Abstract

Today, the potential of information technology can be found everywhere, and the inclusion of
communication technology has expanded the possibilities and uses of IT. The use of
telecommunication, software applications, and hardware components to receive, transmit,
secure, transmit, manipulate, and store data is referred to as Information and Communication
Technology (ICT). The report goes through the many roles of information technology in
HSBC and the ethical and social concerns that influence business performance. According to
the report’s findings, HSBC should recognize ethical and social problems before formulating
and executing any plan to control and minimize ethical issues. Apart from that, the report has
covered several intranet and internet used by the bank to establish a reliable ICT platform.
The report addressed the role of IT in helping managers to manage HSBC.
 Table of Contents

Abstract......................................................................................................................................1

Introduction................................................................................................................................3

Literature review........................................................................................................................4

Analysis and discussion.............................................................................................................6

Conclusion................................................................................................................................11

References................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction

ICT (Information and Communication Technology) significantly impacts everyday life. For
several decades now, businesses have been adopting technological technologies and
ICT infrastructures in the current world of the company to improve interaction and
competitiveness. This impacts lives more accessible than they were before. ICT saves
resources and costs less than previous procedures and strategies. It is also essential in
manufacturing, helping firms to boost their sales and revenues. Technology in the business
and employees may be highly beneficial and up-to-date. A higher ICT platform output may
also give owners and companies a strategic edge. The sector has grown more challenging due
to globalization, and each firm needs a competitive advantage. The ICT expertise may
improve analytical capabilities, excellent communication, and crucial technical abilities in
business—as mobile technology expands the availability of the internet, the number of
individuals with access to it grows (Averina, et al., 2021).

As the introduction of technology onto the globe has altered people's lifestyles. ICT
platforms have developed into an essential component that needs to be employed throughout
each company area and place. Consequently, non-technological enterprises are now more
inclined to fail and go bankrupt. In this study, the purpose of information technology was
discussed, employing "Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation-HSBC" as an
illustration. This report will demonstrate the significance of ICT utilization in HSBC bank in
Sri Lanka.  Also, the study will examine the benefits, drawbacks, and performance of using
computer technologies and platforms in the organization. HSBC has a net worth of about
146.86 Billion USD. It is one of the most prominent British investment bank financial
service-owning organizations. It handles practically all of its loans and transactions using
information technology systems and computers that help the operation be more efficient and
productive.

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Literature review

Role of IT in business

Certain elements determine whether or not a firm is efficient. Some of the precise criteria are
the correct technology and future vision. Over the previous two decades, research has shown
that organizations that make technological investments and favor innovation have increased
their market share, financial numbers, and general productivity (Nikoloski, 2014). According
to (Terziev, 2019), ICT is the only technology enabling businesses to analyze essential data
and plan their strategy appropriately. It provides firms with various tools to manage complex
challenges and prepare the company for scalability (future development). Nowadays, digital
and social media marketing has been demonstrated to be a unique approach for assisting
businesses in retail supplies or items worldwide, whether in a remote workplace or at home.
Cloud technology and digital communications, which form a worldwide organization,
administer and control global virtual offices throughout the globe.

 Decision Making- According to (Reis, et al., 2017) the appropriate decision for the
company hinges on speed and precision. Every successful organization that allows
management to deliver the best decisions must undergo a systematic market analysis
phase. The Internet may be used for market research in various methods, including
survey replies, blogs, journals, panel discussions, and interviews. "Google Analytics
and Microsoft CRM Dynamics" are excellent choices for getting accurate intelligence.
These online platforms respond to potential viewers in real-time, give correct data,
and limit the chances of human error.
 Business development and marketing: The growth’s core depends on advertising in an
organization, enabling management to identify and comply with the target audience.
Marketing involves promotional activities, advertising, promotion, and selling, which
drive corporate growth. Businesses may use different marketing types to reach out to
potential clients. Digital marketing is an emerging method that enables companies to
offer products or services all over the globe. It includes numerous concepts like
"search engine optimization, pay-per-click (PPC), blogging, discussion forums, email
hosting, SMS, MMS, social networks, and mobile app adverts,” among others (Nasiri,
et al., 2018). It's a broad concept. The online industry is developing quickly because
most businesses recognize that long-term commercial success cannot be achieved

