Impact of the Digital Society Essay

Impact of the digital society and information development

Information technology has great on organizations and individual lives. That is it has transformed our lives socially, politically and economically.

Political

Information technology has reduced the distance between various territorial boundaries countries and even the distance from continent to continent. Several years ago transportation means from even one continent to another continent was a nightmare due to the introduction of digital aircrafts and electric trains; we have experienced the death of distance (Bailor 2006).

Economical

Development of information technology has led to the introduction of commerce (e-commerce/business) that is online business of which has necessitated global market penetration hence transforming on living standards.

Social

Information technology has created a social network where individuals are now able to communicate and share their ideas. It has also led to the creation of social ethnics/norms among individuals and organizations (Clarke 2004).

Strategic information development on business

For some business, the impact of digital economy is revolutionary. That is, some frequent changes in technologies and markets and the appearance of the business models can introduce radical changes in industry structure according to research. And the nature of competition can shift rapidly.

The digital economy has not changed the core business of most firms at the same time. That is for most businesses, internet simply offer tools that can increase their success through their traditional sources of competitive advantage be it low cost, excellent customer service or superior supply chain management(Beasty 2006). Therefore, information technology impacts the business in the following ways:

1. By identifying new strategic opportunities
2. Assessing Technology innovations
3. Deriving more technology enabled business models
4. Prioritizing investment opportunities
5. Managing vendors
6. Exploiting investment in technology
7. Ensuring appropriate usage of information systems
8. Ensure that people embrace the right behavior and value to work with information
9. Ensure that the value for application is captured by the organization and information technology investment does not become a source of competitive disadvantage. The challenge for researcher and practioner alike is to understand what contributes towards the development of these aspects of sustainability.

E-Commerce

Electronic commerce has the following drives with respect to impact of digital society:

• Internet penetration
• Many individuals and organizations are capable of accessing internet services to check emerging and market trends
• Internet charge services have been reduced to a lower cost which is affordable to almost every member of the society. Therefore, this improved internet speed and reliability to business people
• Differentiation: E-commerce has been established mostly through low prices.

Other E-commerce drives include the following:

1. Time and Cost – it is convenient and cost-effective
2. Enhanced information access. Every single information can be accessed by every organization or individual at any time every where
3. Enhanced client base
4. Enhanced proper marketing strategies

In general most societies have found that digital business is beneficial because it attempts to integrate business processes across the world onto a single enterprise wide information system. Therefore it enhances improved coordination across functional departments and increased efficiency of doing business.(Bharati 2006, Hershey)

However, e-commerce has forced the following barriers by business entities:

1. Electronic fraud
2. Hacking
3. Initial capital
4. Technological challenge
5. Information technology infrastructure.

The above barriers have promoted unfair competition among organizations, hence, competitive disadvantage.

Brain sensor technology

Brain sensor technology uses neurons to depict actions. Brain sensors translate the thoughts of one into action. Using brain sensors like the Emotiv Epoc, one can think of a movement and the movement is reflected on the screen. Drug manufacturers and chemists are now using this technology to study the effects of drugs to the brain.

Impacts of brain sensor technology

Consistent use may lead to ones slow response to physical conditions and the brain may end up gating reliant to the technology.

The speed which the technology detects changes in the brain and reflects them to the screen corresponds with Moores law. Moores law states that the number of transistors in a chip will double every two years. In brain sensors the number of chips are many considering the fact that it encompasses nanotechnology. The huge of chips will allow for a large number of electric currents which might affect the brain considering that the sensor are placed in the head as near as possible to the brain.

Ethical and legal issues in information technology

Moral dimensions

1. Information rights and obligation should be obtained
2. Property rights – intellectual property rights should be protected in the modern society so that ownership to intangible property should be handled properly.
3. Quality of life – there should be acceptable ways of doing things in a given society.
4. System quality – data application should be of high quality
5. Accountability and control should be reflected for data prosperity.

Analysis

According the research conducted, various societies have adopted digital/modern ways of doing things because of it’s:

1. Speed
2. Accuracy
3. Memory capacity which is large enough to accommodate more organizations
4. Consistency
5. Processing capability
6. Reliability

Information security

Organizations and individuals have employed the following techniques to secure business transactions:-

1. Password
   Privacy codes have been installed to help organizations to avoid legal problems and to ensure data confidentiality.
2. Laws and regulations to be used in extranets
3. Public area networks (PWAN). Confidential information should be closed to the public so that their access is limited to members of the public but can only be accessed by genuine owners of the data.

International aspects also be considered where members of a given country can only access information within their country.

Impact of e-commerce on business practices

Positive

Enhancing on customer public relation

An e-commerce won’t be able to improve on the relationship between the business and the customer unless they have some ideas about the consumers of their products and services. That is by having knowledge on the customer’s needs, purchasing practices, enticements, and behavior. E.g. easy functionality of the web site of the company, low prices, after sale service, offering call services etc these are some of the factors that are likely to contribute more enhancing customer enterprise relation(Cho 2003).

A good example is that e-commerce has a competitive advantage when it comes to peak times such as back to school. This means that through e-commerce online purchases and after sales services enables the current business practices to be able to get the products and acquire services from home and get them there(Bharati 2006, Hershey).

