Literature Review
The prime determination of this unit of the paper is to focus on the application of information technology in the working environment of Morrison’s Supermarket Company. This business organization deals with food retailing services. Having almost more than 500 stores allover UK, there are about 11 million customers getting their services every week. The operation strategy of this organization improved hugely after the incorporation of IT based systems on their devices.
This paper will be focusing on the technologies used in this business organization and also its impact. This business organization started their services in the year 1899 under the egg and butter merchant William Morrison, they opened their first stall in the Bradford market. Their online businesses were very much impacted positively after the incorporation of the IB based systems. This paper also focuses on the ethical and moral principles of this business as they are exposed to the global market with the help of their online services.
The paper will be having numerous units such as the literature review stating different experiences of different authors about the impact of information technology on the retail industry. The data obtained for this paper is from the official portal of this business organization and also from various internet sources. The analysis and discussion units discusses about the positive and the negative impact of information technology in the retail industries.
The information technology is a typical computer system which is used for data or information storing, retrieving, transmitting and manipulating in the business organizations. In the business context the information technology deals with the software, hardware and the telecommunication sector for transmitting the data (Sabherwal and Jeyaraj 2015). The information technology is also able to manage the data of any formation.
In this case the selected business is the Morrison’s Supermarket Company in which the information technology is having various types of impacts. In this paper the information technology and its uses will be discussed properly. For the discussion, proper literature review will be evaluated in the terms of the information technology (Wamba et al. 2015). Following that the information technology in the business will be analyzed and discussed properly. Further, the findings of the literature review will be discussed briefly.
According to Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson (2014), deployment of the emerging technologies plays a huge role in the retail industries like Morrison’s supermarket company. The in store technological solutions are significantly improved with the help of the technologies. New business models can be created and implemented using the emerging technologies of information technology. The sales and marketing is significantly improved after the online business activities. The authors of this resource stated about the importance of the cross channels in the retail industries; they also highlighted the online selling aspects of the retail industries as it is a much more convenient option for many people (Cao and Li 2015). The paper focuses on the advantages of using information technology in the retail industries. The supply chain management of the retail industries can also be managed with the help of the mobile technologies and cross channel integration. However, there are lots of issues and challenges associated with those emerging technologies also such as the privacy issues and the security issues which are needed to be checked so that the desired results can be obtained.
Advantages of IT in Retail Industry
The author of this resource failed to discuss the issues associated with the new business models such as the adaptability issues amongst the internal and external stakeholders of this organization. The issues associated to the new business models should be highly considered by every retail organization so that the overall efficiency of the information technology can be achieved. Referring to the other authors it can be said that the new business models should be checked and evaluated properly before it is integrated into the system. Additional approach is needed to be choose in order to deal with the situation.
According to Pantano (2014), innovation management is one of the most important characteristic feature of retail industry. The application of innovative management is useful with the help of networking technologies such as SAN (Storage Area Network) and CAN (Campus Area Network). The orientation of the market can be judged with the help of the main drivers used in the IT industries. The organizational structure can be also maintained with the help of the networking technologies.
The authors of this resource failed to discuss the issues associated with innovation management which is the need of the experienced IT profession which are not abundantly found in the remote areas of UK. Based on the research conducted by the authors it can be said that the approaches towards the innovation management should be changed as the new networking technologies are always coming in the market with new specifications.
There are different sorts of data security issues related to each of the emerging technologies, so every business which runs their online portal should be having an effective IT governance plan so that those issues can be mitigated to a limited extent. The ethics of using those technologies should be considered very highly in order to achieve the desired results. The author of this resource stated about the specification of the voice technologies such as Amazon Alexa during the phone lines are unavailable (DeLone and McLean 2016). The author of this resource stated about the benefits and the challenges associated with the emerging technologies such as the flexibility in the production units as well as the management rooms. High quality services are supplied to clients if effective communication platforms are there in the business process. The data collected from this resource help in understanding the issues and challenges associated to the emerging technologies. The author of this resource also started about the importance of the drawbacks of the emerging technologies such as the centralized data and resource sharing which might be very much sensitive for the cybercriminals or the rival organizations. However, the author could not state about the negative impact of the resource planning which might lead to heavy financial loss for these retail business organizations. Based on the resources it can be said that the resource planning is very much helpful in creating a good dynamic working environment which is a must in the retail industries. Referring to the other authors it can be said that the resource planning is a very lengthy process and every retail corporation should be strictly working on the effective implementation of business planning.
