Introduction
With the coming of technology, people have discovered that IT applications can be customized to meet their needs. This has led to a high level of innovation that was not there before. With such innovations and making everything accessible through a click of a button, Google Apps is one such application that has made it easier to access any information on handheld computer notebooks.
This report will elaborate on how IT has been essential for business management and the impact it has brought to the society. The approach will be majorly an evaluation of the history of Google Apps and how since innovation it has proved to be essential in the business environment.
IT innovation is one of the key features that have seen business become more workable around the globe. With developing different IT products, it does not only portraying product innovation but also business innovation. Google Apps is one such innovation where business people are able to get business emails, calendars and documents without necessarily sitting in an office.
With Google Apps Innovation, communication among team members has been enhanced hence making business environment more interactive than it was before. A higher level of efficiency has been enhanced since the response to queries in the business environment is quick. With Google Apps data management, expensive and time consuming data storage devices have been avoided since all information is online and accessed as wished by the user (Grove Group, 2011).
Historical review of the topic
Before IT innovation, business communication and collaboration was very manual. In search for a better environment, business owners and employees demanded for a better and faster way to communicate with customers and business partners (Laudon & Laudon, 2011).
This is because they needed an end to walking with address books and day planners written in notebooks. The needed, a break from untraceable business emails that after some time got lost since there was no safe custody of historical email data (Grove Group, 2011). Google Apps came in to answer the queries that business people had.
With Google Apps, companies got a web application that could be customizable to their needs. Through Gmail, Google groups, Calendars, Talk, Docs, Marketplace and Sites, business has become more interactive. Communication to customers and business partners has become faster and better since it can be done across a group within a short time.
Cases or stories related to the topic
With innovation in IT, the business environment is challenged to focus on the services needed by their customers, suppliers, employees and business partners (Laudon & Laudon, 2011). A good example of an innovation similar to Google Apps is in Apple Company. The company has been innovative in introducing successful new products like iPod, iTunes and iPhones to the world of IT (Lindgardt, Reeves, Stalk & Deimler, 2009).
All of those products did not only declare the company a success, but they also enhanced availability of notebooks that could be hand held as compared to the traditional address books and day planners. Music downloads, and information access has been made easier hence enhancing efficiency and convenience to the users. With this kind of innovation and convenient access of information, business has grown to a level higher than where it was before such ideas came to reality.
Notebooks are another innovative communication gadget built for wireless communication and internet access (Laudon & Laudon, 2011). Due to their small size, their portability is high making it easier to serve their purpose. They have been designed to have a higher connectivity to the internet. Their highest computing power coupled with their cheap prices has made internet marketing easier hence impacting the business environment positively.
Different arguments of the topic, e.g. ethical impact on society
According to Cave, Oranje, Schindler, Shehabi, & Robinson (2009), social and ethical changes are highly affected by IT connectivity. With increased IT innovation, the society has been greatly affected both positively and negatively. Some of the negative impacts that IT innovation has had on the society include:
- Decrease in privacy and internet confidentiality which is favored by the fact that information kept in history files. These files can be accessed by making a collection of databases that may reveal information about somebody’s browser, and the person involved. With such exposure, information ceased to be private.
- Insecurity and computer crimes have increases as many people get to learn how to use the applications. It has become relatively easy for people to hack into other people’s accounts, access their information and use it to commit crimes. This is the key reason behind many bank robberies that are common nowadays.
- Addiction to the internet, lack of proper accountability for actions performed over the internet and freedom of action are among the many concerns that have come up with IT innovations (Cave, Oranje, Schindler, Shehabi, & Robinson, 2009). So many illegal businesses are opened since one can work from anywhere and be able to access all they need through Google Apps business. This reduced accountability level which is a key ethical factor.
The positive impact that IT innovation has had on the society include:
- Google Apps as a communication tool has managed to reduce the global society into a small village. Through Google Apps, the society has managed to develop from the traditional organizational boundaries to an extended society where customers and service providers are just a click away (Laudon & Laudon, 2011). This has made business environment more open since everything is communicated via the internet that has been made available to all.
- Through IT innovation, business society has become more competitive than it was before. Customers are able to access a wide range of information on a given service hence providing them with a choice of where to buy from. It has also opened to customers’ comments on a company’s products hence helping the company to provide specialized products as per the customer recommendations (Perner, 2008). This has helped to maintain customers who otherwise could go for better services elsewhere.
- Enduring relationships in the business world that were otherwise hard to maintain has been enhanced by IT. Across the board, constant and frequent communications have made it possible for customers and service providers to keep track of what the other side could be developing. This has enhanced delivery of services that are customer focused (Perner, 2008).
Explain how this topic is related to the concepts learned from the textbook
There is a very close relationship between this topic and concepts learned from the textbook. One of the points of relationship is the discussion on the ethical and social impact of information systems. In both cases, there has been a clear expression on the positive, and the negative effects that IT has had on the society.
One of the greatest concerns comes in security, privacy and confidentiality of the system. Through IT, privacy has been highly affected since information can be accessed by anybody if the management system is not well maintained. This has increased cases of hacking into private data leading to high levels of crime.
In both cases, IT innovation has brought a positive impact in business environment. There is a common observation that with IT innovation, business has become more interactive and open to all. Communication to customers, service providers and stakeholders around the globe has been enhanced.
Conclusion
IT innovation has had a remarkable impact in business around the globe due to customized communication that came in order to replace traditional notebooks with handheld computer note books. As discussed earlier, it is through different innovative ideas that business world has grown to where it is today.
With Google Apps, communication among group members has grown to a level that has enhanced management. Everybody in the chain of business has been brought to one society where communication and access of information is established. Having mentioned the positive side of IT innovation, it has also come in with great exposure to lack of privacy and confidentiality.
Such exposures have risked business and enhanced internet crimes like Bank robbery and hacking accounts to use in crimes. New technologies in the IT sector have revolutionized the society; it has become easy to handle so many tasks at once and effectively.
References
Cave, J., Oranje, C. V., Schindler, R., Brutscher, PH-B., & Robinson, N. (2009). Trends in Connectivity technologies and their social-economic impacts. Final Report of the study: Policy Options for the Ubiquitous Internet Society, TR-776-EC. Web.
Grove Group. (2011). Historic Message Journaling. Google Apps Marketplace. Web.
Laudon, J & Laudon, K. (2010). Management Information Systems, 11E. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Lindgardt, Z., Reeves, M., Stalk, G., & Deimler, M. S. (2009). Business Model Innovation. The Boston Consulting Group. Web.
Perner, L. (2008). Introduction to Marketing. USC Marshall. Web.