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 without a digital presence on the Internet. Yearly, thousands of brand-new websites
are launched.
 Customer satisfaction- The term "customer service" refers to obtaining a product or
service from a company that is not a direct competitor. Understanding consumers'
needs, trends, behavior, and contentment are critical to company quality.
Understanding customer desires, difficulties, and solutions is best accomplished via
effective communication. Companies can be connected among millions of potential or
current customers using different communication channels. This provides a variety of
contact points for customers who are unaffected by any trouble. Emails, webinars,
social networking sites, websites, and e-newsletters are examples of these platforms.
Companies often employ “Client Relationship Management (CRM)” software to store
critical information about consumer behaviors and potential needs (Hasan, 2018).
 Enterprise Resource Management – Managing the resources is crucial to the success
of a business. The management has substantial hurdles in controlling all resources in
large and small firms. These are real, economical, or personal resources. ICT has been
critical in automating such complex activities due to the introduction of user-friendly
technologies. The bulk of resource management solutions was desktop-based a
generation later. Since of web and internet technologies, computer software specialists
may now supply "Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)" services. Management can
directly control or manage organizational resources virtually anywhere in the world
by utilizing computers, laptops, tablets, or mobiles. (AlMuhayfith & Hani, 2019). It
realizes the concept of globalization. Most global organizations, such as "Microsoft,
Google, Amazon, and McDonald's," utilize virtualized technologies to manage their
cloud-based facilities and workers globally.

Role of IT in the banking sector

For one day, organizations depend entirely on information technology through different
intranets and extranets. IT is generally acknowledged as an essential corporate tool and an
external element in a country's economy. Companies have adopted decentralization and
creativity to provide a better adaptation framework for individuals and enterprises (Nikoloski,
2014). Industry ICT adaption has developed. Significant organizations are becoming more
conscious of the benefits of ICT. Companies should choose intended ICT behavior in the
"Technological Acceptance Model". Companies have become more adaptive due to current
social networking platforms and intense Internet use to contact clients and stakeholders.

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Companies create new IT ideas to retain interactions with clients and customers by
establishing a presence on social media on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms. A robust
internal and external communication system will allow an organization and its multiple
divisions to integrate. Workers must also have strong IT skills and an understanding of digital
solutions to derive maximum benefit (Kumari & Kumar, 2018). Adapting different
technologies for companies inside European nations has successfully and effectively
implemented them in information systems and business kinds, thanks to globalization and
business modes. This will investigate HSBC IT processes, successful and unsuccessful
aspects in ICT, and ethical and societal challenges in various system technologies to examine
HSBC.

HSBC serves as one of Sri Lanka's central multinational banks. Currently, they work with the
aid of ICT and computers to deliver a more excellent broad range of financial services. As a
result, e-banking represents one of the services offered to its consumers worldwide. With the
modern internet explosion, personal devices and the Web are now an expanding trend. As a
result, e-banking is focused on technical challenges such as ethical and legal difficulties and
security concerns. As a result, the company should prioritize this subject because the funds of
Sri Lankan people are at stake. ICT is often used to refer to telecommunications and
computing technology. The influence of such widespread technology use is unavoidably
widespread (McLarney & Trudeau, 2017). Therefore, ICT has become an insidious
technology applied in all industry sectors. The banking industry requires effective IT
implementation to make decisions and apply suitable knowledge in trade operations.
According to (Chen & Lai, 2019). HSBC is an efficient company that relies on established
procedures to choose the most appropriate choices for its business operations. Its information
system gathers, analyzes, and displays data as helpful information at a critical point. IT
systems aid in summarizing data analysis, showing those as a benefit to specialists, and
assisting them in making judgments on whether it is to be delivered. ICT executes and carries
choices through the achievement and failure of operation surveillance, allowing the firm to
achieve business goals with optimum performance in an organization.

Analysis and discussion

Ethical and social issues

Social issues

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Several ranges of social accountability concerns exist in today's business world. Depending
on staff and management goals, each business must determine the challenges necessary to its
functions, the issues the customer base worries about, and where the organization operates.
The first step in dealing with social concerns in company management is to be aware of these
goals (Nelson, 2003).

