Introduction
The past decade has seen business trends receive a great upgrade due to the influx of technology. The improvement in technology has greatly affected the methods means and manner in which businesses choose to conduct their activities. Technology has been the greatest determinant of business growth for a variety of reasons.
The better technology the industry has, the greater the computing power and in effect the faster, persuasive and competitive the product becomes. Technology facilitates an effective harness of talent, resources and ideas from the organisations structure (Boorsma & Wolfgang 2007, p9).
Today the influx of virtual business enabled by various technological business modules and vehicles has created a new approach to decision-making as well as business-to-business marketing. It would be difficult to ignore the prevalence of business modules such as Facebook which have flourished through social networking to secure a subscriber network of over 400 million people across the globe.
Driven by a cost cutting objective technology continues to present new deployment methods which are aimed at reducing the cost of acquisition, maintenance as well upgrade of the technology adopted. This has made them a more attractive option as compared to alternative models and approaches to doing business.
Cloud computing for example has opened a window of opportunities for majority if not all business players by offering new approaches to the concept of demand and supply. The consumer on his part is provided a variety of ways to derive utility from products, the entrepreneur also get an opportunity to expand their expansion ambitions to new markets breaching the geographical and structural limitations (Boorsma & Wolfgang 2007, p9).
Companies and businesses therefore have to make important decisions on how much investment to make in technology and in the transformation of the business models to harness new opportunities presented by new technology
Markets operating a business-to-business model are characterised by a rather long and complicated buying process that is complicated further by the high costs of operation involved. It therefore follows that the model demands a fare share of objective and purposeful personalised communication. Traditionally the communication models used have been the face-to-face approach due to their convenience speed and immediate response ability.
They have also been commonly used due to their flexibility in delivery of the message. The parties can customize the message to accommodate a change in circumstance as well as new circumstances. This is greatly attributed to the oligopolistic nature of these markets presenting a highly imbalanced seller to buyer ration.
These aspects have been responsible for the general trend and direction of the business-to-business models. As De Pelsmacker et al (2004, p59) puts it the general trend has been to focus on personal selling alongside trade shows as the central marketing elements. Others suggest alternatives methods such as advertisements in business journals as the most appropriate methods of informing the consumer of the availability of a specific brand for their choosing and purchase.
Despite the effectiveness of these methods however the emergence of new business marketing methods and options such as direct mail, online market strategies as well as database management have created a great indifference for managers and executives.
They have to make investment decisions between expensive technologies that have a promise of high results and run the risk of obsolesce of the technology as opposed to sticking to the traditional methods of marketing and consumer outreach approaches. I will examine how the emerging technology and communication has affected the business-to-business buying process and decision-making.
Argument
A long-standing measure of a successful entrepreneur is their ability to organise groups of market participants to create a market. The influx of technology has created a reliable and viable method of doing just that through the internet in the context of internet marketing. The digital revolution has infected the marketing process with a wave of transformation that has progressively increased over the past few years.
The digital influence on the various market and market players has fuelled an enthusiasm that is directed at the various digital options and choices in business models. This revolution has also been of great help to entrepreneurs and sellers who get an opportunity to centralise their efforts to embrace the consumer based business models. This therefore increases their level of consumer service by blending various digital options and elements.
Digital marketing is however very different from internet marketing and is often but erroneously mistaken to mean the latter. Generally, internet marketing is a typical example of digital marketing since the tools of digital marketing include the internet alongside other related tools such as television channels, cell phones as well as wireless networks and connections.
These tools if well employed have a great capacity to influence the buyer’s decision on whether to buy or not to buy or not. The buyer will be more convinced by a good presentation format that is technologically compliant with the recent trends that relate with them and express a futuristic impression.
This however requires great monetary investment as well as strict and proper management to be able to achieve results. The technology for example must be compatible with the organisations goals objectives and strategy to avoid conflict and retrogressive or irrelevant technologies. As such, innovation in technology keeps presenting new opportunities and methods of engagement in the buying process and decision-making. This however comes at its own cost.
From open source software developers to social network streamers such as Facebook and Twitter the market has switched digital. The open source websites boast of over 68 million bloggers who participate in product evaluation and in the distribution of product information.
