IT in Business

Urooj Azhar
 Agricultural Age: The period up to the 1800s,
when the majority of workers were farmers
whose lives revolved around agriculture.

 Industrial Age: The period from the 1800s to

1957, when work processes were simplified
through mechanization and automation.

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 Information Age: The period that began in 1957,
in which the majority of workers are involved in
the creation, distribution, and application of
information.
▪ Knowledge Workers: Workers involved in the creation,
distribution, and application of information.

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 An information-based society has arisen.
▪ Information Society: A society in which more people
work at handling information than at agriculture and
manufacturing combined.

 Businesses depend on information technology

to get their work done.

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 Work processes are being transformed to
increase productivity.
▪ Work Processes: The combination of activities that
workers perform, the way they perform those
activities, and the tools they use.
▪ Productivity: The relationship between the results of
an activity (output) and the resources used to create
those results (inputs).
▪ Effectiveness: The extent to which desirable results are
achieved.

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 Information technology provides the means to
rethink/recreate/reengineer conventional business
processes.
▪ Reengineering: The reshaping of business processes to
remove barriers that prohibit an organization from
providing better products and services and to help
the organization capitalize on its strengths.
▪ Business Processes: Collections of activities, often
spanning several departments, that take one or more
kinds of input and create a result that is of value to a
company’s customers.
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 Success in business is largely determined by the
effectiveness with which information
technology is used.

 Information technology is embedded in many

products and services.

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 Reengineering efforts to attain greater
productivity:
▪ Industrial Age - Division of Labor: Separation of
work process into component task, with different
workers specializing in each of the tasks.
▪ Information Age – Teamwork, Interconnection, and
Shared Information

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 A term used to refer to a wide variety of items
and abilities used in the creation, storage, and
dispersal of data and information. Its three
main components are computers,
communications networks, and know-how.

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 Data: Raw facts, figures, and details.

 Information: An organized, meaningful, and

useful interpretation of data.

 Knowledge: An awareness and understanding of a

set of information and how that information
can be put to the best use.

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 An electronic system that can be instructed to
accept, process, store, and present data and
information.

 Computers come in four sizes:

▪ Microcomputers
▪ Midrange computers
▪ Mainframes
▪ Supercomputers
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 Microcomputers: A relatively compact type of
computer, the most common of all, easily outsells all
other types of computers annually for use in business
and at home.

 Five types of Microcomputers:

▪ Desktop Computers
▪ Notebook Computers/Laptop Computers
▪ Tablet PCs
▪ Personal Digital Assistants
▪ Palm PCs
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 Midrange computers and Mainframes: A computer
uses to interconnect people and large sets of
information. More powerful than a
microcomputer, it is usually dedicated to
performing specific functions.
 Supercomputers: The most powerful of all
computers, supercomputers were designed to
solve problems consisting of long and difficult
calculations.
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 Hardware: The computer and its associated
equipment.

 Program: A set of instructions that directs a

computer to perform certain tasks and produce
certain results.

 Software: The general term for a set of

instructions that controls a computer or a
communications network.
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 System: A set of components that interact to
accomplish a purpose.

 Information System: A business information

system designed to produce the information
needed for successful management of a
structured problem, process, department, or
business.

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 Typical Business System

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 Communication: The sending and receiving of data
and information over a communications
network.
 Communications Network: A set of locations, or
nodes, consisting of hardware, programs, and
information linked together as a system that
transmits and receives data and information.
 Data Communication: The transmission of data
and information through a communications
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 The capability to do something well.

 Information technology know-how consists of:

▪ Familiarity with the tools of IT; including the
Internet
▪ Possession of the skills needed to use these tools
▪ An understanding of when to use IT to solve a
problem or create an opportunity

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 Capture: The process of compiling detailed
records of activities.
 Processing: The process of converting, analyzing,
computing, and synthesizing all forms of data
or information.
▪ Data Processing ▪ Information Processing
▪ Word Processing ▪ Image Processing
▪ Voice Processing

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 Generation: The process of organizing
information into a useful form, whether as
numbers, text, sound, or visual image.
 Storage and Retrieval: Storage is the computer
process of retaining information for future use.
Retrieval is the process by which a computer
locates and copies stored data or information
for further processing or for transmission to
another user.
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 Transmission: The computer process of
distributing information over a communications
network.
▪ Electronic Mail, or E-Mail
▪ Voice Messaging, or Voice Mail

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 Helping People

 Solving Problems
▪ Problem: A perceived difference between an existing
condition and a desired condition.
▪ Problem Solving: The process of recognizing a
problem, identifying alternatives for solving it, and
successfully implementing the chosen solution.

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 Television  Manufacturing
 Education  Energy
 Journalism  Paperwork
 Sports  Agriculture
 Training  Money and Investments
 Entertainment  Taxation and Accounting
 Shipping  Health and Medicine
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 To be Informed

 To Make Proper Use of IT

 To Safeguard

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