The Impact Of Information Technology In Business: A Case Study Of Four Seasons Greenhouse And Nursery

Advantages

This report aims to discuss the impact of information technology in the business sector. The considered case study is a small nursery, Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery, located in Colorado. The advantages and the disadvantages of the new POS system that is implemented by the nursery is discussed in this report. The methods by which the business can gain significant business advantages is discussed in this report. The advantages of a centralised database is stated in this report. The processes by which an effective decision-making is facilitated in the business is briefly discussed in this report. A suitable recommended telecommunication system for the POS system is provided in this report. The risks that are introduced with the implementation of the new POS system are stated in this report. Some methods for protecting the business from the risks are provided in this report. Lastly, this report concludes with an appropriate conclusion for this report.

The term information technology refers to the utilisation of computers for storing, retrieving, transmitting, and manipulating information or data for an enterprise or business. The IT sector is considered the subset of ICT (Information and communications technology). The implementation of information technology in the business models of an enterprise leads to significant growth of the company and better services are provided to the customers (Cantrell et al. 2015).   

Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery implemented the information technology in their business model to increase the productivity and mitigate the losses. The POS (Point Of Sale) technology was implemented for effective tracking of the sales and transactions.

Advantages

With the introduction of POS system, the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery can gain the following advantages:

• Increased efficiency: With the help of right tools, the employees can perform the duties in a more effective way. The introduction of POS system can help in monitoring the sales and transaction of the business and more efficiently than humans.
• Feasibility: The POS system is easier to use and maintain. As this system provides a digital platform for storing data and monitor the data regularly, it provides a safe and secured platform for storing data than hardcopies (Saffari, Asmussen and Haji 2013).
• Extended payment abilities: the business gain the capability of modified payment methods, which reduces the transaction time of the customers. The barcode scanners helps in performing transaction much easily than humans.
• Better accuracy: A POS systems with feasible methods of transaction and interface with touchscreen helps in storing all the information of the cashiers and sales associates in reach. It eliminates the task of manually storing the transaction records in cash registers.
• Better inventory management: The technology of POS consists of advanced capabilities of managing the inventory of a business. Software of POS provides elimination of inventory management and better tracking of the quantity of products that are procured and the number of reorders and retail matrix that are setup by the company (Crotty 2013).

Disadvantages

The disadvantages of POS system can be categorised as:

• Expense of web access: the cost of implementing web based system that allows the business to connect to a bigger information network is significantly higher than the manual systems, which creates cost management problems for the business.
• Updates: The major issue with the software based POS systems is that these systems requires constant and regular modification using the available updates. The hardware equipment also requires updates to be implemented regularly (Davidson et al. 2013).
• Security risks: The customers who transact using a debit card or credit card faces a threat of data leak from the POS system.

The POS systems provides a significant advantage to the businesses in the market. The competitive advantages that are gained by the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery can be categorised as:

• Better efficiency: The services provided to the customers are improved and the rectification of errors can be executed easily. The errors committed by the machines of the cashiers are diminished. The speed of transaction is increased, which provides a significant advantage to the company from the other companies.
• Accuracy of reports: The reports containing vital information of daily takings and the outgoings can be customised with the help of POS systems, which provides the owners a detailed understanding of the throughout success of the company (Gobble 2014).

The term centralised database, is the kind of database which is positioned, kept, and preserved, and maintained from a single location. Generally, the location of the centralised database is a database system or central computer. The users access the centralised database via a network that is able to provide access to the central CPU. The advantages that are gained by the organisation with the implementation of centralised database are:

• The end users receive the updates easily that are provided in the database.
• Due to the availability of single design of database, the end-users can utilise the database more efficiently (Hanwate and Thakare 2015)
• The users gain the ability of accessing the information stored in the database from anywhere with the facility of internet.
• The quality of data preservation is superior to other databases (Sharma and Motlani 2015).
• Database administration and data portability is easier in centralised database
• As the data is stored in a singular location, the analysis, organising, mirroring and alteration is easier than decentralised database.
• Fault tolerant setup in a centralised database provides better preservation of data than various kind of databases (Jarvis et al. 2014).
• Data redundancy is minimised and the data integrity is maximised due to unique storage place for all the available data.
• Data security is improved as a single database provides the opportunity to apply security measures in one location only.

