IT for managers

IT FOR MANAGERSAP Shareef MBA,M.Phil,NET,M.Com
Asst. Professor & Head, Dept. Of Management
Studies
Markaz Law College, Markaz Knowledge City

AP SHAREEF’S LECTURE ON IT FOR MANAGERS
Computer and generations
Software and Hardware
Algorithm and Flow Charts
Binary and Decimal systems
Introduction to computersUnit
I

1.1What is a computer ?
 Google Dictionary defines computer as “An
electronic device which is capable of receiving
information (data) in a particular form and of
performing a sequence of operations in
accordance with a predetermined but variable
set of procedural instructions (program) to
produce a result in the form of information or
signals”

1.2Generation/Evolution of
computers
 The history of the computer goes back several
decades however and there are five notable
generations of computers.
 Each generation is characterized by an
important technological development that
changes fundamentally how computers work–
leading to more compact, less expensive, but
more powerful, efficient and robust machines.

1940 – 1956: First Generation – Vacuum
Tubes
The first generation computers used vacuum
tubes as circuitry and magnetic drums for
memory. As a result they were big, and
occupied an entire room. These were
inefficient materials which consumed huge
electricity and subsequently generated a lot of
heat which caused for continuous
breakdowns.
Important characteristics or this generation
are….

 They relied on ‘machine language’.
 They were limited to solving one problem at a
time.
 Input was based on punched cards and paper
tape. Output came out on print-outs.
 The two notable machines of this era were the
UNIVAC and ENIAC machines – the UNIVAC
is the first every commercial computer which
was purchased in 1951 by a business -the US
Census Bureau.

ENIAC
UNIVAC

1956 – 1963: Second Generation –
Transistors
 Although first invented in 1947, transistors weren’t
used significantly in computers until the end of the
1950s.
 They were superior to the vacuum tubes because
they made computers smaller, faster, cheaper and
less heavy on electricity use.
 The language evolved from cryptic binary
language to symbolic (‘assembly’) languages.
This meant programmers could create instructions
in words. About the same time high level
programming languages were being developed
(early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN).

1964 – 1971: Third Generation – Integrated
Circuits
 By this phase, transistors were now being
miniaturised and installed on silicon chips
(called semiconductors). This led to a massive
increase in speed and efficiency of these
machines. These were the first computers
where users interacted using keyboards and
monitors which interfaced with an operating
system.
 As a result of these advances which again
made machines cheaper and smaller, a new
mass market for computer users emerged
during the ‘60s.

1972 – 2010: Fourth Generation –
Microprocessors
 Intel Corporation is the more related word with
fourth generation. Intel developed the Intel
4004 chip in 1971, which assembled all
computer components (CPU, memory,
input/output controls) on a single chip. What
filled a room in the 1940s now fit in the palm of
the hand.
 Another major advance during this period have
been the Graphical user interface (GUI), the
mouse and more recently the advances in lap-
top capability and hand-held devices.

2010- : Fifth Generation – Artificial
Intelligence
 Computer devices with artificial intelligence
are still in development, but some of these
technologies are beginning to emerge and be
used such as voice recognition.
 AI is a reality made possible by using parallel
processing and superconductors.
 quantum computation, molecular and nano-
technology etc. are some of the other
characteristics of this generation.

The essence of fifth
generation will be using
these technologies to
ultimately create
machines which can
process and respond to
natural language, and
have capability to learn
and organize themselves.

1.3 SOFTWARE
 A set of computer instructions is called a
program. A set of computer programs is called
a software. It is a collection of programs which
increase the capabilities of computer
hardware. The process of developing software
is known as programming.
 Software is intangible
 Software is the soul of computer
 It activates the dead machines.

System software
 Computer software designed to operate the
computer hardware and to provide a platform
for running application software is what is
system software. It controls the entire
computer program. System software helps use
the operating system and computer system.
 It controls all operations
 Moves data into and out the computer
 It is essential for running the computer

Operatingsystem An operating system is a program designed to
run other programs on a computer. It is that
part of a system software which acts as an
interface between hardware and end user.
Operating system is considered to be the
back bone of a computer, managing both
hardware and software.

 Basic functions of an operating system
 Schedule jobs
 Manage hardware and software resources
 Maintain system security
 Enable multiple user resource sharing
 Handle interrupts
 Maintain usage records

 Types of Operating system
 Single tasking: It allows only one program to run
at a time. One program has to close for opening
another program.
 Multi tasking: It enables a single user to have two
or more applications open at the same time.

 MS DOS: MS Disk Operating System
 Non graphical command line OS
 Released in 1981 and last updated in 1994
 User is required to type commands instead of
using a mouse.

 Micro Soft Windows
 GUI
 No commands
 Simple and user friendly
 Multi tasking features

 Windows versions
 Windows 1995
 Developed for home and professional users
 Network ready OS
 Windows NT
 Known as New Technology
 A stable multitasking environment
 Enhanced security features
 Increased memory
 Network utilities
 Portability

 Windows 2000
 It is used on personal computers,
 business desktops, laptops and servers
 Windows ME was designed for home use while 2000
for business purpose
 Windows XP
 It was released in 2001
 Home and Professional variants
 Features
 Faster start up
 User friendly interface
 Fast user switching
 Clear Type font rendering mechanism
 Remote desktop functionality

 Windows vista
 Released in the year 2007
 Comes with many technical changes
 Updated GUI
 Visual style dubbed aero
 Redesigned search function
 Multimedia tools (Windows DVD Maker)
 Redesigned networking, audio, print, and display
subsystems

 Windows 7.0
 It is designed for
 Home & Business desktops
 Personal computers
 Laptops
 Notebooks
 Tablet PCs
 Media centre PCs
 It was more focused on applications and hardware
 It excluded Windows calendar, Windows Mail,
Windows Movie Maker and Windows Photo Gallery.
 These are offered in Windows live Essentials Suite.

 UNIX OS
 Unix OS is a computer OS
developed in 1969 by a group of
American Telephone & Telegraph
Company employees at labs
 Featured with client server model
 Unix is generally seen as an OS
on workstations or a network
server
 It allows multiple processors going
at once
 Unix philosophy
 Use of plain text
for storing data
 Hierarchical file
system
 Use of large
number of
software tools

 MAC OS
 GUI
 Developed by Apple Inc.
 First introduced in the year 1984

 Classic Mac OS
 Completely graphical OS
 Ease of use
 Cooperative multitasking
 Mac OS X
 Server edition
 Runs on Apple’s line of Macintosh server hardware
 Includes work group management and administration
tools for key network services

 Linux OS
 It is a UNIX-Like operating system
 Modifiable codes
 Used on devices from supercomputers to wrist
watches
 Widely adopted for servers and embedded
systems

Programming languages
 They are vocabulary and set of grammatical
rules for instructing a computer to perform
specific tasks. It usually refers to high level
languages such as BASIC, C, C++, COBOL,
FORTRAN etc.

Types of Programming
Languages
 Machine Level Languages or First Gen
Languages.
It is the language of the computer, the only
language the computer understands without
translation. Each particular computer model
has a machine language, which is based on
the internal architecture of the equipment.

 Assembler languages or second gen
languages. They are also known as symbolic
languages because they include arithmetical
and logical operations.
 Because of the use of mnemonic symbols this
eases up the programmers’ risk gradually.
Assembly languages are translated by
assemblers to machine level languages so as
to be understandable to machines.

