The Impact of Information Technology on the UK Financial Sector :: Business and Management Studies

The Impact of Information Technology on the UK Financial Sector I have studied that in business, information technology can be used if effective in a strategic way in order to gain a competitive advantage and this can be seen in the UK financial services. In such an industry it can be said to be one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing sectors of the economy. Such a rate of change and growth has created a prolific environment for the innovation of information technology. The application of information technology has had a qualitative impact by changing the mode of operation in the financial sector, modifying the range of services provided and linking together geographically isolated financial hubs into a global financial community in order to trade 24 hours a day. For the past two decades organisations have noted that information technology is important for profitability on both the cost and revenue side. In the financial services sector costs arise from two broad areas of operation: those connected with the management of information, and those with the execution of transactions. Financial services have always been a labour-intensive industry. The rising cost of labour, relative to the cost of other factors of production, has imposed a burden of rising costs as a proportion of total revenue earned in such organisations as retail banks. The function of IT has been one very important way in which financial services firms have sought to contain their costs. For example, in commercial banking the application of successive generations of computerisation since the early 1960’s has dramatically reduced the size of ‘back-office’ staffing, while the growth of expensive paper-based systems for money transmission (cheque and credit clearing systems) has been curtailed by the development of paperless computerised payment systems such as BACS (Bankers Automated Clearing System) in the UK and the development of EFTPoS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale) systems. The role of information technology has grown and changed continuously in the banking sector. The banking industry has used IT to enable increases in the volume of transactions as well as the development of new products; applications have ranged from back-office (check and accounts) processing, mortgage and loan application processing, and the electronic funds transfer to more strategic innovations such as automated teller machines and new kinds of securities. The use of IT has also had some important customer - supplier effects. For the customers of service providers, it has been used to improve the quality and variety of services in many industries, especially through its ability to amass, analyse, and control large quantities of specialised data. Such improvements include error reduction or increased precision, faster or more convenient service, and improved

Ella Baker Essay

Ella Baker embodies the theme of strength in the face of adversity in Joanne Grant’s novel Ella Baker: Freedom Bound. Ella Baker comes from a long line of strong women who taught her to stand up for what she felt was good and right. As Ella Baker encounters racial discord in the twentieth century, she draws up on the strength of her mother, her grandmother and her aunts. She also remembers the strength that was passed down from her grandfather and uncle. As a result of her great strength she is able to teach others about nurturing equality among all people. Ella Baker spent her adult years organizing people to fight for equality but this fight wasn’t always easy. Ella Baker was a black woman facing all the struggles that black people went through prior to and just after the Civil Rights Movement. She can be compared to Martin Luther King Jr. because of her tenaciousness and unwillingness to give up the fight. However, Baker faced gender discrimination as well which only added to her struggles but also encouraged her to continue to use the strength that her ancestors passed down to her. Ella Baker faced great resistance from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference headed by Martin Luther King Jr. because she was a woman and men didn’t care for taking advice from women. In this way, Ella Baker faced a fight for racial rights as well as gender rights. Ella Baker was responsible for organizing ordinary people to fight for equality. She is credited with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) which mobilized ordinary people to join the Civil Right fight despite the challenges that they faced. Throughout her activist activities and numerous speeches, she urged ordinary people to find the strength to identify one thing that needed changing and work on it a little at a time. She emphasized to crowds that each person had something to give and these little bits could add up to huge changes. Ella Baker’s most important contribution to the world was her untiring dedication to the Civil Rights movement. Drawing upon the strength that her family members instilled in her gave her the power to continue the fight even when times were tough. She was one of the pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement and Grant’s book details her great contributions. One important characteristic that gave Ella Baker so much of her strength was her ability to work towards equality without calling attention to herself. Baker didn’t focus on the work of individuals. Instead, she focused on the great things that could be accomplished when people worked together to make changes. As a result, Baker was often at odds with other (primarily male) civil rights activists because she was more focused on getting things done than reveling in the glory of accomplishment. Grant’s inclusion of primary and secondary sources only lends to the credibility of strength that she presents in her book. African American people have relied on songs and rhymes throughout history in order to gain strength during struggles. Grant’s inclusion of several of these short songs shows just how important strength was to Ella Baker and the many avenues she used to draw upon the strength of her family members. Grant’s use of personal remembrances of Ella Baker goes further to show her character and depth of her strength in her constant battle to gain equality for all people. If these accounts were not included in the book, the theme of strength wouldn’t be displayed as well as Grant was able to show. The use of primary and secondary sources give further evidence about the person that Ella Baker was and allow readers to gain a true picture of the kind of person that Ella Baker really was. Throughout the book, Ella Baker demonstrated her â€Å"belief in the ability of people to take control of their lives and lead themselves. † Joanne Grant realized the importance of telling the world about Ella Baker. Grant had first hand experience with the work of Ella Baker and the important contributions she made to the Civil Rights Movement. Grant witnessed Baker’s ability to set herself apart in order to build upon inner strength to find one’s path in life. Ella Baker was no stranger to resistance based on both her race and her gender and Grant knew that her story needed to be told so her name could be associated with the great work that was done throughout the Civil Rights Movement. The role of black women is underrepresented in non fiction and Grant took it upon herself to share her opinion of Ella Baker with readers. Ella Baker: Freedom Bound is a book that will open the eyes of readers learning about the Civil Rights. It will show the struggle that African Americans went through to gain equality but also the struggle that women went through. Grant paints a vivid picture of the strength that Ella Baker had despite constant challenges to keep her from reaching her goals. This book emphasizes that strength is necessary when one is fighting such an important battle. Ella Baker becomes the model of persistence through her dedication to equality and her willingness to keep fighting no matter what. She didn’t let men or white people keep her from working towards her vision of equal rights. This book is highly recommended to those who wish to gain a clear but different perspective on what it was like to be an activist during the Civil Rights Movement fighting for both racial and gender equality. Grant, Joanne. â€Å"Ella Baker: Freedom Bound. 1998. 17 Nov 2008 . Hamilton, Grace Towns & Robinson, Ruby Doris Smith. â€Å"Book excerpts: Three women’s voices from the annals of the civil rights struggle. † The New Crisis April: 1. Omatseye, Sam. â€Å"Ella Baker: A Civil Rights Angel. † Urban Spectrum. 2006. 17 Nov 2008 .

Portfolio Recovery Associates, An Account Executive

I am currently employed at Portfolio Recovery Associates as an Account Executive. I begin working for this company in 2008 as an account representative. Portfolio Recovery Associates strives to be a leader in the consumer debt collection industry. The company is distinguished by continuous innovation, strong customer focus, and cultures of integrity and compliance. The company was founded by four bankers in 1996. Since Portfolio was founded in 1996, it has grown to become one of the largest debt buying companies in the US. Portfolio Recovery Associates buys the debt then reach out to the debtors to try and help them resolve it. Debt collection is not easy job and can be very stressful. While trying to collect the debt we have consumer protection laws we have to abide by. When I started in 2008 there were always rules and regulations that had to be followed but over time things changed, one of the major challenges we had to face was in communication. In the past we were able to use our automated dialer system to call debtors land line, times have change majority of the people have dropped land lines and are now using cell phones. There are laws in place where you cannot call a cell phone using an automated system it has to be done manually. When the law changed it slowed us down dramatically, and it was hard adapting to that change. We went from speaking with 300 debtors a day to 40 which was very hard. We overcame that challenge. 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