Question

List and describe the four 21st-century trends that businesses are focusing on and rank them in order of business importance.

Accepted Answer

IT infrastructures Security E-business Integration IT infrastructure the hardware, software, and telecommunications equipment that, when combined, provide the underlying foundation to support the organization's goals. Security With war and terrorist attacks on many people's minds, security is a hot topic. E-business Mobility and wireless are the new focus in ebusiness, and some upcoming trends are mobile commerce, telematics, electronic tagging, and RFID. Mobile commerce (m-commerce)—the ability to purchase goods and services through a wireless Internet-enabled device. Telematics—blending computers and wireless telecommunications technologies with the goal of efficiently conveying information over vast networks to improve business operations. The most notable example of telematics may be the Internet itself, since it depends on a number of computer networks connected globally through telecommunication devices. Electronic tagging—a technique for identifying and tracking assets and individuals via technologies such as radio frequency identification and smart cards. Radio frequency identification (RFID)—technologies use active or passive tags in the form of chips or smart labels that can store unique identifiers and relay this information to electronic readers. Within the supply chain, RFID can enable greater efficiencies in business processes such as inventory, logistics, distribution, and asset management. On the mobile commerce side, RFID can enable new forms of ebusiness through mobile phones and smart cards. This can increase loyalty by streamlining purchases for the consumer. For example, RFID readers are being embedded in store shelving to help retailers, including Marks & Spencer and The Gap, to better manage their assets and inventories and understand customer behavior.

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