Computer Applications In Business

Utility Programs

2009-10-29T00:32:00.000-07:00

Utility Programs
The utility programs are used to provide end users with a tool box to fine tune hardware components or modify system software functions.

The utility programs for large computer systems are designed for professional system programmers to either modify or repair the system software.

However the utility programs for microcomputers are very often used by end users.

They are use friendly and designed for end users, change the monitor’s background pattern, or install computer hardware.

Some vendors provide utility programs that can enhance the performance of the computer, such virtual memory and virus protection.

Some of the principal utility programs are as follows:

Data recovery
A data recovery utility is used to “undelete” a file or information that has been accidentally deleted. With this function, users are able to undo the last delete operation that has taken place.

Screen saver
A screen saver prevents a monitor’s display screen from being etched by an unchanging image.

Backup
The backup utility allows users to make a backup (duplicate) copy of the information on the hard disk.

Data compression
Data compression removes redundant elements, gaps, and unnecessary data from a computer’s storage space, so less space is required to store or transmit data.

Virus protection
A virus consists of hidden programming instructions that are buried within an application or system program. They can reproduce themselves and cause damage to computer programs.
Utility Programs

Business Value of Extranet

2009-10-01T00:20:00.000-07:00

Business Value of Extranet
As business continue to use open Internet technologies (extranets) to improve communication with customers and partners, they can gain many competitive advantages along the way – in product development, cost savings, marketing, distribution and leveraging their partnerships.

Extranets are network links that use Internet technologies to interconnect the intranet of a business with the intranets of its customers, suppliers or other business partners.

Companies can establish direct private network links between themselves, or create private secure Internet links between them called virtual private network.

Or company can use the unsecured Internet as the extranet link between its extranet and consumers and others, but rely on encryption of sensitive data and its own fire wall system to provide adequate security.

Thus extranets enable customer, suppliers, consultants, subcontractors, business prospects, and others to access selected intranets websites and other company database.

The business value of extranets is derived from several factors.

First, the Web browser technology of extranets makes customer and supplier access of intranet resources a lot easier and faster than previous business methods.

Second, extranets enable a company to offer new kinds of interactive Web-enabled services to their business partners. Thus extranets are another way that a business can build and strengthen strategic relationship with its customers and suppliers.

Also, extranets can enable and improve collaboration by a business with its costumers and other business partners.

Extranet facilitate an online, interactive product development, marketing, and customer focused process that can bring better designed products to market faster.
Business Value of Extranet

The Characteristics of Computers

2009-09-09T19:25:00.000-07:00

The Characteristics of Computers

Speed
A computer is a very fast device. It can perform in a few seconds the amount of work that a human being can do in an entire year – if he work day and night and is nothing else. To put in a different manner, a computer does it in one minute what take a man entire lifetime.

The units of speed are microseconds, nanoseconds and even the picoseconds. A powerful computer is capable of performing about 3 to 4 million simple arithmetic operations per second.

Accuracy
Accuracy of a computer is consistently high and the degree of accuracy of a particular computer depends upon its design. But for a particular computer, each and every calculation is performed.

Versality
Versality is one of the most wonderful things about computer. One moment, it is preparing the results of particular examination, the next moment it is busy preparing electricity bills, and in between it may be helping an office secretary to trace an important letter in seconds.

All that is required to change its talent is to slip in a new program into it. Briefly, a computer is capable of performing almost any task provided that the task can be reduced to a series of logical steps.

Power of Remembering
A computer can store and recall any amount of information because of its secondary storage capability.

Every piece of information can be retain as long as desired by the user and can be recalled as and when required.

Even after several years, the information recalled will be as accurate as on the day when it was fed to the computer.

No I.Q
A computer is a magical device. It can only perform tasks that a human being can. The difference is that it performs these tasks with unthinkable speed and accuracy.

It posses no intelligence of its own, Its I.Q is zero at least till today. It has to be told what to do and in what sequence. Hence, only the user can determine what tasks a computer will perform.

Computer cannot take its own decision in this regard.

