Digital revolution
QUESTION ONE (a)
Benefits of digital revolution
Efficiency in transportation of goods, including improved quality control, shorter delivery time, greater efficiency through the use of information and communication components like internets, satellites among others that enables tracking and tracing of the goods in transit, during shipment as well as giving up to date information to the buyers about the goods. This enables the trading parties to minimize inefficiencies such as pilferage, theft among others during the logistics of the goods hence improving logistics efficiency and effectiveness.
The introduction of information and communication technology has not only simplified the logistics process but has also improved on the whole supply chain process including control over suppliers, improved process cycle time, close cooperation relationships, improved supply chain efficiency, raw materials on time for suppliers. Simplified logistics and supply chain process has brought about shorter lead times and has enabled the materials to be available as and when they are required by the buyers for production purposes.
Process Automation. With the use of information and communication technology components such as Bar coding, Satellite, internets and Image processing among others in the process of managing logistics efficiency, there has been reduction on paper work thereby leading to a substantial reduction of errors, as well as increased capability to obtaining and exchanging real time information. This is possible through the use of information technology systems such as Bar code and scanners which represents a series of alphanumerical characters, bar code readers to interpret bar code symbology, and bar code printers to reliably and accurately print bar codes on labels, cartons, and/or picking /shipping documents. This review is included here because bar code systems are the foundation for many paperless warehousing systems, but the review is meant only as a brief introduction to bar code system. In logistics, bar coding is useful in receiving inbound materials. This helps in quick and accurate data entry, faster checking and clearing of shipments, automatic tracking of the shipments throughout the logistics. (Trent and Monczka 2000)
Improved Logistics process. Logistics management is the process of managing the efficient, costs effective way of transporting goods, supplies and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption Kenneth Lysons (2000). The introduction of communication and information technology has brought in tremendous improvements in the flow of materials from the point of origin to the point of consumption including reduced arrangement costs and handling times, shortened response time for purchasing, improved order process speed and reduced labour costs.
Digital revolution enhance better management of ware housing facilities; Warehousing is the primary link between the producers and the consumers; it is used for storing products (raw materials, in process inventory and finished goods) before they are finally worked upon or delivered to the ultimate consumers. Through the implementation of information and communication technology, ware house efficiency and effectiveness has improved greatly through using opportunities such as e- warehousing, e- receipts and e- issuing.
Proper monitoring. The introduction of information and communication technology in logistics management has brought about efficient and effective monitoring of the materials during transit to their various destinations. This is done through use of technologies that allows communication across a very wide geographical area. Satellite communication provides a fast and high volume channel for information movements. Satellite technology facilitates real time interaction which provides up to date information about location and delivery information about the products in transit. The satellite devices can also be used in tracking and tracing the materials in transit. Tracking is specifically achieved through the use of internet and others, this therefore enables both the delivering organization or the supplier and the buyer to know where specifically the goods in transit is and also in case of any problem encountered say by the truck being used for the transportation purposes.
Better communication and connection links. Digital revolution between the buyers and the suppliers has been eased. Logistics is an old age industry that has been one of the greatest holdouts against the waves of computerization that has swept the world. Until recently, most organizations were still using traditional systems like fax and letter writing among others as a means of communication. However with the introduction of information and communication technologies such as telephones, internets and satellites among others, communication has not only been eased but also made efficient and effective.
Faster information transfer. Digital revolution like internet, satellite and telephones enables a speedy transfer of information between the supplier and the buyer. Therefore, all the necessary information that the supplier needs to give to the buyer regarding how the goods in transit should be handled, stored and packed are given to the buyer prior to delivery so that special attention is taken by the buyer where necessary.
Reduce inventory levels. Digital revolution helps the buying organisation to order the needed items at the right time and once the need arises then an order will be placed. This helps the organisation to do away with bulk stock levels hence solving the problem of inventory costs like obsolescence and dampness leading to losses this leads to efficiency and effectiveness in the logistics operations.
Challenges of ICT
The act of integrating the use of ICT into teaching and learning is a complex process and one may encounter a number of difficulties. Different categories have been used by researchers and educators to classify the problems in use of ICT in educational institutions and several studies have divided the problems into extrinsic and intrinsic categories. Ertmer[2015] referred to extrinsic problems as first-order and cited access, time, support, resources and training and intrinsic problems as second-order and cited attitude, beliefs, practices and resistance. Whereas, Hendren [2018) cited in saw extrinsic problems to institutions rather than individuals and intrinsic problems pertains to teachers, administrators and individuals.