Challenges of Using Emerging Technologies
As discussed by Mao et al. (2016), most of the retail industries address their clients or the consumers with the help of effective social media platform or any other IT based platform such as IT based applications. The use of the IT based applications has both advantages and disadvantages as discussed by the author. Disruptive innovation process is the other processes which are managed by the IT based products which are used in ample amount considering the growth and development of the organization. There are different types of challenges associated with the communicative channels; the main problem comes from the cybercriminals and the hackers who may a negative role considering the growth and development of the retail industry.
Along with that it can be said that these retail organizations should be having an effective IT governance plan for the applications of the information technology such as the social media platforms. Refereeing to the other authors it can be said that the IT governance plan should be developed only by IT experienced personalities.
As discussed by Jenkins and Williamson (2015), the there are lots of application of information technology in the Morrison’s supermarket complex. The social media platforms are integrated into the website of this business organization which are used for the business purposes and also for the promotional purpose (Veit et al. 2014). The authors of this resource focused on the quick links in such a manner so that it helps the readers of this document to have an idea about the application of information technology for retail businesses. The latest updated products and services are reached to clients with the help of the emerging technologies.
On the other hand, it can be stated that there are numerous complexities related to the social media platforms which have a negative impact on the reputation of their business which is the negative reviews of their clients. Referring to the other authors it can be said that the best possible way to remove the negative review is enhancing the quality of service provided by this retail organization.
However, the author of this resource also mentioned the importance of data security in the networking technologies used in the working environment in retail industries such as Morrison’s supermarket complex. The most important challenges associated to the online retail are the costs associated with it (Xiang, Magnini and Fesenmaier 2015). The author of this resources has beautifully categorized the issues associated with the online retail industries which are followed by most of the retails industries such as the Morrison’s supermarket company. The drawback of online selling is the website cost, infrastructural costs, security costs, advertising costs and the client satisfaction, these factors are very much important for the business to grow. Referring to the other authors it can be said that the costs associated with this industry can be controlled with the help of effective project planning.
The e-commerce pitfalls are very much used in the major retail industries. The different products and services given to the clients of this organization is mentioned in this paper with prime importance such as sea food & eggs, grocery and impulse, bakery, home and leisure. The operational strategies of this organization are also very much ethical from the point of view of both the organizations as well as from the perspectives of the clients of the organization. The new IS systems are installed based on the business ethics which helps them to grow in all the departments.
Impact of IT on Retail Industry
For evaluation the role of the information technology in the business sector the selected business in this case is the Morrison’s Supermarket Company. The Morrison’s Supermarket recently invested a huge amount of money in their IT systems. It is expected that the IT systems will help the Morrison’s Supermarket Company in various way which will help this company to progress further. In this case the information technology will help the selected organization to maintain and organize the data of them (Lee and Lee 2015). Also, it can help the business in many other aspects which includes the information storage, crisis avoidance, data control, analyzing and planning and in the perspective on the future of the business.
In the case of the information system a retail management information system is implemented for the selected company. With the retail management information system corporate logistics information system can be considered in this case. The retail management information system has various types of advantages in the Morrison’s Supermarket Company. This system can help the business to look into all of the facets in real time (Dodgson 2018). With that the other advantages of this system are elimination of the IT maintenance costs, improved communication between various departments of the organization, improved time management and easy training for the new employees.
