Role of IT in Asda and its ethical and social issues

In this report, about a discussion is made on role of Information technology in organization, where case study is taken of Asda. This retail firm is one of the largest supermarket chain of UK, which provide groceries and other household products to its customers. Company was established in 1949 in England and it is the second largest supermarket chain in UK with annual gross revenue of around 21 million euros. The main objective of this report is to identify the importance of information technology and challenges which are faced by Asda to increase its productivity. This report will focus on role of IT in success of Asda and its ethical and social issues due to technology. This will also discuss different types of network technology and importance of social media with effective explanation about system development life cycle.

Literature Review

Role of Information Technology

According to Hemrungrote, Jakkaew and Assawaboonmee, (2017) information technology helps to maintain the operations of retail industry as it provides information which helps to increase productivity. Asda is using information system which helps company to manage all the operations which increase growth of company. IT provides business expansion and effective study about all market factors which are evaluated and formulate strategic planning according to resources available to ensure efficiency of marketplace. Its increases the risk bearing capacity of Asda new opportunities. This firm mainly concern to analyse the new market opportunity with help of information system as it also deceases the cost and tie to process the information on the system. Asda is using information technology to determine the strategies and policies of competitors like Tesco, M&S and more, which are effective in taking better decisions to achieve competitive advantages. Asda is dealing with many products and it is essential for company to analyse all product availability in stores for tailoring demands of customers on time. Information technology in this regard, helps to maintain all data about stock on system which saves time and also reorder products which are not available immediately. Sales and purchase record with information management system help to integrate and generate effective data. With help of inventory management company reduces its cost and increases its profitability.

As per the view of Lugmayr and Grueblbauer (2017) information technology helps Asda to understand behavioural pattern of customers and make effective strategies for increase their satisfaction. Asda is also producing its goods and modifying its services according to needs and wants of customers. Information technologies is also responsible to maintain and increase cultural values with analysing all the information about employees to formulate techniques which help to integrate them with company's objectives. Asda is also using information technology to identify all the factors which impact the demand and supply of products and services of customers of company. This help to determine the price by analysing cost of operations and cost of production. Information technology help to identify product prices of competitors which impact the sales of Asda this also help company to be more effective and increase its efficiency. Asda is also using Customer relationship management system to increase customer services. Company also used inventory management system which helps to increase the information about all the good availability and products sold to focus on purchase.

Ethical and Social Issues of Business Organization

In accordance with Waser and et.al (2016) Asda is facing challenges in its daily operation of business and need to analyse all the issues and problems to formulate effective strategies and policies to reduce the issues related to technology. As IT is also very essential in business operation and provide smooth working but with various ethical challenges it reduces the efficiency of business. Asda is very effective in increasing its efficiency due to lack of information technology In company. Company also determines that with the increased usage of information technology data protection have compromised due to increase in cyber crimes. With the help of internet hacking and data theft is very easy to perform. Which creates ethical issues for Asda to use new technology with high risk or continue old traditional way to save data which deceases productivity of business organization. Viruses and fake IP addresses can reduce the security of data and it is very important to secure all information from criminal as it can also decrease market position of Asda. Privacy issues is also a very big concern as cyber criminal can also use the private content to access online websites of customers, and they can also enter into the personal computers of customers to use their bank details to snoop all the money from the customer's account. Asda is also loosing its brand value due to increase of technology as many duplicate websites are made t sell their products online with poor quality this also deceases the sales of company.

As per the opinion of Nieles, Dempsey and Pillitteri (2017) Asda also faced issues in making decision as it is very difficult to survive in competitive market without technology and provide effective solutions for the problems. This give rise to ethical dilemma and company have to choose between two or more alternatives which are against the nature of business to expand and grow in different markets. Technology have also increased the knowledge of Employees of Asda as they are ,ore aware about all the laws and equality policies of government. Employees in company have the tendency to discriminate their co-workers on the basis on gender and power which generates ethical issues. Company have to formulate effective policies to reduce this issues and provide effective and healthy work environment but it will also discourage the superiors and males in the organization as they do not have knowledge to work in that environment which also can decrease the efficiency of business organization. With increase in technology it also deceases the efficiency of Asda to increase profit margins and compete with competitors.

Lloyd (2017) said that Technology also increase hate and criminal activity and deceases the customer satisfaction. Increase of competition and increased education and awareness of customers has also increased the expectation of them to get after sales services effectively and on time. With the increase in technology Asda is facing issues in this daily operation as the employees are not potential and also do not have expected skills as compared to technology to satisfy their customers on time as Asda have a large customer base. Service helps company to increase loyal customers and with ineffective services Asda loses the efficiency to attract more customers to increase its sales. Fake news due to internet have also confused the customers to trust the companies which also deceases Brand value of Asda. Asda is facing this social issues as it is very difficult to analyse the brand value and formulate pricing strategies according to its process to gain more premium value from the products and services. Internet is the fastest medium to share information which also impacted business due to foul publicity and unethical activities by competitors to capture market share. Mechanization also increases dependency of delivering the products to customers. Asda is having issues with handling of all the data as it is very important to understand all the stored data to make effective decisions and increase the quality of working environment. Technology also discourages the legal justice which take place on the online platforms. It is not in notice of legal justice institutions which discourages customers to buy online.