 Compiler languages (High Level Languages)or
third gen languages. They are also known as
procedural languages. COBOL , FORTRAN,
BASIC, C++, C etc. are examples.
 They include plain English like and
mathematical expressions. They are easy to
write and learn and are relatively error free.
Compilers are used to translate High level
languages to Machine language.

 4th Gen Languages:
 RAMIS and FOCUS

Other system software
 Device drivers: These are small files that act
as an interface between hardware and the
operating system in a computer. Hardware
requires device drivers so that the OS can see
the device and handle them properly.

 Utility programs or Service programs.: these
are system programs for performing general
system support tasks. Following tasks are
performed by utility programs.
 Sorting and storing the data
 Checking or scanning the data for security
 Making a copy of all information
 Deleting, renaming, moving, copying, merging,
generating and modifying data sets.
 Providing encryption. Etc.

• Compilers: High level language Machine
level codes (translation is done at once
before the program is executed)
• Interpreters: High level language
Machine level codes (translation is done line
by line)
• Assemblers: Assembly language
Machine level codes
Language translators:

General purpose
software
 This software provides the framework for a great
number of business, scientific, and personal
applications.
 Word processors: It is a document preparation
system. E.g. MS Word, Polaris Word
 Spreadsheet program: Commonly known as pay roll
application. Lotus, MS Excel, Polaris Spreadsheet
 DBMS: MS Access, Oracle
 CAD and CAM Programs: Auto CAD, Revit Etc.
 Internet Browser: Opera, Netscape Navigator, Internet
Explorer, Google Chrome
 E-Mail Software: Hotmail, Yahoo mail, Gmail,
Rediffmail.

Application software
 Software which is used for applications specifically
designed for users to fit their needs
 ERP: The system to integrate all data and processes
of an organization into a single unified system.
 Tally
 Peachtree
 QuickBooks
 SAP
 Decision Support System:
 Cost accounting system
 Capital Budgeting system
 General Decision Support System

 Artificial Intelligence System : E.g. Robotics
 Expert Systems: Used for complex and ill
structured tasks. It helps non experts to make
decisions comparable to those of an expert.

1.4 Hardware
 The physical parts of computer are called
hardware. Computer hardware is the
collection of physical parts of a
computer system. This includes
the computer case, monitor, keyboard, and
mouse. It also includes all the parts inside the
computer case, such as the hard disk drive,
motherboard, video card, and many
others. Computer hardware is what you can
physically touch.

Basic computer architecture.

The CPU
 It is also known as the processor.
 CPU is the heart, brain and soul of computer.
 Programs and instructions are read and
executed by CPU.
 Intel, AMD, Motorola are popular processor
manufacturers.
 Two basic parts of the CPU are
 Control unit and
 Arithmetic and logic unit.

Control unit
 It is the most important unit of the CPU. All the
computer resources are managed from the
control unit. It takes instructions from the
memory and sends the necessary signals to
ALU to perform the operation needed.

ALU
 ALU is a separate section of CPU which
performs computation like addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division and
logical operations such as the comparison of
two numbers. The tasks are performed with
special storage locations called registers.

Memory Unit
 Memory is a storing device which stores
programs, data etc. any program to be used in
the computer should be stored in the memory.
 The memory capacity is measured in KB, MB,
GB, TB, PB,EB, ZB and YB
 Computer memory is divided into
 Internal memory or main memory or Primary
memory
 Additional memory or, secondary memory or
Auxiliary memory

Internal memory or main memory or
Primary memory
 It stores data needed for current tasks by the
computer and receives data from the
secondary storage as and when needed.
Magnetic core memory was used previously
but it is now outdated.
 In modern computers, Micro electronic
semiconductor storage circuits are used to as
primary storage. They are small sized, high
speed, shock and temperature resistant chips.
 Semi conductor memories are of two types.
They are RAM and ROM

RAM- Random Access Memory
 RAM is the popular primary storage medium. It
is read write memory. RAM is a temporary
memory or volatile memory. All the information
goes out when the system is switched off.

ROM-Read Only Memory
 This memory is used to store information
permanently. The data is not lost if power is
switched off. It is read only memory since data
cant be written. E.g. ROM-BIOS (ROM-Basic
Input Output System). This program controls
and supervises the basic operations of I/O
devices.
 Types of ROM are
 PROM
 EPROM
 EEPROM

Additional memory or, secondary memory or
Auxiliary memory
 Primary storage is inbuilt with CPU, but
secondary memory is used in separate unit or
units. The capacity of Primary memory is
limited whereas secondary memory has
infinite capacity of millions and billions of
bytes.
 Different secondary storage devices are
discussed below.

Magnetic Tape
 The oldest storage system
 It makes copies of audio, video and data.
 It is employed with a tap drive to store
and retrieve data.
 The biggest drawback is that it can only
access data sequentially.

Floppy diskettes
 It was first introduced by IBM in the year 1970.
 It consists of a circle shaped plastic material
which is coated with an oxide material. This
Plastic material is covered by a protective
square jacket with a hole to read the data by
the floppy drive.
 The maximum storage capacity of a latest
Floppy disk is 1.44 MB.

Organization of data on a disk
 To use a disk for storing data, it must be
magnetically mapped. Then only the computer
can go directly to a specific location in the disk.
The process of mapping a disk is called formatting
or initializing.
 Initializing is done by creating tracks and sectors.
 Magnetic concentric circles are called tracks.
 Short segments created like dividing a pie is
called sectors.
 Each sector is assigned a unique number so that
the data access by the computer is easy.

Hard disc
 They are the most popular device for storing
data.
 Large volume of data can be stored.
 A hard disc is a set of different platters fixed on
a spindle. Each platter is coated with iron
oxides.
 Unlike floppy, the drive and disc is a single
chamber.
 TBs of data can be stored in Hard disks.
 They may be internal or external

Internal architecture of a HD

 An external hard drive is a
portable storage device that
can be attached to a computer
through
a USB or FireWire connection,
or wirelessly. External hard
drives typically have high
storage capacities and are
often used to back up
computers
External/ Portable Hard disk

CD-ROM Disks
 It stands for Compact Disk Read Only
Memory.
 It is an Optical Laser Disk.
 There are two lasers. One laser beam writes to
the recording surface and another laser reads
the data from light sensitive recording surface.
 The data on the disk are fixed, they cant be
altered.
 It has a storage capacity of over 650 MB

CD-R
 CD-R stands for Compact Disk Recordable.
 It is a WORM (Write Once Read Many)
Memory.
 One can write only once on CD-R

CD-Rewritable
 CD-RW was first introduced by Hewlett
Packard
 It permits for repeated recordings on a disk
 Data on this CD can be altered.

DVD
 DVD stands for Digital Video Disk or Digital
Versatile Disk.
 It stores up to 20 GB of Text, Graphics and
video.
 Variations are
 DVD-ROM
 DVD-R
 DVD-RW
 DVD-RAM

Blu Ray Disc
 It is developed to enable recording, rewriting
and playback of High Definition Video, as well
as high volume of data.
 They can hold up to 50 GB capacity.

WORM Cards
 A Write Once Read Many (WORM) digital memory
card is intended for professional uses such as
police investigations, court testimony, electronic
voting and other applications where data files
must be protected from alteration or deletion.
Applications
 Police photography and witness/suspect
interviews, where courts require proof that photos
and audio recordings are genuine.
 Court proceedings, such as trials and depositions.
 Electronic voting, where recorded votes must be
tamper-proof.

