-

(A United Methodist-Related Institution

EXECUTIVE MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

(EMBA)

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

MMS501

Timothy Makambwa
(2014)

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Course Overview

The objective of this course is to provide an introduction to management information

systems (MIS). It introduces MIS concepts, its evolution, impact factors and benefits;
systems, including system design and system approach and computer systems (hardware
and software). 

A management information system (MIS) is a subset of the overall internal controls of a

business covering an organized combination of people, hardware, software,
communication networks and data resources that collects and disseminate information to
solve business problems. Management information systems are distinct from regular
information systems in that they are used to analyze other information systems applied in
operational activities in the organization.

It should be noted that the course is NOT computer science and will NOT teach the
student to be a technical expert in computers. It will however introduce the student to
organizational and technical foundations of information systems and the strategic role of
information systems as well as how information systems can assist the manager in
decision making. 

The course will be divided into two segments under the following headings:

 Organizational Foundations of Information Systems.

 Technical Foundations of Information Systems

You are encouraged to interact with your instructor Mr. Timothy Makambwa. A course
outline has been provided outlining the topics to be covered in this course.

If there are areas in the course you do not understand and need clarification, email your
instructor on makambwat@africau.edu.

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 ORGANISATIONAL FOUNDATIONS OF INFORMATION
SYSTEMS

UNIT 1: INFORMATION SYSTEMS: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

1.1 Introduction

Information systems have become essential in creating competitive firms, managing

global corporations and providing useful products and services to customers. This topic
provides an introduction to management information systems that students will find vital
for their professional success.  It will introduce the student to organizational foundations
of information systems. 

After completing this unit the student should be able to:

 Define information systems
 Explain the difference between computer literacy and information systems
literacy
 Explain why information systems are so important today and how they are
transforming organizations and management
 Identify the major challenges to building and using information systems in
organizations.

1.2 Why Information Systems?

An understanding of information systems is essential for today's managers because most

organizations need information to survive and prosper. This study of management
information systems is based on the premise that it is difficult-if not impossible to
manage a modern business without at least some knowledge of information systems-

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what information systems are, how they affect the organization and its employees and
how they make business more competitive and efficient.

Information systems are used in almost every imaginable profession. Until recently,
information was not considered as an important asset for the firm. The management
process was considered a face-to-face personal art and not a far flung, global co-
ordination process.

Information itself was not considered an important asset for the firm. But today few
managers can afford to ignore how information is handled by their organizations.

 1.3 THE CHANGING CONTEMPORARY BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Three powerful worldwide changes have altered the business environment.

         the emergence and strengthening of the global economy

         the transformation of industrial economies and societies into knowledge,

information-based service economies

         the transformation of the business enterprise

This lesson starts our investigation of information systems and organizations

by explaining information systems from both technical and behavioral perspectives and
scanning the changes they are bringing to organizations and management. The following
changes in the contemporary business environment have been brought about by the rapid
development of information technology. This list of changes is not comprehensive and
neither is it exhaustive since the IT industry is dynamic and the situation changes rapidly.

Emergency of the Global Economy: Globalization

 Management and control in a global marketplace

 Competition in world markets
 Global work groups
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  Global delivery systems

Transformation of Industrial Economies

 Productivity, new products and services

 Knowledge: a central productive and strategic asset
 Time-based competition
 Shorter product life
 Turbulent environment
 Limited employee knowledge base

Transformation of the Enterprise

 Flattening Decentralization
 Flexibility
 Location independence
 Low transaction and coordination costs
 Empowerment
 Collaborative work and teamwork

Transformation of Industrial Economies

In a knowledge and information based economy, knowledge and information are the key
ingredients for creating wealth. The information field has also emerged as one of the
biggest employers.  In most developed economies, knowledge and information work
accounts for 60% of GDP and nearly 55% of labor force.
Knowledge and information systems have become the foundation of many new services
and products. Knowledge and information-intense products such as computer games
require a lot of learning and knowledge to produce.

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Intensification of knowledge utilization in the production of traditional products has
increased, for example, in the car industry where design and production now heavily
upon knowledge-intensive information technology. Information technology constitutes
more than 70% of invested capital in service industries such as finance, insurance and
real estate. Across all industries, information and the technology that delivers it have
become critical, strategic assets for business firm and managers (Leonard- Barton 1995).

Information systems are needed to optimize the flow of information and knowledge
within the organization and to help management maximize the firm’s knowledge
resources. Management decisions about information technology are important to the
prosperity and survival of a firm because the productivity of employees will depend on
the quality of information serving them.
 
The traditional business firm was and still is a hierarchical, centralized structured
arrangement of specialists that typically relies on a fixed set of standard operating
procedures to deliver mass produced product or service.
The new style business firm is a flattened (less hierarchical) decentralized, flexible
arrangement of generalists who rely on nearly instant information to deliver mass
customized products and services uniquely suited to specific markets or customers.

This new style organization is not yet entrenched but is still evolving. Information
technology is bringing about changes in organization that make the firm even more
dependent than before on knowledge, learning and decision making of individual
employees.

 Emergency of the Global Economy

The success of firms today depends on their ability to operate globally. Today,
information systems provide communication and analytic power that firms need to
conduct trade and managing business on a global scale.
 

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Globalization of the world industrial economies greatly enhances the value of
information to the firm and offers new opportunities.
 
Controlling the far flung global corporation- communicating with suppliers and
distributors operating 24 hours a day operating in different national environments,
servicing local and international reporting needs offers major business challenges to
which only a powerful information system responses to.
 
Globalization and information technology also bring new threats to domestic business
firms. Because of global communication, customers can shop in a worldwide market
place obtaining information reliably 24 hours a day.
 
This heightens competition and forces firms to play in open unprotected world wide
markets. To become effective and profitable participants in international markets, firms
need powerful information and communication systems.

Exercise 1 

Explain why information systems are so important today and how they are
transforming organisations and management

Model Answer

The kinds of systems built today are very important for the overall performance of the
organization, especially in today’s highly globalized and information based economy.
Information systems are driving both daily operations and organizational strategy.
Powerful computers, software and networks have helped organizations become more
flexible, eliminate layers of management, separate work from location and restructure
work flows, giving new powers to line workers and management.
The internet and other networks have redefined organizational boundaries, opening new
opportunities for electronic markets and electronic commerce.

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 To maximize the advantages of information technology, there is a much greater need to
plan for overall information architecture of the organization.

1.4 WHAT IS INFORMATION SYSTEMS?

There is no universally accepted definition of MIS and those that exist reflect the
emphasis- and prejudices. The term MIS has become synonymous with computer-based
data processing and books with MIS in the title turn out to exclusively concerned with
technical facets of computer based systems. This emphasis results in a production
oriented definition of MIS. Technically, an information system can be defined as a set
of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), store and distribute information to
support decision making and control in an organization.
This course takes a decision focus to the design and operation of MIS which means MIS
is viewed as means of processing data into information which is then used for decision
making.
In addition information systems may also help managers and workers analyze problems,
visualize complex problems and create new products.
 An 'MIS' or Management Information System is a planned system of the collecting,
processing, storing and disseminating data in the form of information needed to
carry out the functions of management
It is a system using formalized procedures to covert data from internal and external
sources and to communicate that information, in appropriate form, to managers at
all levels in all functions to enable them to make timely and effective decisions for
planning, directing and controlling the activities for which they are responsible.
 
Figure 1.1: An Information System.
ENVIRONMENT
 
Customers Suppliers
ORGANISATION
INFORMATION SYSTEM

Processing
Classify
Input Arrange Output Competitors
Regulatory Calculator
Agencies 8
Feedback

Stockholders
Functions of an Information System
 
An information system contains information about an organization and its surrounding
environment.
Three basic activities- input, processing and output – produce the information
organizations need.
Feedback is output returned for appropriate people or activities in the organization to
evaluate and refine the input.

Basic Definitions
 
·        Information- this is data that has been processed, shaped into a form that is
meaningful and useful to human beings. Information systems contain information
about significant people, places and things within the organization or in the
environment surrounding it.
·        Data are streams of raw facts representing events occurring in organizations or
physical environment before they have been organized or arranged into a form that
people can understand or use. Data are facts, events, transactions and so on that have
been recorded. They are raw materials from which information is produced.
·        Input captures or collects raw data from within the organization or from its external
environment
·        Processing converts the raw input into a more meaningful form
·         Output transfers the processed information to the people or activities where it will be
used.
·         Information systems also require feedback which is output that is returned to the
appropriate members of the organization to help them evaluate or correct the input
stage

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Exercise 2

Define an Information System. What is its purpose?

Model Answer

An information system can be any organized combination of people, hardware, software,

communications networks and data resources that collects, transforms and disseminates
information in an organization.
Technically, it can be defined as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve),
process and distribute information to support decision making and control in an
organization.
The purpose of a CBIS is to collect, store and disseminate information from an
organization’s environment and internal operations for the purpose of supporting
organizational functions and decision making, communication, coordination and control,
analysis and visualization.
Information systems transform raw data into useful information through three basic
activities: input, processing and output

Problems with MIS

There is abundant evidence from numerous surveys from all over the world that existing
MISs , often using advanced computer equipment , have had relatively little success in
providing management with information they need. The typical reasons discovered
include the following:
 Lack of management involvement with the design of MIS

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 Narrow and/or inappropriate emphasis of the computer system
 Undue concentration on low level data processing applications particularly in the
accounting area
 Lack of management knowledge of computers particularly in small and medium
sized enterprises (SMEs)
 Poor appreciation by information specialists of management’s true information
requirements and of the organization’s problems
 Lack of management support.
To be successful an MIS must be designed and operated with due regard to organization
and behavioral principles as well as technical factors. Management must be informed
enough to make an effective contribution to systems design and information specialists
(systems analysts, accountants, operations researchers and others) must become more
area of managerial functions and needs so that , jointly, more effective MISs are
developed.
Management do not always know what information they need and information specialists
often do not know enough about management to be able to produce relevant information
for managers they serve.
There is no doubt that better communication between management and information
specialists, plus a wider knowledge by both groups of MIS principles would greatly
facilitate the task of development of relevant and appropriate information systems.

Information Data and Communication

In all but the smallest organizations, management rarely observes operations directly.
They attempt to make decisions, prepare plans and control activities by using by using
what they can obtain from formal sources- for example’s such as face to face
conversations, telephone calls, emails, through social contacts and so on.
Management are faced by an accelerating rate of change, an ever more complex
environment and at higher levels, by considerable uncertainty.

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Ideally, managers should be able to define the type of information they require and the
MIS should be able to supply it. In practice , it does not happen like this and managers
have to use whatever is available, from whatever sources.
According to Drucker “the manager will never be able to get all the facts he should have.
Most decisions have to be based on incomplete knowledge- either because the
information not available or it would cost too much in money to get it. There is nothing
more treacherous or alas, more common, than attempt to precise decisions on the basis of
coarse and incomplete information”1

In spite of the difficulties of producing it, managers need relevant and timely information
to assist them to plan, to control and to make decisions. Relevant information is
information which:
 Increases knowledge
 Reduces uncertainty
 Is usable for the intended purpose
Managers get things done through people, using relevant and timely information. The
type of information required depends on many factors including:
 The level of management
 The task at hand
 Confidentially
 Urgency
 Purpose.

Classifications of Information
Information has many characteristics and can be classified in numerous ways including:
 By source: e.g. internal, external, primary, secondary, government
 By nature: e.g. quantitative, qualitative, formal, informal
 By level : e.g. strategic, tactical, operational
 By time e.g. historical, present, future

1
Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, 1993

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 By frequency eg. Continuous (real time), hourly, daily, monthly, annually
 By form: e.g. written, oral, visual, sensory
 By use e.g. planning, control, decision making
 By occurrence e.g. at planned intervals, occasional, on demand
 By type e.g. detailed, summarized, aggregated, abstracted.
What is Information?

The concept of information in an organizational sense is more complex than the frequent
use of this common word would suggest.
Information is data that has been interpreted and understood by the recipient of the
message. It follows that data that has been which has been analyzed, summarized or
processed in some other fashion to produce a message or report which is conventionally
deemed to be ‘management information’ only becomes information if it is understood by
the recipient.
It is the user who determines whether a report contains information or just processed
data. Accordingly, it is vital for the producers of reports and messages of all types to be
aware of the user’s requirements, education, position in the organization, familiarity with
language and numeracy and the context in which the message will be used in order to
increase the likelihood of information being derived from the message.
In summary, information is knowledge and understandable that is usable by the recipient.
It reduces uncertainty, must tell the recipient something not already known and which
could not be predicted.
If a message does not have these attributes, as far as the recipient is concerned, it
contains merely data not information.
According to Edwards and Finley “without an efficient means of filtering and
aggregating data, a manager could be ……. data rich yet information poor’

Functions Performed By Information

In addition to the general function of improving knowledge, information assists
management in several ways including:

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 The reduction of uncertainty: uncertainty exists where there is less than perfect
knowledge. Rarely, if ever is there perfect knowledge but relevant information helps
reduce the unknown. This is particularly relevant in planning and decision making.
 As an aid to monitoring and control: by providing information about performance and
the extent of deviations from planned levels of performance management are better
able to control operation.
 As a means of communication: managers need to know about development plans,
forecasts, and impending changes and so on.
 As a memory supplement: by having historical information about performance
transactions, results of past actions and decisions available to reference, personal
memories are supplemented.
 As an aid to simplification: by reducing uncertainty and enhancing understanding,
problems and situations are simplified and become more manageable.

The Value of Information

Information has no value in itself; its value derives from the value of change in decision
behavior caused by information being available minus the cost of producing that
information. Information is good only if it improves the resulting decisions, otherwise it
has no value.

Characteristics of Good Information

Good information is that which is used and which creates value. Experience and research
show that good information has numerous qualities. Good information is;
 Relevant for its purpose
 Sufficiently accurate for its purpose. Accuracy should not be confused with
precision.
 Complete enough for the problem
 From a source in which the user has confidence
 Communicated to the right person
 Communicated in time for its purpose
 That which contains the right level of detail
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  Communicated by an appropriate channel of communication
 That which is understandable by the user

Approaches to Information Systems

Multiple perspectives on information systems show that the study of management

information systems is a multidisciplinary field and no single theory dominates. However
two main approaches to MIS have been identified.
 
The technical approach to information systems emphasizes mathematically-based
normative models to study information systems as well as the physical technology and
formal capabilities of these systems.
The disciplines that contribute to this approach include computer science, management
science and operations research.
 
The behavioral approach concentrates on change in attitudes towards IT, management,
organizational policy and behavior (Kling and Dutton, 1982).
 
We will use both the technical and behavioral approaches (socio-technical approach) in
our study of this course.

Computer Based Information Systems (CBIS)

This is a formal information system that relies on computer hardware and software for
processing and disseminating information.
 A formal information system rests on accepted and fixed definitions of data and
procedures for collecting, storing, disseminating and using these data.

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Informal information systems (such as office gossip networks) rely by contrast, on
implicit agreements and unstated rules of behavior. 
In our study, the term information systems will refer to computer based information
systems- formal organizational systems that rely on computer technology.
 
Although computer-based information systems use computer technology to process raw
data into meaningful information, there is a sharp difference between a computer,
computer program on one hand and an information system on the other.
Computers and related software programs provided are the technical foundation or tools
and materials of modern information systems.
Computers provide the equipment for storing and processing information. Computer
programs or software are sets of operating instructions that direct and control the
computer processing.
Knowing how computers and computer programs work is important in designing
solutions to organizational problems but computers are only part of an information
system.

A Business Perspective on Information Systems

From a business perspective, an information system is an organizational and management

solution based on information technology to a challenge posed by the environment.
 
To understand information systems- to be information system literate as opposed to
computer literate- a manager must understand the broader organization, management and
information technology dimensions of systems and their power to provide solutions to
challenges and problems in the business environment.
 
An information system is more than computers. Using information systems effectively
requires an understanding of the organization, management and information technology
shaping all the information systems.
 

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All information systems can be described as organizational and management responses
and solutions to challenges posed by the environment

The MIS-Organization-Management and Technology Interaction

Figure 1.2: The MIS-Organization-Management and Technology Interaction.

  Technology
Organizations

Information
Systems

Management

The above figure illustrates how management, technology and organization elements
work together to create information systems. An information system is more than
computers. Using information systems effectively requires an understanding of the
organization, management and information technology shaping all the information
systems. All information systems can be described as organizational and management
solutions to challenges posed by the environment.

Organizations

Information systems are a part of the organizations. In fact, for some companies such as
credit reporting firms, without the system there would be no business.
The key elements of the organization are its people, structure and operating procedures,
politics and culture
An organization coordinates work through a structured hierarchy and formal standard
operating procedures (SOPs).

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The hierarchy organizes people in a pyramidal structure of rising authority and
responsibility. The upper levels of the hierarchy consist of managerial, professional and
technical employees whereas the lower levels consist of operational personnel.
Standard operating procedures are formal rules for accomplishing tasks that have been
developed over time; these procedures guide employees in a variety of procedures, from
writing an invoice to responding to complaining customers. 
Most procedures are formalized and written down, but many others are informal work
practices. Many of the firm’s SOPs are incorporated into information systems.
 
Organizations require different kind of workers in addition to managers and they include
knowledge workers (such as engineers, architects or scientists), data workers (such as
secretaries, bookkeepers or clerks) and production or service workers (such as
machinists, assemblers, or packers).
Formal organizations are composed of different levels, specialties and functions
including sales & marketing & marketing, manufacturing, accounting, finance and
human resources
Each organization has a unique culture or fundamental set of assumptions, values and
ways of doing things, that has been accepted by most of its members.
Parts of an organization's culture can be found embedded in its information systems, for
example concern with putting service to put customer first is an aspect of the
organizational culture of DHL found in the company's tracking system.

Major Organizational Functions

Table 3 Major Orgranizational Functions

Funtions Purpose

Sales and Marketing Selling the organisation's products

Manufacturing Producing products and services

Finance Managing the organisation's financial assets (cash, stocks, bonds, etc

Accounting Mantaining the organisatio's financial records(receipts, disbursements

paychecks, e.t.c) accounting for the flow of funds

Human Resources 18
Attracting, developing and mantaining the rganisation's labor force;
mantaining employee records
Management

Managers perceive business challenges in the environment; they set the organizational
strategy for responding and they allocate the human and financial resources to achieve
the strategy and coordinate the work.
Throughout, they must exercise responsible leadership. Management's job is to unravel
and make sense out of the many situations faced by organizations and formulate action
plans to solve organizational problems.
 
Less understood, however, is that mangers must do more than manage what already
exists. They must also create new products and services and even recreate the
organization from time to time.
A substantial part of management is creative work driven by new knowledge and
information. Information systems can play an important role in redirecting and
redesigning the organization.
It is important to note that managerial roles and decisions vary at different levels of the
organization. Senior management makes long range strategic decisions about products
and services
Middle managers carry out the programs and plans of senior management whilst
operational managers are responsible for monitoring the firm’s daily activities.
 
All levels of management are expected to be creative: to develop novel solutions to a
broad range of problems. Each level of management information needs and information
system requirements

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Technology

Information systems technology is one of many tools available to management for coping
with change.
A CBIS uses computer hardware, software, storage and telecommunication technologies;
 Computer hardware is the physical equipment used for input, processing, and
output activities in an information system.
 Computer software consists of the detailed programmed instructions that control
and coordinate the computer hardware in an information system
 Storage technology includes both physical media for storing data, such as
magnetic or optical disk or tape, and the software governing the organization of
data on these physical media.
 Communications technology consisting of both physical devices and software
links the various pieces of hardware and transfers data from one physical location
to another.
 Networks: Computers and communication equipment can be connected in
networks sharing voice, data, sound and even video. A network links two or
more computers to share data or resources such as a printer.

New Role of Information Systems in Organizations

Information systems cannot be ignored by managers because they play such an important
role in modern organizations.
Digital technology is transforming business organization and today’s systems directly
affect how managers decide mangers plan, how and in many cases what products and
services (and how).  They play a strategic role in the survival of the firm. This means that
responsibility for information can not be delegated to technical decision makers

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Widening Scope of Information Systems

There is a growing relationship between organizations and information. There is a

growing interdependence between business strategy, rules and procedures on one hand
and information systems software, hardware, databases and telecommunications.

This relationship becomes critical when management deals with the future. What a
business would like to do in 5 years is often dependent on what systems will be able to
do. Increasing market share, becoming the high quality or low cost producer, developing
new products and increasing employee productivity depend more and more on the kinds
and quality of information systems in the organization.

A second change in the relationship of information systems and organizations results

from the growing complexity and scope of system projects and applications.
Whereas early systems produced largely technical changes that affected few people,
contemporary systems bring about managerial changes (who has information about
whom, when and how often) and institutional ‘core’ changes (what products and services
are produced, under what conditions by whom.)

Network Revolutions and the Internet

One reason why systems play a larger role in organizations and why they affect more
people is the soaring power and declining cost of the computer technology that is the core
of information systems.
Computing power has improved vastly since the invention of microprocessors and
continues to double every 18 months and sophisticated processing can be done easily.
 
This soaring computing technology has spawned powerful communication networks that
organization can use to access vast information store houses around the world and
coordinate activities across space an time
 

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The world’s largest and most widely used network is the internet which is an
international network of networks that are both commercial and publicly owned

World Wide Web

 
The internet connects hundreds of thousands of different networks from hundreds of
countries.
The internet connects millions of people working in different disciplines like science,
education and business to exchange information or perform business transactions with
other organizations around the globe. 
The internet is extremely elastic. If networks are added or removed or failures occur in
parts of the system, the rest of the internet continues to operate.
 
The World Wide Web is a system with universally accepted standards for storing,
retrieving, formatting and displaying information in a networked environment.
Information is stored and displayed as electronic pages that can contain text, graphics,
animations, sound and video. The web pages can be linked electronically to other web
pages irrespective of their location. The web pages created by an organization or
individual are called a Web Site.
 
What Can You Do on The Internet?
 
 Communicate and collaborate- send electronic mail messages, transmit
documents and data
 Access Information-search for documents, databases, library catalogue, read
electronic brochures, manuals, books and advertisements.
 Participate in discussion- join interactive discussion groups, conduct voice
transmission.

