The Role of Computers in Business

Information Technology, like language, affects us on many levels and has fast become
integral to all of our lives. In this course we aim to strike a balance in studying both the
social and commercial forces of Information Technology, and networking, in particular.

Let's take a moment here to introduce the commercial forces.

I am quite certain that each and everyone of you has witnessed first hand, even if it
wasn't readily obvious, the impact that computers and computer networks have had on
business.

In fact, by now the role of computers in business has risen to the point where computer
networks, even more than personnel, are synonymous with the corporate entity. Is this
not true?

What do I mean? Dell Computers ? isn?t a group of people making and selling personal
computers as much as it is a collection of loosely affiliated computer systems that, upon
receiving an order or customer service request (all online!), come together in a linear
process to do a job. Cisco Systems ? isn?t so much a manufacturer of switches as it is a
trusted brand name and expert marketer who happens to use the Internet and a
sophisticated ?network of networks? to weave together suppliers, manufacturers, and
distributors to form a coordinated, fully branded, fully customized virtual entity that we

know as Cisco. When orders slowed in 1999, Cisco?s response

involved rationalizing their supply-base ? leaving capital-intensive subcontractors to
squeeze already razor thin margins just to participate in the new, leaner, and ever-
responsive sales network. Indeed Cisco?s information systems are their competitive
advantage.

Computers and computer networks act as the central nervous system of today?s
enterprise. Today's regular business people aren?t just relying on them...they're directly
administering, monitoring, and configuring them. While IT staff with specialized skills
may focus on application development, integration, and support, today?s business
professional requires information technology knowledge to navigate and operate IT
systems, to design, customize, and test systems for competitive advantage, and to seek
out and identify new solutions that can transform their business.

Posted by Mark Hemphill on September 15, 2004 | Permalink

Comments
Just ignore my last post..

Posted by: Rie MacVicar | Sep 17, 2004 12:55:36 AM

may you kindly help me in finding about the role of databse,microsoft etc role in business

Posted by: SPHESIHLE | Mar 10, 2005 9:43:57 AM

computers are extremely important in todays business's not only pcs but other kinds of
computers today most noticable the evelution of debit and credit cards this is all
electronic. It is the most convient and safest way to carry around your money.
Then there is the actual pcs and fax machines that have made things much easier to
recieve documents email information, find out information and much more that a
company might need to do quickly.
Also the standard pc is a great way of storing information or using special software to
make our jobs easier and erase human error that might occur . I am thinking of my
accounting class when saying this.

Posted by: keith | Sep 22, 2005 3:01:02 PM

I really agree how you said computers and computer networks act as the central nervous
system of today's enterprise. That is very true. It is not very often that you go to a
business and see them without a computer. Computers don't make mistakes (software
does though), you can store files upon files in a computer and it doesn't use a lot of space,
it is time efficient and if you are ever stuck with something at your work all you have to
do is look it up on the internet because it is most likely there. There is almost 9 billion
sites on google so there is plenty of information to go around.

Posted by: Michael Roberts | Sep 23, 2005 12:47:20 PM

Business's these days use computers for everything: ordering products, shipping
information, price checks in retail stores, etc. and they reduce the amount of human
interferance which eliminates a greater margin of error. Instead of having to pick up the
phone and waste time being put on hold or transfered around until you get the right
person, you simply send an email or order through a wholesalers site online with no
waiting involved with the exception of the time it takes to get the product to you. And
communicating with company's around the globe is much easier by email or
teleconference, not having to wait until the correct time of day.

Posted by: Alex Key | Sep 23, 2005 3:39:58 PM

The picture above is really familiar to me! and this remind me of the role of computer in
business which bring so much adventages in my daily life!
This is one of the example of using computer in business: In Hong Kong, but I suppose
many other places have this technology too, the "Octopus" card convinient our lives a lot;
By using the "Octopus" card, we can pay the fare by bus, MTR, train, ferry; things from
convinience store, super market etc.

Posted by: Christy Lau | Sep 28, 2005 12:43:12 PM

It is true that business is expanding quite a bit because of the internet and its applications
that are available to almost eveyone is the world in such a short time. This is just a little
reminder of how ebusiness and the role of computers in business, Bill Gates was reported
for the 11th time that he is the richest man in the worl with a net worth of 51 billion (us.)
Obviously his net worth is next to impossible to also achieve through ebusiness and
business in general. But think of this though, the founders of google, Sergey Brin and
Larry Page, are the 16th richest in the world with 11 billion each. The scary thing is that
last year, their net worth was only 4 billion each. In one year for google they each made 7
billion dollars!! So if you are thinking that ebusiness or business with computers is not
the way to make money for you, think it over, because we are entering a very new world
with how computers are being used, and obviously there is money out there, even if it is a
little lower then 51 and 11 billion.

