One of the reasons that the implementation of innovation and technical change sometimes fails, is that many people, including key decision-makers at senior management levels, do not fully understand and appreciate the potential of various innovations and new technologies. You can use the information provided in these sections, along with information in the education and training sections, to help you raise peoples' awareness.
From here, you can scroll down the page or click on the titles below to access introductory information regarding the following topics:
Types of information
technology
Information systems have changed and matured a great deal over the past forty years. Their
power has increased, their costs have decreased, and they have moved from the technical
and operational areas of an organisation, into the knowledge, management and strategic
realms. In this Topic Assistant, we will be addressing several types of information
technology. Although there is some overlap among the categories, it will help us to
broadly distinguish the types of services information technology provides in many
organisations. Information on each topic can be accessed by clicking on the listing below
or by scrolling down the page:
Office
automation systems
Tools such as spreadsheets, image storage systems,
word processors, electronic calendars, personal databases
and note-taking systems, desktop publishing, workstations
and presentation packages, all facilitate the processing
of personal and organisational business data, perform
calculations, and help create and present information.
One of the main functions automated by information technology in many offices is the communications function. Electronic communication systems have fundamentally changed the way we do business. Below we will cover various forms of teleconferencing, electronic mail and voice mail.
Teleconferencing permits two or more people to electronically transmit data. There are several examples of different types of teleconferencing. Audioconferencing allows multiple people to participate in a single telephone call. Computer conferencing allows multiple people to exchange text messages via computers. Audiographic conferencing extends audioconferencing to allow participants to also see graphical and pictorial information as well as text. Videoconferencing is a video-based teleconference where all those participating can see each other.
Electronic mail (e-mail) allows people to send text-based messages and documents to others. Research indicates that e-mail can enable more effective communications between individuals and project teams at diverse locations. E-mail can facilitate: project activity coordination, progress monitoring, information distribution, feedback provision, brainstorming and 'keeping in touch'. All of this generally helps support group activity.
E-mail systems revolve around personal addresses. The basic format of an e-mail address is:
[personal identifier]@[sub-organisation, if necessary].[organisation].[type of organisation].[country code if outside the U.S.].
For example, my e-mail address follows the pattern and is: J.Carlopio@agsm.unsw.edu.au.
Bill Gates at Microsoft used to have the following address that follows the simpler pattern, as it is in the U.S. and there is no sub-organisation: billg@microsoft.com.
There are four organisation-type identifiers typically used: .edu - for educational organisation
.com - for a commercial organisation
.gov - for a government organisation
.org - for a non-commercial organisation
Voice-mail allows people to send and receive vocal messages. It combines the traditional telephone answering machine with the editing and forwarding capabilities of e-mail.
Remember that communicating electronically, is not the same as communicating face-to-face with an individual or a group. When communicating via e-mail, for example, many of the social cues normally present in face-to-face communication are missing. Non-verbal cues in our tone of voice and facial expressions frequently provide critical pieces of information. Without this information it is easy to experience mis-understandings.
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Transaction
processing systems.
These are the basic business systems at the operational level of the organisation. These
systems collect, control and store information regarding business transactions.
Transaction processing systems can be used to facilitate customer sales order entry, or to
record a sale and generate a receipt. They can help process payroll, validate a credit
card, make point-of-purchase funds transfer, and make automated travel-agent, hotel,
airline and automobile-hire booking systems possible.
Examples in sales and marketing are order tracking and processing; in manufacturing, machine control, plant scheduling, material movements control; in finance, securities trading and cash management; in accounting, payroll, accounts payable and receivable; in HR, compensation, training and development, and employee record-keeping. System outputs are such things as listings of all sales during a week. Unfortunately, this type of raw data is not very useful when trying to manage an organisation. That is where our next topic, management and executive information systems, comes in.
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Management
and executive information systems.
These systems summarise and report on the basic operations of the organisation. They
convert data from transaction processing systems into information used to manage an
organisation. Computerised management information systems generate information
facilitating performance management and unit coordination.
In a sales example, listings of every sale during a given period of time is not very helpful to a manager. A management information system can convert this data into more useful information such as total sales per item-type, per hour of the day, per store, per sales-person, etc. Newer, executive information systems take management information systems one step further allowing the user to isolate and model data interactively. The user can employ a variety of tools to investigate and model business activity according to a number of variables such as geographical region, volume and revenue, product line or cost centre.
Management information systems can be used for sales management, inventory control, annual budgeting, and capital investment analysis. Executive information systems can be used for five-year sales trend forecasting, operations planning, budget forecasting, profit planning, and strategic human resources management (i.e., a human resource information system or HRIS).
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Decision
support systems.
These systems provide information, models, and/or analysis tools to facilitate
decision-making. They are different from management information system as they offer users
flexibility, adaptability and quick response. In semi- and un-structured situations, a
decision support system can help manipulate data and help isolate places where judgement
and experience are required. Tools such as spreadsheets, graphics packages, data base
management systems, and sophisticated modelling techniques can be used to support
decision-making.
These tools take transaction processing systems and management information systems one step further by providing increased flexibility that facilitates analytical work in less structured, non-routine situations where there is no clear criteria for success. Regional sales analysis, production scheduling, cost analysis, pricing/profitability analysis, contract cost analysis are typical examples.
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Execution
systems.
Execution systems help people to do work that provides value for customers. The classic
execution system is an expert system that can help a surgeon plan an operation, help a
doctor make a diagnosis, or help a maintenance engineer keep a machine running by aiding
problem identification and suggesting potential solutions. A computer-aided-design (CAD)
system, or an engineering and graphics work-station that supports the value-added work of
designers and architects, is another example.
[See related information on computer-aided-design (CAD) systems. ]
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Groupware
systems.
Groupware systems are integrated closed systems that facilitate people working together in
groups by structuring information and work flows, and by structuring communication and
group processes. Products such as Lotus Notes, First-Class and Grouputer are examples that
provide functions such as electronic brainstorming, anonymous topic commenting, voting and
displaying presentation material.
For more information on groupware contact:
Lotus Development Pty Ltd 321 Kent St., Sydney 2000 (02) 9350-7700
Grouputer Corporation Pty Ltd 8 Mary St., Hunters Hill 2110 (02) 9879-6456
SoftArc, Developers of FirstClass at http://www.softarc.com/
The
Internet
With approximately 3.3 million users in Australia and over 20 million users in the U.S.
(U.S. estimates range from 36.8M to 11.5M of the total population of 270M), the Internet
has grown beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Marketing data suggest that 80% of users are
male and university or technically educated, and 65% are between 25 and 44 years old. Some
people think the Internet is the greatest thing to happen so far in the 20th century and
that it will transform the world. Others think the Internet is a tool of the devil. Like
most cases of this kind, I suggest the realities lie somewhere in between these two
extremes.
In this section on the Internet we will cover several issues. Information on each can be accessed by clicking on the listing below or by scrolling down the page:
A history of the Internet
Internet capabilities
Problems on the
Internet
Internet
benefits to organisations
The future of the
Internet
Suggested further
reading
A
history of the Internet
In 1964 a researcher at the Rand Corporation (the foremost U.S. Cold War think tank) named
Paul Baran designed a computerised communications network that had no hub, no central
switching station and no governing authority.
The principles were simple. The network itself would be assumed to be unreliable at all times and would be designed to transcend its own unreliability. All the nodes (i.e., computers or users) in the network would be equal in status to all other nodes. Each node would have its own authority to originate, pass, and receive messages. The messages themselves would be divided into packets, each packet separately addressed. Each packet would begin at some specified source node and end at some other specified destination node. A message packet would wind its way through the network on an individual basis. If any packets were missing or mangled (and it was assumed that some would be), they were simply re-sent. Packets would be passed from node to node in the general direction of their final destination until they got there.