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  Obtain Information- transfer computer files of text, computer programs,
graphics, animation or videos.
 Find Entertainment- Play interactive videos games, view short video clips, read
illustrated and even animated magazines.
 Exchange business transactions- advertise, sell and purchase goods and
services.

 New Options for Organizational Design

Information systems can become powerful tools making organizations more competitive
and efficient. Information technology can be used to redesign and reshape organizations,
transforming their structure, scope of operations, reporting and control mechanisms, work
practices, work flows, products and services. Some of the major organizational design
options that information technology has made available are;

1.      Flattening Organizations

Due to growth in IT, bureaucratic organizations that developed before the explosive IT
growth, have downsized, reducing the number of employees and the number of levels in
their organizational hierarchies
Flatter organizations have fewer levels of management with lower level employees being
given greater decision making authority.
Those employees are empowered to make more decisions than in the past and they no
longer work the standard 8 to 5 and they no longer necessarily work in the office.
Moreover, such employees may be scattered geographically, sometimes working half a
world away from the manager.
Modern information systems have made such things possible. They make more
information available to line employees so they can make decisions that previously had to
be done by managers.

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Networks have made it possible for employees to work as a team, another feature of
flatter organizations. Networks have widened managers’ span of control, allowing high
level managers to manage and control more workers over greater distances.

2.      Separating Work from Location- Virtual Organizations

It is now possible to organize globally while working locally. Information technologies

like e-mail, the internet, and video conferencing to the desktop permit tight coordination
of geographically dispersed workers across time zones and cultures.
Modern communications technology has eliminated distance as a factor for many types of
work in many situations.
Sales people can spend more time in the field with customers and yet have more up-to-
date information with them while carrying less paper work
Collaborative teamwork across thousands of miles has become reality as designers work
on the design of a new product together even if they are located on different continents
e.g. in the design of cars.

3.      Virtual Organizations

Companies are not limited to physical locations or their own organizational boundaries
for providing products and services.
Networked information systems are allowing companies to coordinate geographically
distributed capabilities and even coordinate with other organizations as virtual
corporations or virtual organizations- these are also called networked organizations.

Virtual organizations use networks to link people, assets and ideas, allying with suppliers
and customers (and sometimes competitors) to create and distribute products and services
without being limited by traditional organizational boundaries or physical location. One
company can take advantage of the capabilities of another company without actually
physically linking to that company.

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Each company contributes its core competencies, the capabilities that it does the best.
These networked virtual organizations last as long as the opportunity remains profitable.
For example one company might be responsible for product design, another for assembly
and manufacturing and another for administration and sales

4.      Increasing Flexibility of Organizations

Modern communications technology has enabled many organizations to organize more

flexible ways, increasing the ability of those organizations to respond to changes in the
market place and to take advantage of new opportunities. Information technology can
give both large and small organizations additional flexibility to overcome some
limitations posed by their size. IT can help small companies act ‘big’ and smaller
companies act ‘small’. Large organizations can use information technology to achieve
some of the agility and responsiveness of small firms.
In mass customization, software and computer networks are used to link the factory
floor tightly with orders, with orders, design and purchasing and to finely control
production machines. The result is a dynamically responsive environment in which
products can be turned out in greater variety and easily customized with no added cost for
small production runs.
In micromarketing, information systems can help companies to pinpoint tiny target
markets for finely customized products and services.

5.      Redefining Organizational Boundaries and Electronic Commerce

Networked information systems can enable transactions such as payments and purchases
to be exchanged electronically among different companies thereby reducing the cost of
obtaining products and services from outside the firm

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These networked information systems can create new efficiencies and new relationships
between an organization, its customers and suppliers thus redefining their organizational
boundaries and the way they contact business
An information system linking a company with its suppliers, customers or distributors are
called inter-organizational systems because they automate the flow of information
across organizational boundaries (Barrett, 1987). An example would be a system that
links a company to its suppliers.
Such systems allow information or processing capabilities of one organization to improve
the performance of another or to improve the relationships among organizations.
Inter-organizational systems that provide services to multiple organizations by linking
many buyers and sellers create an electronic market.
Buyers and sellers can complete purchase and sale agreements digitally regardless of
their location.
Electronic commerce is the process of buying and selling goods electronically by
consumers and from company to company through computerized business transactions.

6.      Reorganizing Work Flows

Information technology has seen a progressive replacement of manual work procedures

with automated work procedures, workflows and work processes. Improved workflow
management has enabled many corporations not only to cut costs significantly but also
improve customer services at the same time.
Redesigned work flows have impacted positively on organizational efficiency and can
even lead to new organizational structures, products and services.

7.      The Changing Management Process

Information technology is changing the process of management, providing powerful new

capabilities to help mangers strategize and plan, organize, lead and control.

26
For, instance it is now possible for mangers to obtain information on organizational
performance down to the level of specific transactions from just anywhere in the
organization at any time.
Due to increased information, the manger can precisely plan, forecast and control.
Networks allow the manger to communicate frequently with thousands of employees and
manage far-flung task forces and teams.

Managers must deal with new people issues because the changes brought about by
information technology definitely need a new kind of employee- an employee who is
highly trained than in the past.
High on this skill set is the ability to work in an electronic environment; the ability to
digest new information and knowledge, and act upon information; and the ability and
willingness to engage in lifelong learning process.

Key Management Challenges in Building Information Systems

Building, operating and maintaining information systems are challenging activities for a
number of reasons. Managers should heed five key challenges to building information
systems.
1. The strategic business challenge- How can business use information technology
to design organizations that are competitive and effective?
Investment in information technology constitutes a major annual expenditure for most
firms. However productivity of these IT expenditures is a challenge. Technical
change moves faster than humans and organizations. The power of computers and
software has grown much faster than the ability of organizations to apply and use
them. To stay competitive, many organizations need to be redesigned.
 
They will need to use IT to simplify communication and coordination, eliminate
unnecessary work and eliminate inefficiencies of outmode organizational structures.
If organizations merely automate what they are doing today, they largely miss the

27
 potential of IT. Organizations need to rethink and redesign the way they design,
produce, deliver and maintain goods and services

2. The Globalization Challenge- How can firms understand the business and
system requirements of global economic environment?

The rapid development in international trade and the emergence of a global economy
call for information systems that support producing and selling goods in many
countries. To develop integrated multinational information systems, businesses must
develop global hardware, software and communications standards that create cross-
cultural accounting and reporting structures.

3. The Information Architecture Challenge- how can business organizations

develop an information system architecture that supports the business goals?

New systems today often require redesigning the organization and developing new
information architecture. See the following sub-heading for more details on
information architecture.

4. Information Systems Investment challenge- how can organizations design the

business value of information systems? 
Investment in information systems is complicated and expensive. Management may
need to know the return in investment in information technology. Questions that may
need to be asked include [Is this an investment that pays, Are we receiving the kind
of return from our systems that we should be? Do our competitors get more? ]

5. Responsibility and Control Challenge- How can organizations design systems

that people can control and understand?
How can organizations ensure that their information systems are being used in an
ethically and socially responsible manner?

28
 Information systems are so essential to business, government and daily life that
organizations should take special steps to ensure that they are accurate, reliable and
secure.
The potential risk for massive fraud, error and abuse and destruction is extreme.
Information systems must be designed so that they function as intended and so that
humans can control them.
When building and using information systems, organizations should consider health,
safety, job security and social well-being carefully as they do their business goals.

Information Architecture/ IT Infrastructure

Information architecture is the particular form that information technology takes in an

organization to achieve selected goals or functions.
 Information architecture includes the extent to which data and processing power
are centralized or distributed
 Although the computer systems base is typically operated by technical staff,
general management must decide how to allocate the resources it has assigned to
hardware, software and telecommunications.
 Resting upon the computer systems base are the major business application
systems.
 Because managers and employees directly interact with these systems, it is critical
for the success of the organization that these systems meet business functional
requirements now and in the future.
 Typical information architecture questions facing today’s manager include :
Should the corporate sales data and function be distributed to each corporate
remote site or should they be centralized at headquarter? Should companies
purchase stand alone PCs or build a more powerful centralized server
environment within an integrated telecommunications network?

29
 Figure 4: Information Architecture

INFORMATION ARCHTECTURE OF THE ORGANISATION

  Coordination

Strategic Systems

Functional
Business
Applications Management
Systems

Knowledge
Systems

Operational
Systems

Sales and Manufacturing Finance Accounting Human

Marketing Resources

Computer Data Tele-

Systems Hardware Software Files communications
Base

Today's managers must know how to arrange and cordinate the various computer technologies and business system applications
to meet the information needs of each level of their organisation aswell as the needs of the organisation as a whole

Review Questions
 What do we mean by the information architecture of the organization?
Question and Answer

Identify the major management challenges to building and using information

systems in organisations

There are five key management challenges to building and using information systems;
1. Designing systems that are competitive and efficient.
2. Understanding the system requirements of a global business environment.
3. Creating information architecture that supports the organization’s goals
4. Determining the business value of information systems.
5. Designing systems that people can control, understand and use in a socially and
ethically responsible manner

30
Activity 1.1

 Distinguish between a computer, a computer program and an information

system. What is the difference between data and information?
 Explain the difference between computer literacy and information system
literacy
 Identify the major challenges to building and using information systems in
organizations.
 Why should managers study information systems?
 What is the relationship between the network revolution and electronic
commerce?

UNIT 2: KEY SYSTEM APPLICATIONS IN ORGANISATIONS

After completing this unit the student should be able to:

 Describe the role played by the six major types of information systems in
organizations
 Discuss the relationship between the various types of information systems
 Describe how information systems can be used to support the three levels of
strategy used in business.
 Explain why strategic information systems are difficult to build and sustain

Functional Classification of Information Systems

Because there are different interests, specializations and levels in organizations, there are
different kinds of information systems. No single system can provide all the information
organizations need.

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The organization is divided into strategic, management, knowledge and operational levels
and then is further divided into functional areas such as sales and marketing,
manufacturing, finance, accounting and human resources. Systems are built to serve these
different levels organizational interests.

Information systems can be classified by functional specialty or by the organizational

level they serve
Four main types of information systems serve different organizational levels:
1.      Operational Level Systems
2.      Knowledge Level Systems
3.      Management Level Systems
4.      Strategic Level Systems

OPERATIONAL LEVEL SYSTEMS

Operational level systems support help operational managers keep track of the firm’s day
to day transactions and activities. These transactions include sales, receipts, cash
deposits, payroll, credit decision and the flow of materials through the factory.
The principal purpose of systems at this level is to answer routine questions and to track
the flow of transactions through the organization.
To answer such kind of questions, information generally must be easily available, current
and accurate.
Examples of operational level systems include a system that records bank deposits from
ATMs or one that tracks the number worked each day by employees on the factory floor.
 
KNOWLEDGE-LEVEL SYSTEMS

Knowledge level systems support knowledge and data workers in an organization. The
purpose of knowledge-level systems is to help the business firm discover, organize and
integrate new knowledge into the business and to help the organization control the flow
of paper work (Dhar and Stein, 1997).

32
Knowledge-level systems especially in the form of work stations and office systems are
the fastest-growing applications in business today.

MANAGEMENT LEVEL SYSTEMS

These are designed to serve the monitoring, controlling, decision-making and

administrative activities of middle managers.
The systems serve to answer the question: Are things working well? Management-level
information systems typically provide periodic reports rather than instant information on
operations.
Some management information systems support non-routine decision making and tend to
focus on less structured decisions for which information requirements are not always
clear. These systems answer “What if?” questions. Answers to these questions frequently
require new data from outside the organization as well as data from inside that cannot be
drawn from existing operational level systems

STRATEGIC LEVEL SYSTEMS

Help senior management tackle and address strategic issues and long-term trends both in
the firm and in the external environment.
Their primary concern is to match changes in the external environment with existing
organizational capability. Strategic-level information systems help to answer questions
like: what will employment levels be in 5 years? What are long tern industry cost trends
and where does the firm fit in it? Or what products will we be making in 5 years?

FUNCTIONAL SYSTEMS

Information systems may also be differentiated by functional specialty. Major

organizational functions such as sales and marketing, manufacturing, finance, accounting,
and human resources are each served by their own information systems.

33
In large organizations, sub-functions of each of these major functions also have their own
information systems.
For example, the manufacturing function may have systems for stock management,
process control, plant maintenance, computer-aided engineering and material
requirements planning’
A typical organization has operational-, management-, knowledge-, and strategic level
systems for each functional area.
For example, the sales function generally has a sales system on the operational level to
record daily sales figures and to process orders.
A knowledge- level system designs promotional displays for firm’s products.
A management-level system tracks monthly sales figures by sales region and exception
reports on territories where sales exceed or fall below target.
 

A system to forecast sales trends over a 5 year period serves the strategic level.
There is no such thing as a universal information system that can fit all organizations.
Every organization does the job does the job somewhat differently.
Major Types of Systems

Specific types of information systems correspond to each organizational level and include
a. Executive Support systems (ESS) at the strategic level;
b. Management Information Systems (MIS) and Decision Support Systems (DSS) at
management level
c. Knowledge Work Systems (KWS) and Office Automation Systems (OAS) at
knowledge level
d. Transaction processing Systems (TPS) at the operational level.
Systems at each level are in turn are specialized to serve each of the major functional
areas 

34
 Figure 2.1 Six Major Types of Systems

TYPES OF SYSTEMS Strategic Level Systems

5-year 5-year 5-year Profit Manpower
Executive sales trend operating bugdet Planning Planning
Support Systems (ESS) forecasting plan forecasting

Management Level Systems

Mangement Information Sales Stock Annual Capital Investment Relocation
Systems (MIS) Management Control Budgeting Analysis Analysis

Decision Support Sales Region Production Cost Pricing/profitability Contract cost

Systems (DSS) Analysis Scheduling Anslysis analysis analysis

Knowledge-Level Systems
Knowledge Enginnering Graphics Managerial
Work Systems (KWS) workstations Workstations Workstations

Office Word Image Electronic

Automation Systems (OAS) Processing Storage Calenders

Operational-Level Systems
Machine control Securities trading Payroll Compensation
Transaction
Processing Systems Order tracking Plant scheduling Accounts payable Training & development
(TPS) Accounts receivable
Order processing Material movement control Cash management Employee record keeping
Sales and Manufacturing Finance Accounting Human Resources
Marketing

Table 2.1 Main Characteristics of Information Processing Systems

Types of System Information Inputs Processing Information Outputs Users

ESS Aggregate data; External and Graphics, Simulations; Projections; responses to Senior Managers
Internal interactive queries

DSS Low volume data or massive Interactive; simulations Specail reports; decesion Middle Managers
databases optimised for analysis analysis; responses to queries
data analysis
MIS Summary transaction data; Routine reports;simple Summary and exception Middle managers
high volume data; simple methods models; low level analysis reports

KWS Design specifications; knowledge Modelling Simulations Models; Graphics Proffessionals

base Technical staff

OAS Documents; schedules Document management; Documents; schedules; mail Clerical workers
scheduling; communication

TPS Transaction; Events Sorting; listing; merging; Detailed reports;lists; summaries Operations personnel;
updating Supervisors

35
Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

TPS are the basic business systems that serve the operational level of the organization. A
TPS is a computerized system that performs and records daily, routine transactions
necessary to conduct business e.g. sales order entry, hotel reservation systems, payroll,
employee record keeping and shipping.
There are 5 basic functional categories of TPS and these include; sales/marketing,
manufacturing/production; finance/accounting; human resources and other types of TPS
that are unique to a particular industry.

Knowledge Work (KWS) and Office Automation Systems (OAS0

Both KWS and OAS serve the information needs at the knowledge level of the
organization. KWS aid knowledge workers whereas OAS primarily aid workers although
they are also used extensively by knowledge workers.
In general knowledge workers are people who hold formal university degrees and who
are often members of a recognized profession such as engineers, doctors, lawyers and
scientists. Their jobs consist primarily of creating new information and knowledge.
A KWS such as an engineering or scientific workstation promotes the creation of new
knowledge and ensures that new knowledge and technical expertise are properly
integrated into the business.
An OAS is an information technology application designed to increase the productivity of
data workers in the office by supporting the coordinating and communicating activities of
the typical office.
Data workers usually have less formal, advanced educational degrees and tend to process
rather than create information. They consist primarily of secretaries, accountants, filing
clerks or managers whose jobs are principally to use, manipulate and disseminate
information.
OAS coordinates diverse information workers, geographic units and functional areas. The
systems communicate with customers, suppliers and other organizations outside the firm
and serve as a clearing house for information and knowledge flows.

36
OFFICE AUTOMATION SYSTEMS

Typical OAS handles and manages documents (through word processing, desktop
publishing, and digital filing) and communication (through e-mail, voice mail or video
conferencing).
Word processing refers to software and hardware that creates, edits, formats, stores and
prints documents.
Document imaging systems convert documents and images into digital form so that they
can be stored and accessed by a computer.

Management Information Systems

MIS serve the management level of the organization, providing managers with reports
and in some cases, with on-line access to the organization's current performance and
historical records.
These systems are typically oriented almost exclusively to internal, not environmental or
external events. MIS primarily serve the functions of planning, controlling and decision
making at management level.
These systems generally depend on the underlying transaction processing systems for
their data.
MIS summarize and report on the basic operations of the company. The basic
transactions data from TPS are compressed and presented in long reports that are
produced on a regular schedule.
MIS usually serve managers that are interested in weekly, monthly and yearly results- not
day-to-day activities and usually address structured questions.

37
Characteristics of Management Information Systems

1.      They support structured and semi-structured decisions at the operational and
management control levels
2.      They are generally reporting and control oriented. They are designed to report on
existing operations and therefore to help provide day to day control of operations
3.      They rely on existing corporate data and data flows
4.      They have little analytic capability
5.      They generally aid in decision making using past and present data
6.      They are relatively inflexible
7.      They have an internal rather than external orientation
8.      The information requirements are known and stable
9.   They often require a lengthy analysis and design process

Decision Support Systems

These also serve management level of the organization. DSS help managers make
decisions that are semi-structured, unique or rapidly changing and not easily specified in
advance. 
DSS have to be responsive enough to run several times a day in order to correspond to
changing conditions. Although DSS use internal information from TPS and MIS, they
often bring information from external sources such as current stock prices, or
competitors’ prices. 
By design DSS have more analytical power than other systems; they are built with a
variety of models to analyze data or they condense large amounts of data into a form
where they can be analyzed by decision makers.
DSS are designed so that users can work with them directly; these systems explicitly
include user-friendly software. DSS are interactive; the user can change assumptions, as
new questions and include new data.

38
Characteristics of Decision Support Systems

1.      They offer users flexibility, adaptability and a quick response

2.      They allow users to initiate and control the input and output
3.      They operate with little or no assistance from professional programmers
4.      They provide support for decisions and problems whose solutions cannot be specified
in advance
5.      They use sophisticated data analysis and modeling tools.

Executive Support Systems

Senior managers use a category of information systems called executive support systems
(ESS) to make decisions.
ESSs address unstructured decisions and create generalized computing and
communications environment rather than providing any fixed application or specific
capability. ESSs are designed to incorporate data about external events (such as the
budget & monetary policy announcements) but they also draw summarized information
from internal MIS and DSS.

These systems filter, compress and track critical data emphasizing the reduction of time
and effort required to obtain information useful to executives.
ESSs employ the most advanced graphics software and can deliver graphs and data from
many sources immediately to a senior executive's office. or to the boardroom. Unlike
other types of information systems, ESSs are not designed primarily to solve specific
problems.
Instead ESS provide generalized computing and communications capacity that can be
applied to a changing array problems
ESS can assist in answering questions like what business should we be in? What are
competitors doing? Which units should we sell to raise cash for new acquisitions? e.t.c

39
Relationships of Systems to One Another: Integration
The various types of systems in the organization do not work independently; rather, there
are interdependencies between systems.
A TPS is a major producer of information that is required by other systems which in turn
produce information for other systems. These different types of systems are only loosely
coupled in most organizations 

Figure 2.2: Interrelationships among Systems

  Figure 3: Relationships of Systems to One Another- Intergration

Executive
Support
systems
(ESS)

Management Management
systems systems
(MIS) (DSS)

Knowledge Transaction
Systems processing
(KWS) and systems
OAS) (TPS)

The various types of of systems in the organisation do not work independently

Rather there are intedependencies between the sysytems. A TPS is a major producer
of information that is requiredby the other sysytems, which in turn produce information
for other sysytems . These different types of sysytems are only losely coupled in most
organisations

40
UNIT 3: THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
 
Information systems have become critical in supporting organizational goals and for
enabling firms to stay ahead of competition.
Information systems can also create competitive advantage by helping firms market
products more accurately, reduce internal operating costs and forge new relationships
with customers and suppliers.
Information systems can create competitive advantage by providing superior service that
can not be matched by competitors.

Learning Objectives
 Define a strategic information systems and explain why information is now
considered a strategic resource
 Explain how information systems can be used for competitive advantage in
an organizations

How to Use Information Systems as a Strategic Tool

There are many ways firms can view and use information technology. Companies may
choose to use information systems strategically or they may be content to use IT to
support efficient everyday operations. If the company emphasizes strategic business uses
of information technology, its management should view IT as a major competitive
differentiator.
 It would then device business strategies that would use IT to develop products, services
and capabilities that would give the company major advantages in the markets in which it
competes.
Information systems have become critical in supporting organizational goals and for
enabling firms to stay ahead of competition.
The strategic role of information systems involves using information technology to
develop products, services and capabilities that give a company major advantages over

41
the competitive forces it faces in the global work place. Information systems can create
competitive advantage by providing superior service that can not be matched by
competitors
Challenges of Competitive Edge Offered by MIS

(a) Sustainability of Competitive Advantages

The competitive advantages conferred by information technology do not necessarily last

long enough to ensure long term profits
Managers need to discover ways of maintaining a competitive edge over many years.
Competitors can retaliate and copy strategic systems. These systems are often expensive;
costs saved by some systems are expended immediately to maintain the system.

Competitive advantage is not always sustainable because market conditions, the business
and economic environment may change. Also technology and customers’ expectations
may change.
Systems originally intended to be strategic frequently become tools for survival,
something every firm has in order to stay in business. Rather than conferring long term
competitive advantage, they become critical for a company to keep abreast of the
competition.
b) Organizational Barriers to Strategic Transition

Implementing strategic systems usually requires far-reaching socio-technical changes.

