Impact of IT in Deloitte Business Operation

Question: Discuss about the Impact of IT in Deloitte Business Operation. Answer: Introduction The major purpose of this study is to demonstrate and research the impact of Information Technology on a business based a real life business example of Deloitte. This study also explores few important points in regard to the topic. This study explores the necessity of IT and the importance of IT for the business survival. Moreover, the requirements for applying IT into businesses are also aimed to be discussed in this study. In addition, this study also portrays the business utilization of IT along with its advantages over businesses. Furthermore, this study also analyzes the risks associated with IT systems and provides the approach through which business can monitor and maintain IT. Real Life Business Example The professionals of Deloitte Technology all over the globe generally help their clients for resolving their most critical business challenges through the proper incorporation and implementation of the Information and Technology operations. Deloitte is the UK incorporated multinational professional services enterprise which has the operational headquarters in New York in the United States. It is one of the big four accounting enterprises as well as the biggest network for professional services (Deloitte, 2017). Deloitte has implemented several significant IT systems in order to execute all the financial services, which are aimed to be provided by this organization to its clients. Deloitte has incorporated big data tools as the digitization, scale as well as pace of this business has yielded more complex and larger data sets than ever before. Deloitte has also incorporated the oracle services with 14500 oracle practitioners (Deloitte, 2017). Moreover, the member firms of Deloitte Touc h Tohmatsu Limited or DTTL have experienced extensively the implementation of the Oracle solutions over the organizational and geographic boundaries. Most importantly, the practitioners network of Deloitte has created a n unmatched offerings of market for solving the toughest business issues of their clients with the incorporation of technology advisory, oracle, SAP, award winning business transformation capabilities and application management services. Necessity of IT in Business Innovation is the path to enhance business success and innovation is driven by the perfect incorporation of the information technology in business operations. Business organizations needs to execute IT technologies as they should always have the focus on the implementation of effective business operations by maintaining accuracy as well as time efficiency (Jameel et al., 2017). Therefore, incorporation of Information and Technology should be accomplished in order to maintain both the business success factors such as accuracy and time efficiency. In order to achieve long term business growth, instant customer support, real time monitoring, systematic management, and global sales, effective marketing and accurate business planning at the optimum level, Information and Technology is needed to be implemented within the business operations. Figure 1: Necessity of IT in Business (Source: Limbu et al., 2014) IT is required in every possible area of business such as resource management and globalization, customer support and satisfaction, business growth and marketing and decision making as well. In recent days, security has become a major concern for any kind of business including financial services (Francis Willard, 2016). Numerous businesses such as Deloitte are the subject to security vandalism and threats. Therefore, Information Technology can be utilized for protecting the confidential executive decisions, financial data and other proprietary information that results in competitive advantage. Importance of IT for Business Survival The success of each business mainly depends on few specific factors and few of which are accurate analysis, selecting the future vision and right technology. In this digital age, the organizations that have done the investment in technology and select the path for innovation enhance their overall competitiveness, financial figures and market share (Jones et al., 2014). Technologies can make the processes, more effective, quicker as well as easier for documenting the future review in the fast-paced environment of business operations. Therefore, it can be considered that information technology is important for the businesses for not only surviving but for thriving. As per the real life example of Deloitte, IT has simplified the communication process, whether the employees are trying to keep in touch with their clients or to catch up on the news regarding their business operations (Referred to Appendix 1). Moreover, IT is the major avenue for accomplishing the external and internal comm unications. A potential IT team can become imperative towards the success of any digital marketing plan as digital marketing needs the teams of technology support for troubleshooting and implementing different types of software (Hilty Aebischer, 2015). All the successful enterprises such as Deloitte have to perform a comprehensive process of market research that enables the management for making the right decision. Market research can be conducted in several ways like through group discussions, blogs, forums and surveys by utilizing World Wide Web. Currently, Microsoft CRM dynamics, Analytics as well as Big Data are the significant tools for extracting the useful information that can influence on decision making. Requirement of Applying IT into Business It is very important for the business organizations to analyze the requirements to apply IT into the business operations. Therefore, there are few elements those should be incorporated while applying IT functions into a certain business such as