Sri Lankan Banks: Gaining a Competitive Advantage with IT
5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Today’s business organizations are information based. The major driving force is IT which increases the usage of information in an around organisations. It also leads to a greater shrinkage of time and distance effects and greater inter relatedness within an industry and organization. Business finds new ways to exploit information technology to be effective. In this endeavour they, in addition to the conventional methods, try to exploit all available communication technologies, computer-aided designs and sophisticated computing technologies, to gain competitive advantage.
Banking is one of the industries, which involve both high information content of the product and high information intensity of process. The nature of the industry implies that it is highly competitive. Therefore, in order to cope up with the rising competition Banks can reflect on the use of IT as a competitive tool. Hence, this study deals with the research question whether Sri Lankan Banks use IT to gain competitive advantage.
The study was carried out in four public quoted commercial Banks in Sri Lanka, namely Bank A, Bank B, Bank C and Bank D. The answer to the research question was given by research findings. Two banks namely A and C use IT to gain competitive advantage, while Bank B and D do not use IT efficiently to gain competitive advantage. Some branches are not equipped with ATM facilities and IT related services have to develop to compete with other banks. In bank A and C profitability is higher than bank B and D. According to the second objective of the research usage of IT increases the profitability. Further, IT related services such as Internet banking and Credit card have brought the competitive advantage to these banks as a whole. Almost all the banks provide better ATM services, Tele-banking and Money transfer to the customers. Hence they have to develop Internet banking and make it convenience to use the Credit card.
The study too revealed
Today’s business organizations are information based. The major driving force is IT which increases the usage of information in an around organisations. It also leads to a greater shrinkage of time and distance effects and greater inter relatedness within an industry and organization. Business finds new ways to exploit information technology to be effective. In this endeavour they, in addition to the conventional methods, try to exploit all available communication technologies, computer-aided designs and sophisticated computing technologies, to gain competitive advantage.
Banking is one of the industries, which involve both high information content of the product and high information intensity of process. The nature of the industry implies that it is highly competitive. Therefore, in order to cope up with the rising competition Banks can reflect on the use of IT as a competitive tool. Hence, this study deals with the research question whether Sri Lankan Banks use IT to gain competitive advantage.
The study was carried out in four public quoted commercial Banks in Sri Lanka, namely Bank A, Bank B, Bank C and Bank D. The answer to the research question was given by research findings. Two banks namely A and C use IT to gain competitive advantage, while Bank B and D do not use IT efficiently to gain competitive advantage. Some branches are not equipped with ATM facilities and IT related services have to develop to compete with other banks. In bank A and C profitability is higher than bank B and D. According to the second objective of the research usage of IT increases the profitability. Further, IT related services such as Internet banking and Credit card have brought the competitive advantage to these banks as a whole. Almost all the banks provide better ATM services, Tele-banking and Money transfer to the customers. Hence they have to develop Internet banking and make it convenience to use the Credit card.
The study too revealed
References: Arif, A. A.,& Mammu, M. A. (1997). “Exploitation of information technology for competitive advantage”:An experience of ready-made Garment Industry, South Asian Journal of Management, Apr-Jun 31-41 Arun Kumar Jain, “competitive excellence, critical success factors”, Vikas publishing house pvt ltd Bradmore, D. (1996). “Competitive advantage: concepts & cases”. Prentice Hall of Australia Clemons, E. K., & Weber, B. W. (1996). Special section: “Strategic and competitive information system”. Journal of Management information system, Vol.13, No.2, ( 5-8)