AE110 – Buildings and land, Equipment, People,

Materials
FUNCTIONAL AREAS WITHIN BUSINESS
MARKETING AND SALES
Both are concerned with customer needs.
MARKET RESEARCH
SALES
PROMOTION

CUSTOMER SERVICE
Concerned with customer relationships
Activities include:
 Providing  Delivering goods
information  Providing after-
 Giving advice sales service
DELIVERING KEY FUNCTIONS  Providing credit
 In a small business, will be done by facilities
individuals RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
 In a medium/large business, will be done Concerned with developing new
by individuals working in functional areas goods/services
or departments and updating old ones
Activities include:
LINKS BETWEEN FUNCTIONS  Technological  Design features
 All functional areas must link together developments  Performance of
to achieve the overall aims and objectives  Scientific research product
 This means cooperation and good
communications THE USE OF IT
Relates to all functional areas:
HUMAN RESOURCES  Electronic  External
Main responsibilities of the human resources communications (eg communications (eg
 Recruitment, retention and dismissal email) Internet)
 Working conditions  Data sharing (eg  Online support for
 Training, development and promotion databases) customers (eg order
 Employee organizations and unions  Security systems tracking)
 Health and safety (eg virus protection)  Electronic
Includes the legal rights and responsibilities transactions (eg
of EFT)
employer and employees
FUNCTIONAL VARIATIONS
FINANCE No two businesses are the same!
Concerned with money and future plans Functions will vary because of:
 Preparing accounts, eg invoices,  Size and scale of  Size and scale of
management business business
accounts, financial accounts for shareholders  Activities of  Activities of
and Inland Revenue business business
 Preparing wages and salaries  Type(s) of  Type(s) of
 Obtaining capital and resources, eg money customers customers
for  Needs of  Needs of
expansion or to pay for resources such as customers customers
equipment and materials.  Preferences of
owner(s)
ADMINISTRATION AND IT SUPPORT
The role of administration and ICT function INVESTIGATING FUNCTIONAL AREAS
 Clerical work, eg. Mail, record keeping  Identify key  Identify use of IT
 Health and safety functions within/between
 Secustiy  Find out where functions and
 Support for software applications, these carried out (or customers
electronic communications and electronic by whom)  Note any problem
transactions  Check names of areas
 Cleaning and maintenance key
areas/departments
OPERATIONS  Identify links
Concerned with the main business activities between
 Obtains and converts resources of the functions/areas
business
into goods/services, ie IMPACTS OF INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY ON BUSINESS
  Information technology has paved the
CLOUD COMPUTING way for
 Cloud computing utilizes information various open-source software that allow
technology to capitalize on its ability to free usage of certain tools for various
provide organizations. The primary benefit of
improved agility and time and resource open-source software is its flexible
management for businesses. license. This allows modifications to the
source code. This means that you have
the facility to customize its functions
AUTOMATION OF BUSINESS PROCESSES according to your
 The movement towards increased requirements.
automation
of business processes has gained traction
over the years. It improves efficiency and
increases workflow considerably.

WORKING REMOTELY ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF

 Implementation of information technology TECHNOLOGY IN THE WORKPLACE
provides the ability to remotely access ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
your company’s network. As a result, it • Improves • Causes distraction
equips employees with the ability to get communication at work
the work done even if they are not • Encourage • High Maintenance
physically present at the workplace. innovation and Cost
creativity • Makes Employees
MOBILE TECHNOLOGY • Improves human Lazy
 Mobile technology takes business resource • Affects workplace
communication to a whole new level. A management relationships
mobile team can improve the workplace • Saves times • It is Risky
productivity considerably. There are • Creates mobility
numerous ways to integrate mobile
technology in the workplace. In fact,
chances are, your employees are already
using it. MICROSOFT OFFICE TOOLS AND
ALTERNATIVES
PROTECTING INFORMATION Ctrl+0Toggle 6pts of spacing above the
 Virtual storage systems can keep paragraph.
information safe by allowing a limited
number of users to access these.
Increased protection also ensures that
these systems are not hacked, and the
information is not wiped out owing to
some problems. Therefore, information
technology helps in upholding business
integrity.

PROVIDING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

 Information technology provides the best
tools for communicating with customers
and solving their problems in real time. It
has unlocked the facilities like Email,
social media and other messaging
platforms for this purpose.

MANAGEMENT RESOURCES
 A business has a variety of resources.
These may
include financial resources, human
resources and so on. For large
organizations, managing resources
becomes quite difficult. Information
technology plays a vital role in managing
these resources effortlessly by
introducing a wide range of feasible
solutions.

OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE