Answer To: In this assessment students must write a 2000-word essay on one of the following topics:1. How...
Ahmedali answered on Apr 05 2020
E-Technologies & Modern Organizational Business Operations
E-Technologies & Modern Organizational Business Operations
E-Technologies & Modern Organizational Business Operations
Management of Associated Risks & Threats
4/4/2018
Table of Contents
Introduction 2
Set of E-Technologies 2
E-Communications & Information Sharing 2
E-Commerce 2
E-marketing & Advertising 3
E-Information Management & Storage 3
Other Technologies 3
Impact of E-Technologies on Modern Organizational Business Operations 3
Ease of Operations & Higher Accuracy 3
Cost-Efficiencies 4
Strategic Thinking & Decision-Making 4
Efficient Information Storage & Management 5
Easy Feedbacks & Customer Reviews 5
Challenges, Threats & Risks 5
Measures Taken by Suppliers 6
Conclusion 7
References 9
Introduction
Electronic Technologies (e-technologies) are being used by the modern business organizations for the execution of their business operations and activities. With the advancement in technologies, there are numerous transformations that have taken place in terms of the procedures and methodologies that are used in the business organizations. The change in practices and enhanced involvement and reliance on e-technologies has provided several benefits to the business organizations. However, there are a few areas of concern as well that have emerged in the form of threats and risks.
The report covers an overview of the e-technologies that are used by the modern organizational business operations, their impact, and the associated threats and risks.
Set of E-Technologies
E-Communications & Information Sharing
One of the most important and widely used e-technology that is observed is the use and implementation of electronic methods of communication and information sharing by the business organizations.
The e-technologies are used for internal and external communications through the use of e-mails, instant messengers, tele-communication mediums, and electronic file sharing. There are SharePoint locations that are set up by the business organizations for secure exchange of private and confidential reports and documents (Walsh et al. 2013).
Social media is another e-communication platform that is used by the business organizations to share information with the internal and external stakeholders and for interacting with the customers.
E-Commerce
There are a huge number of business organizations that now allow their customers to purchase their respective goods and services from their web portals.
The integration of electronic commerce with the business organizations has allowed the business organizations to reach out to an increased number of customers as they are no longer bound by geographical boundaries and locations.
E-marketing & Advertising
Marketing and advertising is one of the most important activities that are carried out by the business units. It is essential for the business organizations to develop a marketing strategy that may allow them to have an enhanced market reputation along with an excellent customer base.
There are e-technologies that are now used for the purpose of marketing and advertising. Social media also plays a significant role in this activity along with the involvement of e-marketing tools and techniques in the business organizations (Pani and Agrahari 2004).
E-Information Management & Storage
The business organizations in the present times make use of e-databases and platforms to store the huge clusters of data and information sets. These e-technologies are also used for the handling and management of the data sets.
There are cloud databases that are used by the business units for the storage of information sets on the virtual mediums. Some of the popular database engines, such as Oracle, MySQL, and others now allow the business units to make use of their online counterparts as well. These electronic storage platforms allow the business organizations to effectively store their data and information sets (Januzaj, Ajdari and Selimi 2015).
Other Technologies
The e-technologies are also used by the business organizations in routine business tasks as well, such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, project management, organizational planning, and other tasks and activities.
Impact of E-Technologies on Modern Organizational Business Operations
Ease of Operations & Higher Accuracy
The use of e-technologies in the business organizations have provided the human resources with ease of operations and have made the process of execution easier. Earlier, there were manual operations carried out by the resources that led to higher probability and frequency of the operational errors and mistakes.
The involvement of e-technologies has eliminated the same and this in turn has led to the enhancements in the accuracy levels as well.
With the use of e-technologies, the processing and operational speed has also increased which has led to overall improvement in the quality of the business operations and activities. The use of e-communications allows the resources to connect with the fellow resources and managers in real-time. The resources can easily seek guidance on specific business operation from any of the remote locations and may also share the project specific documents and information. The resolution of conflicts and disputes also takes place quickly leading to operational continuity and excellence (Madanchian and Taherdoost 2016).
