Continued Adoption and Integration of It into Business Functions Drives Competitive Advantage

Transport and Information Technology

Continued adoption and integration of IT into business functions drives competitive advantage

Created by:

Romans Dedkovs, R00143504

Cork, 2015

Table of contents

Introduction        

How can companies in supply chain use more information technology?        

What are the benefits in investing in technology in supply chain?        

What are the disadvantages of increased IT?        

RFID        

Conclusion        

Bibliography        

Introduction

Application of information and other new technologies becomes more critical for the industries. Nowadays, the integration of multiple organizations can become a complex process that is difficult to manage. To support this process, IT can provide a number of tools to facilitate, streamline and increase the reliability of communications and the exchange of information between organizations. Each company seek to provide better services for their customers. Therefore, companies begin to use many innovative logistics technologies to improve their performance and reinforce their competitive advantages. Many companies that tried to implement IT were failed (Caldeira, et al., 2012). Why it happens? What benefits gain companies from IT implementation and what disadvantages are of increased IT?  All these questions I am going to answer in this paper.

How can companies in supply chain use more information technology?

The level of success with adoption of IT is far from satisfactory. A high percentage of IT implementation projects fail significantly in at least one of the following issues: completion time; falling within the budget; or fulfilling all business requirements (Caldeira, et al., 2012). An IT system involves not only software but also other components such as data, hardware, procedures, people, and organizational settings (Warf, 2010). Hence, I conclude that to be successful on implementation of IT in company, it is not enough to buy software or device and start to use it within the company, it should be as complex actions that encompasses all necessary aspects regarding to IT adoption and integration.

Using information technology in supply chain help enterprises improve their performance. To benefit fully, first, they need to ensure that the people who operating the systems are well versed in information technology applications (Yen-Chun Jim Wu. et al., 2015). It means, that they should arrange education and training programs and, moreover, encourage employees to gain proficiency in the field, for instance, by allowing them to practice operating the different information systems used by the company.