Customer relations have therefore been greatly enhanced through digital innovation. The players in the business-to-business market have an opportunity to instantly respond to each other’s questions fears and suggestions. A company therefore, lowers the cost of serving its customers by investing in an operational and suitable Web based customer service solution.
This option allows the company to monitor its performance through the number of complains or complementary comments it receives through the customer service tool. Innovation in technology has gone an extra mile by offering a word of mouth Web based marketing option that allows buyers to share their experience with the specific product for others to see and hear.
Sellers on the other hand get to explain verbatim the additional facilities offered by their product over and above their competitors (Immelt, Govindarajan & Trimble 2009, p57). In the near future therefore the buy or sell decision will greatly rely on how good the technology conveys the information between the participants of such a market.
Technology therefore has created an opportunity to tap into communities and create value from the formed groupings. This therefore implies that companies must comprehensively research before engaging with a potential service provider in relation to technology.
Successful communication is a two way process with feed forward and feedback. Technology has also facilitated communication between the buyers and sellers by allowing the parties to supply feedback on the various concerns raised by the participants. This maintains a continuing participation and stimulates the level of commitment by the parties to the buying and selling decisions.
As previously discussed, technology has allowed organisations to breach their limits in manpower, resource and geography through technological implements. Research suggests that this attribute of technological influence taps into a world of talent allowing companies to sustain flexibility and create volatility in business relations.
Technology has rendered the market more porous allowing companies to work above the constraints of corporate infrastructure. In the past, this has been seen to work very well especially during the economic recession that left most companies with few workable option thereby causing companies to push for sustainable networks (Gawer 2010).
Typically, the quality of talent an organisation can access in resolving technical client problems would be constrained by the company’s resources being structural and economic. An engineering company for instance,is only as good as its best engineer and therefore it can only be as good as the best salary it can offer to its engineers as the best ones come at a price.
Technology has however made it easier for a manager to map knowledge sources with information hubs and a worldwide staff. This facilitates better utilisation of talent and increases the quality of unit innovation among its operation units.
The various projects a manager undertakes are therefore authorised and assessed by the best of the best among experts in the specific specialty through the global network. This approach draws input from all calibres of employees ranging from fresh graduates to retirees.
A good example of these labour markets is the Mechanical Turk courtesy of Amazon.com which specializes in selling expertise and consultancy as well as problem solving
(Prahalad 2009). Despite this advantage and growth potential, management conservatism and bureaucracy still confines most companies to the talent and quality of its full time employees whose limits go only as far as the organisations’ structure.
Technological advancement and innovation continue to offer new options every other day. In the near future, these options will be too many and the big question will be one of collaboration. It is important to ensure that any such engaged resource is exploited to its full potential. Essentially different innovations have different potential and capacities. The efficiency however depends on the collaboration of resources in the organisation.
The collaboration leads to economies of scale and capacity. Teleconferencing and video conferencing for example has worked as a cost effective tool that saves on time and travel costs for the selling managers and business consultants. It also allows for more flexibility in the organisations capacity. The buyer’s decision to buy is therefore greatly influenced by convincing the sales executive in the video conference session. The buying process therefore still maintains an aspect of the interpersonal contact and dimension.
In any buying process, the participants will always be concerned about history, authenticity and a promise of future consistency in service delivery. The transactions need to be authenticated to create assurance and confidence. The traditional approach would be for the participants to test, see or try the commodity before buying.
Technology has facilitated automation of this process through the adoption of the radiofrequency identification and similar technologies. These create an information system that has assets in the form of elements of the system. One good such example is in the insurance industry where a company can keep account of the driver’s behaviour for the purpose of evaluation of their risk profile and for the purpose of payment of compensation should the risk materialize (Barabasi 2009).
Technology has increased the accessories of the buying decision by allowing parties to offer guarantees of safety and an assurance of quality. More advanced innovation has enabled proactive action in luxury automobiles to engage intelligent action just before an accident occurs. In the medical industry the innovation has created an opportunity for cheaper more effective medical surveillance and protective mechanism against diseases and preventable illnesses.
The process involves body implants that keep a record of body changes for the purpose of medical adjustments and medical prescription observation and supervision. The information collected allows for a more proper diagnosis of body problems. This not only guarantees the authenticity of products in the buying process but also guarantees safety.
