TOPIC 6 : COMPUTER ON THE JOB
Learning Objectives
•	Understand the variety of ways major organisation use computers
•	Appreciate the evolution of use of both large and small computers.
•	Appreciate the impact of computers on the way workers do their jobs.
•	Examine specific applications for communications, graphics, decision-making, information storage and retrieval, vertical  markets, and business.

Chapter Overview
Computers are fast finding their way into just about every business today. In this chapter we look at how workers use computers on the job. Students should be aware with not only the pervasiveness of computers in the workplace, but also the problems that  may accompany their introduction and use.

6.1  Users of Large Computer Systems
•	The companies that use large computer systems today are mostly the same companies that used them 30 or 40 years ago. They are corporations that have big budgets.
•	These organisations are typically banks, insurance firms and they were the pioneers.
•	In the 1950s and early 1960s, many companies obtained big computers because they believe that computers would provide a competitive edge.
•	Early users were somewhat uncertain about how to use the new tool. To them, computer was useful for no more than clerical tasks.
•	The early applications for many companies were payroll and accounting systems. The idea was to save labor costs by having the computer do some the work. 
•	When computers began to be used interactively, business people saw  that the computer could be used as a service tool, giving information such as instant reservations or bank balances.
•	Today, large computer systems are used in every conceivable way, from research to manufacturing. Midrange computers is available for medium-size companies. Another important role for large and midrange computers is as a host for data needed by networked personal computers.

6.2 Personal Computers in the Workplace
•	Personal computers are not limited to the government and large corporations but are everywhere in the workplace: retail, finance, insurance, real estate, health care, education, government, legal services, sports. Politics, publishing, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, construction and...etc. 
•	In fact, it would be difficult to find an industry where computers are excluded. No company interested in  increasing productivity would exclude them and still expect to compete in today’s  marketplace.
The Evolution  of PC
•	Personal computer use seems to have evolved in three phases:
1.	PC were first used in business by individual users. Ex: for retyped documents using word-processor, automatically recalculated electronic spreadsheet and  file drawers transformed into automated databases. These changes gave a significant boost to individual productivity. Some organizations are still in this phase.
2.	Many more organizations have entered the second phase. The second phase involves transforming a work group or department. It implements network and include personal computer access to large computer systems. This phase requires planning and structure. Most personal computers in the workplace today are networked.
3.	The third phase is really just an extension of the earlier phase: Each individual and each department uses computers to enhance the company as a whole. 
This three-stages transformation - individual, department, and business - broadly describes a company’s progress.
The  Impact of PC
•	PC will continue to alter the business world radically. 
•	PC are having effect for two reasons: 
(i) 	They have brought the cost of computing down to the level of a mass-produces consumer product, and
(ii) 	they have worked their way into most business organizations.

Where Personal Computers Are Almost a Job Requirement
Some of the jobs that  might require personal computer knowledge.
•	Real estate broker, attorney, doctor, auto mechanic, or anyone who needs to search for information in a variety of ways
•	Accountant, tax planner, medical researcher, farmer, psychologist, budget manager, financial planner, stockbroker, or anyone who needs to analyze data
•	Advertising copywriter, secretary, author, teacher, student, legislator, reporter, or anyone who needs to write and change documents
•	Designer, editor, nurse, members of the military, engineer, retail sales manager, or anyone who needs to share data with other workers
•	Project leader, construction manager, reservations agent, trucker, factory supervisor, or anyone who needs to give a compare-the-results sales pitch

Many workers must know how to use a personal computer to perform some part of a job. If the worker is lack of knowledge in computer, he or she is likely  will  receive some on-the-job training.

Speed : The Advantage of Computer
•	Almost everyone likes to do his or her work only in a short time. And, there is a good reason to use a computer in their work. 
•	Speed kills the competition in business. If your product gets to market first, you get the sale. Using computers to speed up operations gives employees more responsibility and flexibility.
•	By providing timely access to data, computers let us spend less time checking and rechecking data - and more time getting things done. This inspires informed decision making and improves overall productivity. 
•	Today’s computer systems speed  memos, documents, and graphs to workers throughout the organization. This kind of direct people-to-people communication enriches every aspect of a business.