Cash registers which record
transactions for tax collection
purposes.
Event recorders, such as security
cameras and “black box” flight-data
recorders.
Medical devices which retain
individual patient treatment data.
Personal digital assistants (PDAs)
and similar devices used by physicians
and other health-care professionals to
track patient interactions.

SD Cards
 SD stands for Secure Digital Cards
 Its is a non volatile memory card.
 It is commonly used in mobile phones and
other portable electronic devices.
 A card reader is used to connect to the
computer.

Flash Drive
 USB flash drive/ pen drive is a popular storage
medium.
 It is highly portable because of its small size.
 Large volume of data can be stored in it
 IT uses USB(Universal Serial Bus) technology.
 They are removable and rewritable.

INPUT DEVICES
 They are the devices used for giving
necessary data into the computer, then they
are converted into a form that is acceptable to
the computer.
1. Key board
2. Mouse
3. Light pen
4. Track ball
5. Joystick
6. MICR
7. OMR
7. OCR
8. Bar coding
9. Voice input
10. Touch screen
11. Touch pad
12. scanner

Keyboard
 A keyboard detects key pressings with the
help of an electronic circuit called keyboard
encoder. The encoder sends a binary code to
the computer. It can be connected to the CPU
with or without cable.
 Types of keys in a keyboard are
 Alphanumeric keys
 Punctuation keys
 Special keys.

Mouse
 Mouse is a pointing device.
 It controls the movement of cursor in the
display unit.
 Types of mice include
 Mechanical mouse
 Opto-mechanical mouse
 Optical mouse
 Cordless mouse

Light pen
 Light pen also is a pointing device.
 It selects an option by simply pointing at it.
 It is used in menu based applications
 It is also used in drawing graphics in CAD
 An engineer or architect or fashion designer
can draw sketches or pictures directly on the
screen.

Track ball
 Track ball is a pointing device.
 It works like a mouse but is fixed and takes
less space.
 It has a ball in the middle, a right and left
clicks.
 Apple computer’s Power Book and IBM
ThinkPad notebooks used Track balls.

Joystick
 It is a vertical stick which moves
the graphic cursor in a direction
the stick is moved
 It is popularly used by children to
play video games.
 Pilots use it as flight control in the
cockpit of aircraft.

MICR
 Magnetic Ink Character Reader.
 Human readable characters printed on
documents using a special magnetic ink is
read by MICR.
 MICR reads the magnetic pattern of letters and
compares it with the one which is stored in its
memory.
 Bank details such as branch code, account
number, cheque number etc. can be read by
MICR.

OMR
 Stands for Optical Mark Reader
 This device is designed to read markings
placed in specific places on a form or card.
 Pre-printed documents are designed with
boxes or circles that can be filled by a Pen or
Pencil. This documents are then given to the
reader.
 The reader reads the position of markings and
processes it.
 OMR sheets are commonly used in various
entrance and competitive examinations.

OMR Machine

OCR
 It reads numeric and alpha numeric data from
printed documents
 It can read up to 300 papers per hour.
 It is used in the preparation of electricity bills,
telephone bills, insurance premium notices
etc.

Bar Code Reader
 It can read barcodes printed
on packages, badges and
books.
 A barcode uses small bars on
varying thickness and spacing
with some numbers.
 Manufactures use UPC-
Universal Product Code.
 In case of books ISBN is used.
 The information stored in the
barcode is displayed on the
screen when it is read.

Voice input
 Voice or audio input is given through a Mic
 The given voice instructions will be compared
with those already stored in the system.
 Only the trained systems can recognize voice
inputs.

Touch pad
 They are pads sensitive to finger touch.
 It is another type of pointing device.
 Laptops use this technology instead of mouse.

Touch screen
 They are screens sensitive to finger touches.
 The touch sensitive transparent panel covered
in the screen enables the sensitivity.
 Smart phones, information kiosks, and tablet
computers use touch screens.

Scanner
 Scanners are used to scan papers and paper
type documents. They can convert hard copies
into soft copies by creating electronic images.

OUTPUT DEVICES
 O/P devices are used to present computer
information in a readable form. LCD screens
and Printers are the most commonly used
output devices.
1. Monitors
2. Printers
3. COM(Computer Output on Microfilm)
4. Audio System (speaker)
5. Graphical O/P devices

Monitors
 Monitors are also called VDU- Visual Display
Unit
 A monitor may be
 CRT
 LCD
 CRT monitors use an electronic gun and an
emitting display in which tiny colored dots are
thrown.
 LCD’s are flat screens which use TFT
technology.
 All monitors depend on a video card, which is

Printers
 They are used to print hard copies of
documents.
 They are connected to the system by a cable
to the parallel port or a USB port.
 They print on ordinary paper, specially
prepared dispatch notes, invoices or packing
slips.
 Printers are classified on the basis of their
printing mechanism into
 Impact printers and
 Non impact printers

Impact printers
 Impact printers utilize some form of striking
device to transfer ink from a ribbon onto the
paper being printed to form images or
characters.
 They fall into two types- Serial or Line printing
 Serial printers print one character at a time.
 Commonly used Serial Printers are
 Dot Matrix Printers and
 Daisywheel printers.

Dot matrix printers
 They use wire needles or pins which strike the
ribbon against the paper in the pattern
necessary to produce each character.

Daisy wheel printers
 They use a new element of printing called a
‘daisywheel’.

Line printers
 A line printer works with much higher speed
than a serial printer.
 It can print one line at a time.
 Chain printers and drum printers are the
commonly used line printers

Chain printers
 A chain printer has a chain that rotates at a
constant speed in a horizontal plane.
 The chain has a 48 numbers, alphabets and
special symbols.
 The magnetically controlled hammers press
the chain onto the paper.

Drum printers
 These printers have a solid cylinder and as
many bands on it as the number of print
positions.

Non impact printers
 They don’t strike the paper.
 They produce prints with electro static, chemicals,
inkjet and thermal technologies.
 Non impact printers are most widely used
nowadays.
 They are faster, smarter and clearer.
 The three different types are
 Thermal printers
 Ink-Jet printers
 Laser printers

Thermal printers
 They are used commonly as portable printers
to make print out of tiny slips such as an ATM
Slip or a Debit or Credit Card payment slip.
 They use pins which are heated by the electric
element and then pressed against the paper.

Inkjet printers
 They make use of fine spray nozzles that
create the image of character or graphics on
the paper by spraying tiny or small drops of ink
into the paper.
 It uses ink cartridges. Usually an inkjet printer
has a black cartridge and a color cartridge.

Laser jet printers
 They use both laser and xerographic
technology.
 They can print with high quality
 They print not only alphanumeric characters
but also drawings graphics and other
documents

Computer output microfilm.
 It records computer output as microscopic
images on roll or sheet film.
 A microfilm reader reads the output.

Speakers.
 They create audio output.
 Computer speakers do the same as other
speakers do.
 Speaker system is controlled by a sound card.

Plotters
 It is a device that can draw graphs, designs
and maps into a paper and even to a plastic or
metal plates.
 It is used in fashion designing, engineering
drawings, business analysis using visual terms
such as bar charts, graphs and diagrams.

