IT Principles, Functions and Benefits

1Senn, Information Technology, 3rd
James A. Senn’s
Information Technology, 3rd
Edition
Chapter 1
Information Technology:
Principles, Practices, and
Opportunities

Objectives
• Describe the six characteristics of the
Information Age and discuss the role of
information technology as the principal tool of
the Information Age.
• Explain the three primary components of
information technology.
• Identify the six information-handling functions
and the four benefits of information technology.

Objectives
• Summarize the principles of business
reengineering, while emphasizing the potential
benefits to people and business.
• Discuss the types of opportunities that
information technology offers to people.
• Describe the responsibilities of people who use
information technology.

Welcome to the Information Age
The Evolution of the Information Age
• Agricultural Age: The period up to the 1800s,
when the majority of workers were farmers whose
lives revolved around agriculture.
• Industrial Age: The period from the 1800s to 1957,
when work processes were simplified through
mechanization and automation.

(Continued)
• Information Age: The period that began in 1957,
in which the majority of workers are involved in
the creation, distribution, and application of
information.
– Knowledge Workers: Workers involved in the
creation, distribution, and application of
information.

(Continued)

The Characteristics of the Information Age
(Continued)
• An information-based society has arisen.
– Information Society: A society in which more
people work at handling information than at
agriculture and manufacturing combined.
• Businesses depend on information technology to
get their work done.

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

(Continued)

• Information technology provides the means to
rethink/recreate/reengineer conventional business
processes.
– Reengineering: The reshaping of business processes to
remove barriers that prohibit an organization from
providing better products and services and to help the
organization capitalize on its strengths.
– Business Processes: Collections of activities, often
spanning several departments, that take one or more
kinds of input and create a result that is of value to a
company’s customers.
(Continued)

(Continued)

• Success in business is largely determined by the
effectiveness with which information technology
is used.
• Information technology is embedded in many
products and services.

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

(Continued)

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

Definition (Continued)
• Data: Raw facts, figures, and details.
• Information: An organized, meaningful, and
useful interpretation of data.
• Knowledge: An awareness and understanding of
a set of information and how that information can
be put to the best use.

Definition (Continued)

Computers
• An electronic system that can be instructed to
accept, process, store, and present data and
information.
• Computers come in four sizes:
– Microcomputers
– Midrange computers
– Mainframes
– Supercomputers

Computers (Continued)
• Microcomputers: A relatively compact type of computer,
the most common of all, easily outsells all other types of
computers annually for use in business and at home.
• Five types of Microcomputers:
– Desktop Computers
– Notebook Computers/Laptop Computers
– Tablet PCs
– Personal Digital Assistants
– Palm PCs

• Midrange computers and Mainframes: A
computer uses to interconnect people and large
sets of information. More powerful than a
microcomputer, the minicomputer is usually
dedicated to performing specific functions.
• Supercomputers: The most powerful of all
computers, supercomputers were designed to
solve problems consisting of long and difficult
calculations.

• Hardware: The computer and its associated
equipment.
• Program: A set of instructions that directs a
computer to perform certain tasks and produce
certain results.
• Software: The general term for a set of
instructions that controls a computer or a
communications network.

• System: A set of components that interact to
accomplish a purpose.
• Information System: A business information
system designed to produce the information
needed for successful management of a
structured problem, process, department, or
business.

Computers (Computers)

Communications Networks
• Communication: The sending and receiving of data and
information over a communications network.
• Communications Network: A set of locations, or nodes,
consisting of hardware, programs, and information linked
together as a system that transmits and receives data and
information.
• Data Communication: The transmission of data and
information through a communications medium.

Know-How
• The capability to do something well.
• Information technology know-how consists of:
– Familiarity with the tools of IT; including the
Internet
– Possession of the skills needed to use these
tools
– An understanding of when to use IT to solve a
problem or create an opportunity

The Principles of Information Technology
The Functions of Information Technology

• Capture: The process of compiling detailed records of
activities.
• Processing: The process of converting, analyzing,
computing, and synthesizing all forms of data or
information.
– Data Processing
– Information Processing
– Word Processing
– Image Processing
– Voice Processing
(Continued)

• Generation: The process of organizing
information into a useful form, whether as
numbers, text, sound, or visual image.
• Storage and Retrieval: Storage is the computer
process of retaining information for future use.
Retrieval is the process by which a computer
locates and copies stored data or information for
further processing or for transmission to another
user.
(Continued)

• Transmission: The computer process of
distributing information over a communications
network.
– Electronic Mail, or E-Mail
– Voice Messaging, or Voice Mail
(Continued)

The Benefits of Information Technology

• Helping People
• Solving Problems
– Problem: A perceived difference between an
existing condition and a desired condition.
– Problem Solving: The process of recognizing a
problem, identifying alternatives for solving it,
and successfully implementing the chosen
solution.
The Opportunities of Information Technology

Information Technology Is All Around Us,
Improving Our Lives
• Television
• Education
• Training
• Entertainment
• Shipping

• Paperwork
• Money and Investments
• Agriculture
• Taxation and Accounting
• Health and Medicine
Improving Our Lives (Continued)

• Manufacturing
• Journalism
• Energy
• Sports
Improving Our Lives (Continued)

The Responsibilities of Using Information
Technology
• To be Informed
• To Make Proper Use of IT
• To Safeguard

IT Principles, Functions and Benefits

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (19)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (15)

Similar to IT Principles, Functions and Benefits

Similar to IT Principles, Functions and Benefits (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

IT Principles, Functions and Benefits