[ USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN BUSINESS ]

Relevant technology can provide a positive impact if used in a business. Besides being an important component of the business, a harmonious relationship between technology and business will have to be created. In fact, if the use of technology is negligible, the business will lose competitiveness both at local and global levels. To get a clearer picture of the use of technology in business, we follow the passage of a conference held in the capital recently.

Dr. Martin Berlin, Recruitment Manager, McKinsey & Company (Malaysia), as the chairman of the conference was to get the views and ideas of thoughtful member panel of Jason Lim, Director, Internet Business Group, Microsoft (Malaysia), Yohani Yusof, Channel Manager e -Business Asia Pacific, Intel Electronics, John Wong, Partner of General Atlantic Partners, Baharum Salleh, president, TM Multimedia, and Ramesh Subramaniam, from McKinsey & Co. (Singapore).

When answering the first question posed in the conference held in conjunction with Venture 2001 program, John felt that the technology is applied in various areas of business such as telecommunications, retail, stock brokers, financial, etc. are to good causes.
In fact, he said, technology will continue to be a part or component in any kind of business. And, a lot of technology development for several years funded by venture capitalists.

Referring to the advantages of technology, Jason also provide opinion parallel. He said "There is a wind of change in terms of competition, both in and outside the country. So, companies need to use technology to increase revenue, reduce operating costs, improve customer satisfaction, partners and employees. Besides help in increasing yield, the use of technology can also expand access to other countries where there is a cutting-edge technology such as the Internet and e-commerce. question is, how technology can be used to help businesses adopt to become more efficient. "

When he was asked about the importance of technology in business grafts over time, Jason insists that there is a harmonious relationship between technology and business, such as information technology (IT) can help companies be more successful. Yohani also recognized the need for this relationship, but emphasizes the role of 'man' as one of the key elements to ensure that the technology used works. So, focusing on technology users need through education and training so that they understand how the technology of creating harmonious relationships for business growth.

Meanwhile, John tries to divide into two parts, technology build and destroy. He said, "in terms of providing technology to build applications, increasing productivity, efficiency, and other good things, through the use of technology. Meanwhile, the damage can be seen in several aspects, such as when a business becomes too productive and efficiency increases, then a fall in prices products. This causes the business to compete harder to maintain or increase market share. Consequently, there is a continued weak business and failed. "

However, the success of a business realities are not subject to technology alone. According to Ramesh, the company needs a good business base in the new economy as a good business model to be successful in financial terms. Technology basically just help and entrepreneurs can not escape from the fact that businesses need a good foundation and model. For example, new models such as 'brick and click' even need a good foundation to run the business. If there is no good business model to be combined with innovation and smart technology, the business will not be successful.

The use of technology is key to the success of e-biz

Meanwhile, Baharum try to see the use of technology in business from different perspectives. One, technology as an enabler and another technology as the end product. Examples of microprocessors is one of the end product of a successful technology since tens of years ago. The one that keeps coming up is the Internet where sophistication try proved in several tech businesses such as B2C (business-to-customer), and gateway (portal) Web.

"We should not be more focused on technology, and ignore the business model should be a primary consideration. Example, there are many businesses that do not use technologies such as pernigaaan restaurant but more emphasis on the 'personal touch'. Meanwhile, freezing dryer technology become ubiquitous in food production as shady or floss. question is, does the end product being sold is the technology itself or produced through the use of technology. So, the business model must recognize these differences involving the production of end products or services. "

According to him, the technology as a facilitator depending on the segment entered. For example, for restaurant visitors 'personal touch' is more important than selling online.


However, if the business involves the marketing or production on a large scale with a pretty good sale (like shady or floss), then technology played an important role. In particular, large-scale production of combining food-related technology to ensure the freshness of the food. In addition, online booking and sales via the Web can be made.

Knowledge of IT and the Internet are advantages to CEO

When you answer the same question Yohani said, "businesses like restaurants, education, training, trade or any form of business that is not using the technology is likely to be 'stuck'. When we look around us today, increased competition not only occur at the
locally but also globally. If, nothing is done, the competition will appear in new forms such as the use of IT, Internet, SMS, and wireless communications to outperform their competitors. "

According to him, businesses that choose not to use the technology will affect competitiveness while its market share. So, operators need to understand what 'tool' that can be used to stay competitive. Although the restaurant is well known businesses such as food centric,
services and the environment, but another important aspect is the use of technology in marketing. This is to ensure continuous visits and restaurants can be known.

"There is a restaurant that uses SMS technology. Customers can obtain information about a restaurant easier fingertips via mobile phones rather than going from one store to another store. This is one of the aspects of the use of technology in marketing adopted most restaurants around the world moment, especially to compete with others. There are a lot of creativity in marketing. Regardless of the type of business, competition should be taken into account, "said Yohani.

e-biz is not just about shopping

In the same discussion, panel members were asked to comment on the development of technology for the past 10 years to come. In this case John felt that the broader technology will grow rapidly and not vice versa. He said microprocessor is a good example in terms of speed and size. History has proven, microprocessor miniaturization is a good example of technology, and the development of the technology is expected to increase further.

"The technology can also be classified as off the shelf technology. It refers to something that can be bought and accessed by everyone as PCs and notebooks available today. Much of today's business of buying and using off the shelf technology. Some advanced technology that can distinguish a company with another, and to be more competitive. use of advanced technologies need a lot of investment. while wireless technology is an example for application of advanced technology. "

John further explained that there is technology really advanced. But, not all companies will use the technology because it is not needed or not affordable today. For example, the advanced technology in the biotech industry, where a study is in progress when this gene have been found useful in medicine. In fact, in the IT field itself there are the newest technology, but not all companies use it because it is not needed at this point.

In an increasingly heated discussion, the panelists line also gives a different perspective when asked about the potential of technology predicted in the future, especially in the category of major applications (killer application). Some of the technologies that are expected to become important applications including
wireless applications, 3G (third generation), personal digital assistants (PDAs), and home computing.


In summary, all the panelists agreed that technology will continue to be combined in the business.


 [ Information source: PC Magazine ]