Common Data Used
One item can be involved in several different procedures or accessed, update and inspected by a number of different users.

This can hinder the work of those who need access to data. As the time is changing, more and more facilities are being added to the computers they can perform but in practical life many tasks are limited to these basic operations.

Diligence
The computer is a machine. It does not tire. Nor does it loses concentration even after working continuously for a long time This characteristics is especially useful for those jobs where same tasks is done again and again.

Storage
The computers have a lot of a storage device s which can store a tremendous amount of data.

The Characteristics of Computers

System and Application Software

2009-08-21T23:53:00.000-07:00

System and Application Software
System Software
System software consists of programs that are used to control and operate the computer hardware.

There are three components in system software: operating system, utility programs and language processors.

The operating system tells the computer how to perform functions such as how to load, store and execute programs, how to transfer data between input/output devices and and to manage resources available (CPU).

The operating system must be loaded in the main memory before the computer can function.

Other application software can then be loaded into the computer with the help of the operating system.

Application Software
Application software consists of programs created to perform a specific user’s task.

Application software allows a user to prepare a document, design a financial worksheet, or created a useful database.

When you think of the different programs that people use to improve the efficiency in the workplace, they can be classified as application software.

Most users do not write their own software programs – either system software or application software – because they can buy ready to use software.
System and Application Software

The Operating System

2009-07-23T01:02:00.001-07:00

The Operating System
The operating system (OS) consists of the master of programs that manage the basic operations of the computer.

These programs provide the control and use of hardware resources, including disk space, memory, CPU time allocation, and peripheral devices.

They are also the interface between computer hardware and application programs, allowing end users can concentrate on their own tasks or application rather than on the complexities of managing the computer.

To be more specific, the operating system is used to control the hardware memory, schedule the execution of programs, and schedule input output traffic between the CPU and other devices.

A good operating system, can dramatically improve the effectiveness and the efficiency of program execution performance.

Many different operating systems are available for computers.

Some operating systems are designed for a microcomputer single user environment, and others are for multiple users.

The complexity of operating system is much higher in a multiple user operating system due to the management of computer memory and CPU time shared by many users.

Today, many computers use what is called an operating environment, which provides end users with a user friendly interface to use.

Some operating systems have a graphical user interface that provide visual clues such as icons and objects the help the users.

Each icon represents a folder, an application package, or file. By clicking icons, users can open a folder or use an application package.
The Operating System

What is A Computer?

2009-07-18T15:36:00.000-07:00

What is A Computer?
The word “computer” comes from the word “compute” which means to calculate. So a computer is normally considered to be a calculating device that can perform arithmetic operations at enormous speed.

The electronic computer is the most versatile and efficient machine for processing data.

Generally, the word COMPUTER means Commonly Operated Machine Particularly Used for Training Education and Research.

More accurately, a computer may be defined as a device that operates upon information or data. Data can be anything like bio-data of various applicants when the computer is used for recruiting personnel, or the marks obtained by various students in various subjects when the computer is used to prepare results, or the details.

Thus, data comes in various shapes and size depending upon the type of computer application. A computer can store process and retrieve data as and when desires. The fact that computers process data is so fundamental that many people have started calling it a data processor.

A computer is an electronic device made up of electronic circuits and wires etc. In modern age, computer (which is nothing but just an electronic device) is the most advance tool for solving the wide range of practical problems.

More precisely computer is an electronic device which works under the instructions of stored programs, automatically accepting the supplied data to analyze and process the data to produce the information called the result or output of that processing.

It manipulates the number of symbols, which it accepts as input, process this input are reproduces this is as output in a formatted manner. The word computer has been derived form the word compute.

When computers were developed, it was thought that they would be fast calculating machines. But today most of the work done is of non-numerical in nature like processing the records of students or employees of details of passengers for reservation.
What is A Computer?

Minicomputers and Mainframe Computers

2009-07-01T16:54:00.000-07:00

Minicomputers and Mainframe Computers
Minicomputers
Minicomputers are most powerful than microcomputers in terms of multiples user environments.