The process of decision making is improved in the business with the implementation of POS systems because:

• Time spent on administration is reduced: An effective software of POS provides relevant reports for assisting in making decisions for enhancing profits in an arranged manner. An easily installable and feasible POS software is required for making business directed decisions. The reason behind POS systems process business activities more effectively is because it provides an automated record keeping and it can be easily monitored and maintained by the organisation.
• Increased profitability of stores:  The increase of the profitability of stores can be increased with the help of POS systems in the business. The method of achieving this increased profits are effective management of inventory and capture of behaviour of the buyers to make effective decisions for marketing and store management (Marforio et al. 2014).
• The information of the transactions of the business, the assets that are in possession of the organisation cannot be tracked manually is an effective manner as the time spent in managing these records manually are significantly higher and the probability of human error is more in manual tracking.  The records of the assets that are in possession of the business or the transactions that are done by the organisation can be maintained and monitored effectively using POS. The questions that can be answered effectively using the POS system are the records of assets, the transaction records or the supplier information.
• Intelligence of business: The solutions of POS contains a centralised database, which is real-time, available, and supplies updates automatically. This system provides significant reports that enables the business in making more-informed decisions for business (Nikolova and Inman 2015).

Disadvantages

POS (Point of Sale) systems provides the ability of tracking essential information quickly to the sale point. This information varies from ordering stock, diminishing stock, and identifying the best sellers. Time management is difficult when these activities are performed manually and POS system provides the capability to execute these tasks effectively.

The introduction of POS systems in the business introduces major advantages to the business but it has some risks, which can be exploited by the unauthorised users. These risks can be classified as security risks, privacy risks, and confidentiality risks (Lee et al. 2015).

The security risks that a business faces with POS systems are:

• Unauthorised access to the application of POS: The unauthorised users can gain access to the applications of POS to steal data and sensitive information like debit card or credit card information. Various kinds of illegal purchases can be executed by the malicious users with the access of illegally obtained credit card information.
• Targeting malware in the POS application: The malware that are targeted towards the application of POS varies from viruses to worms or Trojans. These applications infect the application and procure all the data that are stored in the application. This can lead to severe financial loss to the users and businesses (Pantano and Viassone 2014).
• Execution of cyber-attacks on the backend of the POS application: The server that is connected with the application of POS can also be affected during a cyber-attack. The backend of the application executes the majority of the transactions for the business. Generally, the cyber-attacks are carried out by taking entry using the application and finally infect the server of the system to damage the network or steal all the data.
• The privacy issues that are raised while using a POS systems are the privacy of the data of the customers. When a customer uses their credit cards or debit cards for transaction, then the information of the cards is stored in the POS system. If this data is stolen then the customers may lose their valuable capital or assets.
• The confidentiality of the records of transaction has to be maintained effectively. These records contain the transaction details of the customers, the records of the assets that are in possession of the company and the information of the suppliers. In the situation of a cyber-attack, these data can be stolen or altered and the confidentiality of the data is breached.

Mitigation of security issues

The business can implement layered security in the systems of POS and protect the data. The application of

 POS can be made secure with implementation of proper firewalls in the server of the application so any unauthorised entry in the application can be detected easily. An intensively configured protection of the endpoint can be effective in blocking the dangerous attackers (Rapaccini et al. 2013).

The recommended technology that can be beneficial for the business is WAN technology. This technology is wireless technology and it can be easily implemented without any extra costs. The cost of wired connection is significantly more as it requires wires for transmitting data (Rese, Schreiber, and Baier 2014). WAN technology can be implemented using routers, switches and servers that can be helpful for communication and the data of the company can be stored in the cloud storage. The security is more robust in the cloud storage.The servers contains all the data that needs to be made available to the business employees and the users for effective transaction.

Conclusion

It can be stated in the end that the introduction of POS systems can provide significant advantage to the Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery by introducing more swift business strategies. The term information technology refers to the utilisation of computers for storing, retrieving, transmitting, and manipulating information or data for an enterprise or business. The advantages of POS systems are increased efficiency, feasibility, Extended payment abilities, better accuracy, and better inventory management. The disadvantages of POS systems are increased expense of web access, necessity of updates, and security risks. The competitive advantages that are gained by the business are better efficiency and accuracy of reports. The term, centralised database, is the kind of database, which is positioned, kept, and preserved, and maintained from a single location. The risks involved in the POS systems are unauthorised access to the application of POS, targeting malware in the POS application, and execution of cyber-attacks on the backend of the POS application.

References

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