1.5 Algorithm & Flow Charts
 An algorithm is a finite list of instructions specifying a
sequence of operations and that give the answer to
any problem of a given type.
 Example consider the Euclidean Algorithm stated as
follows
Given two positive integers A and B, find their common
divisor
The algorithm involves the construction of descending
sequence of numbers.
The first is the larger of two numbers, the second is the
smaller, the third is the reminder from dividing the
first by the second, the fourth is the remainder from
dividing the second by the third; and so forth. The
process stops when there is zero remainder. The
G.C.D is the last divisor in the series.

 For example, the descending sequence of numbers for
greatest common divisor of 44 and 28 is
44, 28, 16, 12, 4, 0
The last divisor is 4, so 4 is the result. The algorithm can be
written as follows.
1. Write down A, B
2. If B is greater than A, exchange them.
3. Divide A by B to get the remainder
4. If R is equal to Zero, stop; B is the G.C.D
5. Replace A by B; (i.e. B A)
6. Replace B by R; (i.e. R B)
7. Go to step 3

Flow charts
A flow chart is a diagram prepared by the
programmer for describing the sequence of steps
of complex processes involved in solving a
problem. It helps the programmer avoid
comprehensive thinking and probable mistakes in
programming process. Four categories of flow
charts are
• System outline charts (Global map)
• System flow charts (National map)
• Run flow charts (State map)
• Program flow charts (District map)

System outline charts:
• These charts only lists the inputs, files processed and outputs
without regard to any sequence whatever.
System flow charts:
• These flow charts present an overview of the data flow through all
parts of a processing system. It shows the flow of documents,
operations and activities; persons and work stations. It depicts the
relationship between input, processing and output. The system
flow chart includes the following main elements
• Input data sources and their medium
• Processing steps
• Intermediary and final output and storage devices

 Run flow charts
 These are extracted from system flow charts to
show the reference of computer operations to be
performed.

 Program flow charts
 They are the detailed and are concerned with the
logical/arithmetic operations on data within the
CPU and the flow of data between the CPU. It
shows the flow between input/output peripherals
also.

1.6 Decimal v/s binary number
systems
 The radix or base of decimal system is 10
because it uses numbers 0 to 9 . It is also
called base 10 number system.
 Here, the weight of each digit depends upon
its relative position. E.g. 3256
=3000+200+50+6
=3x103 +2x102 +5x101 +6x100
if the left most digit of the number is nth digit ,
then we can write nth digit x 10n-1 (nth digit x
(base)n-1 )

 The radix of the binary system is 2. It uses only 0s
and 1s . Data is stored in a digital or electronic
device such as a computer in binary system.
 The data are based on the right to left position of
digits. E.g. take the binary number 10100. using
the equation (nth bit x (base)n-1 )
10100= 1x24 +0x23 +1x22 +0x21 +0x20
10100=16+0+4+0+0
10100=20
Above shown is the binary decimal conversion.

 For fraction numbers
1.001= 1x20 +0x2-1 +0x2-2 +1x2-3
1.001=1+0+0+.125
1.001=1.125

 Decimal to binary conversion (double dabble
method)
Therefore, the binary equivalent of 14 is 1110.
2 14 Remainde
r
2 7 0
2 3 1
2 1 1
0 1

 For fractions
E.g. 0.125
Binary equivalent of 0 is 0 itself
And for fractional part it is 001 therefore 0.125 is
converted as 0.001
0.125
X2
0.25 0
X2
0.5 0
X2
0 1

Classification of Networks-
LAN,MAN,WAN
Methods of Networking
Internet and services
E-Commerce
Computer networking, internet
and E-Commerce.Unit II

2.1 Computer Networks
 A network is a set of devices interconnected by
communication links. It is a collection of
computers and other devices set together for
the purpose of sharing information and
resources.
 Networking improves the capabilities of
computers.
 Scope of networks include
 File sharing
 Print sharing
 E- Mail
 Remote access

Area based classification of
networks.
 LAN- Local Area Network
 MAN-Metropolitan Area Network
 WAN-Wide Area Network

Local Area Network
 A LAN is a group of computers and network
devices connected together, usually within the
same building, campus or spread over a
limited distance. It facilitates high speed data
transmission at cheap cost.
 LANs are privately owned and operated. LAN
uses high speed media (1mbps to 30 mbps or
more)

Features of LAN
 Different users are connected together
 Terminals are located in a small geographic
location
 Devices are connected via cables or wireless
connectivity like Wi-Fi
 A LAN could be connected to other LANs and
the internet or other WAN.

MAN-Metropolitan Area
Network
 It is larger and spans over a city or town.
 It refers to networks which interconnect
systems or LANs within a metropolitan area
 A MAN can support both data and voice.
 Cable TV networks are examples of MANs.

WAN-Wide Area Networks
 It covers a very large geographic area and
uses different communication systems such as
Telephone services.
 E.g. banking networks, Railway Reservation
Systems etc.

Features of WAN
 Thousands of computers spread over a wide
geographic region are connected together.
 They use communication channels of a third
party.
 These channels are of low capacity and error-
prone.

2.2 Network Topology
 Topology means the method in which
terminals are connected in a network.
Commonly, there are following types of
methods.
 Star network
 Ring network
 Bus network

1.Star network
 It is the connection between a host computer and
local computers. The host computer works as the
central computer. Different terminals can
communicate only via the host computer which
centrally controls the others.
 Advantages are
 Minimal line cost
 Adding of new nodes will not increase delay in
communication between two nodes.
 Failure of one node doesn’t affect the network.
 The most important problem with this is that the
entire network depends on the host computer. The
whole network fails when it fails.

2.Ring network
 Computers are linked by a closed loop in a ring
network to facilitate data transfer from one
computer to the other. If the data is not needed for
a particular computer, it ignores and simply
passes to the other. The process continues till it
reaches the destination.
 This is a true distributed processing since there is
no central computing.
 It is reliable because it doesn’t depend upon any
host computer.
 Addition of nodes will increase delay. And it
requires complicated control softwares.

3. Bus network
 Bus network also has no central computer.
Computers are connected by a single circuit
used as communication path.
 It is reliable.
 New computers can be very easily added.
 It also uses high complicated software.
 Breakdown in the main circuit affects the entire
network.

2.3 Internet
 Internet is the network of networks. It is the
connection of crores and crores of computers
connected together. The word internet is the
combination of interconnection and network.

Uses of internet
1. E-Mail
2. FTP
3. Social networks
4. Internet Chatting
5. WWW

E-Mail
 Electronic mail system has overridden the
traditional mailing systems such as telegram
and Fax.
 Any type of massages can be sent on an E-
Mail. Video, audio, text and files can be sent
along with mails.
 Most popular E-Mail providers are Google,
Yahoo, Hotmail, rediffmail etc.

FTP
 FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol
 It helps users to download files from internet.
 It is the most secure way of transferring files
over the internet.

Social Networks
 The recent trend in internet
 Lakhs of people are connected together.
 People can chat, express their opinions on
various issues so that anyone can view it.
 They turn to Social Media- creating a new
media culture.
 E.g. Face book, Twitter, Whatsapp Etc.

Internet chatting
 It may be an audio-video chatting or only text
chatting.
 It makes use of various chat providers such as
Skype or IMO.
 Anyone can be connected to anywhere in the
world using this facility.

WWW
 www stands for World Wide Web
 It’s a web of information
 It’s the fastest growing facility using internet.
 Web sites are the collection of web pages and
WWW is the collection of web sites.
 A web page is created using a web language
such as HTML or front page or PHP.
 HTTP helps users to access web pages from
www.
Contd.