In other words, a minicomputer can be used by many operators simultaneously.

Many businesses and other organizations use minicomputers for their information processing requirements.

The most powerful minicomputers are called super minicomputers.

Mainframe Computers
Mainframe computers are large computer systems that can handled hundreds of users, store large amounts of data, and process transactions at a high speed.

Mainframe computers use a very sophisticated computer operating systems to manage and control the whole system.

Mainframes usually require a specialized environment including air conditioning and raised flooring at allows computer cables to be installed underneath.

The price ranges for mainframes from several hundred thousands to several million dollars.

Central Processing Unit

2009-06-01T21:11:00.001-07:00

Central Processing Unit
The central processing unit (CPU) is the center of all computer processing activities. It is here that all is controlled, all data are manipulated and arithmetic/logic computations are performed.

Inside the central processing unit, there are the arithmetic/logic unit (ALU) and the control unit (CU).

The arithmetic/logic unit is used to perform the four basic arithmetic operations, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Logic functions are used to compare values. They are >=, <=, =, <, > and <>. All computer applications from typing a document to supercomputer simulation are achieved through these simple operations.

The control unit is responsible for managing the traffic of the central processing unit (CPU). It interprets and carries out computer operations contained in computer programs.

It moves instruction from the memory to the registers in the control unit. The control unit executes only one instruction at a time and executes it so quickly that the control unit appears to do many things simultaneously.

The central processing unit capacity is often described in word sizes. The word is the number of bits (such as 16, 32, or 64) that can be processed at one time by the central processing unit.

Therefore, the more bits of the word size, the more powerful is the CPU or central processing unit.
Central Processing Unit

E-Learning

2009-05-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

E-Learning
In order for web-based e-learning to provide a satisfactory learning environment, it is necessary to make available to user’s computer with sound capability (including headset or loudspeaker) and an internet connection with reasonable speed.

E-learning is also a great tool for repetitive training. Even of users were trained at some point in time. Chances are that they did not frequently use all the features of the software and they will forget certain parts of it.

With all the course modules residing on a web site, the users can log on and retake specific course modules at any time.

Most e-learning providers will offer courses on a per- time basis or on a subscription basis.

If you have a customized or home grown in Business Intelligence solution and no e-learning provider yet offers courses for your software, you can create your own online course and put them on your website, intranet or local area network.

This option can also be if great value if you need to train large number of users in a few modules and you need to show them specific features and functionability.

Depending on the resource available in your organization and their skill level, course development can be handled by your own team, or outsourced to the e-learning software vendor or a consultant.

Depending on the quality required and the amount of custom animations, graphics, and the like that are used, one hour online courses can cost form a few thousand to $50,000 to develop.

The key is to evaluate the cost/benefit and then pick the best alternative.

There is also some very inexpensive and easy-to-use software you or a power user can utilize to create the course yourself.

It all depends on how many people will use the sources and how long they can be used before they are out of date, as well as the time and resources you have available.

Software training (like Business Intelligence) lends itself very well to online courses because you will see that actual screens you will be using in real life, with information, buttons, and menus residing on a screen, and what can be better than showing the real screens and a mouse clicking on items while an instructor’s voice is explaining in the background?
E-Learning

Large System Computing

2009-04-06T23:46:00.000-07:00

Large System Computing
Large systems consist of mainframe computers, minicomputers and supercomputers.

They are typically multi-user computer system in which many users share the same computing resources at the same time (time sharing).

The computing power of minicomputers or mainframe is usually more than microcomputer, and so the cost is greater.

Mainframe computer and supercomputers can be very expensive to purchase and maintain, so only large corporations can afford them.

The computing power of mainframe computer is usually shared by many users.

That means that the operating system of a mainframe computer allows many computer users to participate simultaneously.

Mainframe computers are typically used for business applications where a large number of transactions are processed.

They are fast in processing speed and have large storage capacity.

Supercomputers have the most processing power of computers available.

They are primarily designed for high speed computation, especially for scientific research or the defense industry, but their use is growing rapidly in business as supercomputer prices decrease.

