19Chapter 1 has set the stage for the detailed study of information technology (IT) and your role in harnessing that
technology. We can now take a closer look at the building blocks of IT and the development and maintenance of IT
systems.
Our definition of IT is a broad one, encompassing all forms of technology involved in capturing, manipulating,
communicating, presenting, and using data (and data transformed into information). Thus, IT includes computers
(both the hardware and the software), peripheral devices attached to computers, communications devices and
networks—clearly incorporating the Internet—photocopiers, facsimile machines, cellular telephones and related
wireless devices, computer-controlled factory machines, robots, video recorders and players, and even the
microchips embedded in products such as cars, airplanes, elevators, and home appliances. All of these
manifestations of IT are important, and you need to be aware of their existence and their present and potential uses
in an organizational environment. However, two broad categories of IT are critical for the manager in a modern
organization: computer technology and communications technology. Both of these technologies have had, and
continue to have, a gigantic impact on the structure of the modern organization, the way it does business, its scope,
and the jobs and the careers of the managers in it.
Perhaps the first important point to be made in this chapter is that the division between computer and
communications technology is arbitrary and somewhat misleading. Historically, computer and communications
technologies were independent, but they have grown together over the past 30 years. Distributed systems (to be
discussed in Chapter 5) exist in every industry, and these systems require the linking of computers by
telecommunication lines. World Wide Web–based systems, delivered either via an intranet within the
organization or via the Web itself, are becoming increasingly prevalent. Almost every manager at every level has
a microcomputer on his or her desk; these microcomputers are connected to the organizational network and
usually to the Internet. Today, the information systems organization often has responsibility for both computing
and communications. The switches used in telephone networks are computers, as are the devices used to set up
computer networks such as routers and gateways. And, of course, today’s smartphones are both computers and
communication devices. It is still convenient for us to discuss computing technology as distinct from
communications technology, but the distinctions are becoming even more blurred as time passes. In reality,
computer/communications technology is being developed and marketed by the computer/communications
industry.
This chapter begins with a consideration of computer hardware, as distinct from computer software.
Computerhardwarerefers to the physical pieces of a computer system—such as a central processing unit, a
printer, and a disk drive—that can be touched. In discussing computer hardware, we will introduce the central
idea behind today’s computers—the stored-program concept—to aid in our understanding of how a computer
system works. Building on the stored-program concept, the second part of this chapter focuses on computer
software,which is the set of programs that controls the operations of the computer system. Computer hardware
without software is of little value (and vice versa). Both are required for a computer system to be a useful tool for
you and your organization. Thus, this chapter will explain the symbiotic relationship between computer hardware
and software.