Does Telstra need IT?
Telstra is a leading telecommunications company in Australia and it offers full range of communications services to its customers. That is why, it is competing in all telecommunications markets. In Australia, 17.4 million mobile services, 6.8 million fixed voice services and millions of retail fixed broadband services are provided by Telstra Company. The reason for providing millions of telecommunication services to Australians and other people worldwide, is enhancement of connectivity among people that will bring more opportunities for business organizations. That is why Telstra is doing efforts to provide best connected network for everyone’s future. To achieve this goal, number of activities need to perform by employees of company and manually it is difficult to perform and time consuming. Therefore, here is requirement to implement Information Technology applications for better and immediate work. The main topics that we will discuss here in report are why Telstra needs IT, what is importance of IT for this company, what are challenges and benefits of IT for Telstra and other essential points (Telstra.com.au, 2017).
Information Technology is getting advanced and improved that is why business industries like Telstra and others can take various advantages from IT.
Telstra is a large telecommunications company and serving several people worldwide. Without Information Technology, it is not easier to provide telecommunications services to users. These services are based on internet and web applications that allow users to communicate and share information at remote and local locations by using telecommunication services. Telstra has goal to connect whole world through better and secure connecting networks and it can only be achieved with help of Information Technology. Besides this, there are several customers of Telstra Company and their management is an essential responsibility of this company. Here information systems can be used to store huge amount of data in organized form and in secured way. This data will be easier to access from anywhere by authorized users. Telstra is ready to work with quantum computing that has capability to resolve problems in minutes that conventional technologies resolve in centuries. It will be a transformational impact of Information Technology on Australian and global businesses. Due to these reasons, we recommend that there is need of IT in Telstra Company.
There are various factors that are important for business of Telstra and for businesses of other organizations. Among all those factors, Information Technology is also considered as an important factor of business. Today in competitive market various new companies are coming to provide advanced telecommunication services to users and these are based on IT applications and techniques. In this case, to survive in competitive market, implementation of IT applications is necessary by Telstra Company for management and delivery of communication services to customers (News et al., 2017). Besides this, implementation of IT in Telstra will help to improve its productivity, efficiency and also environment sustainability. IT is important to survive in competitive market because it will help to provide next generation networks, existing ICT technologies and other advanced communication tools such as video conferencing, teleworking and fleet and field force management. By using these tools, remote communication and information sharing will become easier. Besides this, these tools will help Telstra to ultimately drive and grow in a maintainable way. Information Technology provides an essential solution of resource management that plays a vital role to manage every resource that is related to distribution of telecommunication services to customers. Every resource has its own importance and Telstra encounters problem to manage these resources. In this case IT will play a dynamic role to manage these resources and will automate the complex issues. These issues can be related to finance, human and tangibles of Telstra. These all features of IT collaboratively enhance its importance. Information Technology also introduces cloud platform in Telstra for providing quick and accurate telecommunication services to its customers and to achieve this cloud based enterprise solution is required.
Why IT is important for survival of Telstra Business
The smooth and appropriate implementation of IT in Telstra consists of some requirements that must be fulfilled by company. These requirements are related to cost of IT, its installation and training, availability of skilled and qualified employees that can work with IT applications. IT applications are not so much expensive but in a telecommunication company complex IT application will be used that can be expensive than other IT applications. Therefore, Telstra should have required funds to implement IT applications at its workplace. Another essential requirement is of installation and training of IT application that will be used in Telstra. If installation process will not be completed properly then application will not work appropriately and will produce error in results (Techwalla, 2017). It will also restricts functionality of some important components of Information system that is used by Telstra (Insight, 2017). Training is also an essential requirement of IT for those employees who are not from IT background or have less knowledge to work with IT applications (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2017). In this case, those employees should have basic knowledge about implementation of IT applications and in training session, basic knowledge about application and its functionalities can be provided. Besides this, security and privacy maintenance process can also be elaborated to IT users in this training.
Next important requirement is of availability of skilled and experienced employees in Telstra who have sound knowledge about an IT applications and technologies. Telstra should hired skilled and experienced employees who have knowledge about applications that can be used in telecommunications industry. The selected IT application will be used by all employees of Telstra Company, therefore, they should know that how they can use automatic system for resolving critical problems and for decision making. In Telstra an information system should be deployed that is capable to handle information database of Telstra and can maintain security and privacy of information. The hardware and software components of this system should be used properly for better functionality of system and to get required outcomes.
Information technology and its applications have become essential part of every business. In Telstra, IT is used for sharing or transmitting of data, to improve efficiency and productivity business and to communicate with other customers. By using internet connection and web services, Telstra can easily provide telecommunication services to its users such as video conferencing, emails and online calling etc. The web APIs plays an important role in it. Besides this, online database can be used by company to keep large records of customers who are using Telstra’s services and their payment information. An organized form of information can be accessed and used easily by company and right decisions can be taken. Besides this, IT services have potential to quicken the different business operations with accuracy and it puts influence over productivity of business. After getting proper training, employees can easily use IT applications with more efficiency. Today mobile and smartphones are highly used that is why Telstra uses android and windows applications to make applications for communication and information sharing (Jamieson et al., 2017).
