Online Banking

Barclays

Online banking is an issue that comes with many advantages and disadvantages depending on your thoughts of the subject. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of online banking.

Advantages:

·         Open, 24/7 - Through online banking it enables you to be able to check your balance at any time of the day, so you do not have to commute to your bank before they close, and you can check whenever you want to so that there’s no worries of getting to the bank before It closes.

·         Not having to commute – Having online banking means that the customer doesn’t actually have to commute to the bank every time that they want to check their account, and also they don’t have to spend money on travel to and from the bank, this allows the customer to be able to check everything from the comfort of their own home

·         At the Customers convenience – The customer of the bank is able to check at any time of the day or night, or on the move as long as they have an active internet connection it allows the customer to be able to check their balance, they could even do it whilst they were in a foreign country, this makes it an incredibly convenient way for customers to be able to keep track of their balance

·         Security – Barclays issue a pin generator to people who use online banking, this allows them to be able to securely access their account without having to worry about their account being compromised, as the only way that the account can be accessed is with a pin that is generated from the device provided by the bank, meaning a Hacker is unable to access your account without the device, making your money and account much safer.

Disadvantages:

·         Security – Security is a major issue when it comes to online banking, as many people do not trust using the service in case a hacker gets hold of their details, this makes many people sway away from using online banking today, as if a hacker did get their bank details, they would lose all the money that they would have got as the hacker could take it, Banks take many countermeasures when it comes to security on the website (as mentioned above) by handing out pin generators that generate a 6 digit pin through algorithms so that it would be practically impossible to guess the pin without having the device.

·         No human interaction – Having no human interaction can make many people paranoid, as they’ve had no confirmation that the transaction that they’ve done has gone through, and might get very paranoid about it.

·         Digital Divide – This particular subject can cause problems when it comes to banking because there is many people who do not own computers, or do not have access to the internet will not be able to access the online feature, so they have no choice to go to the bank and do it manually.

Some reasons for Online banking from the Banks Perspective:

·         Less Employees – by making an online service for customers it means that the banks do not have to employ more staff that they would have to pay, they can use the website as a 1 off cost, saving the bank a lot of funds so that they can continue to improve their services for customers.

·         Wider customer base – This makes it so that the bank is able to gain a lead on the banks competition, as much more people would be able to use the banks services from home, as customers would be able to access their accounts 24/7.

Disadvantages for Online banking from the Banks Perspective:

·         Re-Training staff- The bank have to pay for their staff to go on training courses so that they can use the software/system that they would have to run, this can cost the bank a lot of money to send the staff to the training facility.

·         Increased security – The bank would have to step up their security for the extra protection online, which could end up costing the bank a lot of money, however it would improve the customer service for the bank so it is not a full disadvantage for the bank.

·         Hacking – Hacking can be one of the biggest problems for banks, because they hold such important information for all their customers, they need to make their customers to feel that their information is at risk, so the bank has to invest in the top most security software, so that hackers are unable to access all the personal information on the website, this could be incredibly costly for the bank.

·         Computer theft – The bank would also have to Increase the security of the building that the computers are kept in, this makes it so that someone doesn’t break into the building and take the computer, and obtain all the personal information that they contain.

·         The Data protection act – this is a very important part of information storing when the banks have to keep up to date with them, as it protects the customers personal information and stops the bank from being able to sell personal information on to other services, so the bank must make sure that the information is kept safe.

Work and Jobs

Another advantage of the double ended sword in upgrading to online banking is that you could open more jobs that would become available which would help people who have ICT skills and are unemployed, this helps to build the business and the economy.

Life in the information age

Life today has changed greatly over the past 30 years, this has effected nearly all work places today and because of this advance in technology the whole way that people do their jobs has had to change as the technology advanced, such examples are PC’s in the workplace, because of Personal Computers (PC’s) it has removed the need for filing cabinets around the office, this clears space because PC’s are able to store all of the information that would have been in the filing cabinets on their system, and have it backed up in case of any computer problems, this enables the work to be done much more efficiently and it makes it much faster to be able to look up information that may be needed if it was stored on the computer than having to search through the entire cabinet files.

ICT has also changed the ways in which many other people manage their jobs, such as mobile working, this is possible for jobs such as a sales representative, sales representatives are able to travel around the country trying to get people to buy products from the company that they’re representing, they’re able to do this because of  the advances in technology that are available today, this makes it possible for the person to be able to keep in contact with work from anywhere in the country that they might be, and they don’t have to carry around many different items so that they would need to otherwise.

Some examples of this are that a sales representative would have to carry an atlas with them, so that they would be able to find their way around when they're travelling around the country, this could lead to the rep being lost on the way to the destination that they would be going to, however if they had the assistance of a GPS (Global Positioning System) or Satnav, this would allow the rep to be able to get a voice guide straight to the address that they would have input into it, enabling them to be able to get to the destination that they would want to get to, this advance in technology advances the possibility for the rep to be able to work away from his work hq.

Also because the rep would be able to keep an up to date log of all his work and sales on a laptop, it would make it very efficient for the rep to keep his work up to date, as he could put all his sales and work into database, then upload this to work from wherever he is in the country, so that when the rep gets back to his work HQ he could quickly just download the file to his computer, this would increase his work productivity, and also enable him to have all of his work on the computer and backed up which would remove the need for paper copies which is inefficient and unreliable, so the laptop would be a very big factor in being able to work on the move, as wireless/3G internet is widely available all around the county in places such as coffee shops and hotels.

Through the use of a website he could also keep a constantly up to date list of all the stock that he would have to offer available without having to carry around a catalogue, this could save the rep a lot of time, so that he doesn't have to constantly have to go back to work HQ for an up to date version of the catalogue, which could save a lot of money on travel expenses between work and wherever that he might have travelled to in the country, and also helps them make more sales from their website, which can increase popularity for the company because the website would open it's availability to a much wider audience

These are just some of the ways today that the advances in technology in the information age have made a huge advance in the way that peoples life’s run, including in the work place, through enabling them to be able to work mobile, this is a huge advance in the work place that enables people to be able to work away from work HQ efficiently.