Cost-Efficiencies
There is a lot of debate that happens around cost-efficiencies with the involvement of e-technologies. There are several costs that are associated with e-technologies, such as acquisition costs, implementation costs, cost of trainings, and maintenance costs. However, the involvement of e-technologies eliminates numerous unnecessary costs from the business architecture, such as cost of resources, cost of re-work, data costs, and many others.
As a result, cost-efficiencies are achieved with the involvement of e-technologies in the business organizations for the execution of modern business operations.
Strategic Thinking & Decision-Making
There are a number of decisions that the project resources are required to make during the project timeline. The use of e-technologies has allowed the processes of strategic thinking and decision-making easier.
This is because e-technologies, such as e-databases allow the business organizations and resources to have all the information available at one place. The information can be easily acquired from these databases to carry out analysis and planning activities for decision making. There are also specific tools that allow the business units to easily make business decisions. For instance, the decisions on market plans and strategies can be made by acquiring the data from e-marketing tools and channels. There may also be requirement of discussing specific points with the fellow managers, seniors, and peer which can be done through use of e-communications tools and technologies (Steptoe‐Warren, Howat and Hume 2011).
There are also automated data analytics tools that have been developed that allow the project managers and resources to analyse the data sets to recognize the patterns and trends for easier decision making.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and other enterprise level e-tools and technologies also make the task of strategic thinking and decision-making easier.
Efficient Information Storage & Management
There are huge clusters of data and information sets that are handled and stored by the business organizations. The use of e-technologies have led to the elimination of issues, such as data replication, data loss, and likewise.
This is because of the reason that the data sets are now streamlined and stored in the dedicated repositories. The business resources can easily access the databases using secure and authenticated credentials to view or modify the data sets as per the permissions granted to them.
There are also data backups that are taken by these e-tools and techniques so that the security and safety of the data sets is always maintained.
Easy Feedbacks & Customer Reviews
The e-tools and techniques, such as e-communication methods and platforms have provided the business organizations to have enhanced customer interaction. The customers can now easily provide their feedback and comments in terms of reviews, positive aspects of a particular product or service provided by a business organization, negative comments, and likewise.
As a result, the business organizations get the opportunity to improve upon their business operations and practices.
Challenges, Threats & Risks
The use of e-technologies and tools has allowed the business organizations to experience numerous benefits and there have been positive benefits of the implementation of these technologies as discussed in the sections above.
There are also numerous challenges, threats, and risks that are witnessed with the use and implementation of these technologies.
· Security Risks: The use of e-technologies has led to the emergence of numerous security risks and challenges. This is because there are malicious entities that are present that make use of increased number of access points that come along with these technologies. Some of the security risks and attacks that are commonly observed are as listed below.
· Information breaches and leakages take place which negatively impact the information properties, such as confidentiality and integrity of the information sets.
· Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks take place that impact the availability of the networks and information sets.
· Eavesdropping and man in the middle attacks may take place through unauthorized network scanning and monitoring.
· Malware attacks are very common in case of e-technologies and tools that include the attack of virus, ransomware, worms, logic bombs, adware, botnets, and spyware, Trojan Horses etc. (Fazlida and Said 2015).
· Message and media alteration attacks may take place impacting the integrity of the information sets.
· Account hijacking and exploitation of vulnerabilities may also occur by violation of access control measures and authentication principles.
· Technical Risks: There are at times technical faults and failures that are associated with the use of e-technologies and tools. The occurrence of technical issues and risks may impact the execution of the business operations which in turn may have an impact on the business continuity and availability.
· Operational Risks: The business resources and entities often give shape to operational errors and mistakes during the usage of e-technologies and tools in the business organizations. At times, the damage resulting out of the error may not be reversible (Jallow et al. 2007).
Measures Taken by Suppliers
The suppliers of e-technologies and tools have taken certain measures to avoid and prevent the risks associated with the same.
For controlling, detecting, preventing, and avoiding the security risks and attacks, the suppliers make sure that the encryption feature is integrated with the tools and technologies. With the encryption of the data and information sets that get associated with these technologies and tools, the attackers fail to misuse the data sets even when they succeed in capturing them. The technologies come enabled with by-default encryption algorithms (Singh and Supriya 2013). This enhanced the secure sharing of information sets and the protection of the same. The suppliers also make use of enhanced access control, password protection, and authentication measures. For instance, there are multi-fold authentication parameters enabled with such technologies and applications. There are also anti-malware and anti-denial tools along with intrusion detection tools that are integrated with these technologies to put a check on security risks and attacks.