This might be inefficient, in the traditional sense, but it would be extremely robust. During the 60s, these concepts were further explored and developed. By December 1969, there were four nodes on an infant network, which was named ARPANET, after its Pentagon sponsor. The four computers could transfer data on dedicated high-speed transmission lines, be programmed remotely from the other nodes, and enabled scientists and researchers to share information and computer facilities by long-distance. As computer-time was precious in the early '70s, this turned out to be a great advantage.
In 1971 there were fifteen nodes in ARPANET; by 1972, thirty-seven nodes. The main traffic on ARPANET, however, was not turning out to be long-distance computing; it was news and personal messages. Researchers were using ARPANET to collaborate on projects, to trade notes on work and to establish personal contacts. People had their own user accounts on the ARPANET computers and their personal addresses for electronic mail. Person-to-person communication, not long-distance computation, turned out to be the main activity on this baby Internet.
Throughout the '70s, ARPA's network developed and grew. The mailing-list, an ARPANET broadcasting technique in which an identical message could be sent automatically to large numbers of network subscribers, was invented. Communication standards (TCP/IP) emerged. TCP, or "Transmission Control Protocol," converts messages into streams of packets at the source, then reassembles them back into messages at the destination. IP, or "Internet Protocol," handles the addressing, seeing to it that packets are routed across multiple nodes and even across multiple networks with multiple standards.
During the '70s and '80s many people found themselves in possession of powerful computers. It was fairly easy to link these computers into the growing network of networks. Since the software called TCP/IP was public-domain, and the basic technology was decentralised and open by nature, people came in and linked-up. This branching growth of complex networks came to be known as the "Internet." The nodes in this growing "Web" were divided into several varieties. Non-U.S.-based computers, and a few in America, chose to be denoted by their geographical locations. The others were grouped by the six basic Internet "domains": .gov, .mil, .edu, .com, .org and .net (i.e., government, military, educational, commercial, non-commercial, and computers that served as gateways between networks).
ARPANET formally expired in 1989. From its beginnings with four nodes in 1971, today there are tens of thousands of nodes in more than forty-two countries, in the Internet. The Internet's pace of growth is fantastic. Recently, the Internet has been growing at a rate of twenty percent a month. The number of "host" machines with direct connection to TCP/IP has been doubling every year since 1988. The Internet is moving out of its original base in military and research institutions, into elementary and high schools, as well as into public libraries and the commercial sector. The Internet, which is not really an entity even though we talk about it as such, never "charges" for anything. Each group of people accessing the Internet is responsible for their own machine and their own section of line. Internet service providers (ISPs), local people or organisations who can provide you with access to the Internet, will charge you for their services and for access to their computers and connections. The Internet, however, does not.
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Internet
capabilities
There are three basic Internet capabilities: (1) person-to-person communications, (2)
information retrieval and (3) the World Wide Web. Each will be discussed in turn.
1. Person-to-person communications. The main Internet person-to-person communication service is electronic mail (e-mail). E-mail is discussed in the section on 'Types of information technology'. There are three other Internet person-to-person communication services that we will mention below: usenet groups, chatting and telnet.
2. Information retrieval. We will discuss three information retrieval functions: file transfers/FTP, gophers and Archie.
3. The World Wide Web (Web) is another information retrieval tool similar to gophers and Archie. The Web is different, however, as it is making the commercial use of the Internet possible. There are three elements of working with the Web with which you should be familiar: home pages, browsers and html. After discussing these, we will address electronic commerce which is the paperless exchange of business information using such applications as electronic data interchange (EDI) and electronic finds transfer (EFT).
http://www.[organisation].[type].[country code]
where [organisation] is an abbreviation of your organisation name, [type] is either gov, mil, edu, com, or org (i.e., government, military, educational, commercial, and non-commercial), and [country code] is the country code which is "au" for Australia.
Your home page will introduce you, your group or your company, and will explain to users how your Web site is organised. It also frequently provides links to other pages within your Web site and to other home pages of interest on the Web. You access home pages by navigating (or surfing) the Web. In order to do this, you need a piece of software called a Web browser (described below). The pages in a Web site are created and linked using a relatively simple programming language known as HTML (hyper-text mark-up language, described below).