 A web browser is the program to access web
pages from internet. E.g. internet explorer,
Mozilla firefox, Google Chrome etc.
 Search engines are devices to search for
information on the internet. They are the
database that contain references to thousands
of resources.

VPNs-Intranet and Extranet
 VPNs are private data networks that make use
of public networks such as internet for data
transmission.
 A VPN may be Intranet based or Extranet
based.
 An intranet is a network for users in an
organization, Although they geographically
disperse. It can be used only by authorized
personnel of an organization. External users
are not allowed to use it.
Contd.

 An intranet is an integration of E-Mail, FTP,
and web servers with the internal applications.
 An Extranet on the other hand is a connection
of intranets used by different organizations to
facilitate inter-organizational data transfer.
E.g. clients and suppliers network.

WAP- Wireless Application
Protocol
 Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a technical
standard for accessing information over a
mobile wireless network. A WAP browser is a web
browser for mobile devices such as mobile
phones that uses the protocol. Before the introduction
of WAP, mobile service providers had limited
opportunities to offer interactive data services.
Following mobile services use WAP
 Email by mobile phone
 Tracking of stock-market prices
 Sports results
 News headlines
 Music downloads

2.4 E-Commerce
WTO defines E-Commerce as “ a commercial
process that includes production, distribution,
sales or delivery of goods and services
through the electronic means”
In the process of E-Commerce, data is
transmitted from one organization to the other
in electronic form. This data interchange is
known as EDI- Electronic Data Interchange.

E-Commerce models/types of E-
Commerce
 Business to Business (B2B)
 Business to Customer (B2C)
 Consumer to consumer (C2C)
 Business to Government (B2G)
 Business to Employee (B2E)

Business to Business –B2B
 In B2B, transactions take place between 2
different business organizations.
 For example, Amazon.com’s online book store.
 Various book publishers may develop their
own distribution channel or may have a
rapport with Amazon.com. In the second case,
they transact with Amazon in B2B mode. They
do this because the books will be viewed by a
large audience.

Business to Consumer (B2C)
 B2C means sale of goods by a business to the
public. It may be either products or services
such as airline booking or stock trading.
 Low marketing costs, lower order processing
costs, better customer services etc. are the
benefits of B2C

Consumer to consumer
 It consists of individuals using the online
advertisement websites to sell products and
services directly to other individuals. Online
auction is a very good example for C2C
 Dubizzile, OLX etc are mostly used online ad-
websites.

Business to Government B2G
 Apart from the main B2G activities such as
paying government taxes like vehicle tax,
property tax and income tax, Government
procure goods and services from the Business
organizations. These products and services
range from office stationary to military
equipments.

Business to Employee (B2E)
 It is an internal E-commerce model and it uses
intranet.
 Examples are, online insurance policy
management, corporate dissemination, special
offers for the employees etc.

Database concepts
Information Systems
System development life cycle
Various types of information systems
DBMS and Information
Systems
Unit
III

3.1 Types of databases
Operational databases: They store detailed
data needed to support operations of the entire
organization. They are called as Subject Area
Databases (SADB), Transaction Database,
Inventory Database and Production Database.
E.g. Customer Database, Personnel Database.
Management database: They store data and
information extracted from selected operational
and external database. It consists of
summarized data and information needed by the
organization’s managers and other end users.

Information Warehouse database: An
information warehouse stores data from
current and previous years. This is usually
data taken from the various operational and
management databases of an organization.
External database: For some databases,
there is option to connect with external
privately owned online databases. Its for
smooth commercial information services.

Text databases: A full-text database is
a database that is comprised of several books,
articles, journals, magazines, newspapers and
other textual documents but does not include
graphical documents such as drawings, diagrams
or pictures. Each of the referenced documents
can be viewed, printed or downloaded online.
Image databases: Wide variety of images can be
stored electronically in image databases. Even
electronic encyclopaedia are available on CD
ROM disks which store thousands of
photographs of text. Image data processing is the
use of image database in business organizations

3.2What is an information
system
 An information system can be defined as a set
of interrelated components that collect,
process, store and distribute information to
support decision making and control in an
organization.
 In addition to the above, information systems help
managers and workers analyze problems,
visualize complex subjects, and create new
products.

AP SHAREEF’S LECTURE ON IT FOR MANAGERSAP SHAREEF’S LECTURE ON IT FOR MANAGERS
3.3 System Development Life Cycle

1. Preliminary analysis
 Conduct the preliminary analysis
 Propose alternative solutions
 Describe the costs and benefits

2. Systems analysis, requirements
definition
 Collection of Facts
 Scrutiny of the existing system
 Analyzing the proposed system

3. Systems design
 Describes desired features and operations in
detail, including screen layouts, business
rules, process diagrams, pseudocode and
other documentation

4.Development
 Development of different software modules is
done at this stage.

5. Integration and testing
 All the different modules are brought together.
They are integrated and tested for errors.
Corrections are made if errors are found

6. Acceptance, installation,
deployment
 Top management officials approve the system
 Install the system and allocate the tasks
 Appropriate staff is deployed.

7. Maintenance and evaluation
 Ensure the smooth working of the system
 Maintenance team observes the work
 Mistakes are repaired

3.4 Types of information
systems
Transaction processing systems.
TPS is an information system that keep track of
the elementary activities and transactions of
the organization, such as sales, receipts, cash
deposits, payroll, credit decisions, and the flow
of materials in a factory.
It is a computerized system that performs and
records the daily routine transactions
necessary to conduct business

Management information systems
MIS provide middle managers with reports on
the organization’s current performance. This
information is used to monitor and control the
business and predict future performance. It
uses data supplied by TPS and compresses
them into reports.
The picture depicts how MIS transforms
transaction level data from inventory,
production, and accounting into MIS files that
ate used to provide managers with reports.

Decision Support Systems
DSS focuses on problems that are unique and
rapidly changing, for which the procedure for
arriving at a solution may not be fully
predefined in advance.
It takes information from TPS and MIS. But
often bring in information from external
sources, such as the current stock prices or
product prices of competitors
These systems are employed by “super-user”
managers and business analysts who want to
use sophisticated analytics and model to
analyze data

Database
• Production data
• Marketing data
• Finance data
• HR data
Model base
• Statistical models
• Forecasting models
• Planning models
• Operational models
DSS Software
• Manage database
• Manage model base
• Manage end user
interface
User interface
User

Executive Support System (ESS)
ESS addresses the decision making needs of
senior management. It supports strategic
issues and long term trends.
ESS present graphs and information from many
sources through an interface that is easy for
senior management. It is designed to
incorporate data about external events, such
as tax laws or competitors, but they draw
summerized information from internal MIS and
DSS.

Database
Data warehouse
datamart
Data mining
EIS SoftwareExecutive’s staff
Executive
Query
Output
Components of an executive information
system

Enterprise Resource Planning Systems
These integrate business processes in
manufacturing and production, finance and
accounting, sales and marketing, and human
resources into a single software system .
For example, when a customer places an order, the
data automatically go to the other parts which are
affected by it. The transaction gives information to
the warehouse to pick the products and arrange
for shipment. The warehouse informs the factory
to replenish what has been reduced. Accounting
department takes steps to send customer an
invoice. Customer service executives observe the
progress of the order.