These socio-technical changes are the real key for sustained advantage.
But this goal is not easy to accomplish because organizational change is frequently
resisted by middle and even senior managers.
In fact one of the greatest obstacles to strategic transitions may be resistance to change-
both the changes that are imposed on the organization and those that employees
experience as their jobs are reshaped.

42
To be successful, strategic transitions require changes in organizational culture. Inter-
organizational systems may also be resisted if one organization perceives that it will be
worse off by closer coordination with another organization (Clemons and Row, 1993)

WHAT IS A STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM?

A strategic information system can be any kind of information system (TPS, MIS, DSS,
ESS, KWS or OAS) that helps an organization gain a competitive advantage, reduce
competitive disadvantage or meet other strategic objectives.
 
How Information Systems can be used for Competitive Advantage

Behind the growing strategic uses of information systems is a changing conception of the
role of information in organizations. Firms use information technology at three levels of
strategy: the firm, the business and industry. There generally is no single all-
encompassing strategic information system but instead a number of systems operating at
different levels.
For each level of business strategy, there are strategic uses of systems. And for each level
of business strategy, there is an appropriate model for an analysis

There are many ways firms can view and use information technology. Companies may
choose to use information systems strategically or they may be content to use IT to
support efficient everyday operations.
If the company emphasizes strategic business uses of information technology, its
management should view IT as a major competitive differentiator. It would then device
business strategies that would use IT to develop products, services and capabilities that
would give the company major advantages in the markets in which it competes.

Strategic information systems change the goals, business processes, products, services or
environmental relationships of organizations to help them gain an edge over competitors.
Systems that have these effects may even change the business organization. Strategic

43
information systems often change an organization as well as its products, services, and
internal processes, driving the organization into new behavior patterns.

Organizations may need to change their internal operations to take advantage of new
information systems technology. Such changes often require new managers, a new
workforce and a much closer relationship with customers and suppliers

Competitive Strategy Concepts: How Should a Manager Think About Competitive

Strategies? 

Competitive Forces in Industry

 
A firm can survive and succeed in the long run if it successfully develops strategies to
confront five competitive forces that shape the structure of competition in its industry.
These are;
1.      Rivalry of competitors in its industry
2.      Threat of new entrants
3.      Threats of substitutes
4.      The bargaining power of customers
5.      The bargaining power of suppliers

Basic Competitive Strategies

Business can counter the above threats of competitive forces by implementing five basic
competitive strategies. Information technology can play a very important role in all these
strategies.
1.      Cost leadership strategy- becoming a low cost producer of products and services. A
firm can also find ways to help its suppliers to reduce their costs or to increase costs
of their competitors
2.      Differentiation Strategy- developing ways to differentiate a firm’s products from its
competitors’ or reduce the differentiation advantages of competitors. This may allow

44
 a firm to focus its products or services to give it advantage in particular segments or
market niches.
3.      Innovation Strategy- finding new ways of doing business which may involve the
development of unique products and services or entry into unique markets or market
niches. It may involve radical changes to business processes for distributing products
and services that are so different from a way business has been done before that they
may alter the structure of an industry.
4.      Growth Strategies- significantly expanding a company’s capacity to produce goods
and services, expanding into global markets, diversifying into new products or
integrating into related products and services
5.      Alliance Strategies- establishing new business linkages and alliances with
customers, suppliers, competitors, consultants and other companies. These linkages
may include mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, virtual companies, or other
marketing, manufacturing or distribution agreements between a business and its
trading partners

 Figure 3.3: Competitive Forces and Strategy

Framework for Understanding and Applying Competitive Strategies

In addition to the above five basic strategies, there are other several strategies that can be
implemented with IT;
1.      Lock in customers and suppliers (lockout competitors) - by building valuable
relationships with them. These deter customers and suppliers from abandoning a firm
for its competitors or intimating the firm into accepting less profitable relationships.
2.      Switching costs- SIS build switching costs into relationships between a firm and its
suppliers. They make the other party dependent on the continued use of innovative,
mutually beneficial inter-company information systems. The other party becomes
reluctant to pay the costs in money, time, effort and inconvenience that it would take
to change to competitors

45
 3.      Barriers to entry- by making investments in IT to improve its operations or promote
innovation, a firm could erect barriers of entry that would discourage or delay other
companies from entering the market.
4.      Leveraging investment in IT by developing new products and services that would
not be possible without IT e.g. intranets and extranets,

Strategy Levels and Information Technology

Strategies
Figure 3.1 ModelsTechnology.
Strategic Levels and Information IT Techniques

Industry Co-operation vs Competition Competitive forces Electronic transactions

Licensing Network economies Communications networks
Standards Interorganisational systems
Information partnerships

Firm Synery Core competency Knowledge systems

Core competencies Organisation-wide systems

Business Low cost Value chain analysis Data mining

Differentiation IT-based production/services
Scope Interorganisational systems
Supply chain management
Efficient customer response

BUSINESS LEVEL STRATEGIES

At the business level, the key question is “How can we compete effectively in this
particular market?”
The most generic strategies at this level are (1) become a low cost producer, (2)
differentiate your product or service and/or (3) change the scope of the competition by
either enlarging the markets or narrowing the market by focusing on small niches not
well served by your competitors.

46
By moving towards global markets, the firm can achieve economies of scale and by
focusing on niche markets, the firm can generate high margin products and services
available nowhere else.

Business Level Strategy: Leveraging Technology in the Value Chain

At the business level, the value chain model highlights specific activities in the business
where competitive strategies can be identified can be applied (Porter, 1985) and where
information systems are most likely to have a strategic impact.
The value chain model identifies specific critical leverage points where a firm can use
information technology most effectively to enhance its competitive position.
The model views the firm as a series or chain of primary and support activities that add a
margin of value to a firm’s products and services. An information system could have
strategic impact if it helped the firm provide products and services at a lower cost than
competitors or if it provided products at the same cost as competitors but with greater
value.
Businesses should try to develop strategic information system for the value activities that
add the most value to their particular firm.
The role of information technology at business level is to help the firm reduce costs,
differentiate products and serve new markets.
Business Level Strategy: Information Products and Services
Firms can use information to create unique new products that can easily distinguish from
those of competitors.
Strategic information systems for differentiation can prevent the competition from
responding in kind so that firms with differentiated products and services no longer have
to compete on the basis of cost.
Many of these information technology-based products have been created by financial
institutions.
 

47
Figure 3.1 New Products and Services Based on Information Technology

New Products and Services Based on Information Technology

New Product of Service Underlying Technology

On-Line Banking Private comunication networks; internet

Business Level Strategy: Systems to Focus on Market Niche
Cash Management accounts Corporate-wide customer account systems

Derivative investments (options, futures, Management and trader work stations;

complex variations) mainframe transaction systems

Global and national airline; hotel World-wide telecommunications- based

and auto reservation systems reservation systems

Fedex and other overnight package Nationawide package tracking systems

delivery
Mail-order retailing Corporate customer databases

Voice mail systems (call services) Company- and network-wide digital

communication systems

Automatic teller machines Customer account systems

Micro-customised clothing Computer-aided design and manufacturing

(CAD/CAM) systems

Business can create new market niches by identifying a specific target for a product or
service that it can serve in a superior manner. Through focused differentiation, the firm
can provide a specialized product or service for this narrow target market better than
competitors.
An information system can give companies a competitive advantage by producing data
for such finely tuned sales and marketing techniques. Such systems treat existing
information as a resource that can be ‘mined’ by organizations to increase profitability
and market penetration.
Information systems enable companies to finely analyze customer buying patterns, tastes
and preferences so that they efficiently pitch advertising and marketing campaigns to

48
smaller and smaller target markets. Sophisticated data mining software tools find patterns
and infer rules from them.
These patterns and rules can be used to guide decision making and forecast the effect of
those decisions.
Data mining is both a powerful and profitable tool but it poses challenges to the
protection of individual privacy.

Business Level Strategy: Supply Chain Management and Efficient Customer

Response Systems
Many firms use IT to eliminate or greatly reduce inventory. A ‘continuous replenishment
system’ triggered by point of sale purchases sends orders to suppliers as soon as
consumers pay for their purchases at the cash register.
Supply chain management integrates the supplier, distributor, and customer logistics
requirements into one process.
The supply chain is a collection of physical entities such as manufacturing plants,
distribution centers, conveyances, retail outlets, people, and information which are linked
through processes such as procurement or logistics to supply goods or services from
source through to consumption.
Supply chain management can be used to create efficient customer response systems that
respond to customer demands more efficiently.
The convenience and ease of using these information systems raise switching costs (the
cost of moving from one product to a competing product), discouraging customers from
going to competitors.
Figure 3.1 Business Level Strategies
Business-Level Strategy

Vendors Customers

The Business Firm

Supply Chain Management Intra Firm Strategy Effient Customer response

Stockless inventory Product Differentiation Point-of-sale systems

Continuous replenishment
Jut-in-time delivery
(IT Products)
49
Focused Differentiation
Data mining

(Data mining)
Low cost producer
FIRM LEVEL STRATEGY AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS

A business firm is a collection of firms and is normally organized financially as a

collection of strategic business units. At the firm level management have certain
questions that information systems can help answer and some of these questions are;
 How can the overall performance of these business units are achieved?
 How can information technology contribute to this performance?”

One use of IT is to help build synergies and tie together operations of disparate business
units so that they can act as a whole.

Enhancing Core Competencies

A core competency is an activity at which the firm is a world class leader

Any system that encourages the sharing of knowledge across business units enhances
competency. Such systems may encourage or enhance existing competencies and help
employees become aware of new external knowledge; such systems also help business
leverage existing competencies to related markets.
Data mining can be seen as a knowledge generator- it helps a firm know its customers in
a unique way. Data mining is therefore a competence enhance at the firm level as well as
at business level.

INDUSTRY LEVEL STRATEGY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The key strategic question at this level of analysis is “how and when should we compete
as opposed to cooperate with others in the industry?’. Firms can form information
partnerships and even link their information systems to achieve unique strategies

An information partnership is a cooperative alliance formed by two companies for the

purpose of sharing information to gain strategic advantage. In an information partnership,
both companies can join without actually merging.

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Such partnerships help firms help firms gain access to new customers, creating new
opportunities for cross selling and targeting products. At industry level, two analytic tools
are used: Porter’s Competitive Forces Model and Network Economics.
The Competitive Forces Model
In the competitive forces model, a firm faces a number a number of external threats and
opportunities: threats of new entrants into its market, the pressure from substitutes, the
bargaining power of customers, the bargaining power of suppliers and the positioning of
traditional industry competitors.
Competitive advantage can be achieved by enhancing the firm’s ability to deal with
customers, suppliers, substitutes, and new entrants to its market which in turn may
change the balance of power between a firm and other competitors in the industry in
firm’s favor. How can information systems be used to achieve strategic advantage at the
industry level?
By working with other firms, industry participants can use information technology to
develop industry wide standards for exchanging information or business transactions
electronically which will force all industry participants to subscribe to similar standards.

This will increase industry efficiency- making substitute products less possible and
perhaps raising entry costs thus discouraging new entrants. Also industry may build
industry wide IT supported communication networks to coordinate activities vis-a-vis
government agencies, foreign competitors and competing industries.
 Figure 3.2 Porter's Competitive Forces Model

New market Substitute products

entrants and services

Traditional
The Firm
competitors

Suppliers Customers

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UNIT 4: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONS AND INFORMATION
SYSTEMS
This lesson explores the complex relationship between organizations and information
systems. The goal is to introduce the student to the salient features of organizations that
he/she needs to know when he envisions, designs, build and operate information systems.
We will then examine how information systems affect information and how organizations
affect information

Lesson Objectives

 Explain the changing role of information systems within organizations

 Discuss the impact of information systems on organizational structure, culture,
political processes and management.
 Describe organizational implications for the design and implementation of
systems
Organizations and Information Systems- Challenges
The creation and use of information raises the following challenges;

1.      The difficulties in managing change

2.      Fitting technology to the organization (or vice-versa)
3.      Understanding the limits of information technology.
4.      Exactly what can information systems do for organizations?

The relationship between information and organizations is complex. There are many
mediating factors that influence the interaction information technology and organizations.
These include the organization's structure, SOPs, politics, culture, environment and
management decisions (Orlikowski, 1992)

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Managers after all, decide what systems are to be built, what systems will do and how
they will be implemented. To a large extent, managers and organizations choose the
‘computer impacts’ they want (or at least receive the impacts they deserve)
Because there are many types of organizations, it stands to reason that the technology of
information systems will have different impact on different types of organizations i.e.
there is no singular effect of computers.

How Organizations Affect Information Systems

Organizations have an impact on information systems through the decisions made by

managers and employees. Managers decide who will build and operate systems; they also
use information technology.
Managers decide who will build and operate the systems and ultimately managers
provide the rationale for building systems.

There are four important questions to consider in studying this issue;

1. How have organizations actually used information systems?
2. How has the organizational role of information systems changed?
3. Who operates information systems?
4. Why do organizations adopt information systems in the first place?

Decisions about the Role of Information Systems

Organizations have a direct impact on information technology by making decisions about

how the technology will be used and what role it will play in the organizations.
Supporting this changing role have been changes in the technical and organizational
configuration of systems that have computing power much closer to the ultimate end
users.
Some organizations are now critically dependent on systems and could not survive even
an occasional breakdown
Figure 4.1

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Who Delivers Information Technology Services?

Another way in which organizations affect information systems is through decisions

about who will design, build and operate the technology within the organization.
Managers make key decisions about the computer package and these decisions
determine how technology services will be delivered and by whom, how and when.
The computer package is composed of three distinct entities;

a. An Information systems department- its size depends on the role of IS in the

organization and on the size of the organization.
b. Information system specialists- include programmers, systems analysts, project
leaders and information system managers.
c. Technology- hardware and software.
The size of the information systems group and the total expenditures on computers are
largest in service organizations (especially those that sell information products), where
information systems can consume more than 40% of gross revenues.

Decisions about Why Information Systems Are Built

Managers provide the public and private rationales for building information systems. The
impact of computers in any organization depends in part on how managers make
decisions.
Systems are built to increase efficiency and save money but they become essential for
staying in business. Improvements in decision making (speed , accuracy and
comprehensiveness), serving even higher customer and client expectations, coordinating
dispersed groups in an organization, complying with government reporting regulations
and exercising tighter control over personnel and expenditures, have become important
reasons for building systems. Reasons why organizations adopt information systems can

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be divided into two groups: external environmental factors and internal institutional
factors.

Environmental and Institutional factors Influencing Information Systems

External Environmental Factors

 Rising costs of labor and other resources

 The competitive actions of other organizations
 Change in government regulations

Internal Institutional Factors

 Values
 Norms
 Interests that govern matters of strategic importance to the organizations

How Information Systems Affect Organizations

1.      Information technology can help firms lower costs of market participation
(transaction costs), making it worthwhile to contract with external suppliers instead of
using internal sources of supply.
2.      Information technology, by reducing the costs of acquiring and analyzing information
permits the organization to reduce overall management costs and allow them to grow
revenues while shrinking the numbers of middle management and clerical workers.
3.      Information technology can bring information directly from the operating units to
senior management through networked computers and communications.
4.      Alternatively IT could distribute could distribute information to lower level workers
who could the make their own decisions based on their knowledge without
management intervention.

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5.      Information technology may flatten the organizational hierarchy and tend to
decentralize authority.

Other IT Impacts and Considerations

 Cultural theory argues that information technology must fit into the organization's
culture or is unlikely to be adopted. Information can either threaten or support
organizational culture.
 Resistance, denial and efforts to redefine the reality always follow in most
organizations. On the other hand, information can supportive of organizational
cultures
 Political theory describes information systems as the outcome of political
competition between organizational subgroups for influence over policies,
procedures and resources of the organization (Laudon,1986). Information systems
inevitably become bound up in the politics organizations because they influence
access to key resource- information.
 Information systems can affect who does what to whom, when, where and how in
an organization.
 The World Wide Web alters accessibility, storage, and distribution of
information and knowledge for organizations. Because information and
knowledge can be powerful determinants of organizational structure and
activities.

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web has the following capabilities;

1.      It enlarges the potential to access information for all market and organizational
participants; nearly all information can be available anywhere.

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2.      It enlarges the scope, depth and range of information and knowledge storage; with so
many contributors to what constitutes a global encyclopedia, just about any extant
knowledge or information is available.
3.      It lowers the cost and raises the quality of information, knowledge; business
interactive multimedia applications on the Web enhance the attention of vendors,
customers and employees.
Organizational Resistance to Change

Because information systems potentially change an organization's structure, culture,

politics and work, there is often considerable resistance to them when they are
introduced.
Changes in technology are absorbed, deflected, and defeated by organizational task
arrangements, structures and people.
In this model, the only way to bring about change is to change the technology, tasks,
structure and people simultaneously. Organizational resistance causes many systems
failures.
 
Implications for Design and Understanding of Information Systems

The significance of this lesson is that you should not take a narrow view of organizations
and their relationship to information systems.
Neither should you believe that technology will do the job for you-whatever that job is.
For the information systems to work properly, you will have to mange the process
actively, adjust the technology to the situation and accept responsibility for success as
well as failure.
 
Information systems are providing new ways of organizing work. Unless organizations
explore these new techniques, they will be quickly overwhelmed by new start-up
organizations that do understand the new technologies.

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Organizations should specifically examine how organizational structure can be
simplified, made less hierarchical and rely more on teamwork and taskforces rather than
on permanent organizational departments.
A major contribution of information technology has been on organizational and business
processes, on how things get done. Managers will have to invent new techniques that
utilize the Internet and other network technologies to lead, coordinate, plan and control
the organization.
Information technology changes far more rapidly than organizations and for this reason,
IT is often a destroyer of organization competence. Yet information technology offers
managers the opportunities for organizational survival and prosperity.
Managers have to keep a keen eye on changes in IT to avoid losing organizational
competencies and to exploit the opportunities provided by new technology.
 

Practice Questions
1. Name 3 elements in the computer package. How has the role of each changed
over time?
2. Describe two factors that explain why organizations adopt information systems.
3. Why is there considerable organizational resistance to the introduction of
information systems?
4. How do organizations affect information systems and how do information
systems affect organizations?
5. Discuss the impact of information systems on organizational structure, culture,
political processes and organizations.

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TECHNICAL FOUNDATIONS OF INFORMATION
SYSTEMS

UNIT FIVE

TECHNICAL FOUNDATIONS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

To understand how computers process data into information, you need to understand the
components of a computer system how computers work. No matter what their size,
computers represent and process data using the same basic principles.
Selecting the appropriate computer hardware raises the following management
challenges:
1.      Keeping abreast with technological change
2.      Making wise purchasing decisions
3.      Training the information systems staff

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Learning Objectives

 Identify the hardware components in a typical computer system

 Describe how information is represented and processed in a computer system
 Describe the various types of computers
 Describe the various media for storing data and programs in a computer
system
 Compare major input and output devices and approaches to input and
processing
 Describe multimedia, network computers and future information technology
trends.

What is a Computer System?

To understand how computers process data into information, you need to understand the
components of a computer system and how computers work. It is important to note that,
no matter what their size, computers represent and process data using the same basic
principles.

System Configuration

A computer system consists of;

 Central processing unit (CPU)
 Memory (primary storage and secondary storage)
 Input devices
 Output devices
 Communication devices

 Figure 4.1 Computer System

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Hardware

Hardware refers to the physical components of a computer and consists any machinery
(most of which uses digital circuitry) that assists in the input, processing, storage and
output activities of an information system. These are the parts that you can see, feel and
hear. Examples are the Central Processing Unit (CPU), the keyboard, the monitor,
memory, cables, mouse, printer and power supply.
The CPU manipulates raw data into a more useful form and controls the other parts of the
computer system.
Primary storage temporarily stores data and program instructions during processing,
while secondary storage devices (magnetic and optical discs, magnetic tape) store data
and programs when they are not being used in processing.
Input devices, such as the keyboard or mouse, convert data and instructions into
electronic form for input into the computer.
Output devices, such as printers and video display terminals, convert electronic data
produced by the computer system and display it in the form people can understand.
Communication devices provide connections between the computer and communication
networks. Buses are paths for transmitting data and signals between the various parts of
the computer.
Hardware Considerations

Selecting and Upgrading Computer Systems

When making hardware decisions, the overriding considerations of a business should be

how hardware can support the objectives of the information system and goals of the
organization. To assemble an effective and efficient system, you should select and
organize components while understanding the tradeoffs between overall system
performance and cost, control and complexity.

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People involved in selecting the organization’s computer hardware must cleraly
understand the current and future business requirements so that can make informed
acquisition decisions.
Choosing the right computer hardware requires understanding its relationship to the
information system and needs of the organization.
Hardware objectives are subordinate to, but supportive of, information system and the
current and future needs of the organization.

Computers are often upgraded by installing additional memory, faster processors, more
hard disk storage or various input and output devices to support new or changing business
needs.
Organizations may need to replace or upgrade their technology when it no longer meets
their needs.
Many organizations set internal computer standards by selecting specific computer
configurations from a small set of manufacturers. The goal is to reduce hardware support
costs and increase the organization’s flexibility.

Software

Software refers to the programs that control the computer hardware and make it function.
A program is a set or sequence of instructions that the computer obeys. Computer
programs can be extremely long and complex sets of instructions. It is quite common for
computer programs to be tens of thousands of lines long. The application programs that
you use on your PC for word processing and spreadsheets are in fact even longer.

Information Technology

Information Technology is a broad term which covers all aspects of the use of computer
technology. It includes not only hardware and software, but also communication
technology applied to linking computer systems, software engineering, and the
administration and use of computer systems.

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Categories of Computers
In the early days of computer technology, it was easy to categorize computers. Today,
even the basic desktop machines are extremely powerful by the standards of a few years
ago and rival the early mainframes in computing power. 