Global business is affected by various social challenges. This also applies to HSBC. HSBC
should address several concerns relevant to its business operations as a well-known financial
institution. The decision must be based on the objectives of the management and employees,
customer concerns, and the work areas within the company. The company should consider
understanding these challenges as the first step in addressing various social problems within
corporate management. A number of the major societal issues impacting activities in HSBC 
are discussed as follows:

 Climate change- Global companies are throwing tons of toxic chemicals into the
atmosphere, producing global climatic fluctuations and generating climate change.
Companies are either in some way to blame for environmental pollution. (Rahman,
2022). HSBC uses a large number of pcs, air conditioning systems, as well as other
modern devices and equipment that emit carbon emissions and use much electricity,
badly hurting the climate(Nuseir & Ghandour, 2019), To reduce the global impact,
HSBC is replacing all obsolete machines with new ones that emit minimum carbon
dioxide emissions.
 Environmental concerns: Most businesses use toxic substances like bleaching to clean
worktops and clear any blocked drains on the site. Each one of these compounds is
thrown into wastewater, causing environmental damage.
 Employee health and safety: Although the commercial premises may follow safer
working norms, abusive workplace conduct may cause severe social problems in the
firm's operations. Consequently, it may be difficult for a firm to show more personal
accountability (Jonathan & Mbogo , 2016).
 Corporate Social Responsibility- Internal recognition of socially conscious concerns
has led to implementing CSR practices and policies. Consequently, it has established
company practices on various social issues, which contribute to creating a better and
safer society.

Ethical issues

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Aside from these social challenges, ethical concerns within the corporation may suddenly
develop and challenge the multinational corporation. The company's ethical concerns include
a wide variety of problems that fit under the company's ethical standards. The core ethical
challenges of the industry are establishing trust and decency-based behavior. More
challenging ones include tackling diversity, making compassionate decisions, and ensuring
that regulation and management are consistent with the bank's fundamental beliefs. To keep
employees responsible, anti-discrimination legislation and other rules are implemented.
Nonetheless, such limitations don't prevent workers from performing unethical behavior
(Nuseir & Ghandour, 2019). Some of the most critical ethical severe issues concerning
HSBC's business practices are discussed following:

 Accounting and finance - " Cooking the books" or using illicit accounting procedures
has become a severe problem, particularly for such companies. Dishonesty with
management or workers with a financial interest in the firm is illegal and unethical.
This might lead to prison time, fines, as well as the liquidation of the business entity
(Gray, 2019).
 Employment embezzlement- Because HSBC handles customer data and other
confidential material, this is critical to safeguard statistics against theft. Most of the
failures of organizations are because of staff misconduct. Employee theft generally
involves several ethical infractions which might directly or indirectly affect a
bank's structure. This could be lowered by hiring reliable and competent employees to
look after such things, saving the organization money in the long term (Yekini, et al.,
2018).
 Accountability and authority: Despite discrimination and harassment, which deal with
workers' interactions, compliance concerns include important and complex
organizational ethics. The term "society" refers to the many ways in which people
express themselves in public. In this respect, The bank must ensure that the business
and its staff are aware of and follow specific key regulations or laws that could
significantly influence the industry. The firm must also create a safe community that
emphasizes the company’s well-being above self-interest in the future (Gray, 2019).

Impact of the internet and intranet

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Networking digital communications broaden the options accessible to improved customer
service businesses such as banks like HSBC. Companies profit from connectivity in various
ways, incorporating multiple approaches and customers. Two kinds of computer networks are
often utilized in businesses like these international banks the internet and the intranet. An
intranet is a controlled and defined connection for the enterprise. A bank's intranet is similar
to its secure network. The intranet may connect a handful to hundreds of users. It generally
has physically separate architecture from the internet. Specific intranets enable internet
access, whereas others don't work due to security and privacy concerns.