Different Types of Networking Technologies For Business Organization

As per the view of Turel, Soror and Steelman, (2018) networking technologies is framework that helps to connect two or more computer system longer so that it can transfer and receive data that can be connected to a server helps to provide all the information effectively. Local Area Networking is the simplest type of network system Asda is using to by connecting to a hub or server to exchange information. This firm is using this type of networking system at its each store to connect all computer integrally from each other and increase the performance of store. Wireless Local Area Networking This system is similar like Local Area network but is upgraded as it is wireless and It is connected with the help of in internet or personal server of Asda to exchange information. Asda is also very effective in exchanging the data in the small area with wireless networking without any cables.

Alsmadi and et.al, 2018 said that MAN is a big larger area network than LAN as it is the combination of two or more local networks with help of single server or internet which help to manage all the network of stores at one place of particular market. Asda is using this networking system to connect all the store's system of particular city at in one place which will integrate all the data of tat location which will also help company to differentiate the sales and other factors of all cities separately.Wide Area Networking is very large and it allows to connect all the computer systems of Asda from any location of the world to send or receive their data through internet or personal server which will help to secure the data and also provide advantage to compete in market. WAN help to connect all the Local networks with the help of internet which help increase the efficiency business. Storage Area Networking is pool of system which is working in high speed server to store information in different server, so that only those systems can assess data which are connected to pool and gain efficiency to manage all the activities. Asda is using storage area network to secure their information in a safe storage of company. Asda is using Enterprise private networking technology which have the effective techniques to secure its data and it is customized for every store with secure passwords which also help to protect it with data theft and cyber crimes which can decrease the productivity of company. Employees of Asda are also very effective in understanding the information due to high skilled training and knowledge. This also helps to formulate strategies which will grow the company's revenue and market share. Enterprise private networking is different from all the other networking system as it helps to provide effective information for only superiors and management to avoid the leakage of information through lower level employee.

Importance of Social Media For Business Organization

(Tavani, 2016) stated that Due to change in market trends and technological advancements, customers have increased their knowledge and also have skills to understand the use of social media. This is very helpful for retailers like Asda to develop marketing plan and increase their customers and also evaluate external and internal factors of business environment. Asda is using Social media platform to increase the brand awareness by posting the advertisements on websites and also describing about the nature of company which help online users to increase their knowledge and consider purchasing some product form company, this will increase the sales of company in long run and also improve the brand value. Social medial also help Asda to communicate with them and also help the company to know customer's point of view which help to generate effective policies and differentiate new products so that it can satisfy existing customers and attract new customers in stores. Asda also uses social media to provide information about all the products and services which the company is providing which also help to attract new customers and improves customer engagement. Social media provide platform to innovate their products and with the help of product differentiation it helps to make customers loyalty. Social websites also with additional benefits to customers which will also retain them to company. This marketing technique which also increases the goodwill by mouth publicity and which is very effective marketing in present day. Asda also provides support to their customers with the help of social media platform to solve their queries about the products and services. Social media helps to generate effective suggestions by users which helps to develop new products and services to increase customers satisfaction and making them loyal to company.

Stages of System Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

According to Pekkola and Päivärinta, (2017) system Planning is a very important phase in the entire cycle because in this stage there has to be a decision related to identify key problems with specific solutions and what has to be done overall (Koch, 2018). The problem has to be addressed and resources required to solve the same is being discussed at first stage of SDLC. There has to be a study as to how the product can get a competitive advantage in the market and be better than all the other competitions. After this discussion the organization will have a clear vision whether they have to improve the current scheme or leave the method as it is or develop a new instrument all together.

As per the view of Jakkaew and Hemrungrote, (2017) system Analysis is the Understanding demand of targeted audience and check feasibility of new product is done at the second stage of SDLC, in aspect of socially, organizationally, economically and technologically. The communication between the client and the business has to be there so that there is a clear vision as to what has to be done in the organization and the finished product can get justification and satisfy the clients.

In accordance with Beynon-Davies (2016) designing is third stage which focus on the formation of components of system after analysing the needs and wants of customers, a user-friendly interface is created. This would help to increase the quality of operation with effective features which are required. This stage also helps to understand all the information processing for evaluating the functioning of system before implementation. This stage will help to understand all the issues and flaws of system.

(Kaplan, 2017) said that Implementation and development is the fourth stage After understanding all the internal factors and component which will help to function the system will be created in this stage according the designing in the previous stage. This stage is the programming stage for the system and software which help to develop the language and all the features which are discussed in the above stages. The system will be completed in the stage and will be ready to be installed for customers. The customer will provide with training about the system function and operations to increase their efficiency increase their productivity of business organization to increase their profitability.

Ptitsyna and et.al., (2019) stated that Testing stage provides all the system be combined and integrated to form a complex system which will be more effective for the customer and provides better quality of operation to them. After that a testing will be done by the business employees which is trained for system to ensure the quality of system both hardware and software quality with real activity testing.

In opinion of Rajaraman, (2018) maintenance is the last stage where system will be maintained in regular interval of time and all the corrections will be made to provide efficiency to system. This will help to change the components which are inefficient due to changes in technology and market rends which can make the system obsolete can also lose its pro