Wk4-2 posts

Discussion Activity 4 

1. Explain the evolution of the Internet and how it changes the way customers, suppliers and companies interact.  

2. Describe how your company utilizes the Internet and other recent technologies. (Be sure to include both internal and external uses) 

3. What recommendations do you have to improve and/or expand its online use? 

4. How do these existing and new initiatives help to create or destroy economic value in terms of competitiveness (profits), innovativeness (sales growth) and resources (intellectual capital)

Student’s response 1

Once a primitive system, the internet has blossomed into a place of indefinite possibilities.  From merely 10,000 computers to more than 1.5 billion today (Internet Society, 2012), the internet has changed the face of business to a more global marketplace.  The internet has affected the way businesses communicate with both customers and suppliers and has dramatically changed the “face’ of the business.  Today businesses are able to use technology to build a real-time interface with their customers, establish relationships, and customize products based on the needs/demands of the consumer.  2013 statistics show that nearly 40% of the internet population has made purchases online accounting for over $1billion sales (Statista," 2014)

Utilization of the internet promotes a competitive advantage among businesses. Businesses now have an increased ability to capture sales and streamline their deliveries and increase the overall speed of communications.  The increased access to a wide variety of suppliers and the ability to research the best options for their organization helps businesses become leaders in respective markets.  These advantages help companies to become more flexible, establish greater relationships and lower costs associated with supply chain management and overall operations Sharma & Gupta, 2004). 

The company I work for utilizes the internet as a promotional and educational tool as well as communication tool for both employees and customers.  Social Media is utilized with a great amount to keep customers and employees connected.  Social Media allows MES to showcase their advancements as well as their upcoming projects (newsletters or feeds).  Email as well as google hangouts are used as a communication tool that provides almost immediate access to employees not in the same building or area.  MES also offers an intranet, which allows access to employees who are not in the corporate office to access documents, forms and other non-public information.  MES’s website is utilized to recruit employees, provide benefit information and overall information about the organization.  Job postings are provided via their own website as well as outside sources such as indeed.com.  Security is well maintained throughout the systems utilized. 

The recommendation I have for MES surround internal operations and flexibility/efficiency of their workforce.  The antiquated and wasteful system of paper timesheets should be ended as soon as possible.  In order to promote efficiency within the workforce and enable employees to spend less time aggregating numbers/figures, this should be put into place.  Of course there will be budget and approval barriers to contend with, but it will cut down on operational costs in the long-term and provide MES with an appropriate management system t, increasing their overall resources.

Brief History of the Internet - Internet Timeline | Internet Society. (2012, October). Retrieved from http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet

E-Commerce | Statista. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/markets/413/e-commerce/

The Internet and Business - MIT Technology Review. (2015, February). Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/535076/the-internet-and-business/

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Student’s response 2

This week I am going to talk about the company I currently work for; Blackboard Inc. Blackboard is a company whose core mission is to help provide innovation in the educational space (Blackboard, 2017).  One of the major ways Blackboard does this is by creating online learning management systems (LMS) (Blackboard,2017). LEO, the LMS we use for taking courses online here at UMUC, is very similar to Blackboard’s LMS offering. It provides a set of learning tools that can be used online exclusively, or in a hybrid fashion by combining it with on-site instruction. Here is a video if you are interested about learning more.

I feel Blackboard is an excellent analogue to the evolution of business and the effect of new information technologies (NIT) on customer and supplier interactions. The internet has allowed for instantaneous electronic deliverability of products to customers (Andal-Ancion, Cartwright, & Yip, 2003). Externally, Blackboard utilizes the Internet to deliver education to remote learners (Blackboard, 2017). Previously this product, educational services, was limited to brick and mortar locations due to the high level of information that needed to be provided. Now, thanks to the NIT, the amount of information that can be shared with a consumer has greatly increased; this is known information intensity (Andal-Ancion, Cartwright, & Yip, 2003). In addition customers, in Blackboard’s case students and learning institutions, have also gained a tremendous amount of value through customizability thanks to  NIT (Andal-Ancion, Cartwright, & Yip, 2003). For example, in South Africa, Blackboard’s LMS was used in a custom fashion to supplement in person instruction as well as a tool to integrate university librarians and their offerings more strongly within a course(Kleinveldt, Schutte, & Stilwell, 2016). As a result, the university saw increased efficiency of the knowledge management process in first year students (Kleinveldt, Schutte, & Stilwell, 2016).

Internally, Blackboard has used NIT to increase the flexibility of our organization.  In particular, we have moved from hosting our own computer server sites to using Amazon’s cloud solution. First, this has greatly improved the time to market for our products which allows us to more quickly react to customer needs and opportunities. Instead of having to order a new server and install it in a physical location ( a process that can take weeks), we can now start up new machines with new features in minutes. The decreased time to market and quick reaction to a customer's needs, are  trademarks of flexible organizations(Sharma & Gupta, 2004). Secondly, this has helped increased our profitability by reducing the costs of the infrastructure for software that our platform is built upon. It is much cheaper to use a large third party, like Amazon, who can leverage the economies of scale to run these servers for a lower cost. This has also increased sales growth, as universities can quickly try and demo our product. We can then customize it in real time to their specific needs. This customizability has greatly increased our sales wins, which thankfully helps keep me employed!

References

Andal-Ancion, A., Cartwright, P. A., & Yip, G. S. (2003). The Digital Transformation of Traditional Businesses. MIT Sloan Management Review, 44(4), 34-41.

Blackboard. (2017). About Blackboard. Retrieved from http://www.blackboard.com/about-us/index.aspx.

Hui, L. (2016). An Analysis on Blended Learning Pattern Based on Blackboard Network Platform. International Journal Of Emerging Technologies In Learning, 11(9), 4-8. doi:10.3991/ijet.v11i09.6124

Kleinveldt, L., Schutte, M., & Stilwell, C. (2016). Embedded librarianship and Blackboard usage to manage knowledge and support blended learning at a South African university of technology. South African Journal Of Libraries & Information Science, 82(1), 62. doi:10.7553/82-1-1592

Sharma, S. K., & Gupta, J. D. (2004). e-Strategy Model for Creating Flexible Organizations. Global Journal Of Flexible Systems Management, 5(2/3), 1-9.