Advantages And Disadvantages Of Technology In Business And E-commerce: An Essay.

• Identify and investigate a theme, development, or current issue in the people management of business and enterprise.
• Identify, select, analyse and evaluate primary and secondary sources of information about the trend, development or issue and make recommendations based on your findings.

The following approach is recommended:

• An introductory statement outlining the business trend, development or issue
• A summary of the investigation process undertaken
• An analysis, a synthesis and evaluation of primary and secondary sources of information
• Justified conclusions and recommendations
• Appropriate acknowledgement of sources.

• On-line business affects traditional businesses – What has been the impact of on-line businesses on the traditional businesses (‘bricks and mortar’)? Marketing approach? Sales? Staffing? Costs?
• Competition Wars from the Supermarkets – Who are the winners and losers? Consumers, retailers, suppliers?
• Environmental responsible products -  pressure on businesses to produce environmental sustainability and environmentally responsible products
• Workplace bullying (and harassment) – What are the effects of workplace bullying on the employee, workplace environment, company policies, management and the company’s public image?
• ‘Corporate welfare or prudent investment’ - How much support should government give to businesses?
• Skills shortage – What impact is our ageing population going to have on businesses?
• Taxation – what impact will the Carbon tax and the new mining tax have on small business?
• Trading Hours – what impact do changes to the law have on small businesses?
• Importation of food products – what impact does this have on the Riverland and broader Australian consumer?
• Casualisation of the workforce – what impact does this have on businesses and employees?
• Negotiated topic

Overview of the company

Mac Donald’s is a popular fast food chain of restaurants that is established in America, the organization is multinational and has been operating in Australia from 1971 (Mcdonalds.com.au 2018). There are currently over 970 outlets in Australia, the company also employs around 10,000 people in the country. The company has a franchise system of expansion in the international territory and 80 percent of the franchise holders in the country are Australians. And the rest of the restaurants are direct investments of the company and hence are run and managed by Mac Donald’s (Mcdonalds.com.au 2018).

With progression in technology there are a number of software as well as hardware developed and innovated to support the business environment (Weaver et al. 2017). Technology is considered to be one of the most important external environment factors in business; organizations have to keep in sync with the technological advances in order to meet the requirements of the industry as well as the requirements of the employees (Dunning 2013). There is software to manage the human resource, logistics and supply chain, there are hardware devices and mechanisms which are used to reduce the workload and make the process of business more organized. Technology is used in every step in an established organization, one of the most important part of the business function relies on communication. Communication is more than 70 percent dependent on technology (Westerman, Bonnet and McAfee 2014). E-mail, telephone, internal communication website, presentations etc are all part of the communication process (Botha et al. 2014).

Technology is a boon to the business environment; it provides the business with better opportunities of growth and development (Dunning 2013). It provides the management with directions towards developing responsible and sustainable strategies in the business. It helps the business to achieve the objectives in a better and organized way (Drnevich and Croson 2013).

As technology brings revolutionary changes in business sphere, there are certain disadvantages too which are occurred improper handling of technical stuffs or lack of knowledge (Otoo, Acheampong and Otoo, 2017). The implementation of technology and its successfulness depends upon the effective training of the employees who hold the responsibility operating the technology based business. Thus, a major risk remains involved in the process of the ecommerce in relation with lack of knowledge of the persons responsible for the activities.

Environmental issues are another major concern in relation with technology and business. Implementation of modern technology demands modern infrastructure like air conditioned setting and so on (Otoo, Acheampong and Otoo, 2017). This modern machine generates greenhouse gases which impact on the environment in an adverse manner. On the other hand, there are issues related with the printing of documents and waste packaging using several chemicals. All this adversely influence the whole environment.

The term e commerce refers to the idea of business which is conducted through the usage of computers, telephones and other electronic mediums (Joshi and Dumbre, 2017). The automated teller machines thus hold a major importance in order exchange of money and other paper-related documents. The major activities that are classified as the ecommerce activities are as the below mentioned:

• Procurement
• Control of inventory
• Exchange of money
• Process of transaction
• The fulfillment of order
• Support to customers
• Non repudiation of authentication

Technology in business

The each types of ecommerce will be discussed in the below:

Business to business: the concept of business within companies and the whole idea of the business are to initiate and increase trade among companies (Joshi and Dumbre, 2017). In the mode of business to business, the companies negotiate in terms of quantity, pricing and so on.

Consumer to business: In the business type of consumer to business, a customer’s sends his project details along with budget to the business (Allen et al. 2018).  Businesses or companies respond to that bid on the project after reviewing the project. Then the consumer makes the ultimate selection of the company in order to complete the project.

Business to consumer: In this type of ecommerce, companies conduct business by selling the products or ideas directly to the consumers (Joshi and Dumbre, 2017). Hence, for the means of this business type, the entire business is conducted using shopping cart options and catalogues.

Consumer to consumer: There are several websites available over internet which offers free classifieds or auctions and serves as a common forum where consumers themselves can conduct business among them (Allen et al. 2018).

Apart from that, there are several other types of ecommerce, for example, government t to government, government to general public, government to private entities and vice-versa.

