Social Implications

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Social Implications
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Offices in the future

• Word Processing Desktop Publishing
• Allow easy editing and retrieval of documents, as
  well as production of high quality documents
  (e.g. newsletters, brochures or manuals etc.)
• Careless mistakes like spelling errors are
  checked by the word processing during editing

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Offices in the future

• Spreadsheets, Accounting software Scheduling
  software
• Jobs of planning, budgeting and monitoring are
  easier and faster
• Local Area Network
• Share software, hardware and data
• Better security measure

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Offices in the future

• Internet
• Allow communication across the world via email
• Access on-line database anywhere in the world
• Teleworking is even possible
• Video Conferencing
• Allow conferences held among people in different
  geographic locations

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Comparison between traditional and modern
clerical work
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Frictionless Business

• Minimizing the time, cost and resources necessary
  for the business.
• Integrating Internet to the office is the future
  trend of office automation.
• Data and resources can therefore be searched
  easily whenever necessary.

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Disadvantages brought by IT

• Pattern of employment is changed. Clerical and
  routine manual tasks are replaced by computers.
  This may lead to unemployment.
• Potential health problems exist when the
  employees are electrocuting themselves on their
  VDU.
• Dehumanization due to reducing contact among
  people by the use of telecommunication systems.

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Factories in the future

• Fewer workers are need to create products
• Manufacturers can response more quickly to rapid
  and competitive market
• Robotics are employed to perform repetitive and
  dangerous tasks

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• Multimedia is also used to improve the operation
  of the manufacturing process. Graphical
  presentation show workers clearly what is
  happening in the manufacturing processes and thus
  avoid any hazardous events.

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Organization Downsizing Rightsizing

• As microcomputers are cheap but as powerful as
  minicomputers or even mainframes, many
  application software are now being moved from
  mainframes and minicomputers to microcomputers.

Downsizing means the trend towards the increased
reliance on smaller computers for personal and
business processing tasks.
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• What are the advantages of using a network of
  microcomputers over using a single mainframe
  computer?

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Answers

• Higher performance over price ratio
• Provides connectivity of all computers
• By connecting these computers together in a LAN,
  resources such as peripherals and information can
  be shared which in turn increases the
  productivity and manageability of the company.
• Higher fault tolerance

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• However, some large company still need mainframes
  or minicomputers for handling vast amount of data
  and supporting large number of peripheral
  devices.

Rightsizing therefore means to choose computers
of the right sizes to form the computer system
for the company.
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Change in Organization Structure

• Functional --gt Divisional
• Decentralized authority
• Network organization V.S. Cluster organization

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Globalization of Business

• Trend of all business since 1990s.
• Sell products across the global.
• Advanced TC systems reduce the needs of expensive
  and slow transportation.

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Virtual Offices
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Teleworking

• Tele working is becoming a popular mode of
  employment.
• Reporting to work at the office is no longer
  necessary as most business activities now may be
  conducted at home.
• Working hours for most professionals are
  generally reduced owing to automation.

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Employment Trend

• Manpower and so number of workers in traditional
  job are cut down drastically.
• Computer competence is increasingly important
  both for employment consideration and securing
  employment in many professions. Job vacancy and
  opportunity are diminishing for tasks of
  repetitive and tedious nature.

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Employment Trend

• Fortunately, the use of IT has also opened a
  number of new job opportunities.
• 3 types
• Development Personnel
• Operational Personnel
• Support Personnel

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Careers in Information Services
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Needs for training re-training

• Due to the rapid changes in technology, companies
  offer re-training programs for their employees
  and schools provide new courses for their
  students.

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• Education in primary and secondary schools
• The government has put in a large amount of
  resources for IT in education.
• Each school will have more computers linked by a
  Local Area Network.
• All the teachers will be trained to use IT tools
  in teaching. Students are expected to have
  capabilities to process information effectively
  and efficiently.

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• Courses offered by tertiary institutes
• Universities offer formal education and
  certification or degree programs in computer
  information systems, computer science, and
  computer engineering.
• VTC training for non-IT graduate
• VTC offer certification or diploma programs in
  computing studies and information system.
• Retraining programme by Employees Retraining
  Board
• Employees Retraining Board offers basic computer
  knowledge course for computer beginners.

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Reference

• Trend 2000
• A look to the future
• http//www.scsite.com/dc2000/