Information Technology and Supermarkets
Development of the Information Technology has been commendable since the past few years and it have changed the way in which industries operate in today’s world. The biggest beneficiaries are the ones who have successfully applied it to their day-to-day operations and making work easier with the help of automation as well as reducing the expenses of undertaking different operations. In the service industry of supermarket, there is a lot of advantage of effective application as well as adoption of the Information Technology. The main beneficiaries in the case of a super market are the stakeholders who consist of the customers, the owners of the business and the suppliers (Mwangi, and Muturi, 2018). In the nations where the penetration of internet is high, the e-commerce has been extremely successful and most of the businesses have been able to get efficiency in their operations. The business which needs the application of Information technology needs to be sure of the technology’s relevance as the way it will fit in their operations. Without considerations, there can be downfall in the business due to technology. In such a case, the implementation of the information technology needs a great knowledge of the particular needs which can be achieved. There must also be implementation of effective as well as workable policies for its implementation in the organisations so that their objectives can be achieved. There is onus task in the retail sector of meeting the satisfaction of the customers owning the fact that there is interaction in between them during the process of delivering any product or services. Supermarkets are among the major players in the retail industry (Thomas-Francois, and Somogyi, 2022). With respect to the retail business, the supermarkets have finances, goods; workers as well as suppliers for the management of their operations and these tasks can be daunting and can have a great impact on their potential and effectiveness of meeting the customer’s needs and demands.
Software has become the backbone and soul of every business in this digital era for the maintenance of efficiency, agility, services and decreasing ramifications. A lot of doors have been opened in business because of software systems- it helps in archiving of the documents; it helps in effective communication, looks after the safety of the data and secures the information of the clients (Santarek, et al., 2022). Technology has become extremely vital in the morn workplace and among all, software is the most important. It is a set of programs or instructions which helps a user in performing tasks and a system software like the operating system that helps other software in running properly, through interfacing with hardware. The software has the potential of automating many processes rather than consuming time by doing things manually. Software saves money and time by completing various tasks in a minute. If there was no software, the business would have to hire employees for performing those tasks. Software helps in the management of payments in the organisation for the contractors and the employees and it is able to calculate the deductions of taxes, make invoices as well as billing (Rajkanna, Mathankumar and Ganesan, 2021). In the current world of information technology, software has become compulsory for every business for staying competitive. A business without software is like a body without any soul.
The Importance of Software in Business
Ethical and social issues arise due to the utilisation of technology in every aspect of our lives as well as in business. It has resulted in the development of new branch of ethics- technoethics (Zhang, et al., 2019). Technoethics is an interdisciplinary area of research which is concerned with every moral as well as ethical aspect of technology in the society. Mastering the ethical challenges that includes technology is important for the continued success of the business. In the 21st century, copying music, clips as well as other digital media and posting them on the website is very easy. If the material is having copyright, then using it can be illegal and unethical. There are many anticipated consequences of any new technology. Embracing a new technology or software without taking into consideration its potential drawbacks can result in many problems (Masudia, et al., 2018). When the employees make use of social media, even when they are away from the work can arise ethical issues. Technology makes it extremely easy to keep an eye on the activities of an employee by their emails, browsing history well as the per minute keystroke on their keyboard. According to the critics of constant surveillance, it is very intrusive and does not result in the increase of efficiency. A business that makes use of the artificial intelligence or some predictive algorithms should include the estimates of probability with their conclusions. This information will help in building confidence in the users and prevent potential errors.
The technology which is utilised for exchanging data between small as well as large information is called the network technology. The technicians of network technology are aware of the installation, configuration as well as trouble shooting of the network technology and it can be used for sending digital data such as audio, data as well as visual files. With the help of networking, users can send messages and files through e-mails or some other channels on the basis of the needs of the organisation (Badenhop and Frasquet, 2021). The growth of network comprises of examining the needs of the organisation and business information along with the estimates of the costs of training, account management, hardware and security. During the installation of network, a technician is responsible for the network operations through the provision of technical support to the employees of the organisation from any problems. The network technology can be classified on the basis of transmission and scale. The network technology on the basis of transmission can be done with the help of concepts like pointy-to-point and multipoint (Antczak, Weron, and Zabawa, 2020). The network technology on the basis of scale can be done through LAN, PAN, WAN, MAN as well as VPN.