Mainframes and Supercomputers

A mainframe is a large, powerful computer shared by dozens or even hundreds of

concurrent users connected to the machine over a network. These are the largest and most
powerful of computers. The biggest and fastest of these are sometimes called
supercomputers. Mainframes are usually only found in large corporate institutions,
research organizations, military, government ministries and tertiary academic institutions
in which computers must handle massive amounts of data or many complicated
processes.
A mainframe must reside in a data center with secure and restricted access and with
special heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment to control
temperature, humidity and dust levels
They provide centralized processing and storage of data. They are usually used for large
database systems such as the accounts of municipalities, patient information at a large
hospital or student records at a university.
The role of the mainframe is undergoing some remarkable changes as lower-cost, single
user computers becoming increasingly powerful. Many computer jobs that used to run on
mainframes have migrated onto these smaller less expensive computers. This information
processing migration is called ‘computer downsizing’

The new role of mainframe is as a large information-processing and data storage utility
for an organization- running jobs too large for other computers, storing files and
databases too large to be stored elsewhere and storing backups of files databases created
elsewhere.
Supercomputers are the most powerful computers with the fastest processing speed and
highest performance. They are special purpose machines designed for applications that

63
require extensive and rapid computational capabilities like in scientific and military work
but they are also now being used in business for commercial purposes.
Because desktop (personal computers) and laptops are relatively cheap, many activities
such as word processing, creation of spreadsheets and general office tasks are carried out
using these types of computers. This frees the mainframe for processing large databases.

Networking, in which computers are connected together and are able to communicate,
allows data to be downloaded from the mainframe to the personal computer or be
uploaded from the personal computer to the mainframe. In effect, networking creates one
large system comprising all the different computers linked together.

Capacity and speed: Mainframes have the largest capacity in terms of data storage and
processing speed. The capacity of a modern mainframe can be hundreds or even
thousands of times that of a modern personal computer.
Cost: Mainframes are also the most expensive machines in terms of both initial cost and
maintenance. A mainframe can cost millions of dollars.
Typical Users: Because the mainframe provides services to all sectors of a large
corporation or institution, users can include systems analysts, programmers, database
administrators, data capturers, accountants, accounts administrators.

A mini computer is amid-range computer, about the size of an office desk, often used in
universities, factories or research laboratories.

Network computer

Network computers are also sometimes known as thin clients or dumb terminals.
They provide access to a mainframe via a network and have little, if any, computing
capacity of their own. Network computers provide remote access to a mainframe. They
allow the user to input data or commands and receive output. The actual processing
would be done on the mainframe.

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Capacity and speed: Network computers do not have any processing capacity of their
own. Their speed will depend on (i) the speed and capacity of the mainframe; (ii) the
speed of the network to which they are attached and (iii) the number of users accessing
the mainframe. Thus in periods of low demand, they will appear to function very quickly
but would appear to slow down when the demand on the system is high.

Cost: Network computers are relatively simple devices, hence they are fairly cheap.
Typical users: These would generally be the end-users of the system such as managers,
accountants, receptionists, and accounts clerks and data capturers.

Personal/Desktop Computers

Personal computers or PCs for short are the type of computer that most users are familiar
with and are sometimes referred to as a microcomputer. They are relatively small,
inexpensive single-user computer systems that are highly versatile. Also, because of their
size and because they are usually found on users desks, they are also sometimes called
desktop computers. Operating systems such as Linux and Windows were designed
specifically for personal computers. The same applies to the thousands of application
packages that are available including OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office. A typical PC
consists of a main unit housing the CPU and disk drives, a VDU (Video Display Unit), a
keyboard and a mouse. PCs are self contained computing systems that can be used for
thousands of different tasks from creating a simple document to controlling a large
industrial machine.

A workstation also fits on a desktop but has more powerful mathematical and graphics
processing capability than a PC. Workstations are used for scientific, engineering and
design work that requires powerful graphics or computational capabilities. They are used
to support engineering and technical users who perform heavy mathematical computing,
computer-aided design (CAD) and other applications requiring a high-end processor.

65
Such users need very powerful CPUs, large amounts of memory and extremely high
resolution graphics displays.

Capacity and speed: Because of the rapid advances in technology, the PC of today is
more powerful than many mainframes of a few years ago. There is little sign that the rate
of development is slowing down.
Typically, a modern PC can store the equivalent of a few million pages of printed text
and carry out millions of instructions in a second. What complicates the issue of speed in
talking about PCs is the use of graphics. Most applications make intensive use of
graphics. This demands enormous computing power.
Computers, which would otherwise appear to be very fast, can appear to be quite slow
because of the demands placed on them by the graphics used in an application. Other
components, such as the graphics card, also play a role in the speed of a PC.

Cost: There has been a steady decline in the cost of computing power. Although the cost
of PCs has been fairly steady, the computing power that has been supplied has increased
drastically. The cost of a personal computer is greater than that of a network computer or
PDA but less than that of a laptop and a very small fraction of the price of a mainframe.

Typical users: Everyone is a potential user of a personal computer since there is virtually
no sphere of human activity that does not make use of information technology. The list
could include scientists, researchers, mathematicians, statisticians, technologists,
engineers, students, teachers, accountants, actuaries, managers, doctors, librarians,
receptionists, book-keepers, writers, and journalists. These are just a very few of the
possible users.

Thin Client

This a low cost, centrally managed computer with essential but limited capabilities and
no extra drives, such as CD or DVD drive or expansion slots. These computers have
limited capability and perform only essential applications so they remain ‘thin’ in terms

66
of client applications they include. They download software from the network when
needed.

Servers

Server computers are specifically optimized for network use with large memory and
disk storage space, high speed communications capabilities and powerful CPUs.
A server is a computer used by many computers to perform a specific task such as
running network or internet applications. Servers typically have large memory and
storage capabilities along with fast and efficient communication abilities. A web server
handles internet traffic and communications.
Servers offer great scalability, the ability to increase processing capacity of a computer
system so that it can handle more users, more data or more transactions in a given period.
Scalability is increased by adding more or more powerful processors

Blade Server
A blade server houses many computer motherboards that include one or more processors,
computer memory, computer storage and computer network connections. These all share
common power supply, air cooling source within a single chassis. A blade server is more
powerful but less expensive than a mainframe and also takes less physical space.

Portable Computers
These are computers that can be carried easily- from laptops, to notebooks, to sub-
notebooks, to tablet computers.

Tablet PC
A tablet PC is a portable lightweight computer that allows you to roam the office, home
or factory floor carrying the device like a clipboard. You can enter the text with a writing
stylus directly on the screen using handwriting recognition software. Other methods of
input include an on screen (virtual) keyboard, speech recognition or a physical keyboard.
Tablet computers that only support input via a writing stylus are called slates. The

67
convertible tablet Pc comes with a swivel screen and can be used as a traditional
notebook or as a pen based tablet PC.

Laptop
Laptops are similar to personal computers except that they comprise an integrated unit.
Instead of a separate monitor, the lid contains a screen. The keyboard is built into the
base. Usually they make use of a touchpad instead of a mouse. The term notebook
computer is often used instead of laptop computer.

The main feature of a laptop is its portability. This is possible, not only because of the
reduced size and weight, but also through the use of a built-in battery which is able to
power the computer for a few hours without being connected to a mains power supply.
Laptops are also designed around low power and smaller devices. For example, laptops
use small 2½” hard drives as opposed to the 3½” inch drives of desktops. In addition,
these drives have special components built-in to protect them against movement.

Capacity and speed: These are the same as for personal computers.

Cost: Because of the more expensive components and the smaller market for laptops,
these are usually quite a bit more expensive than personal computers. Increased volumes
and improvements in manufacturing techniques will bring the price of laptops down in
the future.
Typical users: Although the users could be any of those mentioned under personal
computers, cost tends to limit the users to those who need portability or who can afford
the cost. You would find them most commonly used by people such as managers and
journalists. It is quite common to see a laptop on the desks of senior members of staff and
personal computers on the desks of staff. This is not always a matter of status but often
due to the fact that managers tend to take work home with them.

Handheld Computers

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These are single user computers that provide ease of portability because of the small size-
some are as small as a credit card. These systems often include a variety of software nad
communication capabilities. Most are compatible with and can communicate with
desktop computers over wireless networks. Some even add a built in GPS receiver with
software that can integrate the location data into the application.
One of the disadvantages of handheld computers is that they require lots of size relative
to their size.
A smartphone combines the functionality of a mobile phone, camera, web browser, e-
mail tool, MP3 and other devices into a single handheld device. Smartphones will
continue to evolve as new applications are defined and installed on the device

Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

The PDA is the smallest of all computers. Their main task is to maintain a diary and keep
contact lists. On many you are able to make use of a word processor or spreadsheet, but,
because of physical constraints, the amount that can be done is far more limited than on a
PC. PDAs vary considerably in the features they contain. Top of the range cell phones
now contain a PDA capabilities with 3G technology.
Usually, all the components of a PDA are solid state – they do not contain any moving
parts. Some of the larger PDAs, often called sub-notebooks, may contain a miniature 1½”
hard drive. One feature that distinguishes a PDA from a sub-notebook is that the latter
has a built-in keyboard whereas the PDA makes use of a light pen and character
recognition for data input.
Most PDAs are able to connect to a personal computer so that data can be exchanged. A
common feature is synchronization where software on the PC automatically updates both
the PC and PDA at the same time by using the most up-to-date data on each.

Capacity and speed: PDAs have much less storage capacity and are slower than
personal computers. They were designed with convenience and low power requirements
in mind rather than power.

69
Cost: Usually a PDA is less expensive than a personal computer, but top of the range
PDAs can actually be more expensive than an average personal computer.
Typical users: Typical users are those with high mobility who need to keep track of their
agendas. These would include managers, representatives and doctors.

Cost Comparisons
The cost of a computer depends on a range of factors including the components, labor
and demand. As a result, any price that is quoted will be out of date within weeks.
Further, as demand increases for one type of computer and decreases for another, their
relative prices will change.
The problem with this classification scheme is that the capacity of the machines changes
rapidly. Any of the above categories of computers can support a computer network,
enabling users to share files, peripheral devices such as printers or other network
resource.

Networked Computers
Mainframes, mini-computers and PCs can be linked to form companywide information
networks that share hardware, software and data resources. The use of multiple
computers linked by a communication network for processing is called distributed
processing.

Storage, Input and Output Devices

Hard Disk
The hard disk is the component that stores data and programs even after the computer has
been switched off. It consists of a number of rotating platters which are covered with a

70
magnetic film. Information is stored using the magnetic properties of the film. The
platters rotate from between 5000 and 8000 rpm or faster.
Heads are attached to the end of arms that are able to move backwards and forwards
across the surface. These heads move very close to the surface, typically only a speck of
smoke could fit between the head and the surface. Because a hard drive is both
mechanical and electronic in construction, it is called an electro-mechanical device.
The optimal hard drive depends on several considerations:
o Capacity
o Access Speed
o Media capabilities
o Cache memory size
o Quietness

Input devices
Input devices are components which are used to feed commands and data into the
computer. These include devices such as keyboards and mice.

Output devices

Output devices are devices that the computer uses to send us the results of the processing.
These include the VDU (monitor) and printers.

Peripheral devices
A computer system comprises the case which houses the motherboard, CPU, hard drives,
power supply and various other components. Devices such as printers, monitor, keyboard
and mouse which are connected to the main unit by various types of cables and
connectors are called peripheral devices

Memory

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The main memory stores software code, while the processor reads and executes the code.
There are two general categories of memory: primary and secondary.

Secondary Memory
Secondary memory consists of the various devices that are able to store data and
programs even when the power is off. This includes devices such as hard drives, floppy
drives, tape drives, CD drives and DVD drives located outside the primary storage area.
For the computer to do work on information, information must be transferred into
primary memory for processing

Primary Memory
Primary memory is the memory that is intimately associated with the actual working of
the computer. This includes memory that holds the start-up routines as well as the current
program and data it is working with.
Primary storage has 3 functions:
a. It store all or part of the program that is being executed
b. It stores the operating system that manages the operations of the computer
c. Holds data that are being used by the program.
Data and programs are placed in primary storage before processing, between processing
steps and after processing have ended, prior to being returned to the secondary storage r
released as output.
There are various forms of primary memory: RAM, ROM and Cache memory.
RAM or Random Access Memory holds the current running program and its associated
data. It is called RAM because it can directly access randomly chosen location in the
same amount of time. It is used for short-term storage of data or program instructions
RAM is volatile: its contents will be lost when the computer loses power or the computer
is turned off.

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ROM or Read Only Memory contains certain key routines (small programs) i.e it
contains important of frequently used programs. One example is the set of start-up
routines. These take control of the computer when you switch on and ensure that the
computer boots-up. Booting-up is the process of starting the computer up so that it is able
to load and run computer programs. It can only be read from; it cannot be written on to.
ROM chips come from the manufacturer with programs already burned in or stored.

Cache memory is very high speed memory that is used by the CPU in executing the
individual instructions of the program. It is used to hold items such as instructions that
are next in line to be executed and data that is likely to be needed by the CPU.
All of these concepts will be dealt with in more detail in the next lesson.
 
As mentioned above RAM is used to store the current data and programs whereas ROM
is used to store the routines that enable a computer to boot up.
The following table compares RAM and ROM.

Table 4.1: Random Access Memory and Read Only Memory

RAM ROM
Function Store the currently active Store certain fixed routines
programs and their data such as the boot-up routines
Volatility RAM is volatile: When the ROM is non-volatile: When
computer is switched off the the computer is switched off
contents are lost. the contents are not lost.
Changeable The contents of RAM can The contents of ROM can
be changed or deleted be changed or deleted

Units of memory

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Size of Memory: Size, like speed, is an important consideration in a system. Information
is stored in a computer in the form of zeros and 1s (binary digits or bits) which are strung
together to form bytes. The reason for the use of only ones and zeros stems directly from
the fact that modern circuitry makes use of electronic switches and these can only be on
or off. The term for circuitry based on switches is digital. Arithmetic based on the use of
only ones and zeros is called binary arithmetic.
One byte can be used to store a character such as a letter B. 1000 bytes (actually 1024
storage positions) is called a kilobyte.
A large PC today can store over 40 megabytes of information in primary memory. Each
megabyte is approximately 1 million bytes. A gigabyte is approximately 1 billion bytes.
In electronic components the one is stored by switching an electronic switch on and a
zero by switching it off.
On a magnetic material, such as the surface of a hard disk, the one may be stored with a
clockwise magnetic field and a zero with a counter-clockwise field. ASCII or American
Standard Code for Information Interchange was a system of representing all the
characters of the western alphabet and certain special characters in a single byte.

You can think of the byte as the amount of memory required to store a single character.
As there are only 256 possible variations within eight bits, this is not sufficient to
represent other alphabets. As a result a new system, called Uni-code, has been developed
to represent all the alphabets of the world. This makes use of two bytes or sixteen bits.
With two bytes, 65536 different characters and symbols can be represented.

Because we use very large numbers of bytes for storage, abbreviations are used for large
numbers. These are based on powers of two and are set out in the following table.

Kb kilobyte 210 = 1 024 bytes approx. 1 000 bytes

Mb Megabyte 220 = 1 048 576 bytes approx. 1 000 000 bytes
Gb Gigabyte 230 bytes approx. 1000 000 000 bytes
Tb Terabyte 240 bytes approx. 1000 000 000 000 bytes

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The capacity of hard drives is measured in bytes. A modern hard drive has a capacity of
40 gigabytes or more.
 One byte is one character which is a number, letter or symbol. It consists of eight
bits (binary digits) and is the smallest unit of information a computer can process.
 One kilobyte is 1,024 characters and is approximately equal to one page of text in
double-spacing.
 One megabyte is 1,048,576 characters and is approximately equal to one book.
 One gigabyte is 1,073,741,824 characters and is approximately equal to 1000
books.
 One terabyte is 1,099,511,627,776 characters and is approximately equal to a
whole library.

Computer Performance

The performance of a computer is determined by a number of factors, all of which work

together. Often a single item that is functioning poorly will cause a bottleneck resulting in
poor performance.
CPU: The model of the CPU and its speed are the first factors that determine computer
performance. Generally, the CPU so far outperforms the other components that poor
performance is usually due to other factors.
One important factor in the performance of the CPU is the amount of on-board cache
memory. If the CPU has sufficient cache memory it can queue future instructions and
data in cache. Since access to cache memory is far faster than that to RAM, the overall
processing performance is improved. On-board cache memory helps especially where the
CPU is involved in processing of graphics.

RAM: If a computer does not have sufficient RAM, it has to make use of the hard disk to
store intermediate data that it would normally store in RAM. This is referred to as virtual
memory. Since hard disk access is much slower than access to RAM, this will slow down

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the computer. The more RAM a computer has, the less need there will be to make use of
virtual memory.
Number of applications: Modern computers are designed to run more than one
application at a time and to allow applications to be working on multiple sets of data at
the same time. For example, a user may be working on four documents at once. However,
the more open applications and documents there are, the more this will place a burden on
the processing power of the computer. For best performance, only open the applications
and documents you need and close others.

Graphics cards: The graphics card is the unit that converts the signals from the CPU into
a form that can be displayed on the monitor. A good graphics card can take over many of
the tasks of the CPU in generating the output. This leaves the CPU free to do other
processing tasks. The quality of the graphics card is a key factor in the performance of a
computer, yet is one which is often overlooked.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

Parts of the CPU

There are three main components to the CPU: the arithmetic-logic unit (ALU), control
unit and on-board cache memory.
Control Unit: The control unit is responsible for loading and interpreting the individual
instructions that comprise the computer program. These instructions are in a language
called machine code.
Machine code is a pattern of ones and zeros. The control unit reads a stored program, one
instruction at a time, and directs other components of the system to perform the tasks
required by the program. The control unit also has the task of getting the data needed by
the instructions and returning the results of the processing after the instruction has been
executed. The series of operations required to process a single machine instruction is
called a machine cycle which consist of an instruction cycle and execution cycle.

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Arithmetic-Logic Unit: The ALU is responsible for carrying out primary logic and
arithmetic operations such as addition and subtraction as well as logical decisions such as
whether one number is bigger than another, which number is positive, zero or negative..
All programs consist of complex sets of arithmetic and logical operations. Another way
of thinking of a logical operation is as a decision making operation. The ALU can
perform logical operations on the binary codes for letters as well as numbers.

On-board Cache Memory: Because the CPU can perform its operations much faster
than data can be transferred from RAM, many CPUs have on-board cache memory. This
is memory that the control unit can access very quickly and use for intermediate storage.
Further, data and instructions can be loaded into cache before they are actually needed.
When they are needed, the transfer is much faster than it would have been if RAM had
been used.

Speed of the CPU: The CPU operates as a result of electronic pulses sent to it by another
device on the motherboard called the clock. The speed of a CPU is measured by the
maximum number of pulses it is able to handle. This is measured in MHz (megahertz) or
millions of pulses per second or GHz (gigahertz) thousands of millions of pulses per
second. A good personal computer will use a CPU with a clock speed of over 2 GHz.
This means it receives 2 00 million pulses or instructions every second from the CPU.
Previously CPUs could only do one operation per pulse. With improvements in
technology, they have been able to improve on this. For example, they can do one
operation at the start of the pulse and one at the end of the pulse.

Input Devices and Output Devices

Often Human beings interact with computer systems largely through input and output
devices. Advances in computers rely not only on the speed and capacity of the CPU but
also on the speed, capacity and design of input and output devices. Input/output devices
are often called peripheral devices.

Input Devices

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Any device which allows us to send data or instructions to the computer can be regarded
as an input device. We can use any mechanical movement, sound, light, heat or
electronic signals to input data and instructions.

Keyboard and Mouse

A Keyboard and computer mouse are the most common devices used for entry and input
of data such as characters, text and basic commands.
Keyboard: The most familiar input device is the keyboard. Users type the text directly
into the computer. There are a number of layouts of the keyboard. The most important are
the language variations. For example, the US and UK keyboards are quite similar but are
very different from the French keyboard. Using keyboards require the user to be
conscious of the health and safety implications
Repeated use of the same muscles and joints can result in a type of injury called RSI or
Repetitive Strain Injury. This type of injury can range from inflammation of joints, to
damaged ligaments and muscles or even hairline fractures in bones. RSI is usually caused
by the incorrect use of the keyboard and mouse.
Ergonomic keyboards: Ergonomic keyboards are designed in such a way that they are
more comfortable, more easily adjusted, and faster to use than standard keyboards and
are made such that the strain on the hands and finger are reduced. They are designed to
avoid wrist and hand injuries caused by hours of typing. Others key boards and mouse are
wireless to reduce clutter on the desk. Touch Typing: Other keyboards include touch
pads include touch pads that let you enter sketches on touch pad and text using keys.
Learning to touch type can help reduce strain as it distributes the work evenly between
the fingers. Users who can touch type also tend to use far less force when striking the
keyboard.
Mouse: A mouse is a handheld device that is usually connected to a computer with a
cable or infrared connection. The mouse is a point and click device. As you move the

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mouse across a surface, it senses this movement either mechanically or optically. This is
translated into the movement of a pointer on the screen. Functions are represented as
icons on the screen. When you click on these using a mouse button, the function is
executed. Mouse mats or pads are available with a cushion for the wrist to rest on.
Repeated clicking of the mouse buttons can lead to inflamed finger joints. Resting the
wrist on the cushion reduces this effect. Take regular breaks to rest the muscles and
joints.
Touch Pad: A touchpad is a device that senses pressure to guide the pointer on the
computer screen. It is generally a small square area below the keyboard. As the user
moves his/her finger across the touchpad, the pointer moves on the screen. Next to the
pad are two buttons used for clicking in exactly the same way as those on a mouse.

Trackball: A trackball acts as a type of overturned mouse. The ball is on the top side of
the object. By rolling the ball you can move the pointer across the screen. Some
keyboards have an in-built trackball. The trackball has been superseded by the touchpad.

Pen Input Devices -Light Pen (Stylus): A light pen is a device which is sensitive to
variations in patterns on a surface. Light pens act like a miniature scanner and can read
text as they are dragged across the printed page. This can be transferred directly to the
current open document.
Bar Code Reader: A bar code is a pattern of vertical lines in which the spacing and
thickness can be used to represent data. A bar code reader is a device that can read and
interpret bar codes and input the data into the computer.
Joystick: A joystick is a device that is familiar for use in games to move objects on the
screen. However, it is also used to control the movements in computerized industrial
machines such as lathes. It consists of a small vertical lever which can move in any
direction. These movements are translated to the computer which in turn uses them to
control the movements of machinery.
Digital Camera: Instead of film, a digital camera uses a light sensitive screen at the back
of the camera. A small computer inside the camera converts the pattern on the screen into
a standard graphics file which can then be transferred to a computer. They record and

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store images in digital form. You can download the images to a computer either directly
or by using a flash memory card.
 
