Information Processing

Information Processing
has often been associated specifically with computer-based
operations.
IMPACT OF INFORMATION
PROCESSING
Information processing has had an enormous impact on
modern society. The marketplace has become increasingly
complex with the escalating availability of data and information.
Individuals need a sound understanding of how
to create, access, use, and manage information, which is
essential in the work environment. People need to understand
the interrelationship among individuals, the business
world nationally and internationally, and government
to constructively participate as both consumers and producers.
These general competencies must be coupled with
those that lead to employment in business as well as
advanced business studies.
According to market intelligence provider IDC,
offices around the world were on track to produce 4.5 trillion
pages of hard-copy information by 2007. Three vital
factors to consider in the management of documents are
(1) managing the documents more effectively, (2) controlling
the costs associated with the documents processed,
and (3) using available resources more efficiently. Every
organization, whether small or large, has a vested interest
in information processing technology. Smarter document
management in office environments is essential. Businesses
are adding intelligence and structure to digital and
paper documents in order to streamline business processes
and to aid integration within the structured data systems.
The emphasis is not on eliminating paper, but on handling
the information embedded in the documents more
efficiently. The focus has shifted to tailoring and managing
technology to best meet needs.
EFFECTS OF INFORMATION
PROCESSING
Information generates ideas and drives decisions. Documents
are driven by regulatory compliance, plus the need
to communicate with customers, suppliers, and employees—
while dealing with multimedia, business process
solutions, and related investments. Questions that should
be considered include the following:
1. What techniques, procedures, and methods are used
to share useful information?
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380 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE, SECOND EDITION
Information Processing
2. What are the capabilities and limitations of hardware
and software?
3. How can speed of operation, functionality, and
capacity be increased?
4. What ways will an organization and individual use
the information; for example, will the information
be used to support strategic, tactical, or operational
decisions, and to inform, persuade, educate, or
entertain users?
5. What techniques are used for representing the
design of solutions and output, including inputprocess-
output charts, hierarchy charts, screen/hardcopy
layout mock-ups, flow charts, or storyboards;
what techniques—such as hyperlinks, buttons,
icons, table of contents, index, or page numbering—
are used for navigating complex documents?
In many businesses, office files are littered with paper
documents. Time consuming and costly, this situation
frustrates both customers and employees, often resulting
in service delays. By automating paper-intensive processes,
organizations can realize significant productivity gains.
The explosion in information and content has created
business challenges, including:
• The inability of users to locate information needed
• The lack of clear organization to simplify navigation
through repositories and on Web sites
• Manual tagging processes that take too much time
• The inability to personalize content for individual
users and customers
MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION
PROCESSING
Businesses in the twenty-first century are complex, fluid,
and customer-centric, therefore they need to establish and
apply appropriate file-management procedures and techniques
to store, communicate, and dispose of data and
information efficiently and effectively. By automating
routines to capture, process, manage and deliver business
documents, organizations can safeguard data integrity and
protect data from alteration.
The introduction of digital technologies enabled
offices to start changes in the use of paper. In the early
1990s, a Xerox research study indicated that offices were
not tending to use less paper rather keep less paper. Many
office workers maintain paper for reading, annotating,
and sharing information for discussion purposes; many
businesses still rely on paper for such form-based documents
as invoices, contracts, and customer correspondence.
Paper copies and/or microfilm are also archived for
legal reasons by many businesses and organizations.
Businesses need to examine carefully the document
work-flow process. This includes four stages/steps: capture,
manage, store, and deliver. Each step supports the
transfer of paper document content to electronic format,
to route and use for specific applications. Richard V.
Heiman and Anthony C. Picardi (2005) have stated that
“information life-cycle management has now become possible.
Intelligent documents have a life cycle built into
them and travel on the backbone of enterprise transaction
systems. Content comprehension, digital rights, and integration
continues to evolve and will be built into an
increasing array of smart applications.”