Supply Chain Management System
This system help the business to manage
relationship with suppliers. Suppliers,
purchasing firms, distributing men and logistics
companies benefit by this system. It shares
information on orders, production, inventory
levels and delivery of goods and services so
that the above groups can get efficient
services.
It is an inter-organizational system because they
automate the flow of information across
organizational boundaries.

Customer Relationship Management System
CRMS helps the management to keep effective
relationship with its customers. It provides
information to coordinate the sales and
marketing activities in such a way as to create
delighted customers. The most profitable
customers can be retained by this system.

Knowledge Management Systems.
These enable an organization to better manage
process for capturing and applying knowledge and
experience in the firm, and make it available
wherever and whenever it is needed to improve
business and management decisions.
They link the firm to external sources of knowledge.
This firm knowledge is unique, difficult to imitate and
can be leveraged into long term strategic benefits.
The basic elements of knowledge management are
1.Knowledge creation
2.Knowledge sharing
3.Knowledge utilization

3.5 Functional information
systems
 These are the systems based on different
functions of a business organization
 Different functional subsystems are as follows
1. Production information systems
2. Marketing information systems
3. Financial information systems
4. HR information systems
 These systems are dealt with in detail.

Production Information Systems
 These systems facilitate efficient
productions/operations management.
Production management encompasses
design, implementation, operation and control
of systems made up of people, materials,
capital equipment, money and information to
accomplish specific objectives
 Following is a model of production information
system

Marketing information systems
 Marketing information systems are designed
and operated to provide relevant information
on the following aspects
1. Type of products to be offered
2. Price at which products to be offered
3. Place where products have to reach
4. Promotion of products to create loyal customers
 The outline of the system is as follows

Financial Information Systems
 Finance is the life blood of every business
organization. Financial Information systems
help manage financial affairs effectively. It is
useful in taking major financial decisions, i.e.
finance decisions, investment decisions and
dividend decisions.
 The outline of a FIS is depicted below

Accounting Information System
 It consists of the people, records, and methods
used to gather financial information about
business events, record it, process it into a
useful form, and communicate the information
to end users and decision makers in planning,
forecasting and controlling.
 It works with many subsystems such as budget,
final accounts, costing, inventory, receivables etc

Computerized Accounting
Package
 It is a package designed for accounting with
the use of computers for recording, reporting
and analysing the financial data of a business.
These are software programs that are stored
on a company’s computer, network server, or
remotely and accessed via the internet. A
business can customize the software to suite
the particular needs.

 Salient features of Computerized Accounting
Package.
 Fast, Powerful and integrated.
 Complete visibility.
 Enhanced user experience
 Accuracy.
 Improves the business performance
 Quick decision making
 Complete reliability.

HR Information System
 HR Management is a major function in any
business firm. HRIS facilitate systematic ways
for HRM.
 It is an organized method of providing
information about HR , their functioning, and
external factors relevant to HRM.
 The outline is depicted below

Computer Viruses
Cyber Crimes
IT act 2000 and Cyber laws
Computer Viruses, Cyber Crimes and
LawsUnit
IV

4.1 COMPUTER VIRUSES
 A computer virus is a program designed to
harm or cause harm on an infected computer.
Its spreads through e-mail attachments,
portable devices, websites containing
malicious scripts and file downloads. A
computer virus attaches itself to the host files
and always activate whenever you open the
infected files. The virus can replicate itself and
then infect the other files on your computer
causing more damage. Below is a list of
different types of computer viruses and what
they do.

 Macro Viruses
These viruses infect the files created using some
applications or programs that contain macros
such as doc, pps, xls and mdb. They
automatically infect the files with macros and also
templates and documents that are contained in
the file. They hide in documents shared through e-
mail and networks.
 Macro viruses include:
 Relax
 bablas
 Melissa.A
 097M/Y2K

 Memory Resident Viruses
They usually fix themselves inside the computer
memory. They get activated every time the OS
runs and end up infecting other opened files.
They hide in RAM.
 Memory Resident Viruses Include:
 CMJ
 meve
 randex
 mrklunky

 Overwrite Viruses
These types of viruses delete any information in
a file they infect, leaving them partially or
completely useless once they are infected.
Once in the computer, they replaces all the file
content but the file size doesn’t change.
 Overwrite Viruses Include:
 Trj.Reboot
 way
 trivial.88.D

 Direct Action Viruses
These viruses mainly replicate or take action
once they are executed. When a certain
condition is met, the viruses will act by
infecting the files in the directory or the folder
specified in the AUTOEXEC.BAT. The viruses
are generally found in the hard disk’s root
directory, but they keep on changing location.
 Direct Action Viruses Include:
 Vienna virus

 Directory Virus
Also known as cluster virus or file system virus.
They infect the computer’s directory by
changing the path indicating file location. They
are usually located in the disk but affect the
entire directory.
 Directory Viruses Include:
 dir-2 virus

 Web Scripting Virus
Most web pages include some complex codes in
order to create an interactive and interesting
content. Such a code is often exploited to
cause certain undesirable actions. They mostly
originate from the infected web pages or
browsers.
 Web Scripting Viruses Include:
 JS.Fortnight – a virus that spreads via malicious
emails.

 Multipartite Virus
These type of viruses spread in many different
ways. Their actions vary depending on the OS
installed and presence of certain files. They
tend to hide in the computer’s memory but do
not infect the hard disk.
 Multipartite Viruses Include:
 flip
 invader
 tequila

 FAT Viruses
These lardy viruses attack the file allocation
table (FAT) which is the disc part used to store
every information about the available space,
location of files, unusable space etc.
 FAT Viruses Include:
 the link virus

 Companion Viruses
These types of viruses infect files just like the
direct action and the resident types. Once
inside the computer, they ‘accompany’ other
existing files.
 Companion Viruses Include:
 Asimov.1539
 stator and terrax.1069

 Polymorphic Virus
They encode or encrypt themselves in a different
way every time they infect your computer. They
use different encryption and algorithms. This
makes it difficult for the antivirus software to
locate them using signature or string searches
(since they are very different in each encryption).
 Polymorphic Viruses Include:
 Marburg
 tuareg
 Satan bug
 elkern

 Worm
This program is very similar to a virus and has the
ability to self-replicate leading to negative effects
on your computer.
 Worm Viruses Include:
 lovgate.F
 sobig.D
 trile. C
 PSWBugbear.B
 Mapson

 Trojans
Trojans can illegally trace important login details
of users online. For example E-Banking is very
common among users, therefore, vulnerability
of tracing your login details whenever your PC
is working without any strong powerful
antivirus installed.

 Email Virus
This is a virus spread via an email. Such a virus will
hide in an email and when the recipient opens the
mail.
 Browser Hijacker
This virus can spread in many different ways
including a voluntary download. If infects certain
browser functions especially in form of re-directing
the user automatically to certain sites. A good
example is
 Browser Hijackers Include:
 the cool web search

 Boot Infectors
They include the boot sector plus master boot
record types. All the viral codes can be
separate location; however they infect the hard
disks or the floppy.
 Boot Infectors Include:
 The brain virus -it is the very first wild virus to be
created.

From what we have seen, the many types of
computer viruses and their effects are very
harmful and can completely damage your
system. Always make sure your system is up to
date. Also install antivirus software. The
antivirus program protects your computer and
the personal information in it.