Microphone: A microphone translates speech into an electronic signal. Modern speech
recognition software is able to translate this into either commands or data. This enables
the user to use a microphone as an alternative to the keyboard.
Speech recognition technology enables a computer with a source of audio input such as a
microphone to interpret human speech a means of providing data or instructions to a
computer.
Scanning Devices: A scanner is similar to a photocopier, except that instead of
producing a paper copy of the document you place on it, you get an electronic copy
which appears on your computer screen. Text recognition software can be used with a
scanner. This software is able to recognize the individual letters in the image. Instead of
creating a single image of the document, the software inserts actual text into your
application which can then be edited.

Terminal – terminals are input and display devices that perform data entry and output at
the same time. A terminal is connected to a computer system including a storage
processor, memory and secondary energy.

Optical Data Readers- these include optical mark recognition (OMR) and optical
character recognition (OCR). You can use OMR to test for scoring and other purposes
when test takers use pencils to fill boxes on OMR paper which also called a ‘ mark sense
form’. OCR readers can convert handwritten or typed documents into digital data.

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition

Magnetic stripe cards are commonly used in credit cards, transportation tickets, identity
cards and driving licenses

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Point of Sale (POS) devices- used in retail operations to enter sales information into a
computer system. Most POS devices also use other types of input and output devices
such as keyboards, barcode readers, printers and screens.
Touch Sensitive Screens,
Radio Frequency Identification- the purpose of a radi

Output Devices
An output device is any device that the computer uses to send the results of processing to
the user. The output can be a hard copy (paper), visual or sound.

Visual Display Unit (VDU): Virtually all computers use some type of screen as their
primary output device. There are two categories of screen: cathode ray tube and LCD.
CRT screens: The cathode ray tube (CRT) type screen is usually called a monitor and
makes use of the same technology as a television screen. A beam of electrons is fired
from an electronic gun at the back of the tube. This strikes the front of the tube which is
covered in a phosphorescent material (pixels) which glow when struck by electrons.
Between the electron gun and the screen the beam is modulated by a signal to produce the
image you see on the screen.
With CRT type screens, an important measure is the refresh rate. Roughly speaking, this
is the number of times the image is refreshed every second. A low refresh rate makes the
image appear to flicker. You need a refresh rate of at least 72 Hz (72 times a second) to
avoid the appearance of flicker. CRT monitors can be classified as monochrome or color
and by their display capabilities. Some display only text whereas others display both text
and graphics.
Solid state screens: Solid state screens, also known as LCD or Liquid Crystal Displays,
make use of tiny transistors to emit light and create an image. Originally, LCD screens
were confined to laptops, but they are increasingly used with desktops. They are usually
called flat screens when used as separate units with desktops.
Resolution: An important characteristic of all screens is their resolution. Each point of
light on the screen is called a pixel. The resolution of a screen is the maximum number of

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pixels that the screen can display. This is given as the number of pixels across (horizontal
resolution) by the number of pixels down (vertical resolution), for example, 800 x 600.
The greater the resolution the better. Modern screens can display 1024 X 768 or better.

Health and Safety Issues

Monitors: If you work with a monitor, tired, sore or blood-shot eyes indicate eye strain.
The following points indicate some aspects of monitors to be aware of.
Refresh rate: The refresh rate of a monitor is the rate at which it updates the images on
the screen. When the refresh rate is too low, the screen appears to flicker. Apart from the
annoyance factor, this causes eye strain. The refresh rate should be at least 72 Hz (72
times a second) and preferably higher.
• Monitor filter (Anti-glare screen): Reflections on the screen can cause eye strain. This
can be overcome by using a monitor filter with an anti-glare screen or by placing a
special anti-glare cover in front of the screen.
• Focus: The image on the screen should be sharp. Poor quality monitors have a slightly
blurred effect. This causes the eyes to continually attempt to reduce the blur.
• Low radiation: The beam of electrons that strikes the screen to display the image also
sends out electromagnetic radiation. There is some fear that this can be a health hazard,
particularly to pregnant women. Use a monitor with low electromagnetic radiation.
• Position: Place the monitor in a position where you can look into the distance at regular
intervals. To the side of a window is an ideal position. You need to change the focus of
your eyes on a regular basis to prevent eye strain.
• Angle: The monitor should be slightly below eye level. Looking up at a monitor can
cause strain in the neck.
• Rest: Take regular rest periods where you do not look at the monitor.
Printers

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Printers produce a hard copy of the output on paper. There are three main types of
printer: Dot matrix, Inkjet and Laser. The following table compares the three types.
Dot matrix Inkjet Laser
Initial cost Low Medium High
Cost per printed page Low High Medium
Speed Low Medium High
High volumes No No Yes
Noise level High Low Low
Print quality Low Medium High
Print graphics No Yes Yes
Print in Color No Some Some
Print source Ink ribbon Ink Toner powder

Plotters: A plotter consists of a device that can move paper both backwards and
forwards. On the top of the device one or more pens are able to move horizontally across
the paper. The combined movement of the pens horizontally across the paper and the
vertical movement of the paper allow complex continuous diagrams to be drawn.
Some plotters allow different color pens to be used to create diagrams in multiple colors.
In other types of plotters, the paper lies on a flat bed.
The mechanics of the plotter are so designed that the pens can move both across and
down the paper to create the diagram.
Plotters are usually used in conjunction with CAD (Computer Assisted Design)
programs. These are used in everything from the design of ships and machines to
buildings.
Speakers: Modern computers using the appropriate software can turn text in a document
into audible speech. This is known as speech synthesis. Other types of software allow
music and other sounds to be created and played back. The line between the computer
and a home entertainment system is becoming blurred. Computers are able to play music
directly from a CD or play a film from a DVD. You can even fit your computer with a
radio or TV card to add these functions. In all cases, the sound is transmitted through a
speaker in the same way it is in a sound system or radio.
Other Output Devices

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Microfilm and microfiche have been used to compactly store output as microscopic
filmed images and they are mainly used by firms that need to output and store large of
documents. These media are cumbersome to search and are largely being replaced by
optical devices.

 Input/Output Devices

Some devices function as both input and output devices. A touch screen is a special type
of screen in which the screen not only displays output but also responds to being touched.
A typical example is their use in automated-tellers at banks. Part of the screen contains
information. Other parts may contain a menu. When you touch one of the icons on the
screen, the system responds to the associated command.
Another example is to be found in information screens in shopping malls. The lower
half of the screen consists of a number of icons representing menu items. If you touch
one of these, either information will be displayed in the top half or a sub-menu will
appear allowing you to refine your search for information.
PDAs have touch-sensitive screens. You would use a special stylus to touch icons on the
screen or to write. Character recognition software then converts your writing to input text
for the PDA.

Secondary Storage Devices

Diskette: A diskette comprises a plastic flexible disk enclosed inside a tough plastic
cover. At one end is a window. When the diskette is placed inside a diskette drive, the
window is pushed to the side. The read-record head inside the drive makes contact with
the magnetic disk.
Floppy diskettes use a sector method of storing data. The surface of the disk is divided
into pie-shaped pieces. Each sector is assigned a unique number. Data can be located
using an address consisting of the sector number and an individual record number.

Diskettes are slow and have a low capacity (1, 44 Mb). Since they are cheap, they still
tend to be commonly used for storing small amounts of data. Another advantage is that
they can be used over and over again. Unfortunately, many are not very good quality and

84
data can become corrupted and unusable. Because of this they are not suited to backup
purposes. The disks can become corrupt through many causes including dust, heat,
magnetism or moisture.

Zip disk
A zip disk is a removable magnetic disk which fits into a special zip drive. The surface is
coated with a special scratch resistant material which makes a zip disk a very robust
storage device. It comes in a number of capacities: 100, 250 and 750 Mb. The speed of a
zip drive is faster than all but the very fastest of CD drives. Its robustness and speed make
it an excellent backup device. However, its capacity is much less than that of hard drives
and tape drives which limits its use for very large amounts of data.

Data Cartridge: A data cartridge is a tape very similar to that found in a tape recorder,
only much higher quality. These are used in a device called a tape streamer to record
data. Data cartridges, especially if good quality, are reliable and cheap devices for
creating backups of large quantities of data. They are, however, rather slow. Data
cartridges are sequential devices which mean that to access an item of data on them, all
the preceding data reads to be read first. They are tending to become obsolete as newer
faster and more reliable technologies are available. A single tape can store many Gb of
data.
Optical Disks: A CD ROM uses optical technology. When data is written, small pits are
burned into the surface using a highly focused laser beam. These are read by another laser
beam. There are two types of CD ROM used for storage.
The CD-W disks can only be written to once. This optical system is also called WORM
(Write once/ read many). The disadvantage of CD-ROM and WORM optical disks is that
their contents cannot easily be erased and written over and the access speed is slower
than that of magnetic disks. Once data has been written to part of the surface, this part
can no longer be used.
CD-RW (Rewritable) disks are designed so that one set of data can overwrite another.
This allows the disks to be re-used many times. CD ROM provides a reliable and storage
medium for backing up and storing data.

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CD-ROM has been widely most widely used for reference material with massive amounts
of data, such as encyclopedias, directories or on-line databases and for storing multimedia
applications that combine text, sound and images. The speed is greater than that of a
diskette but slower than that of a hard drive.
Writing to a CD ROM is a much slower process than reading it. The capacity of a CD
ROM is 640 Mb. It is sometimes possible to store about 700 Mb on a disk. CD ROM
technology is improving all the time with continued improvements in quality and speed.

DVD
The Digital Video Disk (also called digital versatile disk) is a development of the storage
technology of the CD ROM but of even higher capacity. Using newer storage methods
and higher quality media, a DVD can store up to 5 gigabytes of data. This is enough to
store a full length film or motion picture. They can store digitized text, graphics, audio
and video data.

Hard Disk Drive

A hard disk drive can be internal or external. An internal drive is housed inside the main
unit and is connected directly to the motherboard of the computer. An external drive is
housed inside a special caddy which connects to the computer through one of its ports.
Most now use the USB or fire-wire ports to achieve maximum performance.

An external hard drive is a good backup medium and allows large quantities of data to be
stored. Since the same drive can be connected at different times to different computers,
these drives provide a useful way of transferring data between computers that are not
connected through a network. As they are electromechanical devices, they are subject to
mechanical failure if not handled with care. The small 2½” drives used in laptops make
excellent external hard drives since they are constructed to be moved around.

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Modern hard drives have capacities from 40 Mb to 120 Mb. They are also relatively
cheap in terms of the storage capacity they offer. Because they contain moving parts, they
do eventually fail. When a hard drive fails is quite unpredictable. Any suspicious noise
coming from a hard drive should be viewed with great caution and the data it contains
should backed up immediately. The expected life span of a hard drive is measured as the
mean time between failures. This is a very rough average of the working life. Figures of
250 000 hours are often quoted but these should be viewed with caution.

Numerous systems have been developed to protect data on hard disks. One of these is
mirroring where the data is stored simultaneous on two disks. The one disk becomes the
mirror image of the other. If one fails, the data is still one the other. In this case, the first
disk is replaced, the system creates a mirror image of the first disk automatically and the
system continues.
There are a number of measures of performance of a hard disk. One is the speed at which
the platters turn. Typically this is somewhere between 4800 and 7200 rpm. There are
faster, more expensive disks. Another is the access time. This is the time it takes the disk
to access an item of data. A good figure here would be around 10 ms. An ms or
millisecond is one thousandth of a second. Disks are also sometimes compared in terms
of their data transfer rates. This is a measure of how many bytes can be read or written
per second.

Flash Memory and Memory Sticks

A new type of external memory is the flash disk or memory stick. This is a solid state
device (no moving parts) that connects to the computer via the USB port. It provides a
very fast and reliable method of storing data externally.
They are at the moment fairly expensive, especially the larger capacity devices. They
tend to be limited to a maximum of about 4 Gb. This figure can be expected to increase
quite dramatically over time.

Relative Cost of Storage

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As in the case of computers, the cost of memory is continually changing. The price varies
from country to country as well as according to international demand. In order to
compare the cost of memory, a common measure is to calculate the cost per Mb. The
following table compares the cost per Mb of the different media.
Medium Hard CD Data Zip disk Flash Floppy
disk cartridge disk disk
Relative cost per Mb 0.04 0.15 0.3 0.3 3 4

This table tells you that it is about 100 times as expensive to store a Mb of data on a
floppy disk as it is on a hard drive. Use this table with caution. Treat the values as very
approximate relative values. In other words use them as comparative values, not as
monetary values.

Formatting disks
A new diskette or hard disk is not able to record data immediately. The disk first needs to
be prepared by a process known as formatting. This marks out concentric circles called
tracks. Each track is divided into a number of sectors. The tracks and sectors are marked
out using magnetic markers. As data is recorded on a disk, it fills up.
To be able to re-use a disk, it may also be formatted. This releases the areas that contain
data so that new data may be stored in its place. When a disk is reformatted, the old data
is lost. When data is stored on a disk, it is not always stored in a continuous pattern.
Rather, the system stores data in the first free area it finds. When this has been filled, it
looks for additional free space and continues storing the data. A file ends up being stored
as a series of segments across the disk. This breaking up of a file into many segments is
called fragmentation.
Fragmentation slows down the operation of the disk as the system needs to keep track of
all the different segments. A disk may be re-organized to reduce fragmentation by a
process called de-fragmentation. There are different file systems available, but in all
cases the disk needs to be prepared with the index area, tracks and sectors through
formatting. As mentioned previously, disk can be reformatted. In this process everything
on the disk is erased and the disk is formatted as if it was a new disk.

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UNIT SIX: What is Software?

The usefulness of computer hardware depends a great deal on available software and the
ability of management to evaluate, monitor and control the utilization of software in an
organization.
Lesson Objectives
 Describe the major types of software.
 Describe the functions of system software and compare leading PC operating
systems
 Explain how software has evolved and how it will continue to evolve
 Appreciate the major application programming languages and software tools.
 Describe new approaches to software development

INFORMATION SYSTEMS SOFTWARE

What is Software?

Software is detailed instructions that control the operation of a computer system. Without
software, computer hardware could not perform the tasks we associate with computers.
The functions of software are to;
 Manage the computer resources of the organization
 Provide tools for human beings to take advantage of these resources
 Act as an intermediary between organizations and stored information
Selection f the appropriate software for the organization is a key management
decision
Software Program
A software program is a series of statements or instructions to the computer. The process
of writing or coding programs is called programming and individuals who specialize in
this task are called programmers.

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The stored program concept means that a program must be stored in the computer’s
primary storage along with the required data in order to execute or have its instructions
performed by the computer.
Types of Software

Software is divided into two broad categories: systems software and application
software.
Systems software is the term used to describe programs that mange the resources of the
computer and enable the computer to function, improve its performance and access the
functionality of the hardware. Systems software sole function is the control of the
operation of the computer. Programmers who write system software are called system
programmers.
You can think of systems software as providing the foundation for applications software.

Systems software is further subdivided into operating systems and utilities. The
operating system is the program that actually makes the computer operate. Utilities are
programs which either improve the functioning of the operating system or supply missing
or additional functionality.
Applications software is the term used for programs that enable the user to achieve
specific objectives such as create a document, use a database, produce a spreadsheet or
design a building. Programmers who write application software are called application
programmers.
Versions: Software developers continually strive to improve the performance of their
products and add new features. Especially in a world of competing products, each
developer needs to make their product perform better, have fewer problems and have
more features. The new releases of software products are called versions. The versions
use a numbering system such as Mandrake Linux 9.2 or OpenOffice.org 1.1. A change in
the first number represents a major new version while a change in the second number
represents a less significant change.

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System Software

System software coordinates the various parts of the computer system and mediates
between application software and computer hardware. The system software that manages
and controls the activities of the computer is called an operating system. Other system
software consists of computer language translation programs that convert
programming language into machine language and utility programs that perform
common processing tasks.

Operating System Software

As mentioned above, it is the operating system that actually makes the computer
function. Operating system software decides which computer resources will be used,
which programs will run and the order in which activities will take place.

Functions of an Operating System

An operating system performs three major functions. It allocates and assigns system
resources; it schedules the use of computer resources and it monitors the computer
system activities.
The following is a list of some of the activities of the operating system as it performs the
functions:
 Boot-up the computer.
 Control the hard drives: This includes such features as formatting and de-
fragmenting disks as well as saving files to and retrieving files from disk.
 Control input devices such as keyboards, mice and scanners.
 Control output devices such as the video display and printer.
 Control the external ports- Ports are the external connections that enable
peripheral devices to be connected to a computer. Common types of ports are
serial, parallel, USB and fire-wire. Of these the USB ports are the most important.
 Provide the functionality for computers to be linked in a network.

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  Provide the foundation for application software to be launched.
 Enable application software to access and use the hardware.
The following list names some operating systems. They are grouped according to
similarity.
• Unix; Linux; Free BSD
• Windows 95; Windows 98; Windows Me, Windows NT4 Workstation / Server;
Windows 2000 Workstation / Server; Windows XP; Windows 2003 Server.

Figure: 6.1 Operating System Interfaces

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Figure 6.2: Operating System Placement

Language Translation and Utility Software

System software include special language translator programs that convert human
readable instructions (higher-level language) programs written in programming language
like COBOL, BASIC, COBOL and FOTRAN into machine language that the machine
can execute. This type of system software is called a compiler or interpreter.
System software includes utility programs for routine, repetitive tasks such as copying,
computing a square root or sorting

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Application Software

Application software is primarily concerned with accomplishing the tasks of end users.
The following table lists some types of application software, brand names and function.

Application Brand names Function

Word processor Writer, Star-Writer, K Word, Microsoft Create, store, format and edit documents,
Word, Lotus ,Ami Pro, Corel letters and articles. Word processors are
WordPerfect used where the emphasis is on
manipulation of text.

Spreadsheet OpenOffice.org, Calc-Star-Calc, K- Create financial statements, balance

Spread sheets, perform statistical and numerical
Microsoft Excel, Quattro Pro, analysis of data, make forecasts based on
Lotus 123 numeric data. Spreadsheets are used
where the emphasis is on arithmetic.

Presentation OpenOffice.org Impress, Create slide shows, lectures, seminars

Star-Impress, K-Presenter and other types of presentation.
Microsoft PowerPoint
Email client Evolution, K-Mail Send, receive, store and organize
Microsoft Outlook , Outlook Express electronic mail.
Web browser Mozilla, Netscape, Microsoft Internet Surf the Internet and view web sites.
Explorer
Desktop DTP is similar to word processing except
publishing Microsoft Publisher, Page that there is more emphasis on page
(DTP) Maker layout and the integration of diagrams.
Accounting Gnu-Cash, Pastel Accounting Store accounting information and
produce reports, statements and invoices.
Web Dream-weaver, Microsoft Create web sites that can be read by a
development FrontPage, JAVA browser.
Graphics and The GIMP, Adobe Photoshop Create and manipulate graphics images
imaging and store images in a variety of formats

Graphical User Interface

A graphical user interface or GUI is designed to simplify the work of the user whether
they are using the operating system or an application package. The interface consists of a
screen with a number of icons or menus. Functions are executed by pointing and clicking
with the mouse.
Some of the advantages of using a GUI are:

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  Less work for the user. To execute a function all you have to do is point and click
on an icon instead of typing out an instruction.
 Quicker to learn.
 Easy access to the basic functionality of the operating system or application
package.
 Hides the underlying complexity from the user.
 Simplifies and integrates multitasking. Multitasking refers to using several
applications at the same time. Opening a new application or document involves a
couple of mouse clicks. Likewise switching between tasks also involves only a
couple of mouse clicks.
There are some disadvantages to using a GUI based operating system.
 Not all the functionality is available. The icon represents the most commonly used
form of a function. A text based system gives you access to all the options
associated with a function. Power users tend to switch between the GUI and the
system prompt as needed.
 Being graphics based, a GUI runs more slowly than a text based system.
However, with the power and speed of modern computers this is not the problem
it once was.

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UNIT 7: INFORMATION NETWORKS

Telecommunications and Networks

Networks
A set of computers connected together so that they can communicate is called a computer
network. This involves installing network cards in each computer. Each computer is then
connected through cabling to a central device called a hub. Operating systems contain
components that are dedicated to the task of enabling computers to communicate over a
network. This software makes use of special rules of communication called protocols.
There are many different types of protocols used for a variety of purposes. The most
commonly used protocol for establishing and maintaining communication across a
network is called TCP/IP or Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol.

Client-server and Peer-to-Peer Networks

Networks on which all computers have equal status are called peer-to-peer networks.
On most networks, certain computers have special dedicated tasks. Since these machines
provide services to other computers, they are called servers. The computers that make
use of the services or servers are called clients or workstations. A network such as this
is called a client-server network.
A server which is used for the central storage of files is called a file server. Using a file
server, users can access their work from anywhere on the network. They can also make
these files available to users on other computers. File servers also enable users to
cooperate on a task by centralizing the results of their work.

A computer attached to a printer which users can access is called a print server. Having
a single printer rather than a printer attached to each computer obviously saves capital.
An increasingly important type of server is an applications server. In the case of
applications servers, application packages are not installed on the workstations but on the
applications server.

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A communications server is a computer dedicated to connecting a network to the
outside world. These are often called proxy servers.
As the case of print servers illustrates, one of the values of having a network is that it
enables resources to be shared.

A LAN or Local Area Network is a group of computers within the same building, or
within a group of buildings that are in close proximity, that are connected together.

A WAN or Wide Area Network is a group of widely dispersed computers that are
connected together. These could be across the same town or across a country or even
across the world. Apart from distance, the other feature that distinguishes as WAN from a
LAN is that the WAN would make use of a range of communication technologies such as
telephone, microwave and satellite links.

Advantages of Networking

 Sharing Printers and Files

A peer-to-peer network is where two or more computers are linked together in order to
share information and hardware. It is a major advantage to be able to share printers,
plotters and scanners. When computers are networked together, there can be many pc's
sharing a printer as opposed to each one having to have it's own printer which is much
more costly. It is also possible to share data files across the network by creating a share
on the hard drive and allowing other people access to that information. If you want to
share applications you would need to investigate a client/server network solution and
some of the advantages are listed below.

