The Importance of Information to Barclays Bank - Case Study Example

The Importance of Information to Barclays Bank (PLC) Abstract This topic presents a discussion on the importance of information to Barclays Bank and how it has led to changes in its business processes and new products within the banking industry. To enable us understand the basics and familiarize us with the stages, developments and importance of information and its applications in the organization. It also identifies various problems which can hamper efficient use of Information and it finally recommends that organizations, public and private; commercial and non-commercial must endeavour to set up a good Information unit within their Organizations to enable adequate information set up at the disposal of their management needs. Business firms continuously seek these opportunities for the improvement, and effectiveness to achieve their desired objectives and goals. Introduction With the current competitive market share, fast changing and saturated business atmosphere represented by retreating consumer devotion, the necessity to be customer focused is more vital than in the previous years. Technology is being used by firms as a key tool in enhancing the flow of information within their various business units, assisting the employees to better understand the ever dynamic and increasing wants and needs of their customers, Barclays Bank not an exception. Information helps in approach to achieving business goals in which technology for managing information and knowledge facilitates and enables execution of activities in and across value chains and supporting decision making underlying those activities” (Singh & Holsapple, 2000). Information and communications technology The banking business has undergone tremendous changes in the past few years. There are many changes in variety and amount of products offered due to the mergers or branching and achievement of banks. The amount of competition and information technology development within a harsh business atmosphere has led to the restructure of the retail banking industries. The recent advance in information systems and technologies presents innovative ways of administering banks relationships within the global banking environment. However, most banks are unsure of how to efficiently adapt with this these developments. This has been revealed by quite a number of information technology aspects studies conducted in the banking industry (Mitchell and Sparks, 1988). Barclays Bank Management Information Overview Barclays Bank (PLC) is one of the major service providers engaged in investment banking, commercial and retail banking, credit and debit cards, investment and wealth management services, with a broad international presence in Asia, Europe, USA and Africa. Barclays bank boasts of over 300 years history of banking experience expertise and operation in over fifty countries and an average of 135, 000 employees. It is the leading and the third largest Bank in the United Kingdom. In the (2008) list, Barclays bank is ranked to be the 25th largest company by Forbes global 2000. It is he largest financial service provider globally with an estimate of 3.7 trillion dollars in assets. (Detamonitor). In order to be at par with their competitors, Barclays Bank has made it a priority to adapt to the current technologies that assists in Information flow. With the advent of information machinery in every part of the organization, company’s are in a position to tackle and manage information and data in their business with ease. Business acumen is a significant aspect in any firm. This can be created by the already existing information in the enterprise. It will be very difficult for an organization to make use of business intelligence if at all they do not know how to make use of the existing information. Accessible project information should be properly structured by removing the unnecessary data, and then reserved in the database primarily meant for that use. This data is then scrutinized with the necessary apparatus to acquire the business aptitude. As a result of this, the management will equip itself with up-to date useful information on the fiscal performance of the organization, foretell their business performances and even put their future plans in place. All these can only be achieved in an enterprise by having the adequate knowledge of how to use information in the management set up. For any organization interested in managing data and information, there will always be available enterprise tools such as document management, software development, database management, warehousing servers and financial performance management tools. Document management system is a must to implement for any organization dealing mostly with documents for the productivity improvement. This will enhance the instant search of documents and your clients will be content to get an improved and efficient service from the organization. The importance of information Systems at Barclays Bank Risk management has become a very important issue in the financial organizations, mainly since the business sector of financial services is associated to circumstances of uncertainty. Information as a monetary resource, plus in meticulous as it relates to particular sectors, which is the focus of this session is very important. In these days, our economies can only work professionally if the community at large, markets and policy marker are aptly informed about progress in diverse sectors. (Sheku A. F). The main objective of depositing money in the bank is to engage in financial intermediation with the aim of making profits and increasing shareholders value. Information is certainly needed for this kind of operation in the financial environment, i.e. the strength of micro-economic environment, and economic sectors to invest in. Barclays Bank has adopted the use of information on their internal and external supervisions, earnings and profitability, their asset value and capital competence as they must comply with prudential standards to stay in business. Barclay Banks require information on the quality of their administration equally for prudential reasons and for domestic control or evaluating their in-house supervisory systems. Ratios of expenses to the total returns are some of the indicators that may show whether a bank is efficiently operating. The expansion rates in a number of financial and other banking institutions which indicates the competition levels in the banking system is also another possible ratio management reliability. A high rate ratio may mean a bank is not efficiently operating. Revenues per employee are actions of overstaffing. Barclays Bank Management Information needs Managing information purposefully should set precedence for any business that strives to successfully compete and win in the marketplace. Administering information commences with developing a strategic plan, applying the policy and assessing its efficiency in the real world business environment. To effectively attach a strategic significance to the information flow in the organization, the information manager should first recognize the organization’s business portfolio and its functions in a day-to-day business organization environment (Brown, 1999). Information managers should also be able to understand the variety of patrons serviced by their organization. This information helps in formulating strategic Banking plans and objectives. Effective managers use information to monitor performances of their organizations to spot problems, identify & evaluate options, and make plans. Information needs for monitoring and assessing performance includes measures of business performance and a basis for comparison. Information plays a very important role in the growth of industries providing both goods and services. And in the banking industry, Barclays Bank has justified this by following the input considerations and Information Technology infrastructure handling the whole processes. Fast application processing: customer application processing has been made easy by the use of information. The use of electronic transactions makes the customer application processes faster and more efficient unlike the manual application process since all the information relevant data is available online. Better services: The provision of better services to customers is the key to attracting them. This can only be achieved by solving all the impediments that comes in front of the clients, hence information Technology is applied to easily access the online resources for faster and easy availability of the products. Mass consumer record handling: The use of manual methods to keep records of a high number of consumers is time consuming and resource intensive. This is solved by using a good and stable consumer banking software. Calculation reduction errors: The use of effective banking software saves the time taken for calculations and free of errors and is less tiring. Efficient loan recovery: the number of clients is always large and some of them are not always responsible and innocent enough to repay their loan amount in the due course. For this kind of problem to be handled effectively, proficient repayment software comes in handy as the Bank needs to frequently trace the defaulters and take the necessary measures against them for recovery purposes. Auditing and fraud detection: Accounts and risk analysis can be closely monitored by banks with the aid of Information Technology framework. They are better prepared to resolve patterns of falsified activities and spot scams in time to prevent them. Findings & Conclusions Efforts have been made and cited in this paper to assess the present state of information in Barclays Bank and the banking industry as a whole and the challenges attached to it. In this regard we discussed the industry growth and its challenges, studied the nature of competition and impact of growth in information and technology in the banking business. Some of the challenges identified are weak corporate governance, growth trends and data integrity. Finally we tried to express the factors that would assist to shape the future of the industry. The article shares the view that the industry has a promising future depending how the present information challenges are resolved. References: 1. Alshmlan S. A., “Information Systems Strategies” February 2006,: Prospective Demand and Supply, Retrieved March 16 2010 from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/00242539710178452 2. Sparks, L. Mitchell. J. ”Marketing Information Systems in the Major UK Banks.” International Journal of Bank Marketing: (1998) Vol, 6, No. 6. PP. 17-20. 3. Jain P. 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