Symmetry of online and human relations

Besides market coverage advantage brought about by e-commerce, the interaction with the consumers is also an issue that has been impacted by the adoption of the e-commerce. This is through the linkages between all the departments in the companies through the online business to present a uniform surface.

E.g. the amount deducted after presentation of consumer’s credit card should be based on the price charged at the point of transaction i.e. display uniformity from all fronts (Bhaskar 2004). This enhances the cross-channel purchasing actions undertaken by the consumers.

This is a method which has been adopted by most of the e-commerce companies through linking most of their online transaction with the offline one. This choice board channel has hence demanded from the e-commerce enterprises to carry out a customer survey that seeks to understand who their customers are and their nature of interaction both online and physical interaction in the store (Cho 2003).

Invest in clientele services

With the inversion of e-commerce into the market economy, the major issue is on how to entice the customers’ attention to purchase the e-products. This has shifted the market operation to a more consumer oriented services, where to make profit the e-commerce vendors need not to lure potential buyers who are likely to purchase their products and services(Bressler 2001).

The investments have shifted towards customer satisfaction besides other essential factors to achieve business aims and objectives. Some of the customer oriented technologies are the call delivery, interactive voice reaction, PC telephone incorporation, information management systems, etc all geared towards packaging, delivery, public relations and customer service (Croteau and Li, 2003, p. 22).

This is in contrast with the former ideology where enterprises considered customer service utility as an expense venture and non profitable (Clarke 2004)

Although if the goals of an enterprise towards customer relations does not go as planned consequentially it can lead to drastic failure for the enterprise i.e. customer dissatisfaction is likely to occur if the customer service does not fulfill its purpose.

Negative

The comparison between the traditional offline business transaction and the e-commerce business transactions indicate that despite the adoption of e-commerce as major prospects in maximization of profit through larger market reach, offline business transaction is still there to stay.

This is because despite the influence brought about by the internet and the www, offline business transaction is still preferred and more secure, the low market reach or the personal communication with the real vendor has made most of the consumers more addicted to the offline transaction mode(Croteau and Li 2003). Hence, online e-commerce transaction has come with it some challenges that are facing the corporate world.

Insecurity

Most if the online product consumers are not likely to use or conduct a transaction in an insecure website. Also as per the requirement of the online vending, e-commerce presents a more insecure information dissemination which has not been adopted by most of the consumers. This is because not all consumers will easily agree to give out his personal details to an online form before being assured of his/her security and the information being given.

Also trust issue is a problem in the use of e-commerce business transaction; this has caused a division in the business world with some enterprises ideologically refusing to devolve in the e-commerce assuming that e-commerce will never surpass the offline business transaction. Hence, this has created a competitive advantage to some enterprises that have adopted, secured and gained the devotion needed from its consumers and still acquiring others (R. e. Feinberg 2002).

Works Cited

Alba, Joseph et al. “Interactive home shopping: consumer, retailer and manufacturer incentives to participate in electronic marketplaces.” Journal of Marketing, 61(1997): 38-53. Print.

Bailor, Coreen. “Furnishing Service Excellence.” CRM magazine, Feb. 2006. Destinationcrm.com. Web.

Beasty, Colin. “Retail’s 2 Worlds. Tips on Integrating Online and Offline Channels.” CRM magazine. 1 Mar. 2006. Destinationcrm.com. Web.

Bharati, Pratyush, and Abhijit Chaudhuri. “Product Customisation on the Web: An Empirical Study of Factors Impacting Choiceboard User Satisfaction.” Information Resource Management Journal, 19.2(2006): 69-82. Print.

Bhaskar, Rahul. “A customer relationship management system to target customers at Cisco.” Advanced Topics in Electronic Commerce. 1(2005): 209-221. Print.

Bressler, Martin. Internet CRM must have human touch. Chicago: Marketing News, 2001. Print.

Cho, Yooncheong, Im, II, and Roxanne Hiltz. “The impact of e-services failures and customer complaints on electronic customer relationship management.” Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatosfaction and Complaining Behavior, 16(2003): 106-118. Web.

Clarke, Irvine III and Theresa Flaherty. “Challenges of transforming a traditional brick-and mortar into bricks-and-clicks model: a small business case study.” Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organisation, 2.4(2004): 74-89. Print.

Croteau, Anne-Marie and Peter Li. “Critical success factors of CRM technological initiatives.” Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 20.1(2003): 21-35. Print.

Etzin, Opher, Amit Fisher, and Segev Wasserkrug. “e-CLV: A modeling approach for customer lifetime in e-commerce domains, with an application and case study for online auction.” Information System Frontiers, 7.4-5(2005): 421-434. Print.

Feinberg, Richard. et al. “The state of electronic customer relationship management in retailing.” International Journal of Retail & Distribution Manegement, 30.10(2002): 470-482. Print.

Feinberg, Richard & Rajesh Kadam. “E-CRM web service attributes as determinants of customer satisfaction with retail web sites.” International Journal of Service Industry Management, 13.5(2002): 432-451. Print.