BUSN630-Assignment 5

Online banking and financial institutions are two examples of hybrid virtual organizations that are heavily dependent on technology to support B2C and B2B relationships. Select an organization (this is different than the organization you selected for the research paper) and compose an essay, discussing the following:

1. Background of company you have chosen as it relates to the transformation from a traditional business to a hybrid virtual organization.

2. Types of technology used to drive the virtual business operations (3 examples)

3. Future technological advances that may help or hinder the virtual aspect of the business (1-2 examples)

An example of an organization that has transformed from a traditional work environment to a virtual: Cisco

BUSN630-Assignment 5- An example of an organization that has transformed from a traditional work environment to a virtual: Cisco

Background

Cisco is a company involved in the delivery of innovative, customer-oriented software solutions to customers. Some of the key products offered by the company include the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence Solutions, mobility, collaboration, and cloud computing services (Mollina, 2021). The transformation from the traditional work environment to the virtual and hybrid organizational structure became possible because even before the pandemic, the company had a number of members of staff who were comfortable working remotely from home. The virtual work environment for Cisco was not an afterthought. It did not come because the company was preparing to deal with the pandemic; rather, Cisco had structures in place that ensured that the company has some of the employees working at home (Wang et al., 2020). The company also promoted flexible work structures where the workers could choose the hours and the days when they could work.

The rationale for the adoption of the virtual work environment by Cisco

The 2008 global recession made companies realize that they cannot operate in the same way. Companies that had a lot of operational costs had to find ways that would help them reduce the costs. Cost reduction would spur growth and profitability. It would ensure that the company stays afloat in the midst of the challenges that occurred in the socio-economic environment (Cisco Systems Inc., 2009).

Cisco believed that the increase in the adoption of technology tools that will enhance collaboration would ensure that the employees are constantly in touch with one another and they resolve the challenges they have. The collaboration tools will also ensure that the senior management can easily offer remote management services like supervision, ensuring that everything is working smoothly in all the branches in the company (Cisco Systems Inc., 2009).

The bandwidth-intensive tools and the infrastructure for video sharing will ensure that the company has the necessary infrastructure to conduct meetings all over the world and organize work sessions without spending a lot of money booking venues and even paying for the transport fees of the participants. The process that allowed the network to be configured and improved capacity would definitely lead to improved performance (Cisco Systems Inc., 2009).

Cisco realized that through the investment in technology, the employers would be motivated enough to give their best in a virtual work setup rather than them coming into the office to work.

Types of technology used to drive the virtual business operations

The company has introduced a set of wide-ranging e-business infrastructure tools that have helped the company manage the existing complexity in the business operations, serve the customers even better, and improve the accuracy of the products and the deliveries taken to the customers. These tools have also created a situation of enhanced customer satisfaction where Cisco now has one of the highly satisfied customers in the technology field. The three types of technology that the company has used include the adoption of virtual machines, immersive telepresence technologies, and Cisco Webex Technologies.

Virtual Machines

The server machines are vital in assisting and or promoting the utilization of servers. This means that more applications can be run on a single server. This is critical in creating an online work environment where the many people located in different geographical areas can access the system, use the servers and coordinate so that even if they are far away from each other, nothing stops them from delivering high-quality work. The virtual machines are self-contained, and they conduct the self-recovery and repair. Therefore this reduces the downtime and the loss of time that could be experienced in the event there is a loss of network(Mollina, 2021).

Cisco Webex Technologies

The Cisco Webex Technologies are not only applicable to the company, but these virtual tools are also sold or leased to other companies that are interested in conducting virtual work, specifically training. Webex technology provides an allowance for video sharing and screen sharing. The issue of screen sharing enables the trainer to share the training content with all the people in the meeting so that they can take notes or even take a screenshot for later reference. Therefore, the workers can become trained even more effective when they are making use of Webex technologies (Akiyama et al., 2021).

Immersive telepresence facilities

These types of technologies can be a game-changer in the virtual work environment. They enable the users to communicate across the world where the actual representations of their bodies are produced in 3D format. The people with whom they will be communicating can see them as if they were physically present. The immersive telepresence facilities reduce the barriers that may be present in other forms of virtual communication, and the people do have a more personal connection, albeit it is not real. The connection is artificial. The improvement in the 3D Capturing systems and the customers' need to ensure that they can even create a virtual scenery have spurred the innovations in this field. Furthermore, the color and the coding sensors ensure high-quality 3D images (Beck, 2019).

Future technologies that may lead to the growth or hinder the development of virtual workspaces at Cisco

The continued rise in social media usage.

When the company employees have a lot of exposure to social media, their chances of concentrating on their work are limited(Koessmeier & Büttner, 2021).

The rise in augmented reality

Augmented reality will help the company achieve some of its marketing functions like e-commerce. It helps the customers deeply get immersed in checking whether they have access to some goods or commodities. They can also check the product features.

References

Akiyama, T., Masuda, H., & Yamaoka, H. (2021). Preparation for Remote Activities in the University using Cisco Webex Education Offer. ACM SIGUCCS Annual Conference. https://doi.org/10.1145/3419944.3441171

Beck, S. (2019). Immersive Telepresence Systems and Technologies. E-Pub.uni-Weimar.de. https://e-pub.uni-weimar.de/opus4/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3856

Cisco Systems Inc. (2009). Cisco IT Case Study Global Virtual Collaboration Global Virtual Collaboration: How Cisco Connected Executives Worldwide for Strategic Meeting. https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/about/ciscoitatwork/downloads/ciscoitatwork/pdf/Cisco_IT_Case_Study_SLO_Global_Virtual_Event.pdf

Koessmeier, C., & Büttner, O. B. (2021). Why Are We Distracted by Social Media? Distraction Situations and Strategies, Reasons for Distraction, and Individual Differences. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.711416

Mollina, G. (2021, August 2). Cisco is Allowing its 75,000 Employees to Permanently Work From Home. ThinkRemote. https://thinkremote.com/cisco-employees-work-from-home-policy/

Wang, B., Liu, Y., Qian, J., & Parker, S. K. (2020). Achieving Effective Remote Working during the COVID‐19 pandemic: a Work Design Perspective. Applied Psychology, 70(1), 16–59. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12290