Lack of the required knowledge and skills to operate the digitalized machines, According to Ajuwon, (2015) Knowledge has become one of the most highly valued commodities in the modern economy. Further, knowledge is considered the principal tool of competitiveness and innovation in the composition of commodity chain to the broader processes of regional and national economic development. In line with Tarhini et al., (2015) the new paradigm is that, within the organization, knowledge must be shared in order for it to grow thus sharing knowledge among its management and staff grows stronger and becomes more competitive.Some of the most significant changes are the growing importance of knowledge as a catalyst of economic growth within the global economy, the revolution of information and communication technology (ICT), the integration of the global labour market and worldwide socio-political transformations (Lwoga et al., 2016).
Access to and production of knowledge are essential prerequisite for participation in the global economy as noted by (Lwoga et al., 2016).
Limited resources to cope up with digitalized economy; information and communication technologies have significantly increased the speed of production, use and distribution of knowledge, thus making a country’s economic and social wellbeing dependant on how quickly it can adjust its capacity to share and generate knowledge, however organizations needs to save enough resources to be in position to reap the benefits of digitized economy.
Transformations brought to different firms as a result of information systems offer many potential opportunities for both developed and developing nations (Komba et al., 2016). However, on the negative side, they also pose serious threats, and especially for developing nations. There is ample evidence that processes of globalization and the ascent of Manuel Castell’s ‘Information Society’ have given rise to new problems, such as the growing knowledge gap and digital divide between the information rich and the information poor among and within nations.
Limited skills among most people in the developing world about the digitized economy; According to Busagala (2013) 1990’s saw a heightened focus on increasing the use of computer technology in Health, defence and Education departments of most governments across the globe., the author further notes that there is growing attention and pressure to implement technology in education, one of the most significant features of the technological or digital era of much relevance to education is the Internet.
Unemployment has been brought up due to; the impact of the automation of ICT shows a decreased ability for poverty reduction related to an increase in unemployment rate due to limited job opportunities. This reduction in the growth rate from 6% to 1.5% shows a direct interaction to how employment has been negatively affected by the introduction of ICT.
QUESTION ONE (b)
To what extend are the rising profits of zoom sustainable
Due to ICT‟s importance in society and possibly for the different fields it is therefore of much importance to note that the that ICT has made tremedeous improvement in education through Zoom, identifying the possible obstacles to the use of ICT in educational institutions would be an important step in improving the quality of teaching and learning in the education system of Uganda. Balanskat, Blamire, and Kefala[2017] argue that although educators appear to acknowledge the value of ICT in institutions, difficulties continue to exist during the processes of adopting these technologies. As the Covid-19 virus sweeps across the planet, leading to quarantined cities and shut-down schools, Zoom has emerged as one of the leading tools to keep businesses up and running and students learning. On Wednesday, the most recent day for which data is available, 343,000 people globally downloaded the Zoom app, 60,000 in the U.S. alone, according to mobile intelligence firm Apptopia — compared to 90,000 people worldwide and 27,000 in the U.S. just two months ago. (Zoom doesn’t share such numbers and wouldn’t comment on a third party report.) And overnight, having already removed the time limit from video chats using Zoom’s free service for affected regions in China and elsewhere, Yuan took another measure to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus: he decided to remove the limit for any K-12 schools affected in Japan, Italy and the United States.
Students or teachers who fill out an online form using their school email addresses and are then verified by Zoom will have any accounts associated with that school’s domain also gain unlimited temporary meeting minutes, according to a site set up for the process overnight. The free Basic accounts are also available by request in Austria, Denmark, France, Ireland, Poland, Romania and South Korea, a spokesperson for Zoom said. “Given that many K-12 schools are starting closing, we decided to offer Zoom access to all K-12 schools in the country starting tomorrow,” Yuan wrote in an email overnight.
Zoom will be relevant in the health sector and this therefore will also increase the profitability of zoom globally.
Information systems like Zoom have a huge impact on industries, the community in general and our daily lives. Information systems software can be applied to many fields. One of the emerging applications in recent years is in most of the organizations to enhance better performance while (Lee & Kim, 2016) notes that Information systems software is fast becoming one of the main drivers of change, posing new strategic challenge. The business environment today has been undergoing unprecedented change and many companies are seeking new ways to stand out from the competition by sustaining their competitive advantage. In today’s highly competitive global marketplace, the pressure on organization is to find new ways of creating and delivering value to customers in growing stronger.
