IMPACT OF IT ON SERVICES MARKETING

ABSTRACT:

The service sector has an important role in the economic development of various countries. Almost all the developed countries and a majority of developing countries emerged as service economies. The reasons for growth in service sector may be economical, political, demographical and social. Economic reasons include the fast growth in world market due to globalization of business by many countries of the world. Globalizing the business activity has created greater demand for services such as communication, transport and information services. Recent explosion in information Technology has the major contribution for the growth of these services. Innumerable electronic systems have appeared in information field contributed services to customers and delighting them. The demand for vital services have given scope for increased operations and research in service marketing.

SERVICES – AN OVERVIEW  -  A Service is any act or performance that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its production may or may not be tied to a physical market.

CLASSIFICATION OF SERVICES:

•         USINESS FUNCTIONS

•         CONSULTING, CUSTOMER SERVICE, HUMAN RESOURCE ADMINISTRATORS

•         CLEANING, RAPAIR AND MAINTENANCE SERVICES

•         JANITORS, GARDENERS, MECHANICS

•         CONSTRUCTION

•         CARPENTRY, ELECTRICIANS, PLUMBING

•         DEATH CARE -

•         CORONERS, FUNERAL HOMES

•         DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND PREVENTION SERVICES

•         ARBITRATION, COURTS OF LAW, DIPLOMACY, INCARCERATION,

LAW ENFORCEMENT, LAWYERS, MEDIATION, MILITARY, NEGOTIATION

•         EDUCATION

•         LIBRARY, MUSEUM, SCHOOL

•         ENTERTAINMENT

•         GAMBLING, MOVIE THEATRES, PERFORMING ARTS PRODUCTIONS,

SEXUAL SERVICES, SPORT, TELEVISION.

•         CHILD CARE

•         FINANCIAL SERVICES

•         ACCOUNTANCY, BANKS AND BUILDING SOCIETIES, REAL ESTATE, STOCK

BROKERAGES, TAX PREPARATION

•         FOOD SERVICE INDUSTRY

•         PERSONAL GROOMING

•         HAIR DRESSING, MENICURIST / PEDICURIST, BODYHAIR REMOVAL, DENTAL ,HYGIENIST

•         HEALTH CARE

•         HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

•         INFORMATION SERVICES

•         DATA PROCESSING, DATABASE SERVICES, INTERPRETING, TRANSLATION

•         RISK MANAGEMENT -

•         INSURANCE, SECURITY

•         SOCIAL SERVICES

•         TRANSPORT

•         PUBLIC UTILITY

•         ELECTRIC POWER, NATURAL GAS, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, WASTE

MANAGEMENT, WATER INDUSTRY

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SERVICE SECTOR

Hotels – with increased work pressures, people are now looking for avenues to reduce stress, and many hotels are taking up the opportunity by offering a vide verity of treatments for rejuvenation and relaxation. `Spas’ have become an integral part of several hotels. Resort Spa, the most popular among all, are a combination of luxuries offered by the hotels along with a wide range of recreational activities with the spa experience. A discount massage and a free facial enjoy more popularity during this challenging recession period. Food process Industries : The union Government has declare many incentives in the food processing industry. Transport: Smart Transportation Grid (STG) is essentially a web of motion sensors, conversion devices, micro processor based computing analyzers and a reporting tool. It works based on connected signals between two points and a vehicle motion is tracked based on speed, co-ordinates and unique display ID. It reduce time for shipments. Healthcare: IT offers a range of solutions to technologically manage clinics, small & medium hospitals and large multinational enterprise level hospital.

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY

Through the use of advanced computing and telecommunications technology, learning can also be qualitatively different. The process of learning in the classroom can become significantly richer as students have access to new and different types of information, can manipulate it on the computer through graphic displays or controlled experiments in ways never before possible, and can communicate their results and conclusions in a variety of media to their teacher, students in the next classroom, or students around the world.

