ICT can help a business in many ways whether it is just to type letters, send e-mails and draw up spreadsheets or to keep a record of your customers.

How ICT assists a business

ICT has become a modern day thing. Businesses everywhere are using it. Not a lot of businesses today run without the use of ICT all though there is the occasional business that doesn't use it. ICT can help a business in many ways whether it is just to type letters, send e-mails and draw up spreadsheets or to keep a record of your customers. Some businesses like Tesco use it to restock their products. For example when customers buy a can of beans and take it to the till the can is scanned not just for the price but it is also been took of the stock to show how many more cans are left. When it reaches a certain number of beans that are left the computer will automatically send an order for more stock of beans.

Even though there are a number of advantages to using ICT there are some drawbacks. It is expensive especially if the business is big. Not only is it expensive to buy it is expensive to fix if it happens to break down. If the computer in Tesco breaks down it might not be noticed and they will run out of stock. It's also expensive because it changes through time and every time a system changes staff may need to go to training which doesn't only cost money but time as well.

Spreadsheet

A spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper worksheet. It displays multiple cells that together make up a grid consisting of rows and columns, each cell containing either alphanumeric text or numeric values. A spreadsheet cell may alternatively contain a formula that defines how the contents of that cell is to be calculated from the contents of any other cell (or combination of cells) each time any cell is updated. Spreadsheets are frequently used for financial information because of their ability to re-calculate the entire sheet automatically after a change to a single cell is made. It manipulates numerical and string data in rows and columns of cells. The value in a cell can be calculated from a formula which can involve other cells. A value is recalculated automatically whenever a value on which it depends changes. It is a grid program that display mathematical or logical functions. For example Microsoft excel is a software that uses this.

I used a spread sheet to draw up my cash flow forecast. It added up my monthly totals like rent, wages, and insurance. Accounting software is an application software that records and processes accounting transactions within functional modules such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, and trial balance. It functions as an accounting information system. It may be developed in-house by the company or organization using it, may be purchased from a third party, or may be a combination of a third-party application software package with local modifications. It varies greatly in its complexity and cost

Advantages

• Reduces cost and helps track inventory

• Quickens up transaction by invoice and order forms

• Easily modified and creates reports

• It has many features and is user friendly

• Easy to manage transactional accounting like paying bills or processing credit

• Centralises financial operations

Disadvantages

• Power could fail or viruses and hackers could affect your computer so accounting software could not be used.

• Once data been input into the system, automatically the outputs are obtained hence the data being input needs to accurate ...

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Advantages

• Reduces cost and helps track inventory

• Quickens up transaction by invoice and order forms

• Easily modified and creates reports

• It has many features and is user friendly

• Easy to manage transactional accounting like paying bills or processing credit

• Centralises financial operations

Disadvantages

• Power could fail or viruses and hackers could affect your computer so accounting software could not be used.

• Once data been input into the system, automatically the outputs are obtained hence the data being input needs to accurate and complete.

• Accounting system not properly set up to meet the requirement of the business due to badly programmed or inappropriate software or hardware or personnel problems.

• Danger of computer fraud if proper level of control and security whether internal and external are not properly been instituted.

Word processing

A word processor also known as document preparation system is a computer application used for the production (including composition, editing, formatting, and possibly printing) of any sort of printable material.

Word processor may also refer to an obsolete type of stand-alone office machine, popular in the 1970s and 80s, combining the keyboard text-entry and printing functions of an electric typewriter with a dedicated computer for the editing of text. Although features and design varied between manufacturers and models, with new features added as technology advanced, word processors for several years usually featured a monochrome display and the ability to save documents on memory cards or diskettes. Later models introduced innovations such as spell-checking programs, increased formatting options, and dot-matrix printing. As the more versatile combination of a personal computer and separate printer became commonplace, the word processor disappeared.

Word processors are descended from early text formatting tools. Word processing was one of the earliest applications for the personal computer in office productivity.

Although early word processors used tag-based mark-up for document formatting, most modern word processors take advantage of a graphical user interface. Most are powerful systems consisting of one or more programs that can produce any arbitrary combination of images, graphics and text, the latter handled with type-setting capability.

Microsoft Word is the most widely used computer word processing system

My partners and I used word processing to do our business plan at the start of the year when we were just starting are business.

E-mail

E-mail or Electronic mail is a method of creating, transmitting, or storing primarily text-based human communications with digital communications systems. Historically, a variety of electronic mail system designs evolved that were often incompatible or not interoperable. With the proliferation of the Internet since the early 1980s, however, the standardization efforts of Internet architects succeeded in promulgating a single standard based on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol first published as Internet Standard in 1982.

Modern e-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model in which e-mail computer server systems, accept, forward, or store messages on behalf of users, who only connect to the e-mail infrastructure with their personal computer or other network-enabled device for the duration of message transmission or retrieval to or from their designated server.

Rarely is e-mail transmitted directly from one user's device to another's.

While, originally, e-mail consisted only of text messages composed in the ASCII character set, virtually any media format can be sent today, including attachments of audio and video clips.

Advantages

• Messages can be sent all around the world in a click of a button.

• Its free and if it's not it really cheap

• It is easy to use after it’s been set up

• It can sent a round a group of people in one go

• It is versatile so other things like pictures can be sent as well.

Disadvantages

• Both participants have to have the internet and e-mail addresses.

• They both also have to have computers.

• If the internet or computer is down they can't use it.

• Viruses can be sent through e-mail

• There could be a lack of physical contact

The Internet

The internet is made up of millions of small computer networks all brought together to form "inter-network" A big part of the internet is the WWW (World Wide Web). It is made up of websites with one or more web pages. This part is the part that you would use most of the time. But it is important to realise that the internet is not just the web pages. It also consists of:

• Forums where people can seek advice and help about a topic.

• Research databases used by large companies and universities.

• USENET- groups of people who discuss about a subject for example Google Groups.

• Instant messages and e-mail

• It is important to know that the internet is not the same as WWW. The internet is to the World Wide Web as Germany is to Europe. One is like the container and the other is inside the container.

Advantages:

• The main part of the internet is communication. The internet covers all expectations and is still being fixed to go faster

• The internet provides us with a lot of information. Search engines like Google or Yahoo and give you information on mostly anything you need.

• The internet is very entertaining you can download music or films play games or just simply surf the net.

• There are many services on the internet places like Dominos even allow customers to order their pizzas online.

• E-commerce allows us to shop online. Meaning we don't have to leave the comfort of our own home to shop. And we also can buy from shops in different countries.

Disadvantages:

• There has been a number account of fraud and identity theft. Your personal information such as your address and credit card number.

• A lot of spam gets sent over the internet. Sending users junk e-mails that they do not want.

• Your computer can catch viruses that can destroy your work and your computer.

My partners have used the internet to research things on our business. For example, advertising.

E-commerce

E-commerce or Electronic Commerce consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with wide-spread Internet usage. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.

A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Almost all big retailers have electronic commerce presence on the internet.

Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants. Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com.

Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of the business transactions.

E-commerce is becoming more popular today because people don't have to go out and look for the stuff they can search for it in the comfort of their own home. They don't have to go out and buy it they just send for it and it gets delivered to their door. Also sometimes you can get things cheaper online.

Advantages

• Customers don't have to leave their homes to buy products.

• Products are delivered to the customer's door so they don't have to carry them home.

• In can sometimes be cheaper to buy online.

• There is a wider range.

Disadvantages

• The customer has to have the internet.

• Can take a couple of day for product to be delivered.

• Can sometimes be a fee for delivery.

• Product might get lost in the post