A good buy decision relies on the level of information relied on by the decision maker. This information would ordinarily be available only if gathered manually from the field or through trial and experimentation. These however are timely and expensive engagements that need not be undertaken thanks to technological innovation.
Commonly referred to as the “big data,” the information system alternative offers access to smart assets for the buyer to choose from coupled with product information to facilitate their evaluation and information to ensure that the buyer’s expectations are adequately met. This allows the buyer to evaluate different product combinations at a lower cost as opposed to physical examination and testing or sampling.
Technology has also allowed specialists, analysts and marketers to conduct purpose based trials and experiments on product combinations depending on customer expectations. The customers’ expectations are gathered from the social media websites and product review search engines. The experiment involves putting product combination for the discussion review and evaluation by the consumers (Thomke 2001, p66).
Their responses through blogs and comments on these websites create a rating mechanism for these product combinations. These have also been used to adjust prices on a periodic basis to conform to the prevailing circumstances and the data provided by real-time data monitors on social media.
From a corporate responsibility perspective, the buying process in certain circumstances caused environmental stress. This is partially due to the depletion of the existing resources and partially due to the waste generated by the process. Technology has facilitated a change in the level of responsibility of the participants of the business market by offering environmental friendly alternatives that go towards conservation and preservation of resources.
The green data movement for instance, creates an opportunity to conserve energy by developing environmental friendly implements that have automated energy saving mechanisms. Undeniably, the responsibility to preserve the environment falls on all and every stakeholder.
Technology has therefore facilitated the principles of sustainability in the buying process by facilitating cost sharing and harmonised action (McAfee 2009). The mitigation mechanisms offered by technology also provide a quantity analysis. This information can be used in the monitoring supervision and reporting of the benefits as weighed against the damage contributed by information technology.
Every company looks to reduce its fixed costs which account for the least possible price they can quote for the consumer. Business to business customers specifically invest in cost cutting alternatives and are more willing to maintain a cost as variable and terminable as opposed to a determinate fixed cost.
Transport for instance, can be fixed or variable depending on the approach adopted. If a consumer acquires a bus they write it off as a fixed cost distributed evenly over the useful life of the product. In the alternative, technology has allowed for a re- evaluation of this product into a service where the consumer can acquire the purpose of the product as opposed to the physical product its self.
The input of technology has allowed companies such as City Carshare to create a value added market for transportation services as an alternative to the purchase of transport equipment. The transportation service is easier to a count for and is more reliable and takes a corporate value approach.
The cost then changes to a variable cost, which is adjusted on a periodic basis. It is also a more economical approach since the service is only paid for when it is rendered and it is paid for in the same measure of utility. This has changed the business-to-business concept through outsourcing which draws from the indefinite global resource.
Transactions and business decisions gain value through interaction and exchange of information and communication. The traditional business model relies on the face-to-face interaction communication and information exchange. Technology has however transformed the business-to-business model to a multisided business model from a two-side model by allowing a three-way transaction.
The advertising aspect in a newspaper allows newspapers to generate their revenue while still offering the users content. This creates a reliable market of defined sellers and many consumers in which case the consumers are segmented based on the side of the transaction and the benefit they expect to derive (Carr 2009).
Relevance and suitability of a product are serious considerations in the buying decision. Therefore, the appropriateness of a service or product to a specific consumer environment and circumstance goes a long way in persuading the consumer to acquire or purchase the product.
Technology has allowed the business-to-business communication process to adjust to the specific situations and circumstances through different user interfaces that adjust in language circumstance and conditions. The financial sector business to business model has greatly advanced in rural Africa through retail banking under the M-Pesa module that offers a connection between bank accounts and cell phones allowing up to 8 million to access banking services.
The use of virtual cash services allows the users to access funds even in remote areas by visiting licensed shops. It is also a multisided method that allows companies to transfer funds to each other and to their employees and from employees to the companies and institutions such as banks (Bryan & Joyce 2007).
Conclusion
The future of technology in business is bright as new methods of operation and interaction continue to emerge. The impact of technology on business transactions and decisions will also continue to gradually increase creating a dependent relationship in regard to decision making choice and preference (Brynjolfsson & Saunders 2009).
Technology creates a capacity and opportunity for competitive advantage. The message is clear, organisations should acknowledge the role if innovation and technology in the business process as a strategy towards growth and competitive advantage (Malone 2004).
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