The technical risks and errors are avoided with regular updates that are released by the suppliers for enhanced maintenance of the e-tools and technologies. The suppliers also provide the business organizations with the technical trainings and guidance on the usage of the technology along with upgrades and change in configurations that shall be implemented. There are also technical guides and manuals that are provided by the suppliers along with these tools and technologies to make sure that the technical risks and challenges are avoided.
There is a lot of documentation that comes along with the e-technologies and tools as provided by the suppliers. These include user manuals and guides to gain information on the operational knowledge. The suppliers also provide initial rounds of trainings to the business resources to make them familiar with the features and functionalities of the tools and aspects of the technologies involved. There is also a support team that is made available at the supplier’s end that remains available 24x7. The support staff makes sure that the queries and complaints are immediately resolved and the resources and users are provided with the guidance to avoid any of the operational errors and mistakes.
Conclusion
The advancements in the field of technology have led to numerous benefits for the business organizations and units. One such component of technology is e-technology and tools that are being widely used by the business organizations for the execution of modern business operations. Some of these technologies include e-communications, e-marketing and advertising, e-information management and storage, e-commerce, and many others. With the use of e-technologies, the processing and operational speed has increased which has led to overall improvement in the quality of the business operations and activities. The involvement of e-technologies eliminates numerous unnecessary costs from the business architecture, such as cost of resources, cost of re-work, data costs, and many others. The use of e-technologies has allowed the processes of strategic thinking and decision-making easier. These tools and technologies have also led to the elimination of issues, such as data replication, data loss, and likewise. There are also a few challenges and risks that the business organizations face with the use of e-technologies and tools, such as security risks, technical risks, and operational risks. The suppliers can use suitable measures to prevent and avoid these risks and attacks.
References
Fazlida, M.R., and Jamaliah Said. 2015. "Information Security: Risk, Governance And Implementation Setback". Procedia Economics And Finance 28: 243-248. doi:10.1016/s2212-5671(15)01106-5.
Jallow, A. K., B. Majeed, K. Vergidis, A. Tiwari, and R. Roy. 2007. "Operational Risk Analysis In Business Processes". BT Technology Journal 25 (1): 168-177. doi:10.1007/s10550-007-0018-4.
Januzaj, Ylber, Jaumin Ajdari, and Besnik Selimi. 2015. "DBMS As A Cloud Service: Advantages And Disadvantages". Procedia - Social And Behavioral Sciences 195: 1851-1859. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.06.412.
Madanchian, Mitra, and Hamed Taherdoost. 2016. "Perusing Of Organizational Culture Effects On E-Mail Communication". Procedia Technology 22: 1076-1083. doi:10.1016/j.protcy.2016.01.152.
Pani, Ashis K., and Amit Agrahari. 2004. "E-Markets In Emerging Economy". Journal Of Electronic Commerce In Organizations 2 (4): 117-127. doi:10.4018/jeco.2004100109.
Singh, Gurpreet, and Supriya Supriya. 2013. "A Study Of Encryption Algorithms (RSA, DES, 3DES And AES) For Information Security". International Journal Of Computer Applications 67 (19): 33-38. doi:10.5120/11507-7224.
Steptoeâ€Warren, Gail, Douglas Howat, and Ian Hume. 2011. "Strategic Thinking And Decision Making: Literature Review". Journal Of Strategy And Management 4 (3): 238-250. doi:10.1108/17554251111152261.
Walsh, Colin, Eugenia L. Siegler, Erin Cheston, Heather O'Donnell, Sarah Collins, Daniel Stein, David K. Vawdrey, and Peter D. Stetson. 2013. "Provider-To-Provider Electronic Communication In The Era Of Meaningful Use: A Review Of The Evidence". Journal Of Hospital Medicine 8 (10): 589-597. doi:10.1002/jhm.2082.