Information Age

Life today has changed rapidly due to the introduction of computerised software and equipment. It has revolutionised the way that business operates making it more accessible and innovative for all.

In the past employees where used to manually sort files and documents. This was both time consuming and inefficient. Today this old primitive system would be replaced by that of a computerised one. However the introduction of computerisation within business has led to numerous job cuts and in turn has allowed for many big businesses to reduce the amount their employees, cutting costs spent or salaries.

There are numerous advantages to the advances in technology within business; however there are similarly disadvantages to match.

Advantages:

· The efficiency that computerisation offers allows for tasks to be carried out at a faster rate as opposed to that of an employee.

· The costs for maintaining a computerised system is relatively cheap compared to that of paying an employee’s wage.

Disadvantages:

· Within widespread computerisation companies can rapidly reduce their employment levels, this can be devastating for the employee, and due to the widespread economic depression unemployment is a key factor that needs to be addressed and corrected. Due to this the negative effect of being replaced my a computerised system is something companies must take very seriously and can be seen today in widespread self service machines in supermarkets and is the reason for many postal strikes seen today.

· The costs to repair a damaged machine can be catastrophic for small business and massively effect the overall profit for large. Machines maybe cheap to maintain but are notoriously expensive to replace when a fault occurs.

ICT today itself can be seen throughout all areas of business in the form of communication and is an important factor shared by all types of employees. Communications has rapidly developed in a verity of forms such as that of mobile phones, email communications and internet fax. The arrays of unique sub categories such as IM messenger are abundant and all have been incorporated into a verity of business devices such as PDA and Notebooks. However with all this accessibility to technology business individuals lives have changed in accordance. Working at home and on transport is a rapid change within business life and has allowed for developed in new unique products to aid this type of vocation.

Advances within laptops, PDA even phones have allowed for businessmen to operate within transport and other situations not normally accessible in recent years. With business becoming and increasing in a wider more lucrative environment the competition within it has similarly escalated and employees can be seen taking full advantage of wasted time to progress their unique job tasks.

This new application of work can be shown within electronic appliances today. Phone today have an array of features that make them more accessible to working needs. Email has been incorporated into an array of software’s making it trouble-free for users to access their ever updating message inbox. Word processing, spreadsheets processing and PDF readers can been seen implemented within almost all smart phone devices, be it as an additional feature or built into the device. Smart phones again are an innovation allowing for businessmen to make use for there spare time further and the array of blackberry smart phones along with Nokia’s counterpart have made these features and email an increasing easy venture.

Laptops and Notebooks have advanced in both design and functionality, making them more accessible to use throughout travel and non working environments alike. This can be seen through the mass use of notebooks and laptops within both air and rail transport. This has allowed for business personal to make use of what used to be considered as dead working time, now it has been replaced with what is deemed to be additional working and revision hours/minuets for personal to familiarise themselves, add and or even edit work previously done that day or night before. With the advances within design and technology on laptops and notebooks work can be done from even the most remote areas with their extend battery life’s, increased programme array and be it through WIFI or mobile internet, a web connection similarly. All this innovation has made office essential more accessible outside of their usual environment and give their employees the chance to make use of wasted hours that prior to innovation would have gone amiss.

The use of mobile internet itself is a recent leap in increased web accessibility. The internet offers an array of possibilities not within just communication but extended towards that of education, applications and information. The internet offers an array of possibilities, and today can be seen through the use of funds transfer, educational sites such as Bitesize and mymaths.com; however the main use of the internet is the vastness of information it offers and the array of topics it covers, with almost everything being accessible to either view by picture or merely read upon through the epic assortment of topics. Without doubt the internet is the biggest advance in the information age, as it allows for an every growing archive of information to view at a users convenience whenever, wherever they wish.

ICT today has been incorporated similarly into education. All students are required to have computing lessons up to year 9. In many schools this is compulsory through their education within the secondary school up to year 11 and many offer it as an increased course throughout A level, this can be further progressed at university if the user wishes.

Due to the demand of schools offering ICT courses it is no surprise that teachers throughout education are too required to have training within the use of it. Many schools are equipped with specific computing software for the staff/ teachers to use to aid their teaching. These can include Projectors, Smart Boards, and Speaker equipment, the advances within education and the tools used have not made only increases in the hardware used but the software too. The introduction of the VLE (virtual learning environment) within schools, has allowed for advances within efficiency of general running of the school and relations with the students. Here teachers are able to set homework for the student and keep in constant contact with them. Students are able to keep a view of their progress, track their grades and attendance, and even view comments sent from the teacher all from within their own home. This advance in technology within education makes it increasingly more efficient for students to track their progress, and their parents to view important information regarding their children’s academic performance within the school.

Advances in technology within high street stores have seemly advanced in recent years to new levels. Introductions of EPS (Electronic point of sale), here a barcode may be scanned to display the price and full title of the product adding it to the overall bill, this may seem primitive as it has been around for a number of years but new features added to the software has made it an ever evolving software. The item itself may be purchases by cash or EFTPS (Electronic funds transfer point of sale), again here funds are transferred wirelessly due to a consumer handing over a bank debit card. No money needs to be held just the correct PIN need to be entered and the product is purchased. Payment systems like this have evolved limiting the work needed to be done by an employee reducing the chance of human error. They similarly allow for increased information to be attained though that of stock check information and overall paper based accounts once printed after each day of sale. There have been increased advances, self service checkouts and fast track systems again have allowed for consumers to quickly add items to their own shopping basket, making scanning at a till obsolete, or for those customers with a few items, self service checkouts allow a customer to quickly scan and pay for items independently, this therefore has reduced the need for employees within some supermarket chains and may be seen as a negative factor of computerisation.

Design and Graphic design today have even been affected by the computerisation with CAD systems aiding them in drawing accurate designs for their intended subject. These systems offer greater degree of accuracy and allow the final and process pieces to be viewed from all angles allowing continuous and further editing. The CAD system along with computer design tablets, allow for a user to draw their images onto a computer screen as they wood paper with greater effect and the change to correct and erase mistakes if they occur. The innovation of technology shows us how it has affected almost all walks of life and there are very limited jobs today that do not require some kind of computer interactions.

Emergency services are an important area in which technology has affected. Today once a call has been received from a civilian a computer has the ability to trace the call to an exact point, alerting all nearby units to its location and from of incident, finial the computer displays vital information on the nature of the crime and what the individual should do to the unique situation. The advances in emergency services for that of the Fire, Police and Medical departments, make today’s services much more efficient and response times increasingly shorter due to only relevant users in vicinity being alerted to the incident.

To summarise computerisation has affect almost all areas of life today and as they are numerous advantages there are similar disadvantages. Overall however there is no doubt that the effect they have on today’s world has made almost all services faster and more efficient for all in society as we know see it today.