Some of the benefits include the following:
• Very small size
• No moving parts, so robust and unlikely to break down
• Relatively cheap
• High storage capacities compared with other media, such as floppy disks
• Fast transfer speeds compared with other media, such as floppy disks
• Devices can be locked so that data are not deleted accidentally
• Does not need a power supply of any kind (draws power from computer when necessary)
• Retains data for up to ten years
• Can be connected to other devices easily (e.g. PDAs0 and other types of personal computer (e.g. compatible with both IBM PC and Apple Macintosh systems).
Does not need any special software to work with; automatically recognised by most personal computers.
C H A P T E R 4
Software
Activities
Activity 4.1
Develop an explanation of the purpose of and interaction between hardware, systems software and applications software to someone who is unfamiliar with them. To help the explanation use an example based on the creation of a spreadsheet to calculate wages based on hours worked and refer to Figure 4.2. Start your description with when the PC is first switched on.
When the PC is first switched on, the BIOS systems software will be activated from ROM hardware as part of the boot (start-up) process. The BIOS will start the operating system software (Windows, Linux etc.) loading. The users will then select the applications software that they want to use, or the operating system may have been set up to load commonly used applications such as Microsoft Word on start-up. Both systems and applications software will be loaded from the disk storage and loaded into RAM memory. The users will then select their own documents to work on.
Activity 4.2
Internal documents can include inter-office memos, reports and summaries, such as minutes of meetings. External documents can include invoices, sales brochures and correspondence.
Using these examples, identify some of the other characteristics of internal and external documents. Are any of the characteristics you have identified common to both internal and external documents?
External documents are a method of formal communication. These documents will tend to have the following characteristics:
• Often used to support communications with customers and suppliers
• Have an emphasis on presentation
• Use formal language
• Usually highly structured, for example, an invoice may be based on a standard template.
Internal documents are often used as a means of informal communication. Some typical characteristics of these kinds of documents include the following:
• Normally used to support internal communications, typically as a means of passing information from one part of the organisation to another
• Comparatively little emphasis is placed on presentation
• Tend to use less formal language
• Tend to be less structured, although many organisations have a preferred format for certain documents, such as internal memos.
Students should also refer to the attributes of information quality described in Chapter 1.
Activity 4.3
We have described some of the key features of a word processor. How should the owner–
manager of a small business with 10 staff using word-processor software ensure they work efficiently to produce good-quality standard internal and external documents?
For external documents, the company will want to present a consistent, quality image. To do this, the letters produced and sent out from the company should have some of the key aspects of information quality introduced in Chapter 1, namely, they should be
• accurate – no spelling mistakes or factual errors;
• complete – no omissions;
• clear – unambiguous and well laid out.
To achieve this, layout and style standards can be enforced using a word processor such as Microsoft Word. For example, different types of letters such as invoice or dispatch notification to customer can each have their own Word template (.dot). Standard Word styles can be used for the company and a standard logo can be used. Each letter should be spelt or grammar checked before it is sent. Training or education is then needed to explain to staff that the templates are needed and checks would have to be periodically performed to check they were used. For internal documents, similar procedures can be used, for example, for minutes of meetings. More sophisticated tools for reviewing and annotating documents such as a budget could also be used.
Activity 4.4
Using a package such as Microsoft Access, create a simple database that can be used to store the names and addresses of your friends and colleagues. Make sure that the database includes the following features:
• a simple data entry form that can be used to add, edit or delete records;
• at least one query, for example, a query to list all people living in a certain city;
• at least one report, for example, a report to show the telephone number of every person listed in the database.
No solution is required for this activity.
Activity 4.5
What are the benefits of web-based e-mail services, like those offered by Yahoo! and MSN, for home users? Why are companies unlikely to use these services for business purposes?
Students are encouraged to think about the strengths and weaknesses of these services. For home users:
• These services are usually free or available at very low cost.
• E-mail can be accessed from any computer, enabling users to read or respond to messages in libraries, cybercafes, schools, universities etc.
• Most services are easy to use.
• Most services offer enhanced features, such as automatic virus scanning.
Note that many free e-mail providers restrict the use of their services for business purposes.
For business users:
• The service is not controlled by the company. This can lead to a wide variety of problems, e.g. the company cannot monitor or control staff use of e-mail.
• The service may not be reliable. Many companies rely heavily on e-mail for internal and external communications. Service disruptions could result in significant losses through lost productivity, loss of customer confidence and so on.
• The service may not be secure.
• The service cannot be customised to meet the company’s needs. Even if it can, this may be very expensive.
• The company’s image may be harmed by its use of ‘free’ services.
Activity 4.6
Using the simple web-page design tools included with packages such as Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, produce a simple web page containing your c.v. If possible, make use of colour, different typefaces, graphics, horizontal lines, bullet points and other features. When you have created the page, save it and then view it from within the web browser. View the source for the web page so that you can see how the design of your page has been translated into HTML.
No solution is required for this activity.
