Information Technology (IT) – An Overview

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This present era is an era of information technology. This article is dealing with development of information technology in different facet of our life”

INTRODUCTION

In today’s world (IT) is all pervasive, everywhere, and in every facet of our day to day life. Prominently service sector involving railway, airlines, scientific and businesses establishments, banks, universities, schools, and most definitely in our homes. The phrase ‘information technology’ has many varying connotations in the same way as it has a wide spread presence. From the most mundane of things which a common person does to the most complex wizardry which only a techno savvy geek comprehends. Information technology can be seen and experienced in processes improving services to citizens and consumers (online transactions, bookings, university admissions, professional consultations, telecommunications, consumer products etc), increasing the productivity and efficiency of governments (computerization of government records, departments, e-cops), strengthening the legal and law enforcement systems (Judicial administration and Court Management) and in promoting the priority economic sectors (banking, agriculture, industry, marketing and the like), involving processes of manufacturing and production chain. Possibly the greatest impact Information technology has had is on blurring the time and geographical divide.

The penetration of the home computer or the personal computer phenomenon along with the Internet has increased the impact of information technology beyond our own imagination. Thus use of Internet has given the globe a shrinking effect. Every kind of information is only a few clicks away. In today’s world of competition -”information” is the key word to success. Availability of right information at the right time can make all the difference. Today relevant information outweighs the price of gold. The graphical user interface has simplified one of the most complex issues in the world. Indeed, the world is undergoing a second Industrial Revolution.

Information technology today touches every aspect of life, irrespective of location on the globe. Everyone’s daily activities are affected in form, content and time by the computer. Businesses, Governments and individuals all receive the benefits of this Information Revolution. While providing tangible benefits in time and money, the computer has also had an impact on everyday life, as computerized routines replace mundane human tasks. More and more of our businesses, industries, economies, hospitals and Governments are becoming dependent on computers. With the computer, the heretofore impossible has now become possible, The computer has allowed large volumes of data to be reduced to high-density, compact storage, nearly imperceptible to the human senses. It has allowed an exponential increase in speed, and even the most complex calculations can be completed in milliseconds. The miniaturization of processors has permitted worldwide connectivity and communication.

WHAT IS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY?

The broad subject concerned with all aspects of managing and processing information, especially within a large organization or company. Because computers are central to information management, computer departments within companies and universities are often called IT departments. Some companies refer to this department as IS (Information Services) or MIS (Management Information Services). The penguin dictionary of computers defines it as “a portmanteau phrase to cover all aspects of the art or science of processing data to produce information”. It includes computer software, hardware, programs, and databases, semiconductor chips that put together process and produce the output. Output can be expressed in human readable form (printouts) or in machine readable form (series of electronic pulses) which are further used to control a any other machine, tool or device. Information technology also includes networking of computers and databases exchanging and feeding information between one another.

Basic understanding of and about technology law warrants proper grasp and appreciation about technology itself. Inherently technology law, like any other emerging facts of law, is purely inter-disciplinary in nature. Hence, it is now proposed to explain and introduce some of essential and relevant aspects of information technology.

Importance of information technology

The importance of information technology cannot be ignored by banking and insurance sectors, except at the cost of elimination from the competition. This is so because the use of information technology produces certain advantages, which are not available when the traditional and conventional methods of doing business are used. The use of information technology generates the following advantages and benefits:

Business Management – Identifying Stakeholders

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Stakeholders in business management are those people who make a difference in your position. They can be your employees with specific skill sets who need to be placed in certain positions. The ability to place employees in the right positions will help project productivity. Stakeholders are also those people who have a stake in what you do at work. These might be your managers or other departmental personnel you work with. They can also include big clients. Knowing who the important stakeholders are in terms of your position at work can help you enhance your career by developing good working relationships with them.

Stakeholders have expectations of you as a manager. You need to know what the expectations are of you from all of the stakeholders in your position. If you don’t know what is expected of you, you won’t know if you are making everyone happy. Employees expect you to teach them when they don’t understand, work with them, motivate them, create a good working environment, and celebrate when success occurs. Management expects much more. Learn everything expected from your stakeholders so there are no surprises. This way you can make everyone happy and be successful in your position.

Business management also requires you to know how stakeholders are measuring your success as a manager. You might know what the expectations of the stakeholders are, but you might not know how you are being measured. Completion of a project might not be good enough. Your business management skills might be measured from a teamwork perspective. If you have assigned tasks to your employees and everyone is working individually, then you have completely failed their expectations even though the project was completed. As a manager, you are required to know how you are being measured so you can meet the goals properly. It is difficult to be successful if you don’t know how you are being measured by every stakeholder.

Business management requires you to know everything about the stakeholders of your position. The stakeholders in your position can make or break you. If you don’t know who they are then you will not be successful as a manager in business management.

Information Management

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We live in an age where information accumulates all around us in seemingly limitless quantities. As individuals we send or receive emails, text messages, photos and sound bytes on an hour-to-hour basis. As corporations, we cram computer hard drives with statistics, contacts, financial transactions, specifications, technical drawings, instructional materials, and employee and customer data. It’s just as well that our technological capability to store information electronically has improved beyond all expectation.

But despite our technological ability to store information there is still so much that simply disappears on a day-to-day basis. Business owners and managers know the cost when an experienced and valuable employee moves on to a new job. It’s often a mad scramble to capture their knowledge and organise an information handover to the new employee. As technologically advanced we may be, you cannot just backup the employee’s brain to a computer hard drive as they leave. It’s likely you’ll soon be a victim of a variation of Murphy’s Law – the information you most need is the information you don’t have!

The continuous cycle of employees joining and leaving, at whatever level, can be a major impediment to organisation learning and the continuous improvement process. Employees are mostly concerned with the here and now rather than leaving trails of information that may benefit their successors. The management of knowledge and information within a business needs a continuous improvement process itself. Although business owners and managers may strive hard to implement, update and ensure the continuity of work systems and processes, there is still a need to foster an organisation culture that promotes the importance of spending time and energy capturing and preserving information and knowledge on a daily basis.

In any work situation, there are always employees that perpetually seek the assistance of colleagues when they need information. They rely on others to be the ‘keepers of knowledge’. They are full of praise when the information is forthcoming and they curse ‘the system’ if information cannot be found. They take little responsibility themselves to contribute to the organisation’s efforts in information management, it’s someone else’s job. At home, they probably have countless thousands of photos, some of them precious, sitting on an aging hard drive that has never been backed up.

Likewise, there are always some employees that seem to be the givers and perpetrators of information. They seem to have an uncanny knack of finding information when asked, or some 6th sense in knowing what information must be kept. But having special powers is not their reality, it’s more a case of good habits and an appreciation of the need to spend time on a daily basis collecting, updating and managing information.

The difference between people’s inclination to manage information is a consequence of training, life experience and human nature. Some people just don’t get the need to do something now if it can be left until tomorrow, or next week. For many people, taking time to store and organise information falls into this category. On any day inside any business, there is likely to be some failure to appropriately store information. While each failure may be relatively insignificant, cumulatively the effect can be considerable, even damaging to the business.