Roland UDVARLAKI
Unit 4 – Impact of the use of IT on business systems
P1 - Explain the reasons for upgrading IT systems in an organisation
M1 - Examine why an organisation needs to keep pace with IT developments
-Hardware developments
Computers in the early 80s, 90s and 2000s were really slow and could take up to half-one hour only
to just boot up, not to mention that a simple program could have taken 10-30 minutes to open up. As
the technology has become more advanced, today our computer are able to boot up in less than a
minutes and immediately open up applications. In the early ‘tech world’ computer only had 1 core
chipsets clocked up to about 400mhz while today we have 4-8 core smartphones, tablets and
computer clocked well over 1,5-4ghz. In about 2010, the technology has become so advanced that
companies have started to slowly adapt and use smart devices (smartphones, tablets) to complete
their daily tasks and to engage with other co-workers at the same time. Today, most companies use
computers to input and output important and private data that could help them complete their tasks
in a more efficient way as well as to keep up with their competitors. Today’s trend includes using AI
(Artificial Intelligence) that is basically a self-learning system that learns from users, employees as it is
being used more and more over time.
Increasing capacity and sophistication of platforms:
There has been 3 advanced made in the past in these section including the following:
-The storage that a hard drive can hold has been increased drastically over the years. Companies are
now able to have up to 8TB hard drives on computers that require a lot of storage. This allows the
company to have the freedom of swapping out hard drives to larges storage capacity ones, so
upgrading and storing larger files has really become more easier and simpler, cheaper.
-Processors have advanced rapidly that let’s companies have high computing power placed on a wide
variety of number and type of machines. This will let employees work a lot faster as they will not
have to wait too long to open up various files and work with a number of applications opened at the
same time.
-Operating systems have also got a lot efficient and feature packed over the years. All of these
changes let companies work in a more efficient way as sharing files between an organisation has
become a lot simpler, advanced, feature rich and cost effective. System management functionalities
have also been added to these systems, so administrators and leaders could decide what would help
their employees the most by pre-loading a number of business related applications on their systems,
as well as setting it up for them.
Increasing sophistication of communication technologies:
The way companies interact with their employees and each other has also advanced rapidly in the
past 5 years. Companies are now able to save a lot of money by setting up their own, or using a
businesses platform to set up a safe and encrypted platform where their co-workers can interact with
others within the business of course. Smartphones let employees keep in touch with others in a very
simple and easy way so it’s easy for them to keep in touch with suppliers, customers etc. All
communication is done via the internet today. All data that is uploaded to the company’s servers are
easily re-sharable and are protected on very high levels making sure that only people with
authorisation can have access to them. This also let’s employees and overall the company to reduce
waiting/response times as well as to keep their documents updated and well-maintained as they can
easily be changed and updated over the server very easily. Businesses have their own intranet that
let’s them share key announcements, news, opportunities etc. with the colleagues. Servers
Roland UDVARLAKI – Unit 4 - Assignment 1 – P1, P2, M1, D1 – Page 1 of 16
, Roland UDVARLAKI
connected to the internet have also enabled organisations to work even more efficiently by allowing
their employees to do any work at any time anywhere around the world.
Electronic data interchange:
Electronic data interchange (EDI) systems allow organisations businesses to communicate with each
other and exchange information in a very time effective way that helps them manage invoices,
supplies, orders etc. This can drastically reduce the need of paperwork as everything would be stored
online, in a database and or in a spreadsheet that would easily be printable and manageable. EDI
systems also allow giant companies like Barclays to for example, order different servers, parts for a
new or upgraded system before they would be needed or when they would be needed. The system
allows a quick data exchange between companies that’d let them manage their stock and deal with
things in a much more efficient and timely way. EDI systems can and do also work 24/7, meaning that
the system can send out emails even when e.g. Barclays would be closed at night time, so customers
could exchange information through an automatic system allowing them to partially complete their
required tasks.
-Software developments:
Increased complexity and integration of application software:
Businesses that use Microsoft Office applications and or other software to manage their documents
have always had issues with backward compatibility. Whenever a company has upgraded their Office
packages and their Operating systems, there has always been a lot of issues with compatibility issues
as they were simply not supported and unreadable. This is one of the reasons why a lot of servers
and computers are still running the ‘ancient’ Windows XP as the operating system has stayed very
stable over the decade, but has become more risky as security patches have stopped over 2 years
ago. Banks and other organisations take security extremely seriously and always try to adapt to
newer, more advanced and modern technologies as they usually provide enhanced security
measures and new functions that can help them protect their private information on high levels
where it would be unlikely to be part of any data breach, hacks, and viruses. Most company servers
today are ran by Linux OS and Windows platform that provides a wide range of functionality and
security for storing private information and data.
Specialised support software:
There are a lot of specialised support software available today for companies to choose from. There
are software that offer one particular feature very well and others offering a wide range of features.
These software help companies and developers build and run software that can help businesses have
management information systems, analysis systems, expect systems etc. There are some software
allowing to communicate and integrate with different network systems, devices on a large scale.
Management Information Systems:
Management information systems (MIS) is a system that is developed to help managers and
executives get answers when needed. It helps them manage businesses and get up-to-date
information about operations, sales, revenue, income, percentages etc. in an understandable format.
This system is quite accurate and works at any time. Regular, daily and weekly updates are required
in order to produce high quality and accurate information.
Decision-support software:
Decision-support software helps managers predict the future impact on their organisations and
businesses. It helps them calculate the ‘what if’ scenarios and get the right amount of estimates to
be prepared for various things that could happen to the company in the short-long terms. These
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