Instead of serving as a replacement for the ingenuity and human intelligence, artificial intelligence is generally seen like a supporting tool. Even though Artificial Intelligence has a tough time at present in the completion of commonsense work in the practical world, it is adept at analysing as well as processing data troves much faster than a brain of human could (Kantamaturapoj and Marshall, 2020). The software of artificial intelligence can then return with some synthesised action course and present them to the users. Artificial Intelligence is the second coming software; it is a type of software which makes decisions on its own and the one which has the potential of acting in the situations which are not foreseen through the programmers. It has wider latitude of the ability of decision making as opposed to the traditional software (Khandpur, et al., 2020). These features make Artificial Intelligence extremely valuable throughout major industries.
Ethical and Social Issues with Technology
Software development lifecycle is the procedure of development of software. The framework comprises of the following steps:
Stage 1: Planning and requirement analysis
Analysis of the requirement is the most vital stage in Software development lifecycle.
The team’s senior members carry out it through the inputs of the stakeholders along with the domain experts or the Subject Matter Experts in the industry (Njuguna, 2018). This stage includes planning for the needs of quality assurance as well as identifications of the associated risks of the project.
Stage 2: explaining requirements
Once the analysis of requirements is completed, the next stage includes the representation as well as documentation of the needs of the software and getting them the approval from the stakeholders of the project, (Patil, and Selokar, 2020).
Stage 3: Software designing
The next stage is bringing down the knowledge of needs, analysis as well as design of the software project.
Stage 4: Project development
In this particular phase of development, the real development starts and the programming is built up.
Stage 5: Testing
After the generation of the code, the testing is done against the needs for making sure that the products are being able to solve the requirements addressed as well as collected at the time of the requirements stage.
Stage 6: Deployment
After the certification of the software, when no bugs or errors are identified then the deployment is done. The software might then be realised on the basis of the assessment as ot is or without any suggested improvements in the segment of the object.
Stage 7: Maintenance
Once the systems are used by the clients, then the real problems come up and the requirements have to be resolved on timely basis.
System Software used in Supermarkets
From a small supermarket to a large one, system software is very important for increasing the sales as well as looking after the management of the store easily and the supermarket POS helps it in expansion and growth. A software in the supermarket helps in understanding the needs of the customers from their history of purchase and stocking up the correct inventory cutting down the investments which are not needed (Dhodi, 2018). The system software is vital for the supermarkets for the management of batches as well as expiry of products. It helps in the acquisition of more customers and delivering the best experience of customers with the help of an integrated Customer Relationship Management. It helps the customers in spending more with the suggestions of discounts as well as suggestions. System software can help in retaining the loyal customers through the management of loyalty programs. It aids in avoiding stock-outs and the maintenance of correct inventory. It automates the management of purchase with automatic purchase orders for the suppliers, system software helps in eradicating the procedure of manual ordering procedures with intelligence supported recording (Hikmawati, Alamsyah, and Setiadi, 2020). It offers an absolute control over the inventory as well as helps with the expiry and waste management. Through system software, a supermarket can keep a track of the outstanding of suppliers as well as customers. It helps in seeing the complete reports of the operations of business. System software in the supermarket makes the presence onmichannel for providing independent to the customers. The extra features of the software come with a high cost but the supermarkets have some affordable POS options (Lin, Ma, and Lin, 2021).
Understanding Network Technology
Ethical issues have long preceded the information technology in Walmart. The ethical and social concerns have been heightened through information technology, the present social arrangements have been taxed and some laws have been made obsolete or crippled.
Following trends are mainly responsible for the ethical stresses in Walmart:
The power of computing doubles every 18 months- More enterprises are dependent on the system of compute for important operations (Li, Xie, and Wang, 2019).
Rapid decline in the data storage- Walmart can very easily maintain some detailed database on people.
Networking advances- Copying the data from one location to the other along with accessing the personal data have become very easy.
Growth impact of mobile device- the cell phones of people can be tracked without the knowledge or consent of the user.
The doubling of the power of computing in every 18 months has made it possible for Walmart to make use of the information system for their core activities. As a result, the reliability on systems and the vulnerability on the error systems as well as poor quality of data have increased (Suszynski, et al., 2022). The rules as well as laws of social media have not yet adjusted to the reliability. The standards for ensuring the dependence as well as accuracy of the information’s system are not accepted universally or enforced. The advances in the techniques of storage of data as well as the reducing costs of storage are responsible for the multiplying databases on the employees, potential customers and the present customers. The advances in the techniques of analysis of data for large data pools are another trend which increases the ethical and social concerns as both Walmart and the agencies of government can identify highly informed personal information about people (Wozniak, Valdés-González, and Reyes-Bozo, 2021). With the tools of contemporary data management, Walmart can gather as well as integrate the myriad information pieces of people which are stored in the computers.
