Technology and Management

Bank of America's goal is to be the world's most admired company, and to help them achieve this goal the company's management team needs the aid of technology. Without technology Bank of America would not be exactly where it is today. It is the nations leading consumer bank with $160 billion more then its closest competitor, Wells Fargo & Co. from San Francisco. Technology has played its role in assisting with improving and shaping all aspects of business performed at the Bank of America corporation.

Having worked for Bank of America for about five years one is able concur that the returns department, which I am a part of, has gradually kept up with the technological advancements. In today's

banking industry the competition is always high so management has to do whatever it takes to ensure the customers satisfaction. In order to make sure this happens management must first verify it is working to its full potential.

When I was initially employed at Bank of America in August of 2001 several things were not in place. For example, employees did not have computers but instead had dumb terminals. So apparently no internet access was in place either.

The dumb terminals were not conventional and were almost an inconvenience because the functions they could perform were very limited. Therefore, the time it took to process the work was double the time it takes today. Additionally, the volume of work was much heavier due to the lack of advanced equipment.

Management soon realized it needed to incorporate technology into our department to stay on top of the competition. Indeed, all the employees were assigned personal computers along with internet accessibility. We also acquired a new computerized system that would run one third of the work. These three new additions proved to successful to our department.

The computers and internet worked wonders in our department considering the fact we had never operated with them. Now we were able to plan, organize, lead, and control much easier and faster with the help of the internet. Meetings and scheduling were planned much quicker; hence planning was done with the help of e-mail. The computers allowed management to organize all type of data in different files and folders that before was not properly organized. Managers and supervisors could more accurately direct with the assistance of memos and procedures that could be sent to the employees via e-mail. The department was also effectively controlled with the use of the internet for communicating any new guidelines and policy changes. The computerized equipment took over a significant part of the work that before was handled manually thus was turned around much slower. The department was now transformed to an innovated and well-equipped department that was able to take on any challenges that came to it.

All the changes impacted me on a production level. I am part of a team that consists of about 12 individuals that decision checks which do not clear for a number of reasons. Working with a computer allowed me to increase my productivity while at the same time lower my error rate. The computers were faster and more reliable then the dumb terminals we were using before. E-mail also allowed my team to established better communication throughout the department.