Discussion
Banks and Financial Institutions are getting modernized now and dealing with IT applications such as Information Systems, internet, mobile apps and websites etc. They are doing all these efforts to provide satisfactory services to users within less time. As we know that, in earlier days, most of the tasks in banking and finance sector were done manually and that was so time consuming. The management of hefty records of customers were cumbersome and difficult to organize. But now with implementation of IT applications, working ability of employees have increased and now they can provide accurate work in less time. That is why most of the banking and finance sector are getting computerized for better storage and management of applications (Ramey, 2017).
The major impact of Information Technology can be identified on banking and finance industry by measuring its benefits, risks and its importance.
There is no doubt that banking and finance industry needs IT to perform its essential operations. Today business organizations are getting globalized and want to access banks and financial institution services online from remote locations anytime. Not only business organizations but also other IT users wants to access banking and financial institution services online. To fulfill this demand of users, banking and finance industry has to start implementation of IT applications. (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2017).
Today every business industry is connected with to another industry by Information Technology applications. Whole communication and information sharing is conducted through emails, online calls or through video conferencing. It means, most of the industries have already become digitized and maintaining its existence worldwide. Banking and Finance sector is important for every business industry for managing their finance. But if banks and finance organizations will not adapt IT applications or information systems then they cannot survive among other industries (So Opinionated, 2017). It will be difficult for banking and finance industry and for other industries (Novinson and Novinson, 2017). IT removes the barriers of transferring information beyond the boundaries of countries without any legal and governmental problem. This technology also helps to perform online transactions which is secured way to transfer big amount. Besides this, documents regarding finance, stock exchange and shares etc. can be easily sent online to clients without any problem. Information Technology services are less or free of cost that is why highly adapted by people as compare to conventional technologies for sending and receiving information. This usage of Information Technology enhances its importance in Banking and Finance industry (Ralabandi, 2017).
For better and appropriate implementation of Information Technology in Banking and Finance Industry, it is necessary to fulfill its basic requirements such as what will be the cost of IT, its planning and designing, equipment, training and installation etc. (Poonegar, 2017)
The first basic requirement of Information Technology is cost. Every industry that wants to implement information technology firstly wants to know about its cost. The estimated cost of IT implementation in a business organization is $70,000 or can be more. The actual cost of Information Technology applications depends on requirements of banks and financial organizations that wants to implement IT applications (Pioneerjournal.in, 2017).
Does Banking and Finance Industry need IT?
The proper planning for implementing information technology into banking and finance sector is also an essential requirement. In planning process, overall cost, infrastructure, system components and other essential points regarding IT applications are considered. With a proper planning, it is possible to successfully run IT applications, otherwise some issues or conflicts can occur regarding missing requirements and specifications of IT (tieto.com, 2017).
Designing of IT applications in banks and financial organizations is responsibility of service providers and technical department in organization. The designing must be developed according to infrastructure of banks and financial organization and it must include ways to connect different departments, modes of communication from one department to other and how wireless devices will be configured to run IT applications smoothly (Ramey, 2017).
The installation of all essential components of Information systems i.e. hardware and software components is important. Without proper implementation of these components, it is difficult to run IT applications without faults and errors. Another important requirement in of training and it is required for those employees in banking and finance sector who belongs to non-IT background (Iowa City, IA Patch, 2017). To provide them basic knowledge about IT applications and its operations, training is important and it must be provided by IT professionals. In training process, users can know about essential aspects of IT applications and information systems and about its security and privacy. That is why training session should be conducted properly by IT experts. Through this session, various doubts of employees will be cleared (Kotwani, Kotwani and profile, 2017).
If we talk about usage of IT applications in banks and finance sector then in banking sector it is used for online storage of information in organized way to make it available for all customers and employees who are associated with a particular bank. It is required for advancement of banking sector and to enhance its performance. On other side, in finance sector, it is used to obtain updated information about financial market and its customers. It is necessary for globalization of financial sector. For quick transfer of information with proper security and privacy, IT applications are used in financial organizations (World Economic Forum, 2017).
Information Technology is an essential factor for every business organization to compete in competitive market of banking and finance. Here we will emphasize on significant benefits and advantages of IT in Banking and Finance sector.
- E-Banking is an essential benefit of Information Technology in banking sector. With help of this feature, bank customers can access banking services online easily (Deloitte United States, 2017).
- Online transaction, account summary view, third party transactions and fixed deposit etc. these banking services can be easily implemented by banking customers. This benefit of IT applications in banking sector saves time of both customers and bank employees.
- In finance sector various benefits of information technology have noticed. It is considered that IT is the only way to provide update information of market to financial organizations. With the help of IT, financial sector can work at international level (Francis, 2017).
- Social media applications have also contributed in finance sector to provide valuable information about customers and their interests in financial sector. Besides this, information regarding share market and stock exchange etc. can also collected through IT applications.
These are some essential benefits and advantages of Information Technology in Banking and Finance industry. But to get these benefits appropriate execution of IT applications is required.
Not only benefits and advantages of IT but also some risk factors exist in banking and finance sector that must be taken into consideration by IT users and business industries. The key risk factors of IT that are encountered in Banking and Finance sector are listed as below:
- This risk of data breaching is most crucial for every IT user and it is implemented by hackers through virus attacks. Virus is inserted into system database by hackers to get stored information from database.
- Another risk is leakage of information from network that is used to transfer information online. This can happen due to weak network connections and poor development of network algorithms by developers.
In banks and financial organizations so much important information is stored about finance of customers and personal information of them. Therefore, there are high chances of hacking and phishing attacks.
Why IT is important for Business Survival?
The above discussed risk factors of IT should be controlled by business industries those are using this technology. For achieving this, periodic monitoring and maintenance of IT is important. To monitor IT applications, scanning and monitoring tools can be used that can identify bugs and virus in these applications and can also remove these bugs. Anti-virus or other database scanning tools can be used here. Networking monitoring tools will be effective for network monitoring. Besides this, firewall, cryptography and third party security software solutions can also be used for high level security maintenance. Both IT users and developers should implement security at their own levels to implement IT services in secure way.
Conclusion
After this whole discussion, we can say that IT is beneficial for banking and finance sector but without security, this technology is worthless. Therefore, security maintenance is required by using all relevant security tools and techniques. It is commonly seen that users do not care about their system maintenance and security. So it is accountability of developers to provide them highly secured system and also aware them about its security consequences. But still, users should care their systems as much as they can. Otherwise, they cannot protect their systems from vulnerabilities. The technical departments in banking and finance sectors should aware users about these critical issues of IT privacy and security.
References
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