The primary objective of an intranet is to make the relationship, cooperation, and information
sharing more available to company employees. As a result, they employ it to improve the
effectiveness of communication. Furthermore, whether users or workers are physically
separated for work purposes, an intranet offers them a virtual space to interact. Many
organizational processes may be enhanced by combining information, decreasing complexity,
and improving efficiency. The usage of intranets in the company has several ramifications. It
streamlines daily chores by recurring others that are easier to do. The intranet also improves
internal communication, company news, a database of employees, and process diagrams.
This also enhances employee involvement by reducing and integrating "closed-off"
information or knowledge (Moussa, 2016).

This intranet facilitates collaboration by allowing employees to share information between

departments. HSBC can deliver individualized details about the job to employees through an
intranet. It could make important information like business policies, upgrades, and benefits
more approachable. An intranet may also condense and focus all relevant information into a
system. The use of an intranet increases overall productivity by avoiding superfluous emails.
HSBC may also be competitive by enhancing earnings and customer trust (Razis &
Mitropoulos, 2022).

In contrast, the internet promotes companies by extending data extraction, connection,

marketing, and interaction possibilities. They are one of the renowned financial institutions
that rely on the online platform to do operations throughout the year. They could use the
world wide web to give information or deliver services to every faraway consumer
(Apăvăloaie, 2014)Nowadays, all firms actively use the internet to communicate with their
employees, customers, authorities, and other partners to raise consumer awareness. To bring
excellent solutions to prospective clients, HSBC utilizes the web for corporate information

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and communication exchange. With the introduction of online banking, online marketing, and
e-commerce business models, the www is becoming increasingly important. This can provide
a considerable competitive advantage in the communication process (Odokuma & Azorji,
2017). This provides the most straightforward method for a firm to connect with its clients
and deliver better services. That used fast internet access and HSBC increased its production
and service.

To the increased utilization of the internet, HSBC is collecting consumer information and
client behavior, which it utilizes to develop business strategies based on analysis. New
opportunities are growing as a result of the utilization of the internet. Information and data
are now rapid, owing to an efficient network that enables data to be transferred
internationally in seconds. Nowadays, the internet is a critical element of managing a
successful business since it supports companies in meeting their goals and developing in this
competitive sector. The internet has become the most vital and significant tool for corporate
marketing. Corporations like HSBC have profited immensely from the internet in establishing
a corporate infrastructure built on customer information and data. In comparison, the internet
helps business firms perform employee development and development, which leads to
improved productivity and client interactions. In these ways, the internet helps both small and
big organizations.

The role of IT in helping managers in the business

IT is responsible for keeping software packages and computers working smoothly.IT

professionals help businesses run their computer systems. IT is accountable for establishing
networks for the organization and making it more straightforward. The IT division also
assists the company in developing and implementing particular strategies. The IT department
also helps in data analysis and specific planning. It also aids in developing plans for the
organization, resulting in increased growth. Computer Technology is also in charge of
making sound judgments. The firm employs various software sources to safeguard its
business. The IT sector performs in this area and secures the corporation commercially. The
IT department assists the firm in making the best choices and improving the business. The IT
department creates the best cost and budget planning, which the management must pass on to
the IT sector. If a new employee is required, the IT industry determines whether or not to hire
them. The firm relies on the IT department to expand the business, and managers are the one
that assists the IT department. (Alsalim, 2020)

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The HSBC management team oversees the company with the assistance of the IT department.
The IT department assists the firm in the running effectively and efficiently. The IT
department helps the organization by responding to various assaults on its system. HSBC is
being pushed hard by the IT division. The information technology department assists the
admiral group in running the company through management decisions. HSBC must
strengthen its IT department for the company to flourish. HSBC counts on the IT department
to keep them updated with information and make the company function properly.

Conclusion

The study explores the significance of ICT utilization in HSBC and the ethical and social
issues that affect business performance. This is addressed before establishing and executing a
plan for controlling and mitigating social and ethical issues which may impact the
performance of the bank. HSBC should identify ethical concerns. Moreover, the study has
highlighted the other internet protocols that are gaining traction in constructing a robust ICT
infrastructure for any organization. The research also looked at the importance of the intranet
and the internet within HSBC. It was observed that the internet helps a firm develop and
maintain a more robust client relationship.

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