Technologies like Zoom can be thought of as the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes. From the invention of the wheel to the harnessing of electricity for artificial lighting, technology is a part of our lives in so many ways that we tend to take it for granted.
The influence of ZOOM cannot be under estimated, the use of software in the organization and unless the software can be applied to the organization to enhance its better performance and enable the organization achieve better performance. Zoom is changing the ways business is done and as such it has reduced the costs of operating the business unlike before the introduction of ZOOM majority of medium-to-large organizations invest significant amounts of time, money and effort on information systems (IS); which combine hardware, software and networking capacity to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their business processes. In some circumstances the IS/IT that supports a business process becomes so integral that it can be very difficult to differentiate between them.
Information systems LIKE zoom software works hand in hand with the hardware to enable the organization be in position to achieve its goals and objectives. Computers, keyboards, disk drives, iPads, and flash drives are all examples of information systems hardware.
ZOOM improves on speed and reliability of organizational transfer and processing of information among members in the organization, this helps the different departments in the organization to send and receive information in a short time which leads to improved performance and better competitive strength of the organization. There is a delay of government services in reaching the people that need it in Ethiopia; some of the departments that people delays in accessing services include the pension.
ZOOM services as an effective Information systems infrastructure in Nigeria has been adopted by the government to eliminate unnecessary government costs incurred as a result of paper work and enhance performance of public sector agencies in the country.
ZOOM enables long-term relationship between the organization and the customers, he further asserts that websites is where customers keep checking on the major changes in the organizational products. The public sector websites provide information to the customers about the products the organization has.
ZOOM enables the Government across Sub-Saharan Africa have acquired advanced software in key government agencies like Taxation and water management systems, this is to enable government manage public utilities better.
ZOOM increases enables the government of Ghana was able to realize an increase in revenue collection due to the use of advanced software and internet services, using this system, the public could pay for their taxes online.
ZOOM has significantly increased the speed of production, use and distribution of knowledge, thus making a country’s economic and social wellbeing dependant on how quickly it can adjust its capacity to share and generate knowledge. Transformations brought to different firms as a result of information systems offer many potential opportunities for both developed and developing nations. However, on the negative side, they also pose serious threats, and especially for developing nations. There is ample evidence that processes of globalization and the ascent of Manuel Castell’s ‘Information Society’ have given rise to new problems, such as the growing knowledge gap and digital divide between the information rich and the information poor among and within nations.
Question two
- a) The emergence of a digital economy has changed companies’ business and talent model. However, the gap between supply and demand for digital skills and talent poses a serious dilemma for many companies. Using empirical evidence, show this dilemma could be addressed.
The evolution of Information systems has a long history however can be specifically traced from the invention of Herman Hollerith’s census tabulator which was Invented to process the 1890 U.S. census this brought the first step in automation and development of the information systems Era. According to Pearlson et al., (2016) the UNIVAC I, was the first computer installed at the U.S. Bureau of the Census in 1951 which helped in administrative duties while in general electric the computers were installed for commercial purposes in 1954 this later paved way for the full scale adoption of personal computers globally in 1970s.
Information system has progressed through personal computer era to client server era and currently to enterprise internet, this has been spearheaded by the United States military department since 1945 whose main goal has been to eliminate communication barriers and enable better performance; however, this technological advancement has been adopted by most governments across the globe to help in the improvement of performance (Kim et al., 2009).
According to Ricci et al., (2015) the adoption of internet can be traced back with the invention of the World Wide Web in 1991. This gave way to the adoption of internet in government organizations like in Health, Education and administration globally.
Adoption of computers in Africa can be traced in 1960 with the introduction of the first IBM 1401 data processing system in Johannesburg South Africa which was installed in the IBM Service Bureau and was first unveiled in October 1959 (Dwivedi et al., 2015).
Other African countries started using computers after South Africa especially by the late 1990s most of the government across the sub-Saharan Africa started adopting information systems in the running of the daily activities and as of 2017, Africa had more than 450 million internet users with specific countries like Nigeria individually having 98 million users and Egypt having 49.23 million this has been spear headed by countries to enhance better performance(Ziemba, E. (2017, September).
Toots, M (2016) asserts that the use of information systems by the government has been adopted by countries in East Africa like Kenya in key sectors like education, Health, revenue collection and management of water resources to improve on the efficiency of the government key agencies (Cirera, Lage, & Sabetti, 2016).