Supercomputers are also very valuable for large model simulation and complex mathematical calculations.

Weather forecasting agents use supercomputer to model the world’s weather system to improve prediction in a very short period of time.

The computer performance and speed required to achieve the above goal needs enormous speed and processing power.

To increase the speed of supercomputer, some companies are linking together individual or serial processors into multiple processors or parallel processing systems.
Large System Computing

Overload of Information

2009-03-02T03:56:00.000-08:00

Overload of Information
There is more information of every type available now than ever before. How often you ‘personally selected’ at home, and at work, for the chance of receiving a fabulous holiday – and some information?

Most of it is junk information – junk mail, e-mail and junk faxes that you file straight away in the waste paper bin – guess who personally selected you?

A computer, of course. They are great for sending out information: more computers are used for word processing than for any other task. Computers are amazingly fast at processing some types of data, in particular financial and numerical data once it has been converted into electronic digital signals.

There are even programs for filtering out, or redirecting, certain classes of e-mail, but computers cannot yet open the morning postbag, sift out the junk and bin it.

So history is repeating itself: the invention of the typewriter with its high output of thirty or forty words per minute did not lead us to employ fewer scribes to write letters and other documents.

Instead we employed more people to produce much more written work and now the word processor is having the same effect. The net result is more people with keyboards skill than ever before, and far more information on every conceivable subject, competing for our attention and often failing to get it.

It seems the computer that help us manage information by processing data after, far from solving our problems, actually create new problems by adding to the volume, variety and complexity of information available.

Nevertheless some organizations thrive in this new environment: they use computers and modern information systems to make better decisions more quickly, allowing them to respond faster to customer requirements, which is markets today brings significant competitive advantage.
Overload of Information

Cost Savings on Training and Development

2009-02-10T12:38:00.001-08:00

Cost Savings on Training and Development
Developing information access and Web publishing applications for an intranet is a lot easier than many traditional methods.

Learning how to use Web browser from the company Intranet is fast and easy. Many employees already know how to use browser anyway, from surfing the World Wide Web.

So training and development costs for many intranet applications are low, especially for communication, collaboration and information sharing.

In addition, putting electronic version of training materials on intranet websites can reduce the amount of costly classroom training in business.

For most business, the benefits to be gained from intranets outweigh their limitations. Justifying the initial cost of investing in an intranet does not seem to be a problem for many organizations.
Cost Savings on Training and Development

What is a server?

2009-01-17T05:19:00.000-08:00

What is a server?
Server computers are designed to support a computer network that allows users to share files, applications and hardware resources.

As server computer is normally used to serve other computer in the network in terms of file storage and resources management, data communications, printing management and other computer functions. Characteristics of a server computer include the following:

It can communicate with other networks.

It enhances communication speed within the network.

It has high-end CPU power with a large capacity in the hard drive.

Some have more than one CPU, providing parallel processing capabilities.

It has a large memory capacity.

A server computer could be either a high end microcomputer or a powerful microcomputer with minicomputer like functions.
What is a server?

Managing Information: Accessible Filing

2009-01-05T07:28:00.000-08:00

Managing Information: Accessible Filing
The reason why computers are sure to take over in more and more areas of organizational life is that they can make any information already collected for one purpose instantly available, to be used for many other secondary purposes. This has opened up totally new ways of using information.

Let us take for example the way information about groceries bought by consumers can be used in a retail outlet. In corner shops the proprietor often operates the till and once the customer has paid for his or her purchases the only record of the transaction is on the till roll – to all intents and purposes inaccessible. It is of little consequence though because the proprietor is close enough to the action for decision making and knows roughly what the day’s taking are, how many customer have been served and whether there has been a run on a particular item.

In the supermarket, however, there may be 30 checkout operators and 10 000 or more different lines stocked. At peak times, purchases may be leaving the supermarket at a rate of 40 000 items per hour. Stocks of each line must be reordered to arrive at the rate of consumption or changing demand for particular lines caused by promotional; activities or food scarce could be easily lead to empty shelves to throw away ‘till roll’ data collected for the primary purpose of calculating how much to charge the customer.