Many business documents are governed by regulations
such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of
1996. These acts are meant to protect information security,
accuracy, and confidentiality and dictate how organizations
receive, process, use, store, protect, and share
business information.
Business requires that information be accessible in
real time. Real time is associated with speed—real-time
information management is getting information where it
needs to be when it needs to be there, whether that is
microseconds, minutes, or days. Information has impact
when it is connected to context, to other information, and
to people. Context enhances the value of stored information.
Business leaders need information that is readily
accessible. They want to have real-time views in their businesses
so that decisions are made when they need to be
without tracking data and generating reports.
Traditionally in most businesses, organizations, and
corporations, information has been isolated within a specific
department on an individual employee’s personal
computer, in an individual database, or in a file cabinet.
Businesses, however, have implemented multiple solutions
to store various data and yet questions persist on how to
consolidate and use storehouses of information to deliver
better products and services while maintaining profit margins.
Capturing all information onto one true enterprise
system is essential. Enterprise resource management
(ERM) has arrived. The implementation of ERM in the
business sector has helped businesses to manage people
and workloads and to control of the processes of the business.
Processes and communication systems that extend
globally and respond instantaneously require flexibility.
The processes as well as the systems must be integrated so
that measurable results are delivered. ERM serves as a
vehicle to manage information. It organizes data to be
more useful to individual departments—enabling them to

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE, SECOND EDITION 381
Information Processing: Historical Perspectives
operate more efficiently, as well as creating streamlined
processes to cut costs.
Changing internal processes can be difficult within
an organization. Businesses must abandon old ways of
preserving and protecting data. Data need to be shared
within an organization on a rules- and roles-based system;
reporting functions need to be streamlined, limiting decision
making to a select few. Open lines of communication
and collaboration within the organization, as well as with
partners, suppliers, and customers, helps the organization
achieve greater operational efficiency.
Constantly evolving business requirements mean that
the work-flow processes have to be updated as needs
change. Customization may be required. Businesses need
to define and modify work-flow functions. Solutions that
bridge the gap between back- and front-office worlds
enable organizations to exchange information.
In the current work environment, businesses use the
Internet on a daily basis. The Internet is no longer a tool
just for electronic mail, research, and electronic commerce.
It has become a tool for globalizing a business; it is
a tool that enables an organization to tie together employees,
suppliers, and customers. Free flow of information is
generated across the country and internationally.
CHALLENGES OF INFORMATION
PROCESSING
Businesses still face challenges as they attempt to revise
internal processes, open communications to outside
sources, and integrate disparate technology functions.
Information should not be isolated in specific departments;
it should be housed is such a way as to benefit the
entire organization.
In the modern office, information processing encompasses
a wide field. It ranges from textual information to
digital information, qualitative analysis to quantitative
analysis, as well as globally from the Internet to a single
personal computer.
Computer documents may require a combination of
software packages to be used; for example, placing a
spreadsheet into a word-processing document or a spreadsheet
graph in a presentation file. A variety of manipulations
is involved in the processing of textual information.
A document can be rearranged by the cutting and pasting
of text, and graphics can be imported into a text document.
Using image analysis software, images can be
manipulated. The digital processing of numerical data can
be accomplished through spreadsheet programs. Using
spreadsheet programs, data can be queried in a “what if ”
statement, and statistical analysis and graphical representation
of the data can be illustrated.
Integrating software applications is a powerful aspect
of using software designed to be used in the Windows
environment. Integration refers to the sharing of information
among applications—word processing, spreadsheet,
and database applications. Computer software not only
shares common features but also is very often compatible;
thus, information that is created in one software package
can be shared in another.
The proliferation of computer software has dramatically
changed the way end users create documents. As
computer software became more sophisticated over the
years, the software programs began to share common features.
Modern offices use a combination of software packages
to produce useful information. The field of
information processing has had and continues to make a
significant impact on society.