TYPES OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

 TYPES OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Information technology is a conglomerate of equipment that provides information to the management of an organization to assist them perform their function organization to assist them perform their function organizations use information technology (II) to

1. Process data
2. Store data and information
3. Produce output for operational use or for management reports
4.   Communicate information.

IT systems are computer systems, which consists of

1.      Hard ware

2.      Software and

3.      Communication links, including links to the internet

These are the three types of information technology.

1.      Hardware.

The term hardware is used to describe the equipment in a computer system, including the computer system, including the computer itself. They are the physical components of the computer system that occupies space, that can be seen and touched.

 Hardware includes

• Input Devices
• Output Devices
• Secondary Storage Devices
• Central processing unit, comprising of the control unit, Arithmetic and logic unit and the memory unit.
• Communication Devices which facilitates the transmission of information from one point to another.

Hard Wares

Peripherals are hardware devices other than processors or networks. The term peripherals commonly refers to input,  output, secondary storage and communication devices.

2.      Software.

Computer software is the term used to describe collections of program instructions to the computer hardware. They are program instructions that directs the computer hardware to perform some defined tasks.

There are different types of software, namely operating systems, language translators transient utilities, application packages and bespoke systems.

3.      Communication Devices:     

Are the types of information technology that facilitates the transmission of information from  one point to another.

Where an organization has several locations, it may be effective to process data locally rather than at one central installation. By doing this, individual managers will be able to schedule their own processing and will have more control over the contents of their database systems. Any system that requires computers to communicate with each other will need specialized hardware and software such as:

ü  Modems, broadband or network connections.

ü  Communication programs.

ü  Network circuits and software.

ü  No cash changes hands

4.      Touch screen

A touch screen is another form of point of sale device which might be used in a cafeteria or restaurant. The screen displays a range of items that are available for sale, and the salesperson in puts the customer’s order by touching the appropriate icon in with a finger. The screen recognizes the instruction and converts it into an electronic command for the computer.

5.      Optical mark reading (OMR)

Optical mark reading (OMR) involves making marks, usually with a pencil or pen, on a standard document. The document is then read by an optical mark reader, and the positioning of the mark or marks on the document can be interpreted as data for processing by the computer.

6.      Optical character recognition (OCR)

With optical character recognition (OCR), a reader can recognize hand writing characters from their shape, and convert them into electronic data format.OCR applications have includes meter reading forms for electricity and gas meters. The person reading the meter records the meter reading in boxes on a standard form, and the form is then input into the processing system through an OCR reader.

7.      Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR)

With MICR, a special reader can detect characters on a standard form in magnetic ink characters. The use of MICR is uncommon, although its most well-known use is the automatic reading of characters on bank cheques.

8.      Scanners

A scanner is a device that can read only any form of image and convert it into an electronic form for acceptance by a computer system.

Scanners can therefore be used to input diagrams and pictures, signatures and other visual images, as well as images of text.

Scanners are widely used in the publishing industry, for the processing of diagrams and other pictures in books, magazines and newspaper.

9.      Plastic Cards (Magnetic Strip And Chip & Pin)

Plastic Swipe cards hold data in electronic form an a magnetic strip on the card.

Plastic cards or other items might hold data in electronic form in an electronic chip. These can be read in by a special reading device (either reading the magnetic strip on the card or the chip in case of a chip & pin card) and fed into the computer system.

Plastic cards are used in banking systems, credit cards, security passes e.t.c.

10.  Smart Cards

The next generation of plastic cards will have funds actually on the card itself (rather than simply providing online authorization to transfer funds). The card will be read in the same way as chip & pin cards, but funds then transferred direct from the card to the super markets (or other seller’s) bank account. The smart card will be recharged with money at specialist ATMs.

11.  Voice Recognition

Voice recognition systems receive input as the spoken word. They are currently used in limited number of situations such as routing calls within call centres

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