HealthSouth and it's IT Benefits

HealthSouth is one of those companies that uses IT as a means to help with benefiting their organization and customer. The website is www.healthsouth.com. Simply because they have a website with their information on it is a form of using Information Technology. HealthSouth uses IT to show location services, treatments for selected ailments, and a article database. All of these can be used to help either the patients or the organization.

One of the first Information Technology features is that the website has location services. This option is where you put in your location and the return would be their closest location. This is very good if you're not familiar with the area you are in. The customer benefits the most from this. The organization also has an advantage because it can ensure more business.

Another feature on the web is that you can put in the problem you are having then it will show you proper treatments for the ailment. There are different types of conditions a patient may go through and don't want or feel a need to go to the physical location and through this you can also get FAQ's, preventions, and support. This is also beneficialto the organization because this could cut down on the amount of petty visits to their locations.

The homepage of www.healthsouth.com is constantly being updated with different articles about health  care and the company. This is a way to keep the customers up-to-date on what is going on with the company.This is one way HealthSouth can get information to the masses very quickly. The constant news updates get the organization out of certain liabilities as well. As one can see the news updates are an advantage to both customers and the organization.

Information Technology is emerging in the health care field more and more everyday. If you search through a health care provider's components I'm positive that IT will be the core of the organization. With that being said IT can affect what a company does in many ways. IT gives health care companies an ease of access to certain things. Not only

Increasing Returns

Increasing returns has a meaning that seems different from what one would interpret from its name. The actual meaning of increasing returns is economic law that governs modern knowledge based businesses according to softwaretimes.com. One would think that when you double the input of a business the output would be doubled as well. This is not true according to the law of increasing returns. The law of increasing returns makes the doubling disproportioned.

           For instance Coca Cola has a certain amount of workers for their warehouses. They are always testing the amount of workers to see how it affects the productivity. By doubling the amount of workers you would think that it would double productivity. This isn’t accurate because there are different factors that cause change. One example would be that work wouldn’t be evenly distributed which would cause workers to become idle. 

Why IT is Important

According to the research found on the Internet about Information Technology there are mixed reviews. There is a healthy amount of people that feel as if IT plays an integral role in producing strategic value. One of those people would be N.G. Carr. Carr expresses his viewpoints in his article “IT Does Matter.”

The first use that N.G. mentions is relationship management. Relationships throughout the business world show all the connections between objects. The article states of relationship management are a use of IT. This is because the IT of today’s time has numerous ways to interact with people on all type of facets.

Information Technology makes networking easier to use according to Carr. Due to information technology there are an abundant amount of ways to connect with others. Social Networks are one of the biggest sources in networking with others. Some examples are LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. These sites would not be here if it wasn’t for IT. Other forms of networking through IT are Telephone, Skype, Email, and Text.

Due to other information found on the Internet by Carr IT holds strategic value due to its ability to make educating easier. Education is making its way into IT more and more everyday. In business a lot of trainings are hosted on the computer. This makes it possible to get company information to many users at one time.

Due to information on the Internet about how IT is deployed in such a way that it plays an integral role in producing strategic value is listed above. Those ways are through relationship management, networking, and educating. Each is made better or might not even be possible without Information Technology.

Physical Economy vs. Knowledge Economy

There are many different economies to be studied. There are two in particular that are similar but also different. These two economies would be considered physical and knowledge.

In physical economies the goods and services wear out. After long use of a car tire the tire will then exhibit normal wear and tear. On the other hand knowledge economy doesn’t wear out but does become obsolete or untrue. For instance a theory in science might be proven true and then untrue according to experiments and tests.

Physical economies are replicated at the expense of the manufacturer. If the demand of speakers increase then the manufacturer will make more as they see fit. Contrarily knowledge economics are replicated at almost zero cost without limit. Knowledge is spread freely by word of mouth. The recipe for a cake can be verbally transferred at no cost to numerous cooks.

Physical economies can only exist in tangible places. An example is that a sofa must be on the ground for it to be properly utilized. Knowledge economy doesn’t physically exist. Basically you cannot see the information in someone’s thoughts.

With physical economies when sold, possession changes owners but with knowledge economies the seller may still have possession and sell again.  You lose the possession when you sell a basketball to a buyer. When you sell stock information you will still have that information to yourself to use again.

Price is based on production costs when dealing with physical economies. For instance when the price of engines increases the price of cars increase as well. Knowledge economies are based on the value to the consumer. A person interested in jailbreaking an iPhone will pay more than a person who knows how to jailbreak it themselves.

Business professionals really have to pay attention to whether they will be utilizing physical or knowledge economy. They will also have to be aware of the effect the economy will have on different consumers.  The professionals need to be mindful that these two are somewhat related in that they can be sold, used, and replicated.