4.2 Introduction to Cyber
Crimes
 Due to increase in the number of netizens,
misuse of technology in the cyberspace was
clutching up which gave birth to cyber crimes
at the domestic and international level as well.
 Though the word Crime carries its general
meaning as “a legal wrong that can be
followed by criminal proceedings which may
result into punishment” whereas Cyber Crime
may be “unlawful acts wherein the computer is
either a tool or target or both”.

Classifications Of Cyber Crimes: Cyber
Crimes which are growing day by day, it is very
difficult to find out what is actually a cyber
crime and what is the conventional crime so to
come out of this confusion, cyber crimes can
be classified under different categories which
are as follows:

1. Cyber Crimes against Persons:
There are certain offences which affects the
personality of individuals can be defined as:
 Harassment via E-Mails: It is very common type of
harassment through sending letters, attachments of
files & folders i.e. via e-mails. At present harassment
is common as usage of social sites i.e. Facebook,
Twitter etc. increasing day by day.
 Cyber-Stalking: It means expressed or implied a
physical threat that creates fear through the use to
computer technology such as internet, e-mail, phones,
text messages, webcam, websites or videos.

 Dissemination of Obscene Material: It includes
Indecent exposure/ Pornography (basically child
pornography), hosting of web site containing
these prohibited materials. These obscene
matters may cause harm to the mind of the
adolescent and tend to deprave or corrupt their
mind.
 Defamation: It is an act of imputing any person
with intent to lower down the dignity of the person
by hacking his mail account and sending some
mails with using vulgar language to unknown
persons mail account.

 Hacking: It means unauthorized control/access
over computer system and act of hacking
completely destroys the whole data as well as
computer programmes. Hackers usually hacks
telecommunication and mobile network.
 Cracking: It is amongst the gravest cyber crimes
known till date. It is a dreadful feeling to know that
a stranger has broken into your computer
systems without your knowledge and consent and
has tampered with precious confidential data and
information.

 E-Mail Spoofing: A spoofed e-mail may be said
to be one, which misrepresents its origin. It shows
it’s origin to be different from which actually it
originates.
 SMS Spoofing: Spoofing is a blocking through
spam which means the unwanted uninvited
messages. Here a offender steals identity of
another in the form of mobile phone number and
sending SMS via internet and receiver gets the
SMS from the mobile phone number of the victim.
It is very serious cyber crime against any
individual.

 Carding: It means false ATM cards i.e. Debit and
Credit cards used by criminals for their monetary
benefits through withdrawing money from the
victim’s bank account mala-fidely. There is always
unauthorized use of ATM cards in this type of
cyber crimes.
 Cheating & Fraud: It means the person who is
doing the act of cyber crime i.e. stealing
password and data storage has done it with
having guilty mind which leads to fraud and
cheating.

 Child Pornography: It involves the use of
computer networks to create, distribute, or access
materials that sexually exploit underage children.
 Assault by Threat: refers to threatening a person
with fear for their lives or lives of their families
through the use of a computer network i.e. E-mail,
videos or phones.

2. Crimes Against Persons Property: As there
is rapid growth in the international trade
where businesses and consumers are
increasingly using computers to create,
transmit and to store information in the
electronic form instead of traditional paper
documents. There are certain offences which
affects persons property which are as follows:

 Intellectual Property Crimes: Intellectual
property consists of a bundle of rights. Any
unlawful act by which the owner is deprived
completely or partially of his rights is an offence.
The common form of IPR violation may be said to
be software piracy, infringement of copyright,
trademark, patents, designs and service mark
violation, theft of computer source code, etc.

 Cyber Squatting: It means where two persons
claim for the same Domain Name either by
claiming that they had registered the name first
on by right of using it before the other or using
something similar to that previously. For example
two similar names i.e. www.yahoo.com and
www.yaahoo.com.

 Cyber Vandalism: Vandalism means deliberately
destroying or damaging property of another. Thus
cyber vandalism means destroying or damaging
the data when a network service is stopped or
disrupted. It may include within its purview any
kind of physical harm done to the computer of any
person. These acts may take the form of the theft
of a computer, some part of a computer or a
peripheral attached to the computer.

 Hacking Computer System: Hacktivism attacks
those included Famous Twitter, blogging platform
by unauthorized access/control over the
computer. Due to the hacking activity there will be
loss of data as well as computer. Also research
especially indicates that those attacks were not
mainly intended for financial gain too and to
diminish the reputation of particular person or
company.

 Transmitting Virus: Viruses are programs that
attach themselves to a computer or a file and
then circulate themselves to other files and to
other computers on a network. They usually affect
the data on a computer, either by altering or
deleting it. Worm attacks plays major role in
affecting the computerize system of the
individuals.
 Cyber Trespass: It means to access someone’s
computer without the right authorization of the
owner and does not disturb, alter, misuse, or
damage data or system by using wireless internet
connection.

 Internet Time Thefts: Basically, Internet time
theft comes under hacking. It is the use by an
unauthorised person, of the Internet hours paid
for by another person. The person who gets
access to someone else’s ISP user ID and
password, either by hacking or by gaining access
to it by illegal means, uses it to access the
Internet without the other person’s knowledge.
You can identify time theft if your Internet time has
to be recharged often, despite infrequent usage.

3. Cybercrimes Against Government:
 There are certain offences done by group of
persons intending to threaten the international
governments by using internet facilities. It
includes:
 Cyber Terrorism: Cyber terrorism is a major
burning issue in the domestic as well as global
concern. The common form of these terrorist
attacks on the Internet is by distributed denial of
service attacks, hate websites and hate e-mails,
attacks on sensitive computer networks etc.
Cyber terrorism activities endanger the
sovereignty and integrity of the nation.

 Cyber Warfare: It refers to politically motivated
hacking to conduct sabotage and espionage. It is a
form of information warfare sometimes seen as
analogous to conventional warfare although this
analogy is controversial for both its accuracy and its
political motivation.
 Distribution of pirated software: It means
distributing pirated software from one computer to
another intending to destroy the data and official
records of the government.
 Possession of Unauthorized Information: It is very
easy to access any information by the terrorists with
the aid of internet and to possess that information for
political, religious, social, ideological objectives.

4. Cybercrimes Against Society at large:
 An unlawful act done with the intention of causing
harm to the cyberspace will affect large number of
persons. These offences includes:
 Child Pornography: It involves the use of
computer networks to create, distribute, or access
materials that sexually exploit underage children.
It also includes activities concerning indecent
exposure and obscenity.

 Cyber Trafficking: It may be trafficking in drugs,
human beings, arms weapons etc. which affects
large number of persons. Trafficking in the
cyberspace is also a gravest crime.
 Online Gambling: Online fraud and cheating is
one of the most lucrative businesses that are
growing today in the cyber space. There are
many cases that have come to light are those
pertaining to credit card crimes, contractual
crimes, offering jobs, etc.

 Financial Crimes: This type of offence is
common as there is rapid growth in the users of
networking sites and phone networking where
culprit will try to attack by sending bogus mails or
messages through internet. Ex: Using credit cards
by obtaining password illegally.
 Forgery: It means to deceive large number of
persons by sending threatening mails as online
business transactions are becoming the habitual
need of today’s life style.

Affects To Whom: Cyber Crimes always affects
the companies of any size because almost all
the companies gain an online presence and
take advantage of the rapid gains in the
technology but greater attention to be given to
its security risks. In the modern cyber world
cyber crimes is the major issue which is
affecting individual as well as society at large
too.