Once collected it must be used again for stock control, a secondary use. And that’s not the end of the story. Information is expensive to collect, but once held in digital form it costs next to nothing to store and so can be freely used over and over gain for a variety of secondary purpose. For instance, till roll data collected over a period of months or years can be analyzed for long term trends and presented graphically to aid in forecasting and strategic planning. Till roll data becomes valuables for direct marketing when linked to particular customers who presented a loyalty card. Customer who buys cat food may be interested in special offers in cat litter, and those who buy diapers may try a new range of baby foods. Their addresses are known, so they can be targeted for mail shots customized to their life styles and preferences.
Managing Information: Accessible Filing

Computer Business Application

2008-12-23T17:40:00.000-08:00

Computer Business Application
Businesses have become internetworked E-business enterprises. The internet and internet-like networks inside the enterprise (intranets), between the enterprise and its trading partners (extranet), and other types of networks are now the primary information technology infrastructure of many organizations.

An internetworked E-business enterprise enables managers, business professional, team and work groups to electronically exchange data and information anywhere in the world with other end user, customer, supplier and business partners.

Companies and work group s can thus collaborate more creatively, manage their business operations and resource more effectively, and compete successfully in today’s fast-changing global economy.
Computer Business Application

Personal Information Manager

2008-12-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Personal Information Manager
Personal Information Manager is a popular software package for end user productivity and collaborations, and is a popular application for personal digital assistant (PDA) hand held devices. Personal information manager such as Lotus Organizer and Microsoft Outlook help end users, store, organize and retrieve information about customers, clients and prospects, of schedule and manage appointments, meetings and tasks.

The personal information manager will organize data entered and retrieve information in a variety of forms, depending on the style and structure of the personal information and the information wanted. For example, information can be retrieved as an electronic calendar or list of appointments, meeting, or other things to do, the time tables for a project; or a display of key facts and financial data about customers, clients, or sales prospects.

Personal information managers are sold as independent programs or are included in software suites and vary widely in their styles. Structure and features, for example, Lotus Organizer uses a notebook with tabs format, while Microsoft Outlook organizes data about people as a continuous A to Z list. Most personal information managers emphasize the maintenance of contact list, that is, customers, clients or prospects. Scheduling appointments and meetings and task management are top personal information manager applications. Personal information manager are now changing to include the ability to access the World Wide Web also provide e-mail capability.
Personal Information Manager

Intranet Business Value: Publication Cost Savings

2008-12-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

Intranet Business Value: Publication Cost Savings
Many companies have derived business value from their intranet applications. Intranet using companies report cost reductions, revenue increases or other benefits after they replaced traditional methods of accomplishing information publishing and other business processes with intranet based methods.

Many companies are replacing the publications of paper documents, company newsletter and employee manuals with electronic multimedia versions published on intranet Web servers. Eliminations of printing, mailing and distribution costs are a major source of cost savings. Companies are also electronically publishing telephone directories, human resource materials, company policies, job openings, and many other former paper–based communications on intranet websites.

Companies that use web technology to distribute documents may experience momentous gains in productivity and incredible cost savings. Like the reengineering craze that has marked the other half of the client/server revolution, converting many paper-based systems to web systems can save both labor and over head costs within an organization.
Intranet Business Value: Publication Cost Savings

E-Government

2008-12-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

E-Government
In the commercial sphere, business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C) and business to employee (BTE) electronic business has come widely accepted.

Government are also embracing the internet to provide services to business (G2B) and citizens (C2C), as well as government to government (G2G), citizen to citizen (C2C), government to supplier (G2S) and government to employee (G2E).

In year 2000 European Union Summit in Lisbon set ambitious goal of making Europe the world most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy. It resulted in the eEurope Action plan to exploit the full potential of the Internet to promote a competitive economy. The objective is to make it easier to deal with local, regional and national governments by making services available electronically.