File Servers
 Users can access their work from any workstation connected to the network.
 Users can easily exchange work with colleagues.
 Users can easily co-operate on tasks.

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  Backing up is centralized and can be placed under the control of experts who will
follow the correct procedures.
Printer Servers
 Instead of having printers attached to each computer, printers only need be
purchased for the print servers. This results in financial savings.
 As there are fewer printers to look after, there is lower maintenance.
 As far fewer printers need to be purchased better quality printers with advanced
features can be purchased.
Application Servers
        Software only needs to be installed on the applications server instead of each
workstation.
        The software is configured in the same way for all users.
        Upgrading of software only needs to be done on the server.
        Cost of licensing software for an applications server is less than the cost of
many stand-alone versions.
        Centralizing applications software simplifies the process of implementing
software policies in an organization. Software policies refer to what software
may be installed on computers and how it may be used.
 
Internet Connection Sharing (Proxy Servers)
 Proxy servers contain a repository of internet sites recently visited and cached for
quicker access at a future date.
 Proxy servers can be configured with firewall software. This helps protect the
network from attack by hackers.
 Files can be filtered for computer viruses before being passed on to the network.
 Organizations can control access of users to outside sites.
 Since there is only one point of communication, there is a large saving on line
costs.

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Intranet, Extranet, Internet

Internet
The internet is the collection of all computers across the world which can access each
other in some way. The links between computers might include telephone, fibre optic
cable, radio, microwave or satellite. Today tens of millions of computers are able to
access each other. The Internet has no central organization which controls its use.
Because the Internet knows no borders, many governments have tried to control the flow
of information across the Internet. However, communications technology is so varied and
so widespread that this is a near impossible task.

Intranet
An intranet is similar to the Internet in operation. However, it is limited to an
organization. Users may browse computers within an intranet using a browser but will
usually not be able to access the wider Internet. In the same way, outsiders will not be
able to access the intranet of an organization. An intranet can be thought of as a private
internet.

Extranet
An extranet is an extension of an organization’s intranet to include outside users. In an
extranet, outside organizations or individuals are allowed access to certain parts of the
intranet. This access is usually controlled by means of passwords and access rights. These
restrict which users can access the extranet and what they can do once they have access.
The purpose of the extranet is to facilitate business transactions with other organizations.

Uses of the Internet

Some of its main uses are to:

 Integrate the operations of multinational corporations.
 Provide access to and share information and databases.
 Transfer and share files between computers.

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  Facilitate business transactions.
 Share resources.
 Promote scientific co-operation between research institutions.
 Provide a communications channel for the military.

The World Wide Web

The World Wide Web or WWW is a part of the Internet. The WWW consists of all the
sites that can be accessed using a web browser such as Mozilla, Netscape, Internet
Explorer or Opera.
In order for a browser to access a web site, the web site must contain files that have a
particular format constructed using Hyper Text Markup Language or HTML. These sites
are developed using special web development applications. It is possible to create simple
web sites using a word processor by saving the document in HTML format.

The HTML documents are stored as web pages on special servers known as web servers.
These run special web server software such as Apache Web Server or Internet
Information Services.

The WWW enables the free flow of information across the world. Developments in
technology have made access easier and faster. As a result the WWW also became
known as the Information Superhighway.
Most of the activities listed under the Internet in the previous section are now actually
carried out using the Internet. In other words, the sites are created in HTML, or a similar
format, are installed on

THE TELEPHONE NETWORK IN COMPUTING

Communications between computers rely heavily on the public telephone system. Newer
telephone line technologies have improved the standard of communications between

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networks considerably. The following is a brief description of some of the technologies
that are available.

The PSTN or Public Switched Telephone Network refers to the originally telephone
network. From a communications perspective it was slow and unreliable. Some of the
exchanges on a PSTN may still make use of mechanical switches to route telephone calls.

These add additional noise to the line. When lines are noisy, signals have to be resent
repeatedly between the source and the destination. The PSTN makes use of analogue
technology. Analogue technology uses continuously variable signals. An example of an
analogue signal is ordinary speech. Newer digital technologies make use of pulses of
fixed magnitude and duration.
In order to improve connections, it is possible to have an analogue leased line. This is a
dedicated permanent telephone connection between two computers using the PSTN.

In order to connect a computer to a telephone network, you need a modem. This is an

abbreviation for modulator-demodulator. The function of the modem is to convert the
digital signals from the computer into an analogue form suitable for transmission on the
PSTN

ISDN or Integrated Services Digital Network is a technological development that is

able to make use of the existing PSTN cabling to transmit digital signals.
Technically ISDN is an international standard for the transmission of data, voice and
video or normal voice or digital telephone lines. ISDN supports rates of up to 64Kbps.
An ISDN connection consists of two lines which can be used independently or together to
give a combined rate of 128Kbps.
If you wish to connect a computer to an ISDN line you need a special ISDN modem. This
is a different type of modem to the one used with an analogue line. Its purpose, however,
is the same, to convert the digital signals of the computer into a form suitable for
transmission on an ISDN line.

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It is possible to get a dedicated connection between two computers using ISDN. This is
called a diginet connection.

The older telephone systems make use of electrical currents transmitted through copper
cabling. As electric signals are subject to interference, they are not the ideal method of
transmitting data. Newer telephone systems make use of fibre optic cable.
In fibre optic technology, light is transmitted along the cable. As light signals are not
subject to the same interference problems as electrical signals, fibre optic is a far more
efficient and reliable system.
ADSL or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Lines allow the transmission of high speed
digital data over ordinary telephone lines using a modulation technology called DMT or
Discrete Multi-Tone. Ideally, fibre-optic is the ideal medium for high speed digital
transmission. As the installation of fibre-optic is expensive, ADSL provides solution until
copper cable is replaced by fibre-optic.

Communications Terminology

Analogue signals
Analogue signals are used on the PSTN as well as for normal AM and FM radio
transmissions. An analogue signal is one which varies continuously as, for example, in
ordinary speech.

Digital Signals

Digital signals are used in ISDN and ADSL connections. Newer television and radio
transmission techniques are also making using of digital technology.
Digital signals are two state signals corresponding to a switch which is on or off. The
same two state signal can also represent TRUE and FALSE or 1 and 0.

Modems

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A modem or modulator-demodulator is a device connected between a computer and a
telephone line. Its function is to convert the digital signals of the computer into a form
suitable for transmission over a telephone line. It must also do the reverse and convert the
telephone line signals into a form suitable for the computer. Note that the modem used to
connect to an ISDN line is different to that used to connect to an analogue line.

Data Transfer Rates

Each 1 or 0 that is transferred is referred to as a bit. The speed of a data transfer is

measured by the number of bits that can be transferred each second or bps (bits per
second). This is also sometimes called the baud rate or bandwidth.
High speed lines have their speed measured in kbps or Mbps.
1 kbps = 1 024 bps (roughly 1 000 bps)
1 Mbps = 1 024 kbps = 1 048 576 bps (roughly 1 000 000 bps)

To put these figures in perspective, the maximum theoretically attainable speed with an
analogue line is 56kbps. This figure is very seldom attained and the reality is usually
substantially lower. ISDN lines operate at 64 kbps.

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UNIT 8: THE USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Computers at Work

The business applications of information technology have expanded significantly over the
years. Inter-networked enterprise and global electronic business and commerce systems
are revolutionizing the operations and management of today’s business enterprises.
Computers are ideal for repetitive work requiring speed and accuracy. This is especially
true of those situations where human beings would become bored or simply cannot work
fast enough.

Some examples include:

 Corporate data processing including functions such as sorting, selecting and
summarizing
 Analysis of census and other demographic data
 Administration of the national revenue system
 Actuarial calculations
 Statistical analysis
 Corporate accounting functions
 Creation of animations for films
 Weather forecasting
 Forensic analysis such as DNA and fingerprint matching
 Manufacture of electronic components and circuitry

Corporate Applications

Corporations have to keep records of their staff, details of their clients, the levels of their
stocks, production schedules, debtors, creditors and a myriad of other details. Many of

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these activities are themselves linked in one or more ways. For example, stock levels of
raw materials and production schedules are very closely linked.
The ideal solution in a corporate environment is Enterprise software. This is a complex
suite of applications that are created to work together.
Enterprise software is designed to automate all the activities of an organization in one
system. The different components or modules interact with each other. For example, if
production requires certain raw materials, the appropriate production module will send a
message to the stock module that certain materials are needed and when they will be
needed.
If the stock module determines that existing levels are too low, it will send a message to
another module responsible for orders. This module will then check which supplier to use
and automatically generate an order stating the quantity needed and a deadline for
delivery.
Organizations do not buy an entire enterprise package, but only the modules that are
relevant to the operation. Because of cost and complexity, enterprise software is usually
found only in large organizations.
All organizations, no matter their size, can benefit from computer applications. Examples
found in business include:
 Office application suites such as OpenOffice.org, K-Office, Star-Office or
Microsoft Office for creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
 Accounting packages such as Pastel Accounting for keeping debtors and creditors
records and creating statements and invoices.
 Inventory systems for keeping track of stock.
 Desktop publishing packages such as Microsoft Publisher and Page Maker for
creating newsletters and press releases.
 Client tracking software such as Gold Mine for representatives to maintain regular
contact with clients and record their activity.
 Airline bookings systems which manage large amounts of data and reservation
details and also have the flexibility to handle frequent changes to bookings.
 Insurance claims systems to manage the processing and payment of claims.

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  Online banking systems enable corporates and individuals to have easy access to
funds transfer and account maintenance.

Public Sector Applications

Inland Revenue - The Department of Inland Revenue needs to keep records on millions
of tax payers, both individual and corporate. It also needs to calculate the tax each has to
pay and send out tax assessments. Sophisticated computer systems manage these tasks.
SARS in South Africa and ZIMRA in Zimbabwe have a websites that taxpayers can
register on and submit returns electronically by filling in their returns online and
authorizing payment directly from their bank account.
 National census and other demographic data- National economical and social
planning require that governments have a good idea of the number of people in
the country and in each region. They need to know income and health levels and
size of families. They also need to know the skills and educational levels of
different sections of the population. This information is obtained by means of a
national census. Part of this involves people filling in census forms and these
being collected and checked by census officials. In other cases, figures are
obtained by indirect methods such as aerial photographs. In all cases the data has
to be analyzed to produce summaries that planners can use. This task can only be
done by specialized software designed for the purpose.
 Other organizations also collect data for specific research purposes. For example,
the Medical Research Council will conduct research to determine the prevalence
of aids. This research relies on sophisticated statistical software to analyze the
data.
 Vehicle Registration- Every vehicle has a unique registration number. This
number, together with the vehicle and owner details is kept in a central database.

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 This database can be accessed not only by the municipal officials, but also by
other interested parties such as the police.
 Voting registers -In order to vote, a person must be recorded on the voting
register. This register of voters contains millions of records. Records need to be
changed, deleted and added on a regular basis. Because of the sheer volume, it
would be difficult to maintain in any other way than a computerized system.
 Electronic voting - This is a system that is being introduced which will allow
voters to register their choice online to submit their ballot instead of the
traditional method of marking a piece of paper with a pen.
 National Identity System-The Department of Home Affairs keeps records of all
the citizens in a country. It keeps records of births, marriages and deaths. It also
issues identity documents and passports.
All this is only possible through the use of computerized systems.

Health Sector Applications

 Patient records- Patient records need to record not only personal details such as
name, address, relatives and employer, but most importantly detailed health
history, record of operations and medication. The more efficiently this
information can be stored and retrieved, the more efficiently the health care
system can be administered.
 Scheduling - Hospitals are extremely busy organizations which usually function
amidst considerable stress. In order to use the facilities efficiently, where possible,
activities need to be scheduled. For example, the availability or surgeons needs to
be co-coordinated with the availability of operating rooms and the urgency of
treatments. With good scheduling systems, much of the stress of the more routine
activities can be reduced.
 Ambulance control systems - By their very nature, ambulances do not work to a
schedule. They are needed at unexpected places and unexpected times. The best a
system can do is to optimize their use. That means knowing which ambulance is
nearest to a scene at any given moment. In addition, modern software gives an
ambulance driver detail of the shortest route. The latest on-board software makes

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 use of speech synthesis which actually tells the driver how to get to a destination
as he is driving. This technology makes use of in-built maps and global
positioning (GPS).
 Diagnostic tools -With diagnostic tools, a doctor feeds information about a
patient’s symptoms into the system. The system will respond with a series of
possible causes. It may ask for further information to refine the diagnosis. At the
moment these tools are not replacing the diagnostic skills of a doctor, but rather
help him/her explore alternative diagnoses. Other diagnostic tools connect the
patient directly to the computer. This is commonly used in the diagnosis of
cardiac problems. Not only are all the different heart waves displayed on the
screen, but the physician has the option of magnifying or analyzing any of the
patterns in more detail. They can also be stored and compared with the heart
patterns at a later stage.
 Specialized Surgical Equipment - A modern trend is towards less invasive
surgery. This involves inserted catheters into different parts of the body. Through
these miniature cameras and surgical instruments are placed. The output from the
cameras is displayed on large screens. Other relevant data is also analyzed and
displayed on screens. All of the activities are assisted by special computer
programs.

Education Sector Applications

 Student records -Education institutions have electronic registration that allows

students to be registered on the system first and then further information such as
personal records and results as they progress through the course. Student records
keep personal details of students as well as their academic records and fees
accounts. Where students have had disciplinary problems, these are also recorded.
Some institutions offering health and accommodation services to students. All this
information needs to be recorded on a centralized system that can be accessed
according to the rights different users have. For example, although health data
may be recorded on a centralized system, only health workers would have access

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 to it. The same student administration system would need to send out examination
results and accounts.
 Time tabling -The process of timetabling involves scheduling staff, students and
lecture rooms at the same time. The scheduling also needs to take into account the
correct total amount of time allocated to staff, students and courses. Further public
holidays and term holidays need to be taken into account. The larger the
organization, the more complex the process becomes. Software programs are now
available which can factor in all the different parameters and produce a timetable.
This can still be fine-tuned manually.
 Computer Based Training- makes use of the computer to instruct students. The
quality of CBT material varies widely. Some CBT material is little more than a
text book on the screen, but other makes use of interaction or simulation to
instruct. For example, if a student were learning word processing, a simulated
version of the word processor would appear on-screen. The program would
demonstrate how to perform a task by showing the activity of the cursor and the
display of the menus. Most of this software produces an audible output so that the
student is able to listen to a commentary on headphones as the activity is taking
place on-screen.
 Automated examinations- Automated examinations allow computerized systems
to test student’s skills. These are most relevant to knowledge based or skills based
courses. Courses requiring critical analysis such as literature or philosophy are not
suited to this type of testing. Knowledge based courses can be tested using
randomized multiple choice, true/false or similarly highly structured typed of
questioning. If there is a sufficiently large test bank, students can be given a
randomized set of questions. This would mean that no two students would get the
same set of questions.
 Skills based courses can be tested using a simulated environment. For example, a
pilot could take a test on flying an aircraft by taking a test in a simulator. This
would appear exactly like the inside of the cockpit. Instead of windows, there
would be computer screens with a simulation of the outside. An examiner would
control all aspects of the simulation from a computer. The pilot would be required

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 to respond by actually “flying” the simulator. The computer in turn would be able
to analyze the quality of the “flying”.
 Distance learning - In distance learning, the student controls the learning
environment: when and where to learn and how long to take over a course.
Information technology can facilitate the whole process. The student can send
assignments and questions to the lecturer using email and the lecturer can respond
using email. An institution may put the courses on a web site that is password
protected. A student either reads the coursework directly on the Internet or
downloads it from the Internet. This has obvious cost and administrative savings
for the institution. It also means it can recruit students from all over the world.
Registration and payment of fees can also be done on-line.
 Homework using the Internet -The Internet contains enormous quantities of
information. Some of this is excellent, some very poor and much incorrect. To
access information on the Internet, a student makes use of a search engine such as
Google. Feeding in a number of key words can result in a list of many thousands
of sites being displayed. Each of these is represented by a hyperlink. This is a link
to another site. When you click on a hyperlink, you are immediately taken to the
site. There are two important aspects to using the Internet to search for
information to do assignments:
o The skilled use of a search engine: First you need to become familiar with
the different ways of using keywords and the various criteria you can set.
This comes with practice.
o Sifting the good from the bad: There is no control over the Internet. People
can and do post deliberately incorrect or biased information on the
Internet. You need to be able to assess the quality of what you read. For
example, does the site give references to its sources or is the information
corroborated by that on another independent site. Developing a critical
mind in determining the quality of information is as important as being
able to access information in the first place.

Tele-Working Applications

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Tele-working means literally doing work at a distance. This means instead of going into
an office, you work from home, a holiday cottage, another country or any other location.
When you do tele-working, you can be thought of as having a virtual office.
Modern technology such as email, the Internet and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) has
made tele-working a reality for many people. A VPN makes use of the Internet and
various security protocols to enable remote users to connect to a company network. Apart
from speed limitations, it will appear as if they are working on the network inside the
organization.
Not all occupations lend themselves to tele-working, but there are many that do.
Examples include journalists, writers, computer programmers, graphic artists, consultants
and representatives. Often tele-working is associated with contract work. Professionals
are paid to do specific tasks and are given deadlines within which these have to be
created. Where they do it is not relevant as long as it is done professionally and on time.

Advantages of Teleworking

Professionals
 Do not waste time on commuting between home and work.
 Are free to undertake work where ever they are.
 Greater ability to focus on one task.
 Have flexibility to arrange their work time according to their needs and
inclinations.
 Generally have tax advantages as they can claim business expenses.
Organizations
 Save on office space, equipment and facilities.

Disadvantages of Teleworking

Professionals
 May suffer from lack of human contact.
 Need to be highly self-disciplined.

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Organizations
 Will not get the benefits of teamwork.
 Will have less control over workers.
The disadvantages of teleworking can be overcome by requiring professionals to spend a
certain amount of time at the office. This does not require that they actually have a
workstation or office of their own.
They could be required to attend meetings or seminars. If they are structured as part of a
team working on a project, they could be required to attend team meetings which focus
on planning, allocation of tasks, feedback or general motivation.

Electronic Mail

Email refers to the transmission of messages between computers across a network or

across the Internet. Email allows text, graphics and sometimes sounds. Users are able to
send files together with messages. These are sent as attachments to the email.

To use email, you need to have access to a network or the Internet. A mail client is
installed on the computer. This is used for the creation, sending, receiving and storage of
email messages. Well known email clients include Evolution, K-Mail, and Microsoft
Outlook, Outlook Express.
Web based email systems only require that you have access to the Internet. Many of these
such as Yahoo, Hotmail and Eudora mail are free. Web based mail systems act as remote
mail clients. Effectively, you log on to the mail client on the server using a web browser.
From that point on, it acts in much the same way as a mail client installed on your own
computer. You can log on to your web based mail system where ever in the world you
happen to be.

Electronic Mail

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Email addresses - Email address consist of two parts separated by an @ symbol. The
first part is the name of the user and the second part is the name of the mail server.
For example, in the email address david@icdlafrica.com, the user name is david and the
name of the mail server is icdlafrica.com. This is the address of the computer which holds
his mail.

Advantages of email
        It is very fast and efficient. Mail is transmitted from the sender to recipient in a
matter of seconds. Recipients can reply immediately. If both happen to be on-line
at the same time, they can conduct a conversation using email.
        Documents and files can be sent with the email. The only limitation is the
maximum size of attachments that your system will permit. It is very cost
effective. The cost of sending an email is a fraction of the price it would be to
send it as a letter.
        there is a saving on paper, printing and envelopes.
        Email clients can be organized so that copies of emails that have been sent can
be stored under appropriate directories.

Disadvantages of e-mail

 If there is a problem with the telephone lines, email cannot be sent or received.
 There are certain security problems such as the interception of email by hackers.
This can be overcome by encrypting email. This requires the email to be coded
into an unintelligible form using a key. The recipients system has access to the
key and is able to decrypt the email.
 Occasionally problems in the complex system between the sender and recipient
occur which cause email to disappear. To know when this has occurred, it is
possible for your system to request a receipt of delivery from the recipient’s
computer.

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  Unsolicited email or spam is becoming a problem. Because it is simple to send
thousands of identical emails to users at the same time, some merchants acquire
lists of email addresses and compile these into distribution lists. They then send
the same advertising email to everyone on the distribution list. To overcome this,
anti-spamming software is now available which identifies certain addresses as
sources of spam and discards any mail that comes from them.

E-Commerce

E-commerce is the name given to the process of carrying out commercial transactions
over the Internet. One of the best known examples is Amazon.com. You can purchase
books anywhere in the world from this web site. You make payment using your credit
card at the same time as making the purchase. Amazon.com exemplifies many of the
characteristics of e-commerce. You are entitled to post a comment on the site, whether
good or bad, about any book you buy. Before you purchase a book, you can look through
the comments of other purchasers. They also have a procedure in place that allows you to
return books under certain circumstances.

To purchase goods using an e-commerce site you need to provide a name and physical
address to which the goods must be sent and a credit card. You can also specify the
delivery method. This will depend on how urgently you need the goods and how much
you are willing to spend on delivery.
Good e-commerce sites will tell you in advance, the availability of the goods, how long
they will take using the different delivery methods and the cost of delivery. There are two
types of e-commerce site. Business to consumer or B2C sites sells directly to the
consumer. Other sites involve transaction between businesses themselves. These are are
Business to Business or B2B sites.

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CNP transactions
When a purchaser uses a credit card to purchase goods, this is known as a Card Not
Present or CNP transaction, since the vendor does not physically see the credit card. A
purchaser not only has to give the credit card number but also the three digit security
code. This means that there are a number of dangers associated with CNP transactions.
In utilizing CNP transactions, vendors need to be sure that the card is not being used
fraudulently.
Purchasers need to be sure that:
        They can afford the goods they are buying. It is very easy to spend money using
a credit card on the Internet.
        The vendor will not abuse the information and make unauthorized debits.
        They should not deal with any unknown sites.
        The information will not be stolen by employees and used fraudulently. Once
again, well known reputable sites will have measures in place and will generally
take responsibility if anything does go wrong.
        The information will not be stolen and used by hackers. Only use sites that are
able to encrypt the information you send using a secure link such as SSL. This
eliminates the risk of insecure payment methods.