Technologies which have helped super markets function in a more effective manner have evolved for becoming a competitive advantage in the present world which is connected digitally. From the consumer facing solutions like the online ordering as well as curb side pickup to the technologies which makes the supply chain more efficient and manage inventories, the retailers of food as well as their customers are migrating into an increasing digitized environment. The expansion in the sales of e-commerce shows how important onmichannel retailing has turned out to be for becoming successful in the channel of supermarket. Meeting this demand needs some reliable connectivity of network for supporting pickers who navigate the store with the handheld devices (Minimol, and Kakkanad, 2018). Network technologies has even put a strain on the management of inventory as the retailers have scrambled for the provision of same day delivery as well as endless aisle experience of shopping for competing with the pure-play specialists of e-commerce. Along with it, there are many opportunities for the growth in future of the online ordering in the retail environment as the digital native consumers mature and get the power of spending. These people have become known to placing the food order from the restaurants with the use of an application of mobile phone or through a website (Srinivasan, and Kulkarni, 2019). Network technologies have helped the supermarket retailers in operating their stores in a more effective manner through the automation of functions as well as decrease in the amount of time which is spent in filling out paperwork as well as spreadsheets. Even after the immense pressure of the present labour market, technology offers solutions which improve the productivity of employees as well as allow the workers to concentrate on the provision of the value added customer service functions.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence
Walmart is one of the best examples of a grocery store which does not aim for the buyers who are tech savvy only but they are also willing to enhance the experience of shopping of the average customers. The chain experimented with various technologies for finding out the things which matches the comfort levels of the customers (Sharma, Ueno, and Kingshott, 2021). Through this approach of learning, the company found out that with the help of cameras as well as real-time data helped them in boosting up the aggregate shelf-shocking efficiency as well as sales in the meat aisle by 90% and 30% respectively. In the future supermarkets, Artificial intelligence as well as advanced analytics provides enough information on every buyer like their preferences of meal, allergies of food and the reason behind their purchase. Through the employment of AI in supermarkets personalisation, the retailers get extensive knowledge that is walking down their aisles. This approach helps the retailers in crafting some customized promotions for attracting buyers as well as increasing sales (Ye, Zhou and Wu, 2020). The concept of dynamic pricing revolves around machine learning as well as AI in shopping for the determination of the best strategy of pricing for various products. For this, data is analyzed through algorithm from various sources like the historical sales, prices of the competitor, levels of stock as well as special occasions. The supermarkets of future adopts the robots for handling the problems related to inventory like preventing the items which are out of stock, wrong labelling as well as pricing. Robots can help the futuristic supermarket’s employee in coping with the increasing demand for deliveries. One of the most popular super market trends of shopping is the use of AI powered system of forecasting (Gitau, 2020). The algorithms of AI do not completely depend on the historical data which is present in the stores. They can learn from themselves and make forecasts even when there is limited data.
Conclusion
Through the increasing globalization of retailing, with respect to the point of sales as well as points of supply, the information technology which have been spend in the retail sector has drastically increased. Information technology plays a very important role in the management of the complicated operation of the retail stores. The knowledge of market along with the data control as well as information is the key of getting a competitive advantage in the retail sector. There is a constant growth in the market and it keeps on getting more complicated. The simple procedure of retailing began deploying more advanced retail information systems for coping up with every transaction that is involved. In the present era, there is a need for the retailers to transform their capabilities of Information Technologies for many reason like for increasing the potential of the company for responding to the changing marketplace by improved flexibility as well as speed, for collecting as well as examining the data of the customer while improving differentiation, for working effectively the retailers need one system across stores for making sure the stocks are used in the most effective way and the process of business is enhanced. The retailers have started noticing that the role of technology is that of an enabler. Information technology can speed up the procedures as well as cost of delivery, saving benefits to the company. The retailers should be absolutely transparent while using the systems and they must make use of better tracking for the integration of systems from manufacture through the customers and at the same time obtaining information about sales as well as customers.
References
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