Electronic commerce is a general term applied to the use of computer and
telecommunications technologies, particularly on an inter-enterprise basis, to support
trading in goods and services.
Electronic commerce uses a variety of technologies including electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic mail (e-mail), electronic funds transfer (EFT), facsimile, electronic bulletin boards and database services.
Electronic commerce technologies can be used in any environment where documents are exchanged between organisations, including procurement, purchasing, finance, trade and transport, health, the law, and revenue and tax collection.
Although the number of Internet users is large, the number of people actively engaged in electronic commerce is significantly smaller and very hard to estimate. This leads us to a consideration of several problems on the Internet.
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Problems on
the Internet
There are several problems that you may encounter when working on the Internet.
Security is a major concern for some. Since the Internet has evolved as an open, unsecured system, sensitive or proprietary information can not be easily kept secure. Information regarding business transactions, credit card details and patterns of use can be accessed. There are efforts under way to address these issues.
There are still serious technical problems remaining on the Internet. The technology is not mature and there are few agreed upon standards regarding sending attachments to e-mail messages for example. Because of a variety of problems, accessing certain Web sites can be difficult. If use is heavy, certain sites can not be accessed or it can take as much as several minutes to transfer certain information.
Communicating electronically, is not the same as communicating face-to-face with an individual or a group. One of the major differences is that when communicating electronically, via e-mail for example, many of the social cues normally present in face-to-face communication are missing. Non-verbal cues sometimes provide the majority of the information in a communication interaction. We rely on vocal and facial cues, for example, to signal emphasis, a joke and many other critical pieces of information.
This lack of non-verbal cues can lead to mis-understandings as well as to group decisions that are more polarised, more extreme and more risky than would be the case with face-to-face interaction. The phenomena of "flaming" is an example. Research indicates that in computer mediated communication there is less argumentation, but there is also more uninhibited communication or "flaming", as it is called. People can experience extreme and intense reactions to computer mediated communications because of the loss of certain social inhibitory and normative cues.
In many forms of computer mediated communication we also find what is known as a "pause problem" related to a lack of social cues. People are not sure of how to change from the role of speaker to listener as there are no body or vocal cues to be followed. This is a frequent problem in various forms of teleconferencing. Research suggests that by providing a computer feature that explicitly signals when one speaker is finished, or when the listener wishes to make a comment, the pause length can be reduced significantly as compared to when no such cues are available.
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Internet
benefits to organisations
Basically, people are looking to the Internet to do several things for them. The Internet
has the potential to reduce communications costs and to enhance communication and
coordination. While there are certainly costs associated with bringing Internet links to
people in an organisation, communicating via the Internet is significantly less expensive
than via fax and telephone. Electronic communication tools such as e-mail,
teleconferencing and Intranets (i.e., internal or closed Internets) can certainly
facilitate communication as well. Messages and documents can be passed around the globe,
or within the organisation, with little concern for time differences or whether the parson
is actually there at the time or not.
The Internet also has the potential to accelerate the distribution of information, to improve customer service and satisfaction, and to facilitate marketing and, eventually, sales. Information about products and services can be made available to customers relatively quickly. Many advertisements in the printed and television media are including Web addresses. This helps put potential customers in touch with companies. Once security and other technical problems are solved, the potential for commercial transactions via the Web can begin to be more fully realised.
Basically, the Internet, along with other forms of computer mediated communication, can help an organisation deal with the problems of dispersion of its members over space and time. Clearly, computer-mediated groups can be at different point in space and time and still be working together. The most interesting use of this feature I have come across to date is a group of design engineers who start off with a specification or design in Sydney, for example, work on it for an 8-hour day, pass it on to their counter-parts in the U. S., who continue to work on it and then pass it on to their associates in Europe, who do the same, and then send it back around to the starting point in Sydney. This enables them to work on the project for 24-hours continuously. From the perspective of those at the starting point, it has had "three days" of work done on the project in the space of one day.
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The future
of the Internet
The future of the Internet looks bright. As security and band-width problems are solved,
it can continue to get bigger and to grow exponentially faster.