The benefits of e Government are reduced costs through more efficient processes, the integration of disparate agencies systems, and improved service to citizens via the internet and other electronic channels. Investment by government will also decrease the cost of doing business through simplification of procedures self-service systems and one stop shop for enterprises. The biggest beneficiaries here will be the small to medium enterprises, which are the backbone of the European economy.
E-Government

Computer Technologies are Available for Business

2008-11-13T17:00:00.000-08:00

Computer Technologies are Available for Business
Information systems are used in all business domains. For example, finance uses information to forecast revenues and maximize investment, make selections on stocks and even predicts bankruptcies. Accounting uses information systems to record transactions, prepare financial statements, manage cash flow, or predict profit or loss. In marketing, information systems are used to develop new merchandise and services, target customer segments, determine the locations for production and distribution facilities (so that the cost can be reduced and more customers will be attracted), formulate price strategies (to maximize total profits), and even develop the promotion policies (so that advertising will be more efficient). In manufacturing, information systems are used to process customer orders, develop production schedules, design new products, and test the quality of products.

In addition, network technologies allow users to share information and other resources. As a result, information retrieval can be efficient and available. Current Internet technology provides businesses with a variety of external business information. Multimedia information transmissions (with text, graphics, image and video) are also available on the internet. With the impact of the Internet, Intranet becomes another new technology popular to business. Intranet is a small version of the Internet within one organization. It provides almost the same services as the Internet, but with better security and privacy. Artificial intelligent technologies are also applied to business functions. Neural networks have been used to predict the stock and bond markets. Experts systems are used to help managers with financials decisions. In the future, more intelligent agents will be used in the business environment to improve the quality of services and products.
Computer Technologies are Available for Business

Microcomputers

2008-11-06T19:01:00.001-08:00

Microcomputers
Microcomputers are designed for a single-user environment and small business applications. However, more and more business people are using microcomputers for both multi-user networks and business applications. For example, a business person can use a microcomputer to organize financial transactions, prepare corporate tax return to update the inventory that they provide solutions for most business applications.

A microcomputer uses a microprocessor as the central processing unit. Microprocessor can be very powerful despite their small size. Currently, there are two major microcomputer systems available in the market. They are IBM-compatible system and the Apple system. Both system use different platforms (operating system) to control the hardware. The IBM-compatible system uses a Windows operating system developed by Microsoft. The Windows operating system provides a graphical user interface (GUI) and a multitasking environment. The Windows operating system dominate most of the microcomputer operating system market. Apple’s Macintosh uses a totally different operating system developed by Apple Computer. However, it is suggested that the average business person use IBM system because of greater compatibility, wider program availability, and more open platform.
Microcomputers

Enterprise Information Portals

2008-10-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

Enterprise Information Portals
Enterprise information portals are growing trend in the design and deployment of intranets in business. An enterprise information portal (EIP) is a web based interface and integration of intranets and other technologies that give all intranet users and selected extranet users access to a variety of internal and external business applications and services. For example, internal applications might include access to e-mail, project websites, and discussion groups; human resources Web self-services, customer, inventory, and other corporate database; decision support systems, and knowledge management systems. External applications might include industry financial and other Internet news services; links to industry discussion groups; and links to customer and supplier Internet and extranet websites. Enterprise information portals are typically tailored or personalized to the needs of individual business users or group pf users.

The business benefits of enterprise information portals include providing more specific and selective information to business users, providing easy access to key corporate intranet website resources, delivering industry and business news, and providing better access to company data for selected customers, suppliers, or business partners. Enterprise information portals can also help avoid excessive surfing by employees across company and Intranet websites by making it easier for them to receive or find the information and services they need, thus improving the productivity of a company’s workforce.

