A Wired Society -By Bello Olakeu Abdussalam

At the core of a wired society are opportunities that are transforming the business world, accompanying these opportunities are challenges that are needed to be overcome to maximize the rewarding impacts of a wired society. James Martin well-known as “the guru of the information age’’ in his interview with the London Business School said “Either we learn how to control technology or it will destroy us, in one way or another”. Our ability to strike the balance between these opportunities and the challenges is the determining factor of whether the advent of a society that is connected by mass- and telecommunication networks a global breakthrough or somehow a global catastrophe. 

All sectors of the society are benefitting from the advent of telecommunications however this essay presents the pros and cons of digital networks in business world. So, read on to find out the good, the bad and the ugly associated with the effect of internet on business today. The technology has revolutionized the business world in the last 20 years and has tremendously influenced the ways the businesses do business with each other, their suppliers and their customers. The Statista Research Department reported that by 2023, digitally transformed enterprises are forecast to account for more than half of the nominal Gross Domestic Products (GDP). The popularization of internet, for instance, has brought massive changes in the way businesses get to know the buying habits of their customers. It provides businesses with consumer data which are subsequently use in creating marketing strategies that improve the customer’s satisfactions, company’s performance and speed up the business processes. Although, the data gotten from consumers are useful to both parties, the issue of data privacy is an issue embattling business as the consumers are now mindful of what to and what not to be shared with companies because of the perceived impact of the data privacy on their personal lives. And for businesses, ensuring customers’ trust is essential and the way this trust is built up in an online market is different in comparison to the traditional market. Privacy is one of the key determinants of trust and hence the success of digital marketing. Those companies that fail to prioritize their consumers’ privacy will risk of losing reliability among consumers. One of the greatest challenges facing the companies is the issue of data loss and recovery. It has been noted by Verizon report that data breaches of fewer than 100 lost files can cost between $18,120 to $35,730. But with advent of cloud computing, the problem of that data loss has reduced to a minimal level as this system allows businesses to store, transfer and utilize the data set without the fear of losing data permanently.

Also benefited by businesses from internet connections is the improvement in the internal communication through the advent of programs like Slack, Discord etcetera which connect workers, aid in organizing tasks and help in delivering instant messages. This increases the efficiency of the workers and decreases the turnaround time to get the work done. It is also worthy of mentioning, the most assessed part of the internet by businesses which is internet marketing and advertising. The emergence of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, LinkedIn have tremendously improved the advertising strategies as internet advertisement is less costly, reach greater proportion of the consumers, easy to measure the impacts and greater return of investment. However, Social media platforms being open places, it poses risks to business owners as they are exposed to negative feedback that may dent the image of their good and services. Also, social media increases businesses’ vulnerability since other people can use someone else’s ideas to improve their own brands. The evolution of new technology is indeed advantageous to businesses since it smoothens the day-to-day activities of the workers. However, for every new technology advancement, there are new associated technicalities and in consequential, there will be need to train the employee which will at the long run affect the budget allocation of the company. Another problem of technology in businesses, the employees sometimes use the company’s internet resources for non-work-related purposes, this in turn reduce employee productivity. Hence it incurs on the company additional expenses to institute strategies to address it.     

 Lastly, the internet has changed the traditional supply chain method which involve visiting the factories, products and running through detailed process to create and brand a product. Now, a business can contact multiple manufacturers for needed products without necessary having to visit the factories. A not to be neglected drawbacks of integration of technology in supply chain include difficult in software tools implementation, incorrect registration of inventories, operational failure of information systems etcetera. An example of failure is Hershey Foods, that encountered problems in implementing a new order management, supply chain planning, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) which led to the loss of higher orders worth $ 150 million. Also, businesses that employ technology in supply chain management depend on reliable internet connections for transmission of information.

In conclusion “We have got to get this balance between privacy and at the same time use of data for legitimate public safety. The internet is one of the greatest global goods and common goods. If we destroy it, we destroy a lot of our economic future. Hence, any business experience data loss will likely to go bankrupt.” Said the Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Cooperation, USA, Satya Nadella.