ICT in Business and Commerce

Changing Shape of Organisations
· More people are working for themselves or for small businesses
· Large organisations are becoming “flatter” i.e. less hierarchical. People are working in groups rather than individually.
· Knowledge workers need less supervision than factory workers because they know what to do and when. They need information rather than supervision.
Using ICT to Set up a Small Business
Any business needs a phone and an answering machine.
For about £800+ a small business could also get:
· Spreadsheet (Help set up business plan by calculating expected income and expenses. Perform “what if” queries to test the effect of raising or lowering prices).
· Graphics (Create high quality commercial documents i.e. design logo, headed stationary, business cards etc.)
· Word Processing (Design invoice stationary, send mailshots etc)
· DTP (Design advertising, promotional material etc.)
· Database (keep a mailing list)
· Accounts
· Fax (fax modem comes with most PCs)
· Internet and Email (communication, online sales)

ICT in Banking
· Telephone/Internet Banking (consider the problems of bank closures in rural areas)
· ATMs
* Debit and Credit Cards
· MICR
· Direct Debit (salaries, bills etc.)
· Electronic Smartcards (e.g. Mondex) - could we have a cashless society?
Shopping on the Internet (E-Commerce)
Advantages:
· Open 24/7
· By asking customers to “register”, businesses can build up databases/customer profiles
· People can shop without leaving home
· People can search massive online databases to find exactly what they want (see the case study below)
· A site such as Amazon has reviews of books, CDs and video games. You can read what other people thought of the product before you buy.
· Amazon allows customers to listen to a sample of each track on the CD before they decide to buy
· Businesses have fewer overheads and these savings should be passed on to the customer.
* Some people actually enjoy going out shopping
· Security concerns (credit card fraud, bogus companies etc.)
· Waiting for goods to arrive (or the wrong goods arriving)
· Technological Underclass (the poorest people in society have the least access to the new technology)
· Who do you complain to if you don't get good service?
· Customers can't touch, feel or taste goods before they buy them
· Postage and packing has to be added to the cost of goods that you buy

Case Studies:
· Autohunter (www.autohunter.co.uk) You can search for cars by location, colour, price, make, model. One young man wrote off his mother’s estate car one Saturday night and managed to find an exact replacement by the following Tuesday.
Source: http://www.thekjs.essex.sch.uk/yates/it01_-_5.htm