Posted by: Bryce Elsley | Sep 29, 2005 5:08:39 PM

Let's take a step back for a minute...if we were to all think carefully through our days we
would find that we use computers and the internet for "normal" transactions everyday.
Can you begin to imagine what Information Technology and the Internet has done for
Ebusiness. Banks have opened up to an entirely new market by way of internet banking.
Retail stores can ship goods all over the world. Ebusiness consists of a central hub which
is the computer. There is no longer a need for as much staff...computers can be
programmed to function more efficiently than a person. The question is how far will this
go in terms of job replacement? Will unemployment increase because of these ever-
growing technological developments and how will that effect the economy?

Posted by: Asha | Oct 2, 2005 11:32:53 AM

Computers are so important in our everyday lives that they are even involved in the
school system. Students are generally asked to type any reports etc. on the computer now.
This can make it easier for the teacher/professor in correcting, seeing as everything is
evenly spaced and there is never any question in what the student is writing. As well any
information that they are looking for is generally at the click of a button. In business they
can use computers for calculations, adding calculations by hand and with a calculator do
not always give us the right result.
Even though there are many bonuses to computers they also have their downfalls. One is
not completely safe from identity theft, so we generally have to be careful and only use
trusted sites and never give away any personal information such as SINs and credit cards
on untrusted sites.

Posted by: Jillian Banks | Oct 2, 2005 7:31:10 PM

In response to the question posed by Asha about jobs being lost I think the answer is
definately yes. With computer capabilities now the jobs for people who used to report
info to head offices are irrelevant all information can just be pulled through to a main
computer. Sales reps will be reduced as more and more people get accustomed to
ordering over the internet. Naturally if a business can increase sales and lower expenses
that is what they will do.

Posted by: Jason | Oct 3, 2005 11:43:57 AM

I also agree with Michael that computers and computer networks act as the central
nervous of today’s enterprises. Anywhere you go now you will see a computer, from the
grocery store to a gas station. It is a scary thought to think about offices or hospitals in
our day and age without computers in their systems. It is actually very hard to picture and
it is something that really I don’t think we could live without in our age.

Posted by: Peter MacSwain | Oct 4, 2005 6:41:40 PM

Well I had previously read this blog, but after going over it again it really made me think
about how computers are used in retail outlets. For example lets say you wanted to buy a
new computer at Future Shop. You walk up to the doors which automatically open, you
walk through them and find a salesperson who explains all the different features. He then
punches in your information into the computer and swipes your visa. You are about to
walk out the door with your new computer when you here a beeping noise because the
cashier forgot to take the theft detector off which was set off when you attempted to
leave.

Posted by: Sarah Schmeisser | Oct 11, 2005 7:34:10 PM

Today business professional requires information technology knowledge to navigate and

operate IT systems. I will agree with you on that.
But what I have noticed is that business professional are not the only people who requires
some knowledge in IT this days.
These days even a simple clerk in an office is required to have a bit of IT knowledge. For
example some word processing or even how to operate a new revolutionized cleaning
machine bought by the company.

Posted by: Nkulu Patient | Jan 25, 2006 11:12:49 AM

Computers play a significant role in inventory control, processing and handling orders,
communication between satellite companies in an organization, design and production of
goods, manufacturing, product and market analysis, advertising, producing the company
newsletter, and in some cases, complete control of company operations. Businesses, and
particularly the marketing aspect of businesses, rely a great deal on the use of computers.

Posted by: md romiz uddin | Jan 25, 2006 7:40:35 PM

Computer plays a vital role in every step of business.For analysing, designing
,advertising or marketing whatever we need computer.Now every company use their data
base to record their sales and purchase their production.As for example, if we simply look
at the superstore than we can see that they are using the computer to record their sales.
And they didn't even write the amount .They use the bar code and computer
automatically figure it out.

