ Laudon & Laudon , MIS 8 th Edition Pg 3

G‘ Sir¶s lecture during the class on the 1/09/2010

G‘ http://www.docstoc.com/docs/1082517/Disadvantages-and-Advantages-of-
Technology-in-Business
G‘ Ref: http://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1696407.html
G‘ http://www.ehow.com/list_6472316_disadvantages -technology-business.html
G‘ Management Information Systems by Mc Graw/Marakas
G‘ http://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1701817.html
G‘ http://www.businessmonitor.com/it/malaysia.html
G‘ http://www.eurojournals.com/ejsr_28_3_07.pdf
G‘ http://www.ejisdc.org/ojs2/index.php/ejisdc/article/viewFile/310/244
G‘ http://scholar.google.com.my/scholar?q=competitive+advantages+of+INF?RMATI?
N+TECHN?L?GY&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart
G‘ http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=541326&dl=GUIDE&coll=GUIDE
G‘ http://www.google.com.my/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=9&ved=0CEcQFjAI&url=http
://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Business-international/Competitive-advantage-through-
information-technology-eight-maxims-for-senior-
managers.html&ei=KKyPTJHQDsWGccHEieoM&usg=AFQjCNESD-iUZ-
mwdf7IDD4DbwaNS_g0Ew
G‘ http://informationr.net/ir/12-3/paper314.html
G‘ http://www.worldscibooks.com/business/6905.html
G‘ http://www.gao.gov/products/GA?-02-586
G‘ http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/operations/8788717-
1.html

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