1. Information Technology Components

2.  Study an ever-changing topic such as IT? Our approach rest on three assumptions. First technology is ever changing. Second, IT personal productivity skills are essential for today’s professional. Finally studying IT is more productive when it is done from the perspective of identifying IT is usefulness, application and impact.

3.  When used appropriately, technology can affect how an organization plants executes, and evaluates its processes. At a minimum, technology should be viewed as an enabler- a resource tool that, if applied effectively can help an organization meet its objective.

4.  Developing New Products or Service Many companies capitalize on technology innovations to develop new, or to revitalize existing products and service.  Increasing Decision Maker Effectiveness Providing better information, improving the decision process, or automating the decision process altogether can support decision making.  Marketing Goods and Services Going online eliminates many of the traditional barriers to entering a national or a global market.

5.  The AICPA’s information technology mission is to enable all members to provide value to their clients and their employers through effective application of current, emerging and future information technologies. The AICPA’s objective is to have the business community “think CPA” think business solutions through technology.  A strategic, conceptual understanding of information technology focuses on:  The function of each IT components  The objective of technology advancements for each IT component  He potential business impact of new technology  The purpose business value and direction of advancements of each technology component used by organizations.

6. Memory Processor Internal storage External storage Input Output Instructions Denotes Communications channel EXHIBT F-1 Components of Information Systems

7.  Input devices are used to enter instruction into the computer and to collect and prepare data for processing.  OCR and MICR devices are often used to improve the efficiency and accuracy of certain information processes. Turnaround documents that are generated by the organization used as input to process customer payments-the customer “turns around” or returns a portion of the bill to the company with payments.  Most familiar types of output device are monitors printers. Integrating various media is called multimedia. The objective of multimedia is to make the output more useful by providing stimulation to more than one human sense at a time.  One exciting benefit of newer input and output technology is its ability to communicate with people who require alternative forms of communication. Multimedia and printing technology provide output for sight and hearing impaired person far more efficiently than ever before.

9.  Data and instruction are needed to perform any computer task. Memory provides short term storage for instructions and data during processing.  Computers, memory is measured in units called bytes.  Physical memory devices in our office example include a note pad or what is called RAM and ROM in a computer systems. RAM is used to store data and instructions during processing and is only available when the computer is turned on.  ROM is used to permanently store the low level instructions that control the basic operations of computer systems components or software applications.  The objective of advances in memory technology is to remove any processing limitations due to inadequate amounts and speed of memory.

10.  Storage devices are occasionally called secondary storage because they are used in addition to the main memory that we just discussed.  Storage capacity, as with memory I measured in size and speed.  Data and instructions are written to and read from a disk using a disk drive. A disk drive is an electromechanical device that reads and writes the data and instructions