Activity 4.7
1. Find two examples for each of the rules proposed by Chris Anderson.
2. List the advantages of Google AdWords for small businesses.
3. The “long tail” is good for retailers and good for customers. Discuss.
1. This activity is intended to test whether students understand the principles behind the concept of the ‘long tail’.
Rule 1: Make everything available
It is not always necessary to focus on retailing the most popular products; opportunities exist to generate revenues by supplying a wide variety of niche items. Put more simply, companies can choose to sell large quantities of a small range of items, or smaller quantities of a large range of items.
Examples of this rule include Amazon and iTunes. Amazon’s online catalogue allows customers to choose from hundreds of thousands of books. Customers can buy almost any title in print, including rare or difficult-to-find items. The iTunes Store operates on a similar principle. As well as supplying popular music tracks, such as chart singles and albums, iTunes also provides access to a back catalogue of hundreds of thousands of tracks.
Rule 2: Cut the price in half. Now lower it.
Lower prices are needed to encourage customers to buy goods and services online. Companies can offer such discounts to customers because retailing via the Internet reduces operating costs significantly. In addition, unlike physical products, goods and services supplied electronically cost little to produce. The cost of creating a copy of one or more MP3 music tracks, for instance, is negligible.
Examples of this rule include the iTunes Store and services such as British Telecom’s Vision On Demand or Channel 4 Television’s 4oD services. The iTunes Store allows customers to buy music tracks – including entire albums – for much less than the cost of a CD bought from a bricks-and-mortar store. Customers can ‘rent’ music or can make permanent copies by burning tracks to CD using their own equipment. Both British Telecom and Channel 4 provide a similar service in relation to movies, music videos and television shows. Customers select a programme to watch which is then downloaded to the hard disk of a PC or PVR (personal video recorder).
Downloading a programme costs only a fraction of buying or renting a DVD and customers can choose to make a permanent copy of a favourite programme, if they wish.
Rule 3: Help me find it
Offering a wide range of products raises the problem of helping customers to find the things they want or need. What good is iTune’s catalogue of six million songs, for example, if customers can’t locate the tracks they want to buy?
Amazon provides a range of tools aimed at helping customers find the books they want. Some examples are as follows:
• Lists of recommended books produced by other customers. As an example, fans of a particular author might create a list of their favourite books and add brief comments.
• A tool that produces personalised recommendations based on previous purchases and other information, such as the customer’s likes and dislikes.
• Lists of popular books sorted by genre, e.g. crime, romance, thriller and so on.
eBookers (www.ebookers.co.uk) is a site that helps customers find information about flights, hotels and package holidays. Like Amazon, the site has a specialised search tool that allows customers to search for holidays based on their specific requirements. The site also has other features intended to help people find suitable products, such as lists of themed holidays and
last-2. This activity is intended to get students thinking about new business models being made possible by the Internet. AdWords and AdSense are good examples of innovations that have transformed the way in which products are marketed via the Internet.
Some examples of benefits related to AdWords and AdSense include the following:
• Advertising can be targeted with a greater accuracy than ever before. This is because advertisements are selected and displayed on the basis of an individual user’s Google searches.
• Since advertising can be targeted more accurately, it becomes economically viable to market products and services to niche groups.
• Companies have a high degree of control over the costs associated with an AdWord campaign. This makes it easy to set, monitor and control budgets.
• Detailed information about the efficiency of an AdWords campaign can be collected (and even analysed) automatically. The information gathered is very rich, enabling the campaign to be ‘fine tuned’ easily. Gathering information in this way is usually described as analytics.
• Start-up costs for AdWords campaigns are very low, making them accessible to companies of any size.
• Allows new ways of marketing, e.g. use of affiliate marketing.
• Spending on advertising is more closely linked with results (e.g. in affiliate marketing, affiliates get paid according to how many products they sell).
3. As before, this activity is intended to test if students understand the principles behind the concept of the ‘long tail’. Students are asked to identify some of the key benefits of the
‘long tail’. Some typical examples are as given below:
Retailers Customers
• Can offer a greater range of products, enabling diversification
• Can reach more customers, including niche markets that were previously unprofitable
• Allows a shift away from stocking only the most popular products, helping to reduce competition
• By offering more products serves the customer better
• Encourages innovation, e.g. in finding new ways to market products
• Access to a wider range of products
• Increased competition leads to lower prices and better service
• Easier to locate/source products, including rare/niche items
• Physical location no longer important – can buy goods from anywhere in the world
Activity 4.8
To check your knowledge of the different types of software introduced in this chapter, match the descriptions of software above with the specific types of software below.
Software descriptions
1. Allows you to create and edit company reports.
2. Finds information for an assignment from the World Wide Web.
3. The use of icons, bars, buttons and other image displays to get things done.
4. Sends information to a computer user in another country.
5. Creates and displays a worksheet for analysis.
6. Manages and supports the maintenance and retrieval of structured data.
7. Manages and supports telecommunications on a network of computers.
8. Detects and removes viruses.
9. A program or set of programs that controls the computer hardware.
Software types
(a) Spreadsheet; (b) graphical user interface (GUI); (c) operating system; (d) a search engine such as Google accessed through a web browser; (e) Norton Anti-Virus Kit; (f) word-processor;
(g) e-mail package; (h) Novell Netware (a network operating system); (i) relational database management system (RDBMS)
Solution: 1 (f), 2 (d), 3 (b), 4 (g), 5 (a), 6 (i), 7 (h), 8 (e), 9 (c).
