IT Impact on Business: Lower Costs, Market Intelligence & Growth

Information Technology and Business Competitiveness

Reducing Transaction Costs and Brokerage

Inefficient markets require many intermediaries for transport, storage, collection, security, monitoring, and reporting. Computing and connectivity significantly improve market functions by facilitating:

• The instantaneous circulation of information on prices and product characteristics.
• The creation of more facilities to raise supply and demand.
• Inventory management and procurement.
• Rapid and safe transactions, among other things.

Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce is a special instrument for the computerization of markets, with considerable growth potential and business opportunities across various industries.

Market Intelligence

Access to external market information and analysis is another key component of competitiveness. Connectivity allows companies to understand demand trends, regulatory frameworks, and competitive offerings quickly.

Customer Engagement

Decreased transaction costs in different markets enable closer contact with demand, better alignment with consumer expectations, and improved customer service.

Economies of Scale for SME Support Services

Most support systems for small and medium enterprises are costly, making it difficult to ensure they are not cost centers.

New Alliances Based on Knowledge Exchange

Emergence of Smart Business

Computers not only improve market functions but also increase firm productivity through:

• Automation of repetitive production and administrative tasks, increasing individual and collective productivity.
• Reduction of internal operating costs through faster communication between divisions, simplified paperwork, and streamlined integration of business functions.

New Business Collaborations

Clusters, partnerships, and research centers benefit from improved communication within the market, inside the company, and between companies in the same sector or value chain. Knowledge sharing in a "co-opetition" environment empowers individual components of such alliances.

New Knowledge-Based Enterprises

The growing role of information and knowledge in business has led to new productive activities. The computer industry is the fastest-growing branch, showing a diversification of functions between companies. Activities like web design, community management, and webmastering were almost nonexistent a few years ago.