The adoption of Information systems in Uganda can be traced from the introduction of the first computer ever in Uganda in 1967 in Ministry of Finance and in 1968, the second mainframe arrived at Makerere University, however, it was not until June 2006 that the Government of Uganda created a Ministry of ICT to enhance the adoption of information systems in the government agencies in Uganda (Ramadani, 2017).
Question two (b)
To every business today, it has become apparently clear on how important computer networks are. However, businesses must manage the challenges that come along with these networking. Using empirical evidence show how companies can optimally utilize networks to achieve maximum performance.
Computer networks enables the organization in implementation of the e-catalogue systems which enables an organization to have an efficient system of analyzing supplies capability, Electronic catalogues can be understood as electronic documents, describing the offered products/services of a supplier for a specific call for competition (e.g. prospectuses). Therefore, the content and format of catalogues must enable suppliers to easily and unambiguously present/describe their offered products, including pricing details. In order to fully benefit from the use of catalogues, it is desirable that their content and format, as well as the way catalogue data is exchanged between parties, be standardized, so as to enable their automated processing. Therefore, cross-border interoperability of catalogues is fundamental, (Aberdeen group, 2006).
Cost Reduction, Information and Communication Technology not only reduces the cost of transactions, it also improves process efficiency and can reduce administrative and other costs. Manual (phone and fax) communications are reduced or eliminated, as are paper invoices and their associated costs , most of these costs in procurement include , costs of communication with the supplies this therefore will minimize the chances of the procurement management in organization to commit procurement irregularities, (Clarke, 1998).
Information and communication technology has increased on the Productivity of the organizations procurement staff and minimized on the chances of procurement irregularity, Enterprises that implement e-procurement report that procurement, accounting, and other corporate functions are more productive now than with traditional buying methods. Eprocurement systems provide a standardized approach to rolling out efficient processes to not only procurement but all departments involved in transaction processing and financial recordkeeping. Increased Spend under Management One of the most compelling findings in the 2004 Aberdeen benchmark survey was the ability of procurement users to bring more spends under management of the procurement organization. Increasing spend under management helps ensure the enterprise achieves maximum spending lever, (Accenture, 2006).
Visibility of spend, information and communication technology enables Centralized tracking of transactions enables full reporting on requisitions, items purchased, orders processes and payments made. Information And Communication Technology therefore enables an organization in tracking of its expenditure and ensuring that they comply with approved budge, (Lysons, 2006).
Visibility of spend, information and communication technology enables Centralized tracking of transactions enables full reporting on requisitions, items purchased, orders processes and payments made . Procurement staff can be released from processing orders and handling low value transactions to concentrate on strategic sourcing and improving supplier relationships, (Lysons, 2006).
Monitoring and controlling of the procurement process, ICT enables the organization to be in position to analyze the entire procurement process and be able to eliminate the procurement costs associated with the procurement system by creating Standardized approval processes and formal workflows ensure that the correct level of authorization is applied to each transaction and that spend is directed to draw off existing contracts. Compliance to policy is improved as users can quickly locate products and services from preferred suppliers and are unable to create maverick purchases, (Chaffey, 2006).
ICT enables an organization to be able to use e-receipting techniques in its payment systems which will enable an organization to eliminate over and under payment during the transactions The paperless receipt is becoming more commonplace in most retail companies across the globe as a cost sever and also in fighting against fraud involved in the payment of different suppliers retail; and that’s good for retailers, the environment and consumers. Some consumers can be wary of opening themselves up to digital promotions, so it’s up to retailers to allay those fears and present e-receipts as a customer benefit as well as a convenience, (Lysons, 2006).
Using ICT increases speed in the procurement process since request for proposal is easily obtained in the procurement systems in electronic request for proposal becomes so easy for an organization this therefore enables an organization in the fight against fraud since it’s able to reduce on the chances of fraud in the process of procurement especially at the stage of the request for proposal, (Chaffey, 2006).An adequate, fully integrated ICT system approach is needed for overall success. Additional programs provide the framework for the supplier databases and spend management as well as holding key vendor information and being an electronic repository for contracts. All these facilities cost money and a clear business case must be made for procurement efficiency. In most cases this is fairly clear that cost savings are possible, it pays for companies to spend money on information and communication technology, this investment will boost efficiency. The longer term reduction in costs will enable companies to direct their resources to more strategic initiatives.
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