We believe that information technology is the future of the world. Everybody needs it. Our friends and family, including other people we don’t know, depend on it. We can’t deny the fact that continuous innovations provide us with things we both like and sometimes don’t like. Since innovation has become a more significant part of our lives when it comes to almost everything we do, we can be sure about its contribution. It makes us live innovatively, it gives us comfort and satisfaction, it provides convenience, and it allows us to grow both economically and industrial. So concerning business matters, let’s try to understand how information technology becomes an edge; what are the benefits of technology?
There are times where it becomes complicated to understand how information technology and business processes fit together. But here are simple ways to think about how the correlation progress from scratch to convenience.
Business Process Transaction
The business process happens in the real world. It takes an amount of time, effort, and energy. Let’s say we have an accounts payable process. It is where we get a valid invoice from a particular vendor. We submit it to the management and wait till someone approves it. From there, we go and check and send it back to the vendor for an exchange transaction. As we can see, the business process is about operations. Thousands of these follow some process one way or another. Admittedly, there are many transactions that we somehow cannot track due to flooded information. Yes, we can do all of it with paper. However, each transaction will require armies of people to gather and write the data down. Therefore, we need help.
In every business process, we use computers, and we call it “information technology.” With technology’s assistance, we can make detailed notes of all the transactions we get from the real world. That is because there is a surprising amount of data generated every day, even by a single transaction we do. Therefore, in a sense, we are creating a mathematical model between our situation and all the operations we have. With this process, our data becomes the building blocks of our model. However, it doesn’t end there. The data we gather can potentially change instantly and continuously. Therefore, we still need to adjust.
The Business And Its Software
The business process adjustment we need to make in every transaction depends on our capacity to understand numbers. By that, we reduced the generated vast details of information and managed its value. That’s why we need to capture and store it in a software program or database. But what is a database? Well, we can’t see what it is. We only know that it is part of a functioning computer that does all the storing, gathering, changing, and retrieving of data. The operational process is substantial and more efficient compared to manual labor. That’s because it dramatically cuts costs, develops innovative solutions for new market ventures, and improves business by providing quality services to consumers.
The role of software is to support the process of business transactions. It provides the means to maintain and create a functioning mathematical model. However, the software doesn’t exist on its own. From there, we need the other fundamental components of information technology, and that’s the hardware. There are servers, networks, PCs, keyboards, and all the other things that require running the software. With all the knowledge on this stuff, it becomes easier to picture how the business process and IT fit together.
The Role Of IT In Businesses
Information technology’s role in every business appears in categories.
- Enterprise System – It is an IT system that controls e-commerce or the facilitation of business on the Internet. Examples of these are online shopping, online auctions, electronic payments, online ticketing, and internet banking. It supports Business to Business (B2B), Businesses to Consumer (B2C), and Consumer to Consumer (C2C) transactions. Its benefits revolve around the convenience of eliminating geographical distance and access limitations. It also supports m-commerce, where mobile devices open a new avenue for a wide variety of transactions.
- Decision Support System – It is where an organized collection of essential details gets operated. It allows the compilation of software, database, business procedures, people, and devices that support a problem-specific decision making. Usually, IT resolves complex issues in the business and determines appropriate action.
- Specialized Business Information System – IT in business revolves around knowledge management, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and expert system.
When we realize that information technology is merely supporting business processes, then we can start to see that innovation is vital in improving transactions. Perhaps that’s the reason why smart business people are willing to spend a lot of money on improving efficiency with IT projects. Because with the help of technological tools, employees and companies can enjoy a vast number of business-related convenience and benefit.