The Use of Computers in Business

Marketing is the process by which goods are sold and purchased. The aim of

marketing is to acquire, retain, and satisfy customers. Modern marketing has evolved into

a complex and diverse field. This field includes a wide variety of special functions such as advertising, mail-order business, public relations, retailing and merchandising, sales,

market research, and pricing of goods.

Businesses, and particularly the marketing aspect of businesses, rely a great deal on the

use of computers. Computers play a significant role in inventory control, processing and

handling orders, communication between satellite companies in an organization, design and production of goods, manufacturing, product and market analysis, advertising, producing the company newsletter, and in some cases, complete control of company operations.

In today's extremely competitive business environment businesses are searching for

ways to improve profitability and to maintain their position in the marketplace. As

competition becomes more intense the formula for success becomes more difficult. Two

particular things have greatly aided companies in their quests to accomplish these goals.

They are the innovative software products and the World Wide Web.

More and more manufacturing businesses are integrating some

aspects of production, including inventory tracking, scheduling, and marketing. This idea,

known as computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), speeds processing of orders, adds to

effective materials management, and creates considerable cost savings.

In addition to designing and manufacturing a product, a company must be effectively

able to advertise, market, and sell its product. Much of what passes for business is

nothing more than making connections with other people. What if you could pass out your

business card to thousands, maybe millions of potential clients and partners? You can,

twenty four hours a day, inexpensively and simply on the World Wide Web. Firms

communicate with their customers through various types of media. This media usually

follows passive one-to-many communication where a firm reaches many current and

potential customers through marketing efforts that allow limited forms of feedback on the

part of the customer. For several years a revolution has been developing that is

dramatically changing the traditional form of advertising and communication media. This

revolution is the Internet, a massive global network of interconnected computer networks

which has the potential to drastically change the way firms do business with their

customers.

The World Wide Web is a hypertext based information service. It provides access to

multimedia, complex documents, and databases. The Web is one of the most effective

vehicles to provide information because of its visual impact and advanced features. It can

be used as a complete presentation media for a company's corporate information or

information on all of its products and services.

The recent growth of the World Wide Web (WWW) has opened up new markets and

shattered boundaries to selling to a worldwide audience. For marketers the world wide

web can be used to create a client base, for product and market analysis, rapid information access, wide scale information dissemination, rapid communication, cost-effective document transfers, expert advice and help, recruiting new employees, peer communications, and new business opportunities. The usefulness of the Internet or WWW depends directly on the products or services of each business.

Finding new clients and new client bases is not always an easy task. This process

involves a careful market analysis, product marketing and consumer base testing. The

Internet is a ready base of several million people from all walks of life. One can easily find new customers and clients from this massive group, provided that your presence on the internet is known. If you could keep your customer informed of every reason why they should do business with you, your business would definitely increase. Making business information available is one of the most important ways to serve your customers. Before people decide to become customers, they want to know about your company, what you do and what you can do for them. This can be accomplished easily and inexpensively on the World Wide Web.

Many users also do product analyses and comparisons and report their findings via the

World Wide Web. Quite frequently one can find others who may be familiar with a

product that you are currently testing. A company can get first hand reports on the

functionality of such products before spending a great deal of money. Also, the large base

of Internet users is a principle area for the distribution of surveys