Personal Computers
The trend is toward ever-smaller, yet more powerful personal computers-and the technology is in place. Software development has begun to catch up with the hardware, offering an ever-wider variety of applications and competing products. Companies providing technology and professional services have aggressive goals to acquire one personal computer for every employee, or total saturation. The increased number of computer users has resulted in greater demand for personal computer user specialists, analysts, and programmers.
Expert Systems
Despite the skeptical reception a few years ago of artificial intelligence, such diverse industries as utilities, chemicals, transportation, electronics, health cure, and process manufacturing are developing and using expert systems. The systems are designed to simulate thinking of experts in the field to provide "intelligent" information to be used in decision making. As always, the limits of the new technology were misunderstood initially. The expert system is designed not to replace, but rather to assist, the expert. Physicians use expert systems to match signs and symptoms, suggest diagnoses, and provide information on drugs. Railroads are developing expert systems to perform better derailment and accident analysis modeling. Utility companies are using expert systems to determine when to purchase the oil, gas, and uranium for electricity production. Almost every industry can offer examples of expert systems development or use.
The delay in the introduction of expert systems is due in part to the lack of individuals in systems analysis and programming who possess the skills to produce such systems. These computer professionals, called knowledge engineers, are among the most wanted by corporations today.
Networks
The field of communications has had a dramatic effect on computer technology.
Banks, airlines, retail stores, and numerous other consumer industries use computer terminals for on-line transaction processing (OLTP). The electronic pathways that connect these terminals with a central or main computer are called a network. A network covering a broad geographical area is called a wide area network (WAN). A network confined to one building or office complex is called a local area network (LAN). More widespread use of personal computers has greatly contributed to the establishment of LANs. Networks now link together PCs, minicomputers, and mainframes giving users access to vast information sources. Initially, personal computers were used by individuals alone to increase their personal productivity. As more people within a company got personal computers, the desire to use them to communicate with each other electronically arose. Thus the concept of electronic mail (e-mail) began to be used internally. It was far easier and quicker to send a memo electronically than through the office mail.
Personal computers can be connected to the main computer, printers, and copy machines for direct access to data files and equipment housed in a central place in the building. Thus LANs provide a more efficient and productive way for company employees to perform their jobs, share information, and communicate throughout the organization without ever leaving their offices. Such office computer networks have created a demand for a new type of software called "group-ware" to improve communications and coordinate work activities. Advances in communications technology will provide LANS of multimedia workstations that allow not only transmission of print and graphics, but also voice, video, and even three-dimensional animated digital graphics as well.
The Internet, the international network that allows communications via computer, continues to expand its offerings. Tax tips, scientific facts, political current affairs, sports and entertainment news, even job openings are all available on the Internet. State-of-the art software is available that allows users to bypass traditional telephones in making long-distance calls around the world. The use of Inter-net technology within a company, called Intranet, is also growing rapidly.
CASE Tools
Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools are software packages used to generate code according to parameters specified by programmers. CASE tools can greatly reduce the time required by programmers to generate new programs and to revise old ones. The greatest cost in information systems is in programming because of the time required to write and debug programs. For this reason, many companies began to use independent contractors to develop programs or packaged software. Off-the-shelf software does not always work well for highly specific applications and must still be modified to serve the company's purposes. The new CASE tools enable organizations to once again develop their own software without the tremendous cost and time commitments of the past. Object-oriented programming (OOP) allows programming code or modules to be used in a number of projects, speeding systems development.
While CASE tools do not eliminate the job of the programmer in most cases, they do modify it and reduce programmer time. In large operations, this often eliminates programmer jobs. In time, as the tools are improved and become more user friendly, individuals other than programmers may be able to generate programs without formal training in programming. The demand for application programmers has already declined as the software industry continues to produce more and better software packages. If the potential of CASE tools is realized, this decline will be even greater. On the other hand, there will be many opportunities within the software industry itself for programmers with the skills to produce state-of-the-art programs.
Imaging Systems
Banking, insurance, transportation, health care, and petroleum industries are enthusiastic about the advances in imaging systems. These systems enable documents to be digitized and shared across large networks. Faster and easier retrieval of documents in paper-intensive industries provides the key to efficiency. The use of optical storage reduces the space required to house company records. Optical disks and other high-density storage devices are also more convenient to access than microfilm and microfiche. Like the other new technologies, imaging systems and optical storage have great potential. A gigabyte of information is roughly equivalent to the amount of material contained in 700 books with an average of 400 pages each, not counting pictures. Today, a storage device containing a gigabyte of data can fit in a pocket or briefcase. Specialists with expertise in imaging systems will find many new job opportunities in the future.
Information Systems
Information systems directors are overwhelmed by the variety of new products on the market. To be competitive, a company must be as productive as the com-petition. Information systems can provide the means for improved productivity. To lag behind technologically is to lose one's competitive edge. The problem is to select the best tools to make use of the new technologies. For this reason many companies form advanced technology groups (ATGS) or teams of people assigned the task of studying the new technologies and recommending the best ways to implement them in the organization. The decisions made by information managers affect the roles of computer professionals within their organizations.
Computers are the tools that generate information, but information is the resource that is shaping the future. In corporations today, the emphasis is on information services rather than on computer systems. This move from the technical to the applied has changed the nature and title of many jobs, the demand for certain skills, and the very terminology of the field. Information systems (IS) have replaced data processing (DP) to show the broader scope of both computer technology and applications. As CASE technologies gain in popularity, programmers will do less coding and will be referred to as software engineers, already the preferred job title within the computer industry.