BASIC SKILLS

(i)                 Multi-media software - teach to a variety of learning styles

(ii)               Videodiscs - strengthen basic skills

(iii)             Video and audio technologies - bring material to life

(iv)             Distance learning - at least as effective as traditional methods of instruction

(v)               All forms - develop new skills related to use of technology itself, necessary in workplace

Advanced Skills Instruction

• Interactive educational technologies, including  Computer – generated simulations, Videodiscs, Internet & CD ROM
• Students learn to organize complex information, recognize patterns, draw inferences, communicate findings and Learn better organizational and problem-solving skills

Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT)

ACOT as summarized by Howard Mehlinger: "In 1986 Apple Computer, Inc. launched a project call Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT). The project began with seven classrooms representing what was intended to be a cross section of K-12 schools. Each participating student and teacher received two computers: one for home and one for school. The goal of the project was to see how the routing use of computers would affect how students learn and how teacher teach. "One issue the project hoped to confront was the possibility of any negative effects from prolonged exposure to computers. Some critics have worried that students who use computers extensively will become ‘brain-dead’ or less social from looking at the computer screen all day. At the end of two years, the investigators learned that some of their worst fears had been groundless.

• Teachers were not hopeless illiterates where technology was concerned; they could use computers to accomplish their work and Children did not become bored by the technology over time. Instead, their desire to use it for their own purposes increased with use.  Even very young children had no problem becoming adept users of the keyboard. With very little training, second- and third- graders were some typing 25 to 30 words per minute with 95% accuracy - more than twice as fast as children of that age can usually write and Software was not a major problem. Teacher found programs - including productivity tools - to use in their classes.

Standardized test scores showed that student were performing as well as they might have been expected to do without the computers; some were doing better. The studies showed that ACOT students wrote better and were able to complete unites of study more rapidly than their peers in non-ACOT classrooms. In one case, students finished the year’s study of mathematics by the beginning of April. In short, academic productivity did not suffer and in some cases even improved. Most interesting, however, is that classroom observers noticed changes in the behavior of teachers and students. Students were taking more responsibility for their own learning, and teachers were working more as mentors and less as presenters of information.

ACOT Findings After 10 Years

• Technology acts as a catalyst for fundamental change in the way students learn and teacher teach.
• Technology revolutionizes the traditional methods teachers use.
• Students become re-energized and much more excited about learning - resulting in significantly improved grades - while dropout and absentee rates decrease dramatically.
• For high school students in the program, drop-out rates fell from 30 percent to near zero, while absenteeism was reduced from 8 percent to 4 percent.
• Teachers can and will embrace technology, if they are given the kind of professional development and support they need.

Effects of Educational Technology

• Educational technology has a significant positive impact on achievement in all subject areas, across all levels of school, and in regular classrooms as well as those for special-needs students.
• Educational technology has positive effects on student attitudes and The degree of effectiveness is influenced by the student population, the instructional design, the teacher’s role, how students are grouped, and the levels of student access to technology.
• Technology makes instruction more student-centered, encourages cooperative learning, and stimulated increased teacher/student interaction and Positive changes in the learning environment evolve over time and do not occur quickly.

Multiple Intelligences and Multi-media

Howard Gardner, Professor of Harvard University and author of Frames of Mind (New York: Basic Books, 1983) from Multimedia Book, ITTE wrote that Seven or more "multiple intelligences" that are of equal importance in human beings and develop at different times and in different ways in different individuals., Multi-media can go along way to addressing these intelligences, much more than traditional teaching methods.

Verbal/Linguistic intelligence: The ability to think, communicate, and create through words both in speech and in writing. Computer software which allows young children to write and illustrate their own stories before their fine motor skills are developed enough to allow them to do so by hand. Word processing software stimulates learners to interact more closely with their work. Audio and video recording can give students instant feedback on their story-telling skills and can help them develop them further.

Logical/mathematical intelligences: Memorize and perform mathematical operations, ability to think mathematically, logically, and analytically and to apply that understanding to problem solving. Multimedia products that graphically illustrate physics concepts. Providing challenging visual/spatial tasks which develop mathematical and logical thinking .  Develop higher-order mathematical thinking by making abstract ideas concrete.