Most of the advantage is gained by the retail management information system is the data analysis. The only disadvantage of the retail management information system is that it is only accurate when the price change occurs in a same rate (Mao et al. 2016). The main challenges faced by this information system are that it fails to meet the ever-changing demands of the customer.
For the corporate logistics management system, the main advantages are the control on the flow and storage of the goods, fulfillment of the customer demands and an improved visibility on the supply chain of the company. The main disadvantages of the logistics management are the master data management issue (Vlachos 2014). The main challenges in the corporate logistics management is the government regulations and environmental regulations, also the supplier relationship is another big challenge in the corporate logistics information system.
The business of the Morrison’s Supermarket Company is a product based retail company which sales various types of goods in the market. In this type of businesses various types of ethical issues can arise. The main ethical issue in this case is related with the labeling of the product which is sold on the supermarket. The labeling of the product always needs to be genuine as it contains some precious information about the products. This ethical issues includes the unclear ingredients of the product, very small printing of the product label and the language related problem of the labeling. There also social issues can arise due to the improper advertisement and promotion of the product and for the negative effect of the product on the environment.
According to (Ainin et al. 2015), the ethical issue related to this organization is the business ethics which is very important for the growth and development of the organization. Each of the stakeholders of this organization should adopt the emerging technologies used in this organization. The social issues related to this business is the government regulations and taxations as this organization provides their services all over UK, they need to maintain the sociological ethics.
Application of IT in Morrison’s Supermarket Company
For the selected business data communication network can be used to gain an optimal flow of the business process. In a supermarket environment a data communication network can be used for the presentation of the information, product sales, service and goods acquisition and for distribution of the digital products. The main advantage in this case is that the resource sharing very much easy. The main problem in this case is with the design of the data communication network. This problem occurs due to the blocking probability, response time of the message, network reliability and the error rate of the transmission.
From the literature review unit of this paper, it can be understood that information technology plays a major role in every retail industry optimizing their tasks to a huge extent. There are different types of information systems which are installed in the retailed markets as those information systems are used for different types of purposes. Even the future prospects of the retail industries can be understood with the help of the emerging technologies. The advanced technologies are very much impactful in maintaining the business process.
It can be analysed that the competitiveness in the retail markets can be effectively maintained with the help of the emerging technologies increasing productivity and saving money as many automated systems can work with more accuracy and speed than the manual labours. It can be also understood that the networking technologies which are required to be integrated into the working environment bring lots of complexities with them as well such as the security issues like the data security issues (Hagberg, Sundstrom and Egels-Zandén 2016). The security of the communication channels between the internal stakeholders of the retail organisation is very important as any kinds of loop holes or SQL injection attacks can have a very negative impact on the growth and productivity of the retail industry. The ethical and social issues associated with the emerging technologies should be highly considered before it is installed in the working environments in the retail industries.
Information technology plays a great role in the growth and development of the retail industries such as Morrison’s Supermarket Company. The extensive development in the field of information technology has led to the growth of many advanced programs such as the face recognition systems which can be used as precautionary step against the unethical use of the advanced systems. The incorporation of information technology in the retail industries are very much useful for the internal stakeholders of the industry such as the board of directors. The different business processes such as the promotions of the products and services provided by this super market organisation are optimised with the help of the information technology as the social media platforms are effectively used to reach millions of people in a fraction of a second (Soto-Acosta, Popa and Palacios-Marqués 2017). The business processes of the retail corporations such as the Morrison’s Supermarket Company can be managed effectively and in a better way with the help of the information technologies.
Analysis and Discussion
Conclusion
From the above paper, it can be concluded that information technology can play a great role on the growth and development of the retail industries such as Morrison’s Supermarket Company. The operational strategies adopted by this business organization is very much effective in nature. It can be concluded that the entire business processes can be improved significantly with the use of the emerging technologies of information technology such as the SAN (Storage Area Network) and CAN (Campus Area Network). The online selling facilities of this organization can be very much useful for the clients of this supermarket as most of the consumers find it convenient to buy their product online in order to save time.
References
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