Week Four Chapter 5

    Selecting computer hardware and software is an important management decision because the IT department of any modern company is the foundation to it just like the now famous analogy of a cement foundation to a house. The IT department is the basis for all of the business' information systems (IS). They are the back end processes that keep companies as efficient and low cost as they are today. The company wants to make sure they select the hardware and software that is the best combination of lowest cost and most efficient/convenient. 

    Things to think think about when it comes to management is how easy the hardware and software is going to be to keep their people connected and synchronized. Another thing from the managerial point of view may also be reliability. The job of management is to make sure that every process is going smoothly and to plan and/or policy. They want the most reliable technology to keep from having to deal with crisis often.

    Choosing hardware and software on the basis of cost is more of an organizational issue. The lower that a business can get, install, house, and keep up the hardware and software, the more profit that is to be made. The second thing while thinking about the organization is how the different hardware and software may impact on the layers of the organization. If a technology can remove a layer of lower or middle management and "flatten" the organization the easier, quicker, and more efficient they can be at providing their service or product.

    Issues to be considered when talking about technology would be if the hardware and software is up-to-date but not too advanced. The hardware and software should be old enough that it can be run on most machines but not too out-of-date that it cannot complete necessary functions. Another issue concerning technology is what is the main purpose it is supposed to perform. A company doesn't want a software that has so much extra functionality that they paid for but can't utilize and they don't want to under spend and have software and hardware that can't handle their workload.

    This week I read chapter 5 and the case study for Salesforce.com and completed the assignment which was in place of a clicker or paper quiz this week. My group is still in the process of finding a company to use for our Google Ad project. That is something that I didn't get done but need to. I also am completing the weekly journal for this week. Those are all the tasks I completed/ didn't complete for this week.

    This week we learned more about technology instead of organization. We learned about the history of hardware and software and their advancement through the years. We talked about Moore's Law which basically says that technology doubles in every aspect about every 18 months. We went over IT infrastructure which includes:

Computer HW Platforms including servers, mainframes, and client machines, Operating System Platforms which manages files and controls the hardware what to do, Enterprise SW Applications which work across departments, Data Management and Storage which is just means where the data is stored, Network and Telecommunications which enables easy transfer of information, Internet Platforms like intranets, extranets, and the internet, and Consulting Systems Integration which links the systems together to work. We also went over different contemporary hardware platform trends such as cloud computing and the mobile digital platform. That is what I learned from class this week from the very informative class we had on Tuesday.