Advantages and Disadvantages of ICT

Advantages

ICT is the way of the future and because of this it is obviously a great benefit to us otherwise it would not be such a big thing. For this type of system it is especially beneficial because once the main system is created, in this case the e-ticket and invoice, it is possible to save them and then reuse the template again and again. This can be done by saving the original blank e-ticket and then linking it with the database and merging the data across so that an e-ticket can be printed with relevant information on it.

The database can be changed easily and quickly by adding, removing and changing information as needed. There is no need to start writing out a whole new ticket when someone books a flight or calculate manually how much they still have to pay. Due to this there is no need for a rubber or correction fluid if staff make mistakes or want to delete sets pieces of information. Using ICT means that when I was creating the system I could test my designing using different fonts, page layouts and colours without worrying that it was going to take a long time – it wasn’t. Also with the use of ICT I am ensured that my grammar and spelling will be accurate because I can use the checkers.

In the spreadsheet I can use formulas that will do all calculations for me. So there is no need to go through each customer and find how much their flight will be or if there is a 10% reduction it is easy to apply. Spreadsheets can also make predictions from the current data, if a report was needed to see how much profit was being made for instance it would be possible to use the chart tool in the spreadsheet software and extrapolate information from it and thus make a reliable hypothesis about the future of the business.

Communication is one of the bigger steps that ICT has made – the invention of e-mail means that information can be sent from one side of the world to the other almost simultaneously. This means data can be sent all around the world to other offices for example. Using a network would enable staff to pass data from one section of the office to another easily and if a network/server wasn’t used staff could transfer this data via a CD/DVD, external hard drives or memory sticks.

Disadvantages

ICT has revolutionized the way businesses work and without ICT they wouldn’t be able to offer what they do now, but with everything that is amazingly good, there is always a downside. Computers need electricity and this sometimes isn’t always available; if there is a power cut, work is likely to be halted whereas with a paper based system it would be able to continue.

Data can be lost, stolen or corrupted and if this data is not backed up then its gone forever. Lost data usually happens after the system has crashed. This also happens when disks and files get damaged. Staff could accidently delete data and once it’s gone it’s gone, this is why backing up once daily is so important.

Another major problem for using ICT is that the system could become infected with a virus this could cause data to become deleted or corrupt. In the most seriousness of cases the whole system can go down and have to be re-installed.

The security of data is another major reason why ICT has its downfall. Transferring data around could mean it gets lost and if it falls into the wrong hands it could be devastating.

Certain file formats can only be used with certain software – this means if the company decided to upgrade from one programme to another they may have an issue that they wouldn’t be able to open up files created by the previous piece of software.

Cost of upgrading to the ICT system is a setback to a company – not only does new hardware and software have to be brought but staff have to be trained to use the system and in some cases be trained how to use a computer altogether.