Doing Business over the Net

Advantages of on-line purchasing

 No restriction on shopping hours. You can purchase goods 24 hours a day, seven
days a week.
 You are not put under pressure by a salesperson and have time to make a more
rational purchase decision.
 You are not restricted to shopping in an area to which you have physical access.
You can shop across the world.
 Usually it is much cheaper to purchase goods on-line from a virtual store. If you
purchase at source you can eliminate the mark up of intermediaries. Further,
online sites have lower overheads than conventional shops.

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  You have access to a wider range of alternatives.

Disadvantages of on-line shopping from a virtual store

 It is more impersonal as you do not interact with a human being with whom you
can discuss the product you wish to buy.
 You cannot physically see and touch the item you are buying.
 There are certain risks associated with purchasing goods on the Internet with a
credit card. See the section on CNP transactions above.
 Returning defective or incorrect goods can be a problem. This is especially the
case if they have come from another country.

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 UNIT 10: COMPUTER VIRUSES AND INFORMATION
SECURITY
A computer virus is a program that is deliberately created to cause annoyance or alter or
delete data. Some viruses cause computer systems to slow down to the point where they
are not usable. One of the features of viruses is that they are designed to replicate and
spread.

Types of Viruses

Trojan: A Trojan (or Trojan horse) is a virus that hides itself inside another legitimate
program. When the program is used, the virus is released and can begin its work of
replication and annoyance or damage.
Worm: A Worm is a program that replicates itself over and over in the computer's
memory until the computer can barely function. One of the signs of invasion by a worm
is the slowness of computers.
Time bomb: A time bomb is a virus which lies dormant until a certain date or time or for
a period of time. At this date or time, the virus suddenly becomes active and carries out
whatever task it is programmed to do. This can include the deletion of everything on the
hard drive.
Logic bombs: A logic bomb is similar to a time bomb, except that instead of becoming
active at a certain time, it becomes active when a particular activity happens. For
example, instead of formatting a diskette, the virus causes the hard drive to be formatted.

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Macro-viruses: Macro-viruses make use of a special customization feature in
applications called macros. Macros allow you to create mini-programs to carry out
certain tasks in your applications.

Spread of computer viruses

Viruses are spread in a number of ways:
 Downloads from the Internet.
 Pirated software.
 Exchange of diskettes.
 In attachments to emails and in emails themselves.
 In documents. Macro-virus, described above, can be hidden in ordinary
documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Virus Protection
The actions of computer viruses were discussed in the previous section. The measures
you can take to protect yourself against viruses will be discussed in the next section. One
of the main measures to protect against viruses, anti-virus software, is discussed in this
section.
Anti-virus software
Anti-virus software scans files for pieces of code, called signatures, which it recognizes
as part of a virus. Updating anti-virus software mostly involves updating the signatures
file. This should be done on as frequent as basis as possible. This is even more the case
when you receive files regularly from outside sources. The actual anti-virus program
itself will be updated from time to time. These updates will include additional features
and improved methods of scanning.

It is important to keep in mind that no anti-virus software is perfect. It is only as good as

the techniques it uses for detecting viruses and the currency of the signature file. There is
always the chance that a virus will go undetected. However, a good anti-virus system
installed on your system is essential and will usually detect most viruses.

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When a virus is detected, the software will attempt to remove the virus. This is called
cleaning or disinfecting. It sometimes happens that the system can detect the virus but not
get rid of it. In this case, you will usually be given the option of deleting or quarantining
the infected file. When a file is quarantined, it is made unusable and so unable to spread
the virus. A future update of the software may be able to remove the virus. If it can the
quarantine is removed.

Best Practices when Downloading

There are a number of measures you can take to protect yourself from viruses:
 Install good anti-virus software and update it on a regular basis, for example at
least once a month but preferably once a week. But always remember, anti-virus
software is not perfect. It cannot be the only measure you take.
 Scan all diskettes before reading them.
 Enable the auto-protection feature on the anti-virus software to scan emails.
 Be wary of emails from unknown sources, particularly if they contain
attachments. Some very careful users delete emails they are unsure of without
opening them.
 Use an Internet Service Provider than scans emails before delivery.
 Do not download files/software from unknown Internet sites.
 Be careful of using diskettes from unknown sources.
 Do not install pirated software.

DATA VULNERABILITY AND INFORMATION SECURITY

Information Security - Because information and information technology are

fundamental to just about all aspects of modern life, the modern era is often referred to as
the Information age. By its very nature, much information is private and confidential.
Information security refers to all the procedures which are used to protect information for

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deliberate or accidental misuse or dissemination. Technically, it refers to the maintenance
of the integrity of information. Integrity means that the information remains correct at all
times and cannot be accessed by unauthorized agents.

Personal privacy - If personal information such as health or finance status, personal or

family issues and background details became available to unauthorized agents, this could
lead to the standing of individuals being seriously compromised. In some cases it may
have little more effect than a feeling of invasion of personal privacy, while in other cases
in may lead to serious embarrassment, loss of status or job and even blackmail.

Company confidentiality -Business functions by trying to achieve a competitive edge.

This is achieved by making better products and having better marketing strategies. If
competitors found out the formulation of products or details of manufacturing or the
marketing plans for new products, a company would lose its competitive edge. There is
whole dark area to business known as industrial espionage in which a variety of means
are used to discover trade secrets and business dealings. Obviously, there is an absolute
imperative to maintaining the confidentiality of all company information.
A less obvious breach of information security occurs through industrial espionage where
information is either changed or deleted to sabotage the functioning of the organization.

Protecting company information-There are a number of procedures companies can take

to protect their information and these would usually be detailed in a company policy
document which would be explained to the staff on appointment. Often a personal copy
of this document is given to each employee for their records.

Staff employment practices-Basic to good company security are loyal and trustworthy
staff. If staff is likely to have access to sensitive information, they should be thoroughly
screened before they are employed. The more sensitive the information they have access
to, the more vital is this process. Promotion to more sensitive positions can be based on a
good history or loyalty and trust. Part of the staff induction process and on-going staff

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training should inculcate in staff the importance of security and an awareness of the
consequences of its violation.

Security procedures

Information should be classified on the basis of its sensitivity. Access rights to this
information should be limited to those who need to know. To access certain information,
an employee might need a special security clearance.
All access to sensitive information should be recorded. The question of access rights is
discussed further in the next section. Where sensitive information is stored in the form of
paper files, these should be kept in a secure vault. Procedures should be in place that
enables staff to report breaches or suspected breaches of security.
They should be able to report these without fear of reprisal. In large organizations
security departments can be established specifically for the purpose of providing such
channels and monitoring security on an on-going basis. This is often done in conjunction
with forensic auditing. This is a special form of auditing to detect mismanagement and
corruption.

Privacy Issues

Information stored on computers - All computers from laptop computers to

mainframes contain information. Much of this, whether corporate or personal, is
confidential. Many thousands of laptop computers containing important company or state
information have been stolen. Since most corporate records are now kept in electronic
form on computer systems, procedures need to be put in place to protect the computers.
Apart from deliberate violations by people, computers are also subject to accidental
damage and natural disasters.

Physical procedures

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Physical access to mainframes should be restricted to operators and systems
administrators. Facilities should be fire and flood proof. Highly sensitive installations
should also have adequate protection from criminal and terrorist activities.

Desktop and laptop computers are very vulnerable to theft. A simple procedure is to only
allow authorized people access to offices. The use of security cameras can also act as a
deterrent. Desktop computers can be physically attached to the floor or a work surface.

Laptop computers present the greatest risk. They are not only light and easy to pick up,
but they are also more expensive and valuable than desktops. The best protection is not to
let them out of site. If a manager is staying at a hotel, he or she can leave the computer in
the hotel safe rather than their room.

Software procedures -Information can be stolen, altered or deleted without the computer
being physically removed. The information may even be accessed across the Internet.

Firewalls - A firewall is the first line of defense against hackers. It is a computer

program that is installed on a computer that connects a network to the Internet. The
firewall analyses the packets that pass in and out of the network. It is programmed to
follow certain rules which enable it to decide whether or not to allow a packet to pass.
There is firewall software that can be installed on a stand-alone PC.

Access rights - can refer to both physical and software. In a physical sense, these refer to
different members of staff who have to gain physical access to certain areas. For
example, access to the room containing the mainframe may be restricted to operators.
Software rights refer to the level of access different users have to different levels of data
and information.
For example, some users may have no access to certain data; others may only be able to
read the data but not change it. Others in turn may have full rights to create and change
data. Access rights are associated with a user id and password. A user i.d could be a user

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name or a combination of letters and numbers. To log on to a system a user would need a
user id and a password.
As other users may know the user id of colleagues, another level of security in terms of
passwords needs to be added in the form of a password. Passwords are private and should
never be divulged to anyone else. Users could have several user ids, each with a different
level of security. They would log on each time with the lowest level of security they need
to accomplish a given task.

Password policies: refer to guidelines or requirements on the structure and use of

passwords. They can be required for access to a computer system or a group of files or a
single file. The following are some guidelines for password policies:
 They should never be blank.
 They should not be the names of family members or pets or anything else that
would be easy for an intruder to try out.
 Ideally they should never be words, especially words like administrator, admin or
root.
 They should never be less than five characters and preferably longer. Short
passwords can easily be determined by a brute force password cracker. This is a
piece of software that repeatedly feeds in all combinations of letters and numbers
until accessed is gained. With short passwords this can be done in seconds.
 A good policy is to use a meaningless combination of letters and numbers that is
seven or eight characters long. What some users do is to take a meaningful word
such as looking and replace the o with the number 0 and the letter i with the
number 1 so that the password becomes l00k1ng. You could also make a less
obvious change, for example replace k with 3 and g with 9 so that the password
becomes loo3in9.
 Passwords should be changed on a regular basis. Administrators can set a policy
that automatically causes passwords to expire after a certain period of time, for
example 7 days. When using a PC, you would need to use an operating that
provides genuine access protection with a user id and password. This means using
Linux or Windows NT/2000/XP/2003. In Windows 95/98/Me the logon

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 procedure can be bypassed. If Windows NT, 2000, XP or 2003 are used, it should
be in conjunction with the NTFS file system. 
Data encryption
Data should be encrypted. Encryption scrambles the data and makes it unintelligible
without the use of a key. The key is used to decipher the data.

Vulnerability of data (Data Backup)

Data is vulnerable in many ways:

 The system on which it is stored can fail. For example, a hard drive may crash due
to component failure.
 The medium itself may become corrupt. Where data is stored on a magnetic
medium, this can become corrupt due to a number of factors including moisture,
heat, magnetic fields and electromagnetic radiation. Even optical storage which is
highly reliable should never be regarded as infallible.
 The system can be stolen.
 The system could be physically damaged through war, criminal activity,
vandalism or carelessness.
 The system could be damaged as a result of a natural disaster such as a flood, fire
or earthquake.
 The data could be deleted or changed through criminal activity, vandalism or
carelessness.
No matter what care you may take to protect a system, additional copies of data need to
be made and stored on a regular basis. Copies of data are referred to as backups. The
following are some guidelines to working with backups.
 Once backups have been created, they should be store in a secure area at a
different site.
 Never keep backups on the same site as the system. They could be stolen or
destroyed along with the rest of the system.
 Backups should be made on a very regular basis. Even for a small organization,
this should be done daily. Even the loss of a single day's work would be a major

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 problem. In large organizations backing up may take place on an on-going basis.
A schedule of backing up should be clear policy and adhered to.
 More than one copy of data should be made. If the data is very valuable, the
different copies could be stored in different secure locations.
 Different versions of the backup should be retained. The following is an example
of a backup schedule that could be followed. The cycle of backing up starts on the
first Monday of the month. At the end of each day of the week a backup is made.
At the end of the week, there is a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday ... Saturday
backup. On Sunday a backup is created and labeled week 1 backup. This is kept
for the rest of the month. The weekday tapes are then reused and the process
repeated. At the end of the month you end up with a series of weekly backups.
The last one becomes the backup for the month and the process starts over the
next month. At the end of the year you then have a series of monthly backups.
 An appropriate medium for backing up must be used. In the case of companies
this would generally be done using tape, although optical storage is becoming
more common. For personal use, a CD or DVD makes an excellent backup. DVD
writers are still quite expensive.
 Never use diskettes for backup purposes. They are not reliable for this purpose.
Even when backing up a PC, make multiple copies and keep them at another site
for safe storage. You could, for example, use a safety deposit box at a bank.
 Often a network server has two identical hard drives, one being a mirror image of
the other. This means that if one fails the other one can take over. In other words
all the software on the first is identical to the software on the second.
 Software can be backed up by making a copy of the CD/DVD media and then
storing the originals and using the backups to install from. This is allowed by
most software manufacturers. The original is kept under lock and key along with
the license numbers.
Implications of Theft

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Be aware of possible implications of theft of a laptop computer, PDA, mobile phone such
as possible misuse of confidential files, loss of files, loss of important contact details if
not available on a separate source, possible misuse of telephone numbers.

Highly portable devices such as cell phones, PDAs and laptop computers can contain
vital and confidential information. Even if the information is not confidential, it could be
vital to your work. Losing your contact list or diary will very seriously compromise your
business operations.
PDAs, cell phones and laptops usually contain contact lists and diaries. Make sure that
copies of these are kept elsewhere. Cell phones and PDAs come with synchronization
software. This software links the device with a personal computer or laptop and updates
each of them with the latest data. In other words, if you keep your diary on your PDA,
synchronizing will automatically update the diary (and contacts) on the PC or laptop. You
should make sure that your diary and contact list are on two different devices. These
should be kept apart so that they are unlikely to be stolen at the same time. Ideally, you
should make backups of these at the end of every day and keep these backups in a safe
location.

Although you can at least retain your diary, contacts and files through the use of backups,
loss of these can compromise you seriously. If for example, you keep information of your
bank and credit cards details on your PDA, cell phone or laptop, a criminal could make
use of these if they steal these devices.
Personal information and telephone numbers of friends and business colleagues could
make them vulnerable to the activities of criminals

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UNIT ELEVEN: ERGONOMICS, HEALTH AND THE
ENVIRONMENT

Health, Safety and Environment

Ergonomics is the science of co-ordination the physical and psychological aspects of

human beings with their working environment. Although computers present us with great
opportunities for making our work easier, they do present some health and safety risks if
used incorrectly. The science of ergonomics tells us how to use computers correctly.

Figure 11.1: Computer Workstation Variables

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Monitors- If you work with a monitor, tired, sore or blood-shot eyes indicate eye strain.
The following points indicate some aspects of monitors to be aware of.
 Refresh rate: The refresh rate of a monitor is the rate at which it updates the
images on the screen. When the refresh rate is too low, the screen appears to
flicker. Apart from the annoyance factor, this causes eye strain. The refresh rate
should be at least 72 Hz (72 times a second) and preferably higher.
 Monitor filter (Anti-glare screen): Reflections on the screen can cause eye strain.
This can be overcome by using a monitor filter with an anti-glare screen or by
placing a special anti-glare cover in front of the screen.
 Focus: The image on the screen should be sharp. Poor quality monitors have a
slightly blurred effect. This causes the eyes to continually attempt to reduce the
blur.

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  Low radiation: The beam of electrons that strikes the screen to display the image
also sends out electromagnetic radiation. There is some fear that this can be a
health hazard, particularly to pregnant women. Use a monitor with low electro-
magnetic radiation.
 Position: Place the monitor in a position where you can look into the distance at
regular intervals. To the side of a window is an ideal position. You need to change
the focus of your eyes on a regular basis to prevent eye strain.
 Angle: The monitor should be slightly below eye level. Looking up at a monitor
can cause strain in the neck.
 Rest: Take regular rest periods where you do not look at the monitor.
Keyboards and mouse -Repeated use of the same muscles and joints can result in a type
of injury called RSI or Repetitive Strain Injury. This type of injury can range from
inflammation of joints, to damaged ligaments and muscles or even hairline fractures in
bones. RSI is usually caused by the incorrect use of the keyboard and mouse.
 Ergonomic keyboards: Ergonomic keyboards are designed in such a way that the
strain on the hands and finger are reduced.
 Touch typing: Learning to touch type can help reduce strain as it distributes the
work evenly between the fingers. Users who can touch type also tend to use far
less force when striking the keyboard.
 Mouse mats (pads): Mouse mats or pads are available with a cushion for the wrist
to rest on. Repeated clicking of the mouse buttons can lead to inflamed finger
joints. Resting the wrist on the cushion reduces this effect.
 Rest: Take regular breaks to rest the muscles and joints.

Desks and chairs

 Height and position of chairs: The height and position of the chair is an important
factor in reducing strain. These should be adjusted so that:
    The feet can rest flat on the floor. This maintains blood circulation.
    The thigh is horizontal to the floor.

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     The head can be kept upright in line with the spinal column. If the chair is
too high, the head will be bent. This will in turn cause backache.
    A chair with adjustable height will allow you to find the most appropriate
and comfortable height for your build.
 Posture: The back should be slightly bent forward. Sitting rigidly upright for long
periods can cause stress in the back and shoulders.
 Support: There should be support for the lower back to avoid sitting in a hunched
position.
 Rest: It is important to get up and move around on a regular basis. Ideally should
do some stretching exercises to help relax tense muscles.
 Height of the desk: A common problem is having a desk which is too high. This is
largely a matter of trial and error. A good test is whether the elbows are able to
rest comfortable on the work surface.

Health Issues

Lighting and ventilation

It is important to ensure that there is adequate lighting, but does not cause a glare on the
screen. Another important consideration is whether there is enough air circulation in the
room as computers generate a lot of heat and if a room is not adequately ventilated it can
become stuffy and cause fatigue. It is also not good for the equipment so most companies
make use of air conditioning. Other health problems associated with using a computer as
discussed in the previous section are listed below:
 repetitive strain injury
 eye strain caused by the glare on the screen
 back problems due to poor seating or bad posture
Precautions
Apart from health issues, there is a number of safety issues associated with the use of
computers.
 Adequate earthing - A faulty earthing system can cause electrical shock. A good
system will be properly earthed and will incorporate earth-leakage detection. If

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 the system detects a fault that could lead to electrical shock, a switch will trip
before any damage can be done.
 Cabling -It is common to see electrical cabling lying on the floor of offices. Apart
from the fact that it looks untidy, workers can trip over cabling. Electrical cabling
should be installed by electricians so that there is the minimum of open cabling.
Electrical power sockets should be installed close to workstations so that there is
no need to run cabling across the floor. The cabling between the power point and
the computer should be secured using cable ties.
 Load on power points - There should be adequate power points for the
equipment. Overloaded power sockets are a fire hazard. If there is any sound of
sparking in a power socket, the cause should be investigated by a qualified
electrician.

The Environment

Paper - One of the goals on information technology was the paperless office. The reality
is quite different and users are often careless and wasteful in the use of paper. The cost
factor will be considered in the next section. From an environmental perspective, waste
of paper is very damaging. Here are some things that you can do to reduce the
environmental impact.
        do not throw paper away. Set up a storage area for paper that cannot be re-used.
Have this collected on a regular basis for recycling.
        Print on both sides of the paper. Unless you are producing a document in final
form, print on the reverse side of used paper.
        alternatively, look for organizations that can make use of this paper. Many poor
schools would be very glad to get supplies of paper that can still be used on one
side.
Consumables - Often users throw used toner and ink cartridges away. There are two
alternatives. You can have them refilled. If this is not an option because of guarantee
restrictions on printers, you could resell them to companies which refurbish cartridges for
resale. In either case, you reduce the waste output from your organization.

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Power -Another area where users are often careless is electrical power consumption. For
example, many users switch only their monitors off at the end of the day so they do not
have to boot up in the morning. Apart from the security risk, this means that the computer
is running all night and wasting electrical power. Switch off any equipment that does not
need to be on.
When purchasing equipment, low power options could be selected. An example, would
be the purchase of flat LCD screens over conventional monitors as these consume less
power. It is also possible to configure the computer to save power. When a component,
such as the monitor, has not been used for a while, the computer shuts it down.
Environmental Consciousness

Understand that using electronic documents can help reduce the need for printed
materials. Using networks and email, there is little need to send printed documents.
Rather send them in electronic format. In addition to avoiding printing, it is faster and
more efficient.
Avoid printing documents even for you own use unless it is necessary. It is quite possible
to do much of your reading on-screen. Set the zoom and font size to facilitate on-screen
reading.
 

UNIT TWELVE: ETHICAL CHALLENGES OF E- BUSINESS

Ethical and Social Impact of Information Systems

This lesson explores the threats posed by many types of computer crime and ethical
issues posed by used of information technology. 

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Ethics refer to the principles of right and wrong that can be used by individuals acting as
free moral agents to make choices to guide their behavior.

There is no doubt that the use of information technology in E-business operations

presents major security challenges, poses serious ethical questions and affects society in
significant ways.

Information technology and information systems raise new technological questions for
both individuals and societies because they create opportunities for intense social change
and thus threaten existing distributions of power, money, rights and obligations.
Software piracy challenges traditional protections of intellectual property rights and is
one of the ethical issues raised by widespread use of information systems

Five Moral Dimensions of the Information Age

 Information rights and obligations-what information rights do individuals and

organizations have with respect to information about themselves? What can they
protect? What obligations do individuals and organizations have concerning this
information?
 Property rights- how will intellectual property rights be protected in a digital
society in which tracing and accounting for ownership is difficult and ignoring
such property rights is so easy?
 Accountability and control- who can and will be held accountable and liable for
the harm done t individual and collective information and property rights?
 System quality -what standard of data and system quality should we demand to
protect individual rights and the safety of the society?
 Quality of life – What values should be preserved in information and knowledge
based society? What institutions should we protect from violation? What cultural
values and practices are supported by the new information technology

Computer Crime in E-Business

 

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Cyber crime is becoming one of the Net's growth businesses. Today, criminals are doing
everything from stealing intellectual property and committing fraud to unleashing viruses
and committing acts of cyber terrorism.
Computer Crime
 
This is defined as:
1. Unauthorized use, access, modification and destruction hardware, software, data
or network resources.
2. The unauthorized release of information.
3. The unauthorized coping of software.
4. Denying end user access to his or her own hardware, software, data or network
resources and.
5. Using or conspiring to use computer or network resources to illegally obtain
information or tangible property.
 
