The impact of ICT on organizations

Technology is involved in all aspects of our life, but what is the impact of new technologies on business organizations? The Internet has undoubtedly become one of the best ways of selling and reaching consumers nowadays.

The concept of the value chain from Porter has been one of the most highly diffused business management models over the last few years. However, in the network economy, the new economy and the Information Society, this business model has changed drastically due to ICT’s extensive implementation.

Below is a list of the new concepts brought to us by the new technologies that you can apply to your organization to stay up-to-date.

New organizational models: Some of the main effects ICT has had on organizations is the reduction in the size of the organizational units and the redefinition of business processes and chain values. In this new economy, companies are less hierarchical, more flexible and more decentralized, and they work with multidisciplinary profiles that rely on the real time information to deliver products and services specifically tailored to the market and clients.

E-business models: E-business models enable the fragmentation of business processes at basically any scale, no matter how small. Digitalization has brought a big fragmentation of media and supports, and due to this concept, each company offers just a few products or services focusing on a core competency and implements cooperative strategies with other companies.

Process reengineering: This process is a business management strategy focused on the analysis and design of workflows and business processes within an organization in order to improve operational costs, quality, customer service and speed.

Know-how: For centuries, the know-how of family businesses has been handed down from generation to generation, enhancing and exploiting the most effective and efficient knowledge. Thanks to ICT, the need-to-know requirements of today and tomorrow can be determined, and weaknesses can be identified, allowing people to apply knowledge effectively and efficiently to make better informed decisions.

Work shifting: New technologies allow employees to work in a remote area away from the office by giving them the option to choose their work schedule and location.

E-recruitment: The search, selection and recruitment of candidates has changed dramatically with the Internet. Electronic selection is becoming an important tactic in most companies. Electronic selection owes its success to its ability of attracting and retaining talent, as well as speed and cost reduction.

E-learning: E-learning is one of the main solutions offering a more individual and flexible education in terms of learning pace, frequency, time, place and peer group. Thanks to e-learning, people can get a quality education at any time regardless of their location.

Collaborative design: New technologies provide tools to employees to work simultaneously in several parts of the world. In this sense, collaborative design allows the exchange of information in real time between team members no matter the location.

E-procurement: Thanks to this concept, procurement processes of indirect goods and services can be automatized via the Internet in a far more flexible manner than traditional shopping. Decreasing costs, reducing the time of purchase cycle and process efficiency are some of the main benefits of this type of procedure.

ERM: Meaning Enterprise Resource Management refers to the management of all assets and resources of the company.

SCM: Supply Chain Management drives the management via the Internet of the flow of goods, services, money and the information shared with suppliers, producers etc. This concept facilitates a reduction in production and distribution costs.

Automated manufacturing: Making production processes are increasingly automated bringing greater accuracy, cost savings and flexibility and can produce customized products for global markets (concepts that were completely incompatible until now).

E-fulfilment: An e-business strategy must ensure that once the customer has placed an order online, he can receive the product or service under the established conditions.

Virtual Store: A website is your shop window,so it’s important to take care of specific aspects such as presentation and the ease and speed of operations and navigation function.

Electronic markets: These type of markets are a virtual representation of physical markets. The main difference between them is that there’s at least an electronic component in the electronic market.

CRM: Customer Relationship Management is a business strategy focused on customers used for gathering as much information as possible about them in order to build long-term relationships and increase the user satisfaction.

            source: shapingtheodds