Chapter 9: Technology and Business

The History of Technology

Technology Influences Businesses

• Technology refers to the tools and machines that people have invented to make life easier.
• Perhaps the most common technology staple in businesses today is the computer.
• Even the simplest invention can have a huge impact on business.
• Telephones were so useful that making them became a big business.
  • Companies specialized in making them.
  • Machinists were needed to make parts.
• There was a constant demand to produce new and more efficient tools.
• In time, cordless phones, cell phones, and radio telephones became useful tools for business and consumers.
• Since the invention of the telephone, countless new inventions have changed the way we live, work, and do business.
• Business and consumers constantly demand smaller, faster, cheaper, and more powerful electronic devices.

Technology and the E-Workforce

• The e-workforce consists of people who work with computers while doing business.
• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 77 million workers use computers daily.
• Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, which uses the Internet to do business, means businesses can reach customers directly anywhere in the world.
• Innovation means more jobs and more people learning new skills.
• Technology allows people to work easier and faster.
• A digital workflow links all the steps in a process digitally.
  • Paper workflow, sending information in paper form, requires workers to exchange many pages of paper.
  • By switching to a digital format, less paper is involved.

E-Commerce

The Importance of Virtual Business

• The ease of doing business via the Internet has created a boom in new online businesses.
• A start-up is a newly formed business that is usually small.
• Everyone hooked up to the Internet is a potential customer.
• E-tail is electronic retail.
  • E-tailers sell products over the Internet through e-commerce.
• This type of company is called a multi-channel retailer.
  • It uses several methods to sell products.
• Businesses often call their stores and warehouses brick-and-mortar, referring to the actual buildings.
• Businesses that also use the Internet are called clicks-and-mortar operations.
  • Bookstore chain Barnes & Noble is a clicks-and-mortar company.
• E-tail benefits include convenience and choices
• E-tail disadvantages include buying power, additional charges, immediacy, and relying on observation
• Businesses find that customers want to buy more goods and services online.
• Using their computers, people can now purchase an e-ticket, or electronic ticket.
  • Approximately 70 percent of travelers in the United States now shop for airline tickets online.