Posted by: A.K.M TAZUL ISLAM RIAD | Jan 25, 2006 11:21:44 PM

I am curious to see how our generation will continue to use ebusiness. My gradparents
are terrified to use their credit cards online or to order things from amazon.com. They
don't trust the new technology. My parents are finally learning to rely more on new
technology and are fully realizing the potential for ebusiness, but they are going slowly
one step at a time. I wonder what our generation will be like in the future. We seem to be
a very open minded generation that can cope with change better then in past generations,
but will we ever be in the same position as our grandparents and parents and just be
scared to advance to the next step? I wonder about that sometimes.

Also, replying on what Asha asked about unemployement, I don't think unemployment
will go out of control and increase drastically. For the next few years this is a posibility
but in the future I think it will level out. If you have a 40 year old employee that works on
a car assembly line, but is not needed anymore, yeah sure he/she will add to
unemployment. He/she's also not likely to go back to university and learn computer
science, so for the rest of his/her life find it hard to get a job.

Saying this, I think a lot of the youth of today will know more about computers. Yes, IT
is destroying old jobs that used to be done by humans, but I don't think there is or will be
any lack of computer jobs. Our Computer Science Co-op program is in drastic need of
more entries because even in Charlottetown, more computer oriented people are needed. I
think there are still many jobs available, its just the older generations are not educated in
computers enough to do them. Therefore I think for the next few years unemployement
may go up, but it will eventually level off as the younger generations increase their
knowledge of computers.

Posted by: David McKenna | Feb 1, 2006 11:36:17 AM

Can you even imagine owning a business without a computer in today's world? Definitely
not.Every organization needs computers from hospitals, to keep track of patient's
information, to retail stores, to keep track of inventory and ring in the merchandise.
Computers make running a business so much more efficient and organized. I think back
to the "old days" and wonder how hard it must have been to run businesses such as a
small store without a computer.

Posted by: Jenna Foy | Feb 1, 2006 4:14:50 PM

I honestly believe that computers are a necessity to any and every business. As Jenna
stated earlier, can you imagine trying to run a business without one? Computers are very
important to the business world. Not only are they used like a filing cabinet to organize
and store things, they are also used in some cases in place of a mail man..it is much easier
and quicker to correspong by email than having to send everything by regular mail.
Computers have also taken the place of type writers in most cases. They are also used to
communicate with other over long distances, like having teleconferences for instance. It
is much easier to organize a teleconference than to travel out of town to meet with
people. I think computers are essential to the business world today for a variety of
reasons. I cannot imagine a business operating without a computer of some sort

Posted by: Jen | Feb 1, 2006 4:32:45 PM

verygood

Posted by: susri | Mar 30, 2006 6:44:12 AM

your search about "role computer in our life" is very good & interesting. but too lengthy,
because people do not have much time but also get many knowledge in short time. like
me.
otherwise you is so good.

Posted by: mehtab | Sep 9, 2006 10:55:38 AM

after reading ur note on computers i honestly agree that computers have become a
necessity for today. as of today without computers is like living a life without food. not
only in business but also for personal purposes a computer is necessary. Today business
owes its life to computers. computers have made the work of the business comparitively
faster and accurate. U just need some softwares or programs to make a computer useful 2
& work 4 u. to quote an example the accounts of an organisation have been simplified by
the Tally package. today is an era of competition. every organisation struggles to achieve
its competitive edge.it has reduced the unnecessary costs of an organisation. may it be
finance or marketing or hr, in any field computer has shown its expertise. It has made the
organisations core competitive. computer was, is and will be a great invention ever
created by science.

Posted by: Sriram Iyer | Oct 9, 2006 7:01:59 AM

Yea..... computers and Internet have really grown on a much faster pace than any other
modern day technology.Internet has proven to be a very useful technology to the human
race. It has bring buying and selling to the tip of our fingers.

Posted by: Bola | Oct 18, 2006 12:26:09 AM

i need a power point presentation on use of computers in business please send me any
related ppt presentation file or any related materail
Posted by: ahmed | Nov 25, 2006 7:51:51 AM

i need a power point presentation on use of computers in business please send me any
related ppt presentation file or any related materail

Posted by: ahmed | Nov 25, 2006 7:52:27 AM

I wonder if any business now could ever really be considered as working to its full
capacity if they do not use the application of the internet at all. I don't think so. I believe
that what the internet has to offer, is almost impossible to match up with. Even with small
business's. They have their local customers.. but who says they could not outsource to
various companys? With the internet, this small business could advertise what they have
to offer. As more individuals and companies become aware of their services, they more it
will generate business's and ultimately increase their sales.

Posted by: Kristen Landry | Nov 26, 2006 8:05:27 PM