Section 1 – Life without ICTImplementing the sub-systems on to the company’s website without the use of ICT would have been very difficult, time consuming and extremely inefficient. Without the use of a spreadsheet all the calculations would have to be done separately, by calculator, this would require extensive man power and would be very time consuming. Without the use of Microsoft Word, all letters would have to be typed on a typewriter, this would have made inserting clipart or any other pictures impossible. Pictures would have had to be manually cut and stuck onto a space on the page left by the typewriter, this page would then have to be photocopied before distribution.
Also, without Word, mail merge would be impossible, letters to separate people, even if they had the same contents would have to be typed out individually, this would also be extremely inefficient and time consuming. Without the use of ICT, creating a company logo would also have been very difficult, the logo itself would have to be manually drawn and then photocopied, this may even require an artist to be hired and therefore make creating the logo very expensive. Also, without ICT if the company wanted paper headed with there logo, that would have to sent away especially for it, this would be very expensive and waste a lot of time. Without the use of a database program, such as Microsoft Access, all customer records would have to be kept manually in filing cabinets. This would be very expensive to buy these filing cabinets and hire people to organise and maintain them, not to mention the space they would take up in an office.
Section 2 – The benefits of ICTICT has made it infinitely easier for me to implement my sub-systems onto the company’s website. Microsoft Word has made it possible for me to use a mail merge system, this has seriously reduced the time it would take to type out letters for each individual. Word also allows me to easily input and manipulate data. For example, inserting pictures or clipart or resizing and reformatting text or graphics.
The use of a spreadsheet has also has great advantages over manual methods such as a calculator. For example, it is easier to add and manipulate data to a spreadsheet and the outputs are instantly changed to reflect these changes. Also readthedescription of computerAn extremely large amount of data can also be stored in a relatively small amount of space, backups are also easily made and transported and therefore if the computer the data was on where destroyed, the data could be loaded from a backup onto another computer.
Producing a logo was also made much easier with the use of ICT; Pictures could be quickly transferred from program to program for editing and for reshaping and resizing, pictures could also be downloaded from the internet quickly into programs. This made producing a logo much easier and more cost effectively than manual methods. Section 3 – The drawbacks of ICTICT does have its drawbacks however, a computer depends on a constant, secure power supply, otherwise you risk losing valuable data. This data could be extremely important, if you where a bank for instance, you could possibly loose all the data about how much people have in there accounts, this would have catastrophic effects. Data security is also an issue, if data is kept in filing cabinets, this would require anyone wanting to steal information to actually break in to the office.
With computers, data can be stolen from anywhere in the world if the target computer is connected to the internet. It is also very hard to trace the person that has stolen your data and it is very unlikely that your data will be recovered uncopied. Also if a computer is connected to the internet then it is open to receiving viruses and Trojan horses. If two companies/people are to communicate using computers, for example, sending documents to each other, then the two companies/people much have compatible software, if not then they cannot share files or communicate.
If a company starts using ICT then they will have to train there existing staff to use these computers and train them every time the system is upgraded or changed.