Visual/spatial intelligence: The ability to understand the world through what we see and imagine and to express ideas through the graphic arts. "Paint" programs that allow students who are unskilled with paper and brush create art on computer screens. Databases of art work. Desktop publishing. Camcorders to create documentaries. Internet links to museums and virtual tours.

Bodily/kinesthetic intelligence: The ability to learn through physical coordination and dexterity and the ability to express oneself through physical activities. Educational games which challenge fine motor coordination while developing logical thinking skills and mastery over abstractions. Construction of Lego robots and program their movement through the computer. Electronic fieldtrips - programs that allow students to interact electronically with a scientist who is exploring the depths of the Mediterranean or the inside of a volcano.

Musical intelligence: The ability to understand, appreciate, perform, and create music by voice or instruments or dance. Students can hum into a synthesizer and make it sound like any instrument they want. Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) makes it possible to make music on an electronic keyboard, which can be made to sound like any instrument and then can be orchestrated electronically. Interactive presentations of renowned classical music let students understand music on many different levels; listening to it, seeing the score as it is played, hearing individual instruments played alone, reviewing biographical material about the composer and learning about the music’s historical and cultural backgrounds.

Interpersonal intelligence: The ability to work cooperatively with other people and to apply a variety of skills to communicate with and understand others. Clusters of students working together on computers learn more than individual students working alone. Electronic networks linking students with their peers within the community and around the world. Lumaphones allow students to see a picture of the person with whom they are speaking.

Intrapersonal intelligence: The ability to understand, bring to consciousness, and express one’s own inner world of thoughts and emotions. Multimedia gives teachers the tools to turn the classroom into centers of student-directed inquiry. Technology offers tools for thinking more deeply, pursuing curiosity, and exploring and expanding intelligence as students build "mental models" with which they can visualize connections between ideas on any topic. Individual growth plans, developed jointly by the student, parents and teacher can encourage the development of intrapersonal intelligence. Technology supports such plans with electronic records, videotaped interviews, and multimedia portfolios of student work.

Connecting Students to a Changing World

A Technology Strategy for Improving Mathematics and Science Education. A Statement by the Research and Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Development 1995: "Fortunately, the same rapid technological changes that have made these new workplace competencies so important and greater knowledge of mathematics and science so critical also provide new and effective tools to help raise the knowledge and skills of teachers and the achievement of students." "Currently available technologies, the most important of which are computers, communications systems (including Internet connections), and interactive videodisk and CD-ROM systems, provide a learning environment in which problem solving and intellectual inquiry can flourish." "The technology also allows students to work at their own pace and encourages them to take initiative and learn independently."

IS TECHNOLOGY MAKING AN IMPACT ON EDUCATION?

• Educational technology as demonstrated a significant positive effect on achievement. Positive effects have been found for all major subject areas, in preschool through higher education, and for both regular education and special needs students. Evidence suggests that interactive video is especially effective when the skills and concepts to be learned have a visual component and when the software incorporates a research-based instructional design. Use of online telecommunications for collaboration across classrooms in different geographic locations has also been show to improve academic skills.
• Education technology has been found to have positive effects on student attitudes toward learning and on student self-concept. Students felt more successful in school, were more motivated to learn and have increased self-confidence and self-esteem when using computer-based instruction. The level of effectiveness of educational technology is influenced by the specific student population, the software design, the teacher’s role, how the students are grouped, and the level of student access to the technology.
• Positive changes in the learning environment brought about by technology are more evolutionary than revolutionary. These changes occur over a period of years, as teachers become more experienced with technology.
• Courses for which computer-based networks were use increased student-student and student-teacher interaction, increased student-teacher interaction with lower-performing students, and did not decrease the traditional forms of communication used. Many student who seldom participate in face-to-face class discussion become more active participants online.
• Greater student cooperation and sharing and helping behaviors occurred when students used computer-based learning that had students compete against the computer rather than against each other.   

CONCLUSION

The impact of Information Technology had higher self esteem and student achievement. Introducing technology into the learning environment has been shown to make learning more student-centered, to encourage cooperative learning, and to stimulate increased teacher/student interaction.