Case Studies
Case Study 4.1: Cutting out paper speeds up the process
1. Why is it important to strip away old ways of working when introducing systems such as those brought in by Liverpool Direct and Hyde?
2. Using the Internet as a resource, locate information regarding a simple document management system, such as Scansoft’s PaperPort Office. How useful is such a product likely to be within a department of a large company or a small business?
3. What is the likelihood that the paperless office will ever be achieved?
1. There are two main points that students should consider:
• Managers must encourage the cooperation of staff in order for changes to be successful.
As an example, the case study mentions that senior staff were problematic because they were used to doing things in a certain way. If senior managers are unenthusiastic about a new system, other staff are likely to adopt the same attitude. It should always be borne in mind that resistance to change can easily result in a project being abandoned.
• Notice that in the case study a great deal of attention was paid to issues not related to hardware and software. As an example, the ‘one stop shops’ for handling customer visits demonstrate how significant savings and efficiency gains can be made by changing working habits. In other words, significant improvements can be made by examining the way in which people work with technology; sometimes technology is only a part of the solution to a problem.
2. A simple document management system can be established for just a few hundred pounds.
Some of the benefits of such a system include (some of these points are also relevant to the case study) the following:
• Less storage space is needed because paper copies of documents do not need to be kept.
Even if some documents need to be retained, they can be stored offsite because the electronic versions are always available for reference.
• It becomes easier to locate information. For instance, PaperPort allows users to search the entire text of every document in the database within a matter of seconds.
• Information can be handled more flexibly. For instance, documents can be organised in different ways according to the needs of individual users. Since documents are indexed, they can still be viewed, searched etc.
• Information becomes portable. For instance, millions of pages can be stored on CD-ROM, allowing people to carry records and other information with them wherever they go.
• Information can be shared with others easily because documents are small enough to e-mail or transmit via a network.
• Documents can be used in new ways. For instance, a letter or memo received from a customer can be converted into editable text so that it can be entered into a word processor or other programs. This feature could be used for a number of purposes, such as for producing a despatch note or an e-mail confirming the customer’s order.
• Information from different sources can be combined easily. Photographs, correspondence, web pages, e-mail etc. can all be stored in one location.
• Documents can be annotated in different ways.
Packages such as PaperPort can be used to capture forms. This allows users to record data previously entered on the form. They can also fill in a form on the screen.
3. This is a discussion question. The case study demonstrates that the use of paper can be reduced significantly but there are always likely to be occasions when printed documents are required, e.g. for legal reasons.
Case Study 4.2: Did IT work: putting Linux on desktops
1. What is open-source software?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of open-source software?
3. Carry out any research necessary to identify one or more open-source alternatives to the following well-known applications/packages:
(a) Web browser, e.g. Internet Explorer
(b) Word processing and office software, e.g. Microsoft Office (c) Database, e.g. Microsoft Access or SQL Server
(d) Web server, e.g. Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) (e) Media player, e.g. WinAmp
(f) Operating system, e.g. Windows XP (g) Development tool, e.g. Visual Basic.
4. Using the Internet as a resource, find three additional examples where a large company or government agency has adopted open source software.
1. Open source describes a software in which the source (program) code has been made freely available to the public. In general, users can copy open-source programs freely and can modify them to meet specific needs. Although open-source software is usually made available, subject to a software licence, the terms of any licence are often very liberal. For instance, it is usually possible to modify an open-source program and then sell the modified software for profit, even though only a fraction of it can be considered ‘original’.
2. Some advantages of open source software are as follows:
• Software is available free of charge.
• Problems, such as security flaws, tend to be discovered and repaired very quickly.
• In general, the software available is of very high quality.
• It is often possible to customise software to meet specific requirements quickly and at low cost.
• Companies can retain ownership of any improvements or modification made to the software.
Some disadvantages of open-source software are as follows:
• The range of software available is quite limited, although this is steadily improving.
• It can be difficult to keep software up to date since some applications change almost daily.
• Support services, such as training, are sometimes costly or difficult to obtain.
• The quality of some applications is variable; some applications may be badly written and may require a great deal of time and effort to modify.
3. Some typical and well-known examples are given in the table below:
Application Open-Source Alternative
Web browser, e.g. Internet Explorer Firebird or Mozilla Word processing and office software,
e.g. Microsoft Office Open Office, Star Office Database, e.g. Microsoft Access or SQL
Server MySQL or Borland Interbase
Web server, e.g. Microsoft Internet
Information Server (IIS) Apache
Media player, e.g. WinAmp Media Player Classic Operating system, e.g. Windows XP Linux
Development tool, e.g. Visual Basic Java 4. This is a research question.
Exercises (pp.178–179)
Self-assessment exercises