Personal Computer in the Workplace

Personal Computer

Early users were somewhat uncertain about how to use the new tool. In fact, to them computer was useful for no more than clerikal task. Pioneering applications for many companies were payroll and accounting systems. The idea was to save loabor cost by having the computer do some of the work. Many organizations, including the goverment, used computers as "number crunchers" machines that ground away aty formulas. When computers began to be used interactively, business people saw that the computer could be used as a service tool, giving information such as instant reservations or bank balances.

Today, large computer systems are used in every conceivable way, from research to manufacturing. Midrange computers make number crunching and computerized services availble to medium-size companies. Another important role for large and midrange computers is as a host for data needed by networked personal computers. It is, in fact, the highly affordable personal computers that has really opened up computing for the worker.

Personal Computer in the Workplace

Personal computer are not limited to the goverment and large corporations but are everywhere in the workplace, no matter the industry; retail,insurance, finance,real estate, heath care, goverment, education, legal services, politics, sports, publishing, transportation, manufascturing, agriculture, contuction and on and on. In fact, it would be difficult in increasing productivitywould exclude them and still expect to compete in today's marketplace.

Evolution of Personal Computer in the Workplace

Personal computer use seems to have evolved in three phses. personal computers were first used in business by individual users to transform work task. Constanty retyped documents, for example, gave way to quickly modified word-processed documents. The much-erased manual spreadsheet became the automatically recalculated electronic spreadsheet. And over flowing file drawers were transformed databases. These changes gave a significant boost to individual produtivityand can be considered the first phase of the evolution of personal computer use some organizations are still in this phase.

Many more organizations have enterd the second phase. that is, they have gone beyond personal computer use by individuals. The second phase involves transforming in work group or department. This department-oriented phase probably embraces a network and may also include personal computer access to large computer systems. This phase requires planning and structure. Most personal computers in the workplace today are networked.

The third phase of personal computer evolutions is the most dramatic, calling for the transformation of the entire business. Practically speaking, however, the third phase is really just an exstension of the earlier phases: pany as a whole. Few companies have come close to this idyllic state. This three-stage transformation-individual, department, and business-broadly describes a company's progress at blending its computers and business goals.

The Impact of Personal Computers

In the decades to come, personal computers will continue to alter the business world radically, much as the auto mobile did. For more 50 years, the automobile fueled the economy, spawning dozens of industries, from oil companies to supermarkets. Other businesses, like rel estate and restaurants, were transformed by the mobility provided by the car. Personal computers are having a similar effect for two reasons ;

1. They have brought the cost of computing down to the level of a mass-produced consumer product.
2. They have worked their way into most business organizations

Now tat computers are in businesses, let us consider who in business really needs to use them.

Where Personal computers Are Almost a Job Requirement

Who must know how to use a personal computer to perform some part of a job? As we have already implied, the answer may soon be everyone. But we are not close to that land mark yet. Even if you can see that your intended job is in the must-know category, it is likely that you can receive some on-the-job training. Let us look at some of the jobs that might require personal computer knowledge.

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