The Roles of IS-IT in Transforming Enterprises

table of Contents

Abstract

Research Methodologies:

Introduction

The Effects of the World Wide Web on Enterprises

Web 2.0 Applications and Cloud Computing

The Trends of E-Commerce & Its Impact on Enterprises

The Impact of Mobile Applications on Enterprises

The Benefits of Web 2.0, E-commerce Capabilities and Mobile Applications

What Lies in the future?

Conclusion

References

Title: An examination of the strategic options and roles of IS/IT in transforming the enterprise, including the WWW e-commerce and mobile applications.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Enterprises and how advanced technologies are used to benefit organizations. The three main areas concerning ICT: Web 2.0, E-commerce technologies and Mobile Applications, are discussed in detail to give the readers a broader view of the potential these technologies hold for organizations all around the world. The rapid development of agile and collaborative IT infrastructures has truly changed the way of communication across different entities. Not only this, intelligent systems are being used to gather information and knowledge that can be used for greater purposes. An example of this is web analytics, to gain market intelligence on any product or service sold in any part of the world.

The Internet brings enterprises closer to their stakeholders by improving relationships. Reduced costs and increased productivity are also in the package of benefits that enterprises receive by adapting to the new environments of being, trading and communicating - online. So how do enterprises leverage the information to steer their ships to prosperity? How are enterprises gaining larger market shares and reaching wider geographical areas to spread their existence? Executives on the move are always reliant on their smart phones to stay in touch. All this, and more on the trends of technology have been looked at through this research.

This paper boils down to a literature review of lots of work done by other researchers on the same topic and compares what they say about the effects of ICT on enterprises, negative or positive.

Keywords: Strategic Roles of ICT, Enterprises, Web 2.0, E-commerce, Mobile Applications

Research Methodologies:

The goal of carrying out the research was to get information from different perspectives and see how they all relate to the subject matter. Research papers that have been referred to come from a different variety of authors: some in academics; some from organizations that actually make use of the available Internet technologies in carrying out their business duties (like Idea Couture and Frost & Sullivan); some from organizations that play a part in building these technologies (like IBM and Google), and articles from McKinsey that is an organization that carries out global surveys in these fields of work. Also taken into consideration are the viewpoints of the press and media associates (like The Economist and The Channel Insider). Mostly all the articles and research papers were searched for and found online, hence speeding up the research process – this could be another amazing effect of having access to Web 2.0 technologies?

Introduction

The rapid development and enhancement of Information Technologies is providing enterprises with improved ways of leveraging information and in return this change of events is positioning enterprises such that they can gain competitive advantages in several ways: they are able to penetrate markets more successfully over wider geographical areas; regardless of the product or service they provide, the internet and connectivity phenomenon is being used to increase their productivity, and they are able to effectively communicate with all the stakeholders in their respective industries and make good connections with suppliers and consumers (Vickery, et al., 2004; Ducker and Payne, 2010).

This paper will focus on the impact of the World Wide Web, E-commerce Technologies and Mobile Applications on organizations. How have enterprises taken advantage of the great network that connects everyone globally? How can organizations enhance their operations, or grow in size with the help of the online connections? What has been implemented with internet technologies to allow the organizations to change the way they conduct their business? What role do mobile applications play in transforming the enterprises? The answers to all these questions will really outline the strategic role of ICT and the link between ICT and the growth of enterprises.

The use of Web 2.0 technologies has greatly increased potential for organizations to prosper. A research carried out by McKinsey on Business Technology, in June 2008, showed that companies are increasingly using the new technologies to change the way they process data and carry out transactions. This has in turn changed some of their organizational structures (Bughin, Manyika, Miller, 2008).

The research carried out by McKinsey was looking at Web 2.0 technologies like wikis, blogs, social networks and mashups, which are applications that are designed in a way that they combine several Web 2.0 technologies to form a single tool. However, aside from these technologies, there are still more prospective developments that are yet to be exploited to their full use: Cloud Computing and mobile applications. E-commerce is only part of a popular bid in transforming enterprises.

The Effects of the World Wide Web on Enterprises

The rapidly growing Internet technologies are truly transforming the way enterprises operate on a large scale; and in several ways too (Tanburn and Singh, 2001). This paper will broadly illustrate how different aspects of the Internet, Web Applications and Mobile Applications are playing a major role in being an element of the business strategy in all major organizations. The trend where ‘Web 2.0 technologies meet Enterprises’ is referred to as ‘ Enterprise 2.0 ’ and it is seen as “ways of managing information to distributed, agile, collaborative work environments” (Wylie, 2009, p.2). Even the slightest introduction of a new technology in an enterprise will change the business process, hence transforming it with the hope of enhancing the business and making it profitable.