training, installation, equipment, designing, planning as well as cost. All of these parameters should be assessed and then incorporated properly while implementing IT functions (Yunis et al., 2017). The IT systems should effectively be planned as well as designed in a proper way. On the other hand, before the incorporation and the installation of the IT operations, it is essential for doing a cost-benefit analysis so that the organizations do not have bare much expense. In addition, the organizations should arrange proper training to the employees so that they can be able to know the process of utilizing the IT systems. IT Utilization Process The IT operations of a particular organization cannot be used by everyone except few significant stakeholders of that specific business enterprise. Businesses can utilize the IT systems in mainly two ways such as internally and externally (Limbu et al., 2014). In order to accomplish the internal operations of the IT functions in association with the business process, the staffs as well as employees from executive level and management level generally have the access for utilizing the IT functionalities (Referred to Appendix 2). On the other hand, the customers, suppliers and the other external stakeholders usually have the direct access over the external operations of IT systems incorporated in the business operations. Benefits of IT over Business IT can benefit the business world by permitting the companies for working more efficiently and for maximizing productivity (Ghezzi et al., 2015). The protection of records, electronic storage as well as faster communication is advantageous that IT can have on the business enterprises. Figure 2: Benefits of IT over Business (Source: Mack, 2014) Revenue generation, Flexibility and cost minimization IT systems can play significant role in generating revenue by enhancing flexibility of the business operations and increasing accuracy as well as time efficiency (Gatautis et al., 2015). The incorporation of the IT functionalities usually very cost effective which can enhance the rate of revenue generation of the organizations Protecting and Storing Information IT can create the electronic storage systems for protecting the valuable records of the business organizations. The secure maintenance of the customer and client files is important towards the business integrity (Roztocki Weistroffer, 2015). Storage Systems of Deloitte like virtual vaults generally keep information safe by permitting only specific users within that organization for changing, adding, withdrawing or accessing the documents. Automated Processes In the business organizations, people should look for the approaches with the help of which more work can be done in a shorter amount of time. IT has improved the efficiency of business operations of Deloitte by establishing the automated processes for taking burden off their staffs. Work Remotely IT systems can provide an organization for accessing remotely the electronic network of the organization (Mack, 2014). This kind of accessibility permits the organization for increasing productivity of that business enterprise. Communication It is very important for the business world and IT provides a particular organization the resources it requires for communicating effectively and quickly. IT risks Along with numerous advantages, the incorporation of the IT systems has few severe risks associated with it. The risks can be encountered associated with the confidentiality, privacy and security. All the three terms are associated with each other (Kowalkowski et al., 2013). The IT system incorporation can often lead to severe issues in regards to the three mentioned terms. Due to these issues, the organizations can face problems in terms of maintaining the data security related to their business operations. Therefore, their business activities can be affected and reliability cannot be served to the clients, which ultimately results in decrease in their productivity. IT Maintenance In order to maintaining and monitoring IT systems, organizations need to do follow few processes such as: Security IT monitoring The engineers of the organizations would be involved in mitigating the security issues before the intruders can exploit any vulnerabilities (Baesens et al., 2014). Automated System IT Monitoring the organizations have to provide 24/7 monitoring service of the IT system activities to ensure the hardware is optimally functioning Backup IT monitoring Data is the most important asset for an organization and the data protection is also crucial (Loukis et al., 2013). Organizations should monitor the back-up systems on a daily basis and address the issues that occur. Conclusion After conducting the entire study, it can easily be stated that the organizations like Deloitte, who have incorporated IT system in their business operations have succeeded in achieving huge competitive advantage and enhancing their productivity. Moreover, it can also been seen from this discussion that besides the advantages of IT functionalities, organizations can face few risks while incorporating IT within the business operations. However, this study has also provided significant recommendations through which the risks can be resolved and overcome by the organizations. Recommendations Organizations should follow few significant recommendations in order to build an effective IT system within the companies. These are as follows: Properly Maintaining and Monitoring IT system IT systems should be maintained and monitored as well by monitoring back-up IT, security patch management, monitoring automated IT system and monitoring IT security. Malware protection Organizations should maintain as well as install an industry-standard malware policy on the company network. Spam Protection most of the emails received and sent are considered as the spam. 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