The Various Roles of IT in Business Explained

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The Various Roles of IT in Business Explained

Last Updated on April 15, 2023 by

In 2021, the role of IT in business is no longer up for debate. On a global level, the vast majority of businesses of all industries use IT for essential everyday functions. In developed countries, close to 100% of all businesses require IT tools to function and succeed.

In the past year especially, the role of IT as a conduit to help businesses survive a crisis and save lives has also been underscored more vividly than ever. To understand the benefits of information technology in business, it is important to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. With that in mind, read on to find out the importance of technology in business.

1. Communication Role of IT

The role of IT in marketing and in communications is one of the most valuable components. In any business, an IT system is essential for communication with a broad range of global customers.

Email, social media, webchat, and video communications help businesses reach customers anywhere in the world. Social media platforms and a business web presence allow a company to effectively market itself to a target audience, one that is increasingly online at all hours of the day. 

2. Security Role of IT

When assessing the strategic role of IT in business, you cannot afford to neglect security. Put simply, cybersecurity services are now the most important line of defense for any company.

Criminals want your financial data and sensitive data about your customers and your products. To prevent this, you need expert IT security services. Even small businesses can now afford such services – all you need to do is hire an affordable managed IT service provider that can protect you with its cybersecurity tools and expertise. 

3. Commercial Role of IT

IT is more than just an add-on service. It is also an essential business infrastructure. In retail, close to 20% of all sales are completed entirely online, with no in-person contact whatsoever. In some markets, a majority of sales are now done online, especially for specific types of products.

What this means is that businesses need a flawless, user-friendly, and always-functional IT payments infrastructure. It means that you need to guarantee that customers can use your IT systems to securely and quickly make a purchase from you online, ideally in as few clicks as possible. 

4. Analysis Role of IT

One thing that IT does better than any other medium is collect data. As you may know already, any successful business needs good data to survive, and lots of it. The right data tells you how your customers behave. It tells you where your products are in demand and helps you to predict when demand will rise and fall in the future.

All of these are greatly empowered by the immense analytics capabilities of IT, which can take massive amounts of data and instantly transform it into information you can use to make real business strategy decisions. 

Your Tech Questions, Answered

This is the role of IT in your business. For more essential tech questions that you need answering, you have come to the right place. Check out our dedicated Technology guides for the low-down on the tech that matters to you. 

Read more: The Growing Need For IT Support Services