6.3 How Computers Change the Way We  Work
•	Computers are changing the way both individuals and organizations work. In addition to increasing overall productivity, computers have had a fundamental impact on the organization itself.
•	The secretary is no longer the keeper of all knowledge because executives prepare their own documents without the secretary even seeing them.

Groupware
•	Groupware, also called collaborative software, can be defined generally as any kind of software that lets a group of people share things or tracks things together.
•	To work together effectively on a project, the data being used  must be in a central place that can be accessed and changed by anyone working on the project. That central place is a database.
•	A popular groupware package called Notes combines electronic mail, networking, and database technology. Using such groupware, business people can work with one another and share knowledge or expertise unbounded by factors such as distance or time zone differences. 
•	Groupware distributes knowledge from those who have it to those who need it. With groupware, each person contributes to the databases, and the knowledge seeker queries the database for what he or she needs. 
•	Groupware is most often used by a team for a specific project. 
•	A key to groupware effectiveness in a group setting is its ability to replicate data to all users, copying data from computer to computer throughout the network. The effect is that all users have the most recent version of the databases.
The Portable Worker
•	Many workers want the potential to take their work with them wherever they go - and that  means taking the computer along.
•	The ideal set of machines a worker needs for portability includes a notebook computer or laptop with fax and modem, a laser printer, and a cellular phone or built-in satellite transmission capabilities.
•	Workers also have appropriate software for anything they might want to do,  from answering electronic mail to writing reports and comparing financial options 
•	Many workers have computers at work and at home and also carry a laptop in the field or when travelling.
•	Some say the new technology goes beyond convenience and that a better word is liberation - from the confines of the office, from the stressful 9-to-5 commute, from frustrating telephone tag, and even from time zone barriers.
•	Workers can, for all practical purposes, stay in touch with the office and the action 24 hours a day, seven days a week - from any location.

6.4  Software at Work
Consider some specific business applications for the software tools in the marketplace.

Communication Software
•	If you have a computer, a modem, and some communications software, you have the capability to access any other computer system similarly configured.
•	Businesses are the major users of communications software.
•	Some of the on-line services that workers value are airline reservations, weather forecasting, and stock exchange quotes.

Graphics at Work
•	Computer graphics are sometimes an appendage that can delight and entertain and inform.
•	Business people like to make a point by using graphics to express numbers in an easily understood form.
•	Sometimes graphics are the chief function of a computer system. That is, some workers use graphics as an integral part of their jobs.
•	Some of the many workers who depend on computer graphics to do their jobs are researchers, artists and designer, musicians, and doctors.

Decision-Making  Software
•	Some significant ways that businesses use spreadsheet and other decision-making software include loan amortisation, break-even analysis and property management.

Storage and Retrieval Software
•	Office workers, salesperson, and manufacturers all use computers as tools in their businesses; most of these workers rely on access to stored information. In some cases, however, the computer service offered becomes the business.
•	We begin with the standard type of information retrieval, such as crime detection work. A lot of crime detection involves a process of elimination, which is often tedious work. A tedious task, however, is often the kind the computer does best. A productive crime detection computer system is the finger-print matching system, which can match crime-scene fingerprints against computer-based fingerprints.
•	Another standard type involves sports statistics. Coaches and managers in professionals sports use computers to help them decide. The TV an radio commentator can call up all the statistics possible right on the spot.
•	In the performing arts, computers can use database software to search for the names of musical pieces; create rehearsal schedules; and keep track of sets , lighting and costumes.
•	Legal services need libraries of information for the many court cases they are involved in. There are two common computerised legal research systems, LEXIS and WESTLAW.

Vertical Market Software
•	Vertical market software describes programs written especially for a group of similar customers such as accountants or doctors.
•	Some software makers specialised in computer systems for such markets. This user-oriented software usually presents options with a series of easy-to-follow menus that minimise training needed.
•	Some examples of vertical market software are programs for auto repair shop, videotape rental stores, beauty salons, and mailing list services.

What Could Possibly Be Next?
•	The future is already in sight. Soon workers will wonder how today’s mute, passive boxes were ever called computers.
•	People who cannot leave their computers at home are taking them along - and may even wear them one day.
•	Some computers are disappearing altogether - into the furniture to become part of the desk, the cabinet, the blackboard. It seems to be the fate of the computer to move into the background - and to be everywhere.