Requirements to apply IT in Telstra Business
To collect latest and up to date information about competitive market, IT is also used by Telstra Company. It is an effective way to be update about latest activities of telecommunications industry. Besides this, IT also provides information about automation techniques that can be used by Telstra and other telecommunication companies. In this way, Telstra uses IT for betterment of its business.
There are various benefits are obtained by Telstra from IT applications. The main benefit is enhancement of accuracy in every business activity. IT applications takes right and validated input from users and provide accurate output in minutes. Besides this, IT applications provides scope to Telstra to analyze data regarding the business and on the behalf of this data company can make decisions and plan business accordingly. Many tools are also provided by IT to Telstra to its telecommunication services. Cloud platform, automation systems and web services are some significant tools that are provided by IT to Telstra for expansion and advancement of business worldwide. The advanced level of IT is quantum computing and persistence of Telstra with IT will help company to work with this technology. Quantum computing has potential to perform various advanced level operations that are difficult to perform by conventional technologies. Telstra is providing various online services to its customers such as online payment by processing credit card, virtual meetings, remote monitoring and queued customer service lines etc. and it has become possible just because of Information Technology. These key benefits of Information Technology enhance its usage among business industries (Dialog.com.au, 2017).
There are various risk factors that are related to Information Technology and Telstra can also encounter these risk factors while using IT applications. Security and privacy violation of IT applications that are used by Telstra Company to distribute telecommunication services to its users. Hacking, phishing and malware attacks are common among IT users and these are conducted by hackers to hack databases, networks and systems of users to collect their sensitive information. While using telecommunication services, important information is also sent and received from sender and receiver sides and that information can be violated or hacked through hackers which can be harmful for users. Another risk factor is system failure that is used by Telstra Company for maintaining customers and business information. This failure of system can occur due to improper installation of hardware and software components of system or abnormal shutdown of system. Besides this, denial of service attack is also a big risk factor for Telstra while using IT applications (Google Books, 2017). Through denial of service attack, hackers restrict customers to access services providing by company and to do this server access is denied by hackers for all systems that are connected with it. This is most vulnerable form of hacking attacks and here customers feel helpless to access any online website url or application.
To control above discussed risk factors of IT applications, security maintenance and monitoring tools can provide help to Telstra. Security maintenance tools such as anti-virus, firewall, spyware and cryptography can be used. These tools will prevent system and network from unknown entities that can be vulnerable for them. These tools can detect virus and remove it from system. On another side, network monitoring and database scanning tools will be helpful to maintain security and privacy of network and database from virus attacks. By using these tools periodic scanning or monitoring can be done and rapid action can be taken to remove harmful entity. These tools must be used by Telstra while implementing IT applications for its business.
Conclusion
The above discussed IT applications are useful for Telstra Company to provide advanced telecommunication services to its customers and to perform other business operations that we have already discussed above. But Telstra should aware about risk factors of IT applications and use appropriate solutions to control these risk factors. Without security and privacy maintenance, it is not possible to get significant benefits from Information Technology.
References
News, T. (2017). Long-term technology. [online] Telstra Exchange. Available at: https://exchange.telstra.com.au/long-term-technology/ [Accessed 31 May 2017].
Telstra.com.au. (2017). Telstra – Our company. [online] Available at: https://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/our-company [Accessed 31 May 2017].
Smallbusiness.chron.com. (2017). Role of Telecommunication Technology in a Firm. [online] Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-telecommunication-technology-firm-14094.html [Accessed 31 May 2017].
Jamieson, P, Schenkel, G. and Bird, S. (2017). Customer information and the importance of privacy. [online] Telstra Exchange. Available at: https://exchange.telstra.com.au/customer-information-and-the-importance-of-privacy/ [Accessed 31 May 2017].
IN:SIGHT™. (2017). Challenge to opportunity: Technology and cultural change in the resources sector. [online] Available at: https://insight.telstra.com.au/create-transformative-innovation/challenge-to-opportunity [Accessed 31 May 2017].
Dialog.com.au. (2017). Telstra – Portfolio – Dialog Information Technology. [online] Available at: https://www.dialog.com.au/portfolio/telstra/ [Accessed 31 May 2017].
Google Books. (2017). INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, 2ND ED (With CD ). [online] Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books?id=RNPiZmHVWxEC&pg=PA425&lpg=PA425&dq=importance+of+information+technology+in+british+airways&source=bl&ots=RtKlB9DyLz&sig=RQSiwDFMMIueCk2ElNDZC-Lq-l8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjL7bGupZfUAhVGP48KHRVWD4IQ6AEINTAD#v=onepage&q=importance%20of%20information%20technology%20in%20british%20airways&f=false [Accessed 31 May 2017].
Techwalla. (2017). The Function of Telecommunication | Techwalla.com. [online] Available at: https://www.techwalla.com/articles/the-function-of-telecommunication [Accessed 31 May 2017].