However, in order to present something as simple as a Web page with links to useful internal an external information sources, applications and services, an enterprise information portal must integrate many information technologies. So full fledged corporate portals are proving to be a challenge to build.
Enterprise Information Portals

Management Information System in Business

2008-10-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

Management Information System in Business
Why do you need Management Information System to solve Business Problems?
The business environment is changing on a daily basis. The competition is everywhere from cost cutting to marketing strategies. To maintain competitiveness, management must improve the efficiency of operation without scarifying the quality of products and services. To achieve this task, making timely and correct decision is the key to success. Since good decision making requires quality data and timely information, a Management Information System is specially designed top provide information on a timely basis. An MIS also provides different types of information based on user’s need to improve effectiveness and efficiency.

What Computer Technologies Are Available For Business?
Information systems are used in all business domains. For example, finance uses information to forecast revenues and maximize investment, make selections on stocks and even predict bankruptcies. Accounting uses information systems to record transactions, prepare financial statements manage cash flow and predict profit or loss. In marketing information systems are used to develop new merchandise and services, for customer segmentation, to determine the locations for production and distribution facilities, to develop formulate price strategies, and even to develop the promotion policies. In manufacturing, information systems are used to process customer orders, develop production schedules, design new products and test product quality.

In addition, network technologies allow users to share information and other resources. As a result, information retrieval can be more efficient and readily available. Current Internet technology provides businesses with a variety of external business information requires. With the impact of Internet, intranet becomes another new technology popular for business. An intranet is a small version of Internet in one organization. It provides almost the same services as the Internet but with better security and privacy. Artificial intelligence technologies are also applied to business functions. Neural networks have been used to predict the stock and bond markets. Expert systems are used to help managers with financial environment to improve the quality of services and products.
Management Information System in Business

Business Operation and Management

2008-09-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

Business Operation and Management
Intranets have moved beyond merely making hypermedia information available on Web servers or pushing it to users via net broadcasting. Intranets are also being used as the platform for developing and deploying critical business applications to support business operations and managerial decision making across the internetworked enterprise.

For example many companies are developing custom applications like order processing, inventory control, sales management, and executive information systems that can be implemented on intranets, extranets, and the Internet. Many of these applications are designed to interface with and access existing company databases and legacy systems. The software for such business uses is then installed on internet Web servers. Employees within the company; or external business partners, can excess and run such applications using Web browsers from anywhere whenever needed.
Business Operation and Management

Applications of Intranets

2008-09-03T22:28:00.001-07:00

Applications of Intranets
Communication and Collaboration
Intranet can significantly improve communications and collaboration within an enterprise. For example, intranet browser and PC can be used to send and receive e-mail, voice mail, and paging, and faxes to communicate with other within organization, and externally through the internet and extranet. Intranet groupware features also can be used to improve team and project collaboration with services such as discussion groups, chat rooms, and audio and teleconferencing.

Web Publishing
The advantages of developing and publishing hyperlinked multimedia documents to hypermedia databases accessible on World Wide Web servers has moved to corporate intranets. The comparative ease, attractiveness, and lower cost of publishing and accessing multimedia business information internally via intranet websites have been the primary reasons for the explosive growth in the use of intranets in business. For example, information products as varied as company newsletter, technical drawings, and product catalogs can be published in a variety of ways, including hypermedia Web pages, E-mail, and net broadcasting, and as part of in house business applications,. Intranet software browsers, servers, and search engines can help easily navigate and locate the business information needed.
Applications of Intranets

Intranet Applications in Business Organizations

2008-08-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

Intranet Applications in Business Organizations
An intranet is a network inside an organization that uses internet technologies (such as Web browsers and servers, TCP/IP network protocols, HTML hypermedia document publishing and databases, and so on) to provide an Internet like environment within the enterprise for information sharing, communications, collaboration, and the support business processes. An intranet is protected by security measures such as passwords, encryption, and fire walls, and thus can be accessed by authorized users through internet. A company’s intranet can also be accessed through the intranets of customers, suppliers and other business partners via extranet links.

Organizations of all kinds are implementing a broad range of intranets uses. One way that companies organize intranet applications is to group them conceptually into a few user services categories that reflect the basic services that intranets offer to their users. These services are provided by the intranet’s portal, browser, and server software, as well as by other system and application software and groupware that are part of a company’s intranet software environment.
Intranet Applications in Business Organizations