The major benefit that ecommerce generates is that it involves low cost transaction. The ecommerce also benefits the business since it gives the opportunity of increasing competitiveness by reaching out to maximum number of employees within minimum time (Hertlein and Ancheta 2014). On the part of students, the ecommerce gives an ease to the customers by decreasing the efforts involved in the physical purchase. Since most of the people nowadays are more aquatinted with the internet and spends a lot of time over internet, it is advantageous for the businesses to reach out to customers using the mode of internet. The idea of business which is conducted through the usage of computers, telephones and other electronic mediums are seen to benefit not only the customers but also the companies (Habtay and Holmén 2014). The automated teller machines thus hold a major importance in order exchange of money and other paper-related documents. Despite of certain issues and risks remain involved in the whole process of ecommerce or e business, this mode benefits companies by opening up new avenues for increasing competitive advantages.

Similar to advantages, there are certain disadvantages which ecommerce generates. For example, it has been observed that several issues are occurred like untimely delivery of physical products (Allen et al. 2018). On the other hand, there are other issues as well. For instances, often technical issues are occurred causing disruption in the business process. As a result, it is seen that customer satisfaction becomes a major issue for companies dealing into ecommerce practice. Environmental issues are another major concern in relation with technology and business. Implementation of modern technology demands modern infrastructure like air conditioned setting and so on.

Mac Donald’s is a multinational organization that is based out of America and the company has also segregated the e-commerce segment according to the country as well.  The Australian division of the site has the extension of .au (Mcdonalds.com.au 2018).

Advantages of technology

Mac Donald’s is a popular brick and mortar chain of restaurants and the company has over the years tried to keep up with the trends of the business and thus with technological innovations and acceptance of technology among the target market of the company, Mac Donald’s also ventured into developing the e-commerce services to the customers. Take away and take out has been a part of the service for a long time with the introduction of the e-commerce services Mac Donald’s have achieved another segment of target market as well.

The most striking feature of the E-commerce website is promotional aspect, for instances, the deals of the day, the promotion of the mobile application which are also a part of the e-commerce site, introduction of new products in the menu etc. The website also helps the visitor of the website find the nearest store as well as help the visitor to download the application in the mobile and then place an order (Mcdonalds.com.au 2018).

The website of Mac Donald’s Australia does not allow the visitor to order food rather it is an informative website about the company. It has descriptive data regarding the menu that is available in Australia and the places where the restaurant is located. It also has the job openings and other such corporate information (Mcdonalds.com.au 2018).

The information is very easily available for the customers as the labeling and the tabs that are made are clear. However, the website cannot be termed as e-commerce as the food cannot be ordered from the website (Mcdonalds.com.au 2018).  

All the information of that a customer requires in ordering the food is available in the website. The link directs the download option that the customers will choose.

The process is complex; if the customer logs in to look for ordering the food they would want it to be hassle free. If the customer does not want to download another mobile application then he or she would like to skip from the option and order from some other website.

It is recommended for the company to allow the customers to order food form the website as well. This will provide the customers with more options to reach out to the service.

Another recommendation for the website is to allow the people to locate the store and be able to place an order from the specific store.

References: 

Allen, C.O., Carter, B.A., Ghosh, R., Kozhaya, J.N. and Price, D.L., International Business Machines Corp, 2018. Sorting and displaying ecommerce product reviews. U.S. Patent Application 15/990,945.

Botha, A., Kourie, D. and Snyman, R., 2014. Coping with continuous change in the business environment: Knowledge management and knowledge management technology. Elsevier.

Chaffey, D., 2015. Digital business and e-commerce management. Pearson Education Limited.

Drnevich, P.L. and Croson, D.C., 2013. Information technology and business-level strategy: Toward an integrated theoretical perspective. Mis Quarterly, 37(2).

Dunning, J.H., 2013. Multinationals, Technology & Competitiveness (RLE International Business). Routledge.

Habtay, S.R. and Holmén, M., 2014. Incumbents’ responses to disruptive business model innovation: The moderating role of technology vs. market-driven innovation. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 11, 18(4), pp.289-309.

Hertlein, K.M. and Ancheta, K., 2014. Advantages and disadvantages of technology in relationships: Findings from an open-ended survey. The Qualitative Report, 19(11), pp.1-11.

Joshi, J.M. and Dumbre, G.M., 2017. Basic Concept of E-Commerce. International Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 3(3).

Mcdonalds.com.au. 2018. Macca’s® Story. [online] Expatica.com. Available at: https://mcdonalds.com.au/about-maccas/maccas-story [Accessed 30 Oct. 2018].

Otoo, A.A.A., Li, Z., Acheampong, P. and Otoo, C.O.A., 2017. Electronic Commerce in International Trade in Emerging Economies: A Qualitative Review of Challenges and Opportunities. AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES, 7(5).

Weaver, P., Jansen, L., Van Grootveld, G., Van Spiegel, E. and Vergragt, P., 2017. Sustainable technology development. Routledge.

Westerman, G., Bonnet, D. and McAfee, A., 2014. Leading digital: Turning technology into business transformation. Harvard Business Press.