Among the most common computer crimes are hacking, cyber theft, time and resource
theft, software piracy, piracy of intellectual property and unleashing of computer viruses.

Key Technology Trends that Raise Ethical Issues

Information technology has heightened ethical concerns, put stress on existing social
arrangements and made existing laws obsolete or severely crippled. There are four key
technological trends responsible for these ethical stresses

1.      The doubling of computing power every 18 months has made it possible for
organizations to utilize information systems for their core production processes. This
has increased our dependence on systems and vulnerability to system errors.
2.      Advances in data storage techniques and these have made routine violation of
individual privacy both cheap and effective.
3.      Advances in data-mining techniques have enabled companies to find out much
detailed personal information about individuals.

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4.      Advances in telecommunication infrastructure- have reduced the cost of moving
large quantities of data and open the possibility of mining large data sets remotely
using smaller desktop machines (hacking)

Ethical Analysis

When confronted with a situation that seems to present ethical issues, how should you
analyze and reason about a situation
a. Identify and describe clearly the facts
b. Define the conflict or ethical dilemma and identify the higher order values
involved.
c. Identify the stakeholders
d. Identify the options that you can reasonably take
e. Identify the potential consequences of your options.

Copyrights and the Law

Copyright refers to the legally protected right to publish and distribute any literary,
musical, artistic or software material. This means that only the developer and authorized
sellers have the right to copy and distribute computer software, video materials, music or
text.
Because there is no control over the Internet, there are hundreds of sites where software,
music and videos can be downloaded. Access to permanent connections makes
downloading of large files physically possible. Many of these sites are located in
countries that do not protect copyright.

The fact that it is possible to do something does not make it legally and ethically right.
Authors and developers are entitled to a return on their creative efforts. Downloading
pirated material is both ethically and legally wrong. By reducing revenue, piracy can
hamper the development of software. Software development is expensive and part of the
royalties is needed for future development.

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Software piracy is a form of theft. It is both a criminal and a civil offence. Developers are
entitled to claim damages in cases of piracy. Increasingly they are making use of all legal
avenues to reduce piracy and obtain compensation where it has occurred. They are
entitled to claim damages against not only sites, organizations and individuals who make
pirated software available, but also those who make use of it.

Downloading from the Internet is not the only form of software piracy. Making copies of
software, other than for personal use, as well as installing software on more computers
than specified in the license agreement are both forms of piracy.

Copyright Issues

When you purchase software, you are actually purchasing the right to install the software
on a specified number of machines. Software usually comes out in two forms: standalone
and network. When you purchase standalone software, you are purchasing the right to
install it on a single machine. Generally there are further restrictions that are specified in
the license agreement. Licensee agreements are covered in the next section.

When you purchase a network version of the software, you purchase the right to install
the software on computers attached to a particular network. This may give you the right
to install it on all the computers on the network or a certain maximum number.

It is important to realize that you do not purchase the actual program. The program
remains the intellectual property of the developer. The concept of intellectual property is
used as the developer owns something abstract, something which is the result of
considerable intellectual effort. This also means that you do not have the right to alter the
program in any way other than the configuration allowed in the installation.

However, you may store the program on CD, DVD, zip disk, diskette, hard drive or tape,
the program still remains the intellectual property of the developer. This does not mean

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that you may lend the stored program out to others, though. This would be a breach of
copyright. The stored version is for that purpose only as a backup and for the licensed
user only.
The section on license agreements in the next section specifies some of the copyright
issues in more detail.

Licensing Issues

License agreements

As mentioned in the previous section, when you purchase software, you only purchase
the right to use the software subject to certain conditions. These conditions are specified
in the license agreement. When you install the software onto a computer, there is always
a stage where you have to make a selection that you have read and accept the terms and
conditions of the license agreement. When you do this, you are agreeing to the
developer's rights under copyright law.

The terms of the license agreement include the following:

 Clarification of the license as meaning right to use the software not ownership of
the intellectual property.
 The number of machines on which the software may be installed.
 Restrictions on copying the distribution CD.
 Restriction on the resale of the software.
 Prohibitions on altering the code and reverse engineering. Reverse engineering
involves a process of uncovering the logic and algorithms used to develop the
program.

Shareware

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Shareware is software, generally downloaded from the Internet, which can be freely used
and distributed. However, it does require that if users would like to continue using it, they
pay the developer a fee. This is nearly always done by means of a credit card transfer
across the Internet. When payment is received, users get a serial number which they
insert into the software. 
To attempt to enforce payment, developers usually employ a number of methods:
 Nag notices. These are notices that appear on a regular basis reminding the user
that the software has not yet been registered.
 Time limitations. The software can be used for a certain period of time. At the
end of this period it ceases to work.
 Function limitations. The shareware version may exclude certain key features.
These limitations would be removed when a valid serial number is entered.
Freeware
Freeware is software which can be freely copied and distributed. Usually there are certain
restrictions such as it may not be resold or its source should be acknowledged.

Open Source software

An interesting evolution in software development is the Open Source Movement. This

movement has the objective of creating software that can be distributed freely and used at
no charge. Developers all over the world are encouraged to become part of the
movement. Many corporations are playing an active role in the development of open
source software. Two examples are Linux and OpenOffice.org. The development of
Linux is being actively supported by corporations such as IBM and Sun Microsystems.
Sun Microsystems are central to the development of OpenOffice.org.

Open source software is still subject to a license agreement. However, the license
agreement is quite different in tone and purpose to that attached to commercial software.
The following is an extract from the license agreement of K-Office, another Open Source
office application suite.

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The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and
change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public Licenses are intended to guarantee your
freedom to share and change free software-to make sure the software is free for all its
users.
This license, the Library General Public License, applies to some specially designated
Free Software Foundation software, and to any other libraries whose authors decide to
use it. You can use it for your libraries, too. When we speak of free software, we are
referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure
that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this
service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can
change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can
do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these
rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain
responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the library, or if you modify it.
For example, if you distribute copies of the library, whether gratis or for a fee, you must
give the recipients all the rights that we gave you. You must make sure that they, too,
receive or can get the source code. If you link a program with the library, you must
provide complete object files to the recipients so that they can re-link them with the
library, after making changes to the library and recompiling it. And you must show them
these terms so they know their rights.

Data Protection Legislation

Because of the all-pervading nature of information and communications technology as

well as the ease with data can be accessed and transferred, some countries have
introduced legislation to protect the privacy of individuals and organizations.

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The purpose of data protection legislation is to specify how data may be obtained, stored
and used.
This type of legislation can be very technical and complex.
Some of the key points of the Data Protection Act of 1998 of the United Kingdom are set
out below as an extract illustration of the issues covered.
 The provisions of the act refer to data in whatever way it is stored, whether
electronic or paper.
 Personal data should be obtained in a fair and lawful way.
 Data should be processed in accordance with its original purpose. If data is to be
used for purposes other than for which it is collected, safeguards need to be put in
place to avoid abuse.
 Data must be up-to-date and accurate.
 Data must not be kept for longer than is necessary.
 Appropriate security measures must be in place to prevent: Unlawful or
unauthorized processing; Accidental loss; Damage and Theft.
 Personal data may not be transferred.
 Data may not be used for certain purposes such as direct marketing. In addition,
subjects of the data have certain rights. These include the right to access data held
about them

UNIT 14: DEVELOPING INFORMATION SYSTEM SOLUTIONS

REDESIGNING THE ORGANISATION WITH INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Introduction

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The introduction of new information systems involves much more than new hardware
and software. It also includes changes in jobs skills, management and organization.

You cannot install new technology without considering people who must work with it.
When we design a new information system, we are redesigning the whole organization,
a planned organizational change.

Systems can be technical successes but organizational failures because of failure in the
social and political process of building the system

The purpose of this unit is to give managers an understanding of how end-users can apply
the methodology of systems development to develop and implement information systems.
Managers need to think about how information systems can be used to support business
plans. In addition, managers must be involved in recommending necessary changes in
business processes and directly analyzing current business systems.

After studying this unit you should be able to;

        Define the systems approach in the development of information systems solutions

        Investigate problems or opportunities that may exist in business operations

        Conduct a feasibility study for any proposed project in an organization

        Make an in depth analysis of information needs of an organization and its end-
users.

        Design activities that will help accomplish organizational objectives

        Implement appropriate operational plans developed at the end of the information
planning system.

An institution's MIS should be designed to achieve the following goals:

        Enhance communication among employees.

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         Deliver complex material throughout the institution.
        Provide an objective system for recording and aggregating information.
        Reduce expenses related to labor-intensive manual activities.
        Support the organization's strategic goals and direction.

MIS supplies decision makers with facts; it supports and enhances the overall decision
making process. MIS also enhances job performance throughout an institution. At the
most senior levels, it provides the data and information to help the board and
management make strategic decisions.
At other levels, MIS provides the means through which the institution's activities are
monitored and information is distributed to management, employees, and customers.
Effective MIS should ensure the appropriate presentation formats and time frames
required by operations and senior management are met.
MIS can be maintained and developed by either manual or automated systems or a
combination of both. It should always be sufficient to meet an institution's unique
business goals and objectives.
The effective deliveries of an institution's products and services are supported by the
MIS. These systems should be accessible and useable at all appropriate levels of the
organization

 Achieving Sound MIS

The development of sound MIS is the result of the development and enforcement of a
culture of system ownership. An "owner" is a system user who knows current customer
and constituent needs and also has budget authority to fund new projects. Building
"ownership" promotes pride in institution processes and helps ensure accountability.

Although MIS does not necessarily reduce expenses, the development of meaningful
systems, and their proper use, will lessen the probability that erroneous decisions will be
made because of inaccurate or untimely information. Erroneous decisions invariably
misallocate and/or waste resources. This may result in an adverse impact on earnings
and/or capital.

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MIS which meets the five elements of usability is a critical ingredient to an institution's
short- and long-range planning efforts. To achieve sound MIS, the organization's
planning process should include consideration of MIS needs at both the tactical and
strategic levels. For example, at a tactical level MIS systems and report output should
support the annual operating plan and budgetary processes.
They should also be used in support of the long term strategic MIS and business planning
initiatives. Without the development of an effective MIS, it is more difficult for
management to measure and monitor the success of new initiatives and the progress of
ongoing projects. Two common examples of this would be the management of mergers
and acquisitions or the continuing development and the introduction of new products and
services.

Management needs to ensure that MIS systems are developed according to a sound
methodology that encompasses the following phases:
 Appropriate analysis of system alternatives, approval points as the system is
developed or acquired, and task organization.
 Program development and negotiation of contracts with equipment and software
vendors.
 Development of user instructions, training, and testing of the system.
 Installation and maintenance of the system.

Systems Approach to Information Systems Development

This refers to all the activities that go into producing information systems that provide a
solution to an organizational problem or opportunity. Systems development is a
structured kind of a problem solving with distinct activities.
These activities include systems analysis, systems design, programming, testing,
conversion, production and maintenance. The systems approach emphasizes a systematic
process of problem solving. A number of steps are involved and these include;

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         Define the problem or opportunity

        Gather data describing the problem or opportunity

        Identify alternative solutions

        Evaluate each alternative solution

        Select the best solution

        Evaluate the success the of the implemented solution

Where the systems approach is applied to the development of information system

solutions to business problems, it is called information systems development or
application. Application involves both its specialists and users.

When systems development approach is applied to the development of information

systems solutions, the result is a systems development cycle.

Define the Problem or Opportunity: System Investigation

The first step in the development of an information system is to understand the business
problem or opportunity.

Establishing information requirements of a new system involves identifying who needs

what information, when and how.
Requirements analysis carefully defines the objectives of the new or modified system and
develops a detailed description of the functions that the new system must perform.
Requirements must consider economic, technical and time constraints as well as the
goals, procedures and decision processes of the organization

Understanding of the business plan involves determining whether a business problem or

opportunity exists.

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A feasibility study is conducted to determine whether a new or improved information
system is a feasible solution. This stage includes;

        Screening

        Selection and

        Preliminary study of proposed information system solutions to business

problems.

The investigation may involve the study of study of information systems development
proposals generated by a formal IS planning process. There are typically many
opportunities to use IS to support an organization’s end users and business operations,
management decision –making and strategic decisions. Therefore the business
information system planning helps to generate screen and select potential information
systems for development.

Strategic Information Systems Plan

A strategic information systems plan formulates policies for delivering information

services and allocation information systems resources.

The plan involves a study of how the information systems function can contribute to the
achievement of the goals contained in the strategic plan of the whole organization. The

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emphasis should be to have computer-based information systems that will improve the
firm’s performance and competitive position.

A strategic information plan system also contains a firm’s application portfolio, which
highlights the types of information systems being developed, the business functions
supported and the resources being allocated to the IS function.

The plan also requires an environmental analysis. This involves an analysis of external
business, internal organizational and technical environments. Any problems and
opportunities are highlighted and this includes the potential for the firm to use
information technology for competitive advantage.

Tactical and Operational Information Requirements

Tactical information systems involve the assessment of an organization’s current and

projected information requirements. The requirements are then put into the project
proposals for the development of new improved information system. The projects are
evaluated and a resource allocation plan is developed to specify the hardware, software
and personnel resources and financial commitments required to implement the plan.

Operational information system planning involves the preparation of annual operating

budgets and the planning for individual information systems development projects.
Project planning is also an operational planning function, it involves the development of
plans, procedures and schedules for an information systems development project.

Feasibility Study

Systems analysis also involves a feasibility study to determine whether the suggested
solution is feasible or achievable, given the organization’s resources and constraints. This
is a preliminary study to investigate the information system needs of prospective users in
order to determine the;

        Resource requirements

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         Costs

        Benefits and

        Feasibility of the proposed projects

Three major areas of feasibility must be addressed;

a.       Technical feasibility- whether the proposed solution can be implemented
with available hardware, software and technical resources.
b.      Economic feasibility- whether benefits of the proposed solution outweigh the
costs.
c.       Operational feasibility- whether the proposed solution is desirable within
the existing managerial and organizational framework.

There are different methods of gathering information during the feasibility study and
these include;

       Interviews with employees

       Interviews with customers and managers

       Questionnaires to appropriate end users in the organization

       Personal observation or involvement in the business operations

       Examination of documents, reports and procedure manuals

A cost and benefit analysis is also done during a feasibility study for each proposed
solution. The benefits of each solution are then weighed to determine the most viable
solution.

The main purpose of a feasibility study is to evaluate the alternative systems and to
propose the most feasible and desirable system.

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  Systems Analysis

 Systems Analysis- is the analysis of problem that the organization will try to solve with an
information system. It consists of defining the problem, specifying its causes, specifying
the solution and identifying the information requirements that must be met by the system
solution. The key to building any large information system is a thorough understanding of
the existing organization and system. After this analysis, the systems analyst suggests a
solution and normally the solution requires building new information system or
improving an existing one. There are three basic solution alternatives for every system
problem viz:
                     i.            To do nothing, leaving the existing situation unchanged
                   ii.            To modify or enhance the existing systems
                  iii.            To develop a new system.

Systems analysis is an in-depth study of end-user information needs. The system analysis
process produces functional requirements that are used as a basis for design of a new
information system. Information analysis involves:

        Organizational analysis: the study of information needs of the organization and
its end users.

        Functional analysis- study of the information system capabilities required for
meeting the needs of the end users.

        Study of the activities, resources and products of any present information
system.

Organizational analysis involves a look at the management structure, its people, its
business activities, the environmental systems it must deal with and its current
information systems.

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Functional requirements analysis requires the cooperation of end-users and systems
analysts to determine the specific information needs, the type of information required; the
format, the volume, what the frequency should be and the response times necessary.

It is important to note that functional requirements are end-user information requirements

that are not tied to hardware, software, people resources that users presently or might use
in the new system

System Design
 
Systems design shows and details how the system will meet the information
requirements. Its objectives are;
 To consider alternative technology – analyze the performance of different
pieces of technology, and software, security capabilities of systems, network
alternatives and the portability or changeability of systems alternatives.
 To detail programming, coding of data, documentation, testing and training. In
addition the designers are also responsible for the actual procurement of the
hardware, consultants and software needed by the system.
 Detailing the system specifications- that will deliver the functions identified
during system analysis.

While systems analysis describes what a system should do meet the information needs of
users, systems design specifies how the system will accomplish the objective.

System design consists of design activities, which produce systems specifications

satisfying the functional requirements developed in the systems analysis stage.

The systems design process consists of the design of the user-interface, data and the
processes. The user-interface design focuses on designing the interactions between the
end-users and the computer systems. Data design focuses on the design of the structure of
the databases and files to be used in the proposed information systems.

Computer-aided Systems Engineering

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A Computer-Aided Systems Engineering (CASE) process has emerged due to the
availability of a variety of software packages for systems and software development. It
involves use of software packages called CASE tools to perform many activities of
software development processes.

CASE tools allow the rapid development and testing of software packages. Such models
specifically developed for testing are called prototypes. Prototyping allows for easier
systems analysts to explain to users the kind of systems being developed especially where
end-user requirements are hard to define. The prototype system is then repeatedly defined
until it is acceptable to the users.

Implementation

This is the process that carries out the operational plans development at the end of the
information systems planning. This is important managerial responsibility.
Implementation involves a variety of acquisition, testing, documentation, installation and
conversion activities.

It also involves the training of end-users in the operation and use of the new information
system. Implementation, if not carried out properly may result in a well-designed system
failing. It involves:

        Acquisition of hardware, software and service

        Software development of modification

        End-user training

        System documentation

        Conversion

The Acquisition of Software, Hardware and Services

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This requires suppliers to present bids and proposals based on system specifications
developed during the design stage of systems development. Computers users evaluate
these bids through a scoring system in order to shortlist the best supplier of hardware or
software. Each evaluation factor is given a certain number of possible points and each
competing proposal is assigned points for each factor, depending on how well it meets
the specifications of the computer user.

A formal evaluation process reduces the possibility of buying inadequate or unnecessary

computer hardware or software.

Factors Considered when Evaluating Hardware

        Performance speed, capacity and power

        Cost

        Reliability; the risk of malfunctioning and maintenance requirements

        Availability, delivery date

        Compatibility; is it compatible with existing hardware and software?

        Modularity; can some add-on units expand it?

        Technology; does it run the risk of obsolesce?

        Ergonomics; has it been ‘human factor –engineered’?

        Connectivity; can it easily be connected to wide and local area net works of
different types of computers and peripherals?

        Environmental considerations: what are its electrical power; air conditioning and
other environmental requirements?

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         Software; is the system and application software available that can best use the
hardware?

        Support: are support services available?

Factor Considered When Evaluating Software

Software should be evaluated on the same lines as hardware and factors to consider
include;

        Efficiency; is the software so written that it does not use much memory capacity
of CPU time?

        Flexibility; can it handle its processing assignments easily without major
modifications?

        Security: does it provide control procedures for errors, malfunctions and
improper use?

        Language: is it written in a programming language that is used bu our computer

programmers and user?

        Documentation: is the software well documented?

        Hardware; does the existing hardware have the features required to best use this
software?

After-Sale Service

Most suppliers of hardware and software offer a variety of information systems services
to end users and organizations. These may include employee training, customer holiness
and hardware maintenance.

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Some of these products are provided with no cost and others can be contracted for a
negotiated price. Factors to consider are;

        Performance; what has been the past performance?

        Systems development; are systems and programming consultants available?

        Maintenance: is equipment maintenance provided?

        Training; is the necessary training of personnel provided?

        Back-up; are similar computer facilities available for emergency back-up?

Training

End-users must be trained how to operate a new system otherwise its implementation will
fail. Managers and end-users must be educated in the fundamentals of information
systems technology and its applications to business operations and management.

Conversion

This is the process of moving from one system to another. There are four ways in which
conversion can be achieved;

        Parallel conversion- involves the use of both the old and the new system
together until the project development team and end users management are to
switch completely to the new system. The advantage of this conversion is that
errors can be identified and corrected and operating problems can be solved
before the old system is abandoned.

        Phased Conversion- which allows a gradual implementation process that takes
place within the organization.

        Pilot Conversion- one department or other work site serves as a test site

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         Plunge or direct cutover- the management switches immediately to the new
system abruptly abandoning the old system.

Implementation and End User Resistance

A new way of doing things or a new system generates resistance by the people affected.
The formal technology implementation programs which end-users, management and
consultants can develop to encourage user acceptance and productive use of new
information technologies can minimize end-user resistance.

As a manager you need to encourage user acceptance; this involves

        Educating users about the application by doing skills training

        Sell the system to end-users by developing the relevant documentation

        Develop ergonomic criteria by encouraging end-user feedback

        Do pre-implementation study and a post-implementation review

Program Development Life Cycle 

The development of computer programs is a highly developed and structured process

involving a number of distinct stages as shown in the table below. The stages of
development are known as the program development life cycle.

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 Stage Description
Analysis The problem or task is analyzed and clarified. This involves analysis of the way the
task is currently being done and consultation with end users. The project is set out in
broad outline. The work of this stage is performed by systems analysts.
Design The project is broken down into smaller sections. These too may be further broken
down until there are units. The method of programming each unit is then specified in
great detail. The most suitable programming language for each unit is then chosen.
The complete specification is the final design. The work of this stage is also
performed by systems analysts.

Programming The design is handed over to programmers who code the design into programming
languages such as C or Java. The work of this stage is carried out by computer
programmers.
Testing Since programs are long and complex, they may contain errors called bugs. These
may be syntactical errors, in which the programmer made a mistake in the structure of
the command, or logical errors. In these the program appears to work, but works
incorrectly. The process of testing is designed to find and eliminate bugs. This stage
involves end users to try out the program, programmers to fix syntactical mistakes and
systems analysts to fix errors in the logic of the program.
The following are often also included as part of the development cycle.
Implementation Once the systems analysts are satisfied that the
system is operating correctly, it is installed and
implemented. Usually this is done using a pilot
group. In this implementation, the system is
implemented on a limited scale to start with. If any
further bugs are found, these can be
eliminated before full scale implementation
Further Once the system has been in use for a while, further
development problems, limitations or performance problems may
become apparent. The system will then be modified
and new versions released with the changes.

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