Upgraded networks are expected to be at least fifty times faster than the fastest networks available today. Computer networks worldwide are expected to feature 3-D animated graphics, radio and cellular phone-links to portable computers, as well as fax, voice and high-definition television.
There are reasons to be cautious, however, when considering the future of the Internet. New technologies emerge continually. Some of these may negatively impact the Internet. For example, cable television may become a "competitor" to the Internet. Another potential problem is that as electronic commerce grows, governments may try to intervene and to regulate the system. Finally, censorship of the Internet in the future is a continual problem, with strong feelings and arguments on both sides of the debate.
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Suggested further
reading
For more information on electronic commerce try the following Web sites:
Premenos Corp. White Paper: The Future of Electronic Commerce at http://www.premenos.com/premenos/press/white.html
Government Electronic Marketplace Service Commonwealth of Australia at http://www.pa.gov.au/eco/gen_info/eco.htm or at http://www.gems.gov.au
Electronic Commerce Australia (ECA) at http://www.sofcom.com.au/eca Level 1, 61 Commercial Road, South Yarra, Victoria, 3141 Phone: +61 3 9820-0499, Fax: +61 3 9820-0467
For further general reading regarding the Internet try:
Kehoe, B. P. (1992). Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide to the Internet, 2nd Edition (July). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. The 1st Edition, (February) is available in Postscript format via anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.widener.edu and other Internet archives.
Krol, E. (1992). The Whole Internet Catalog & User's Guide. O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Sebastopol, CA.
LaQuey, T. & Ryer, J. C. (1992). The Internet Companion: A Beginner's Guide to Global Networking. Reading, MA.: Addison Wesley. Quarterman, J. (1990). The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide. Bedford, MA.: Digital Press. Tennant, R., Ober, J.. & Lipow, A. G. (1993). Crossing the Internet Threshold: an Instructional Handbook. San Carlos, CA.: Library Solution Press.
Intranets
Business hype regarding the Internet and the World Wide Web (Web) has reached fever pitch
even as many businesses are abandoning their first attempts at developing a Web-site
presence. In the wake of this fervour, many businesses are trying to figure out not only
how they can use the Web in their company, but also how it can be used to make and/or to
save money. Coming to the fore in this regard is something called the Intranet. Recent
surveys indicate that interest and development effort on Intranets is even higher than for
Internet sites.
So what's an Intranet and why should that be any better than our Internet site that I have decided to no longer support? Intranets use the same technologies that are used to access the World Wide Web on the Internet. Intranets use web server and browser technology to create an internal, closed network for a given business.
An Intranet network may include stakeholders such as customers or suppliers who are outside the company's four walls. This network can still rightfully be called an Intranet, as it still includes a defined group and is not open to the whole world as the Internet is. In fact, many Intranets are not even connected to the outside Internet at all. In this respect Intranets are similar to existing LANs or WANs (local area or wide area networks). The difference is that Intranets are hardware and software independent - Mac's can communicate seamlessly with PCs via an Intranet. The web browser interface is what facilitates this near miracle.
Intranets can be used in a number of ways to provide immediate benefits to your firm:
The decision to automate or to introduce an Intranet should be taken as a business decision - there must be identifiable and defined costs and benefits. It is clear that for some businesses there are significant benefits to be achieved from implementing an Intranet.
References
Information in 'Information Technology' section is based on:
Alter, S. (1996). Information systems. Menlo Park, CA.: Benjamin/Cummings.
Some information in 'Internets' section has been adapted from:
Elmer-Dewitt, P. (1993). Technology: First nation in cyberspace. Reprinted from Time Magazine at http://gate.uwe.ac.uk:8000/help/OffSite/bdgtti/bdg_263.html
Laudon, K. C. & Laudon. J. P. (1996). Management information systems. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Sterling, B. (1993). Short History of the Internet. http://www.protocom.com/internet/internet/internet_short.history
The article in 'Intranets' section appeared in the Australian Financial Review on Friday July 26, 1996 under the title: "Switching to the Intranet will become a business imperative" by Dr. James Carlopio and Thomas Short