4.3“INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT,
2000”
 With the emergence of technology the misuse
of technology has also expanded to its
optimum level and then there arises a need of
strict statutory laws to regulate the criminal
activities in the cyber world and to protect
technological advancement system. It is under
these circumstances Indian parliament passed
its “INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT,
2000” on 17th oct to have its exhaustive law to
deal with the technology in the field of e-
commerce, e-governance, e-banking as well
as penalties and punishments in the field of
cyber crimes.

CYBER LAWS
 Cyber Law is the law governing cyber space.
Cyber space is a very wide term and includes
computers, networks, software, data storage
devices (such as hard disks, USB disks etc), the
Internet, websites, emails and even electronic
devices such as cell phones, ATM machines etc.
 Law encompasses the rules of conduct:
1. That have been approved by the government, and
2. Which are in force over a certain territory, and
3. Which must be obeyed by all persons on that
territory. Violation of these rules could lead to
government action such as imprisonment or fine or
an Order to pay compensation.

 Cyber law encompasses laws relating to:
1. Cyber Crimes
2. Electronic and Digital Signatures
3. Intellectual Property
4. Data Protection and Privacy

 Cyber crimes
These are unlawful acts where the computer is
used either as a tool or a target or both. The
enormous growth in electronic commerce (e-
commerce) and online share trading has led to
a phenomenal spurt in incidents of cyber
crime.

 Electronic signatures
These are used to authenticate electronic
records. Digital signatures are one type of
electronic signature. Digital signatures satisfy
three major legal requirements – signer
authentication, message authentication and
message integrity. The technology and
efficiency of digital signatures makes them
more trustworthy than hand written signatures.

 Intellectual property
These refer to creations of the human mind e.g. a
story, a song, a painting, a design etc. The facets
of intellectual property that relate to cyber space
are covered by cyber law. These include:
 copyright law in relation to computer software,
computer source code, websites, cell phone content
etc,
 software and source code licenses
 trademark law with relation to domain names, meta
tags, mirroring, framing, linking etc
 semiconductor law which relates to the protection of
semiconductor integrated circuits design and layouts,
 patent law in relation to computer hardware and
software.

 Data protection and privacy laws
These laws aim to achieve a fair balance
between the privacy rights of the individual
and the interests of data controllers such as
banks, hospitals, email service providers etc.
These laws seek to address the challenges to
privacy caused by collecting, storing and
transmitting data using new technologies.

Strategic advantage and IT
Problems and Prospects of Computerization
Selection of Hardware and Software
Managing the changes of IT
Strategic role of IT and Emerging
issues
Unit
V

5.1What is strategic
advantage?
 Strategic advantage is the result of using
organizational capability measured in financial
terms by profitability, shareholder value etc.
and in non financial terms by market share,
reputation etc.
 Competitive advantage exists when there is
match between the distinctive competencies of
a firm and the critical success factors within its
industry that permits the firm to outperform
competitors. Information technology helps the
organizations gain competitive advantage in

1. Becoming low-cost producer
2. Creating new products and services
3. Focus on market niche
4. Linking with new customers and suppliers
5. Managing value chain.
6. Creating strategic alliances

1. Become Low-cost producer
 Information systems reduce cost by focusing
on
 Internal operations
 Management planning and control and
 Human resources
 Reduced cost helps in increasing profit.
 Many low cost producing organizations use
information technology as a dynamic and
intensive way rather than a mere management
tool

2.Create new Products and
services
 IT is used as a tool to prevent duplication.
 IT helps in creating differentiated products and
services and this in turn raises market entry
cost for competitors.

3.Focus on Market Niche
 IT helps in improving marketing techniques.
 An organization can penetrate the market by
carefully examining transactions with
customers.
 It enables the business to win more from
profitable customers ,turns non profitable
customers to profitable or drop outs.

4. Linking with Customers and
Suppliers
 IT Systems help the organization to follow Just
in time supply method and stock less inventory
method.
 The first method shifts all inventory
responsibilities to the distributor who manages
the supply flow. The second helps in winning
customer loyalty by providing cheap and best
goods on time.

5.Managing value chain

contd…
 IT and information systems that have strategic
impact helps the organization to provide
products or services of higher value at the
same price or of the same value at the lower
price.

6. Creating Strategic Alliances
 Strategic alliance is the combination of two or
more organizations to create competitive
advantage.
 Information Technology links two independent
organizations to share skills, costs and access
to another’s market.
 The role of IT is crucial in these type of
relations.
 Such strategic alliances are recently coined as
information partnerships.

5.2 Issues on Hardware and
Software
 The systems come with hardware, software
and support. Today, selecting a system is a
serious and time-consuming business.
 There are several factors to consider prior to
system selection . They are discussed below.
Procedure for hardware software
selection

1. Define the system capabilities
Computers have proven valuable to business in the
following areas :
 Cost reduction includes reduction of the inventory,
savings on space and improved ability to predict
business trends
 Cost avoidance includes early detection of problems
and ability to expand operations without adding
clerical help.
 Improved service emphasizes quick availability of
information to customers, improved accuracy and fast
turnaround
 Improved profit reflects the bottom line of the
business and its ability to keep receivables within
reason.

2. Specify the magnitude of the problem
 It refers to clarify whether selections consist of
a few peripherals or major decision concerning
the mainframes.
3. Assess the competence of the in-house staff
 This involves determining the expertise
needed in areas such as telecommunications
and data base design. Acquiring a computer
often results in securing temporary help for
conversion. Planning for this help is extremely
important.

4. Consider hardware and software as a package.
 This approach ensures compatibility. In fact,
software should be considered first, because
often the user secures the hardware and then
wonders what software is available for it.
5. Provide user indoctrination.
 This is crucial, especially for first-time users.
Selling the system to the user staff, providing
adequate training, and preparing an
environment a conductive to implementation
are pre- requisites for system acquisition.

Other Criteria for selection of Hardware
1. System Availability
2. Compatibility
3. Cost
4. Performance
5. Support
6. Usability
1. The programming
language and its
suitability to the
applications
2. Ease of Installation
and training
3. Extent of
enhancements to be
made prior to
installation.
Hardware Software

Major phases in Hardware/Software
selection
The selection process should be viewed as a project,
and a project team should be organized with
management support. In larger projects, the team
includes one or more user representatives, an analyst
and EDP auditor, and a consultant. Several steps
make up the selection process:
1. Requirement Analysis
2. System Specification
3. Request for proposals (RFP)
4. Evaluation and validation
5. Vendor Selection
6. Post Installation Review

5.3 Problems and prospects
of computerization
 Problems
IT systems development problems
IT security challenges
Ethical and social problems
Global business challenges

 IT Systems development problems
 Managers have to realign their strategies
business strategies and information systems to
environmental requirements.
 They face the challenge of developing
dynamic information systems.

 IT security challenges
• Use of internet and other types of computer
networks has become common.
• Security challenges also have multiplied
manifold
• Effective provisions have to be made to face
these problems

 Ethical and social problems
 Privacy rights
 Intellectual property rights
 Employment challenges
 Quality of work life
 Health issues

Prospects of computerization
1. Organization
2. Self-Sufficiency
3. Cost-Effective
4. Speed
5. Cheaper Research and Development
6. Sales

 Organization: Computers allow the application
of different types of software that can help
businesses keep track of their files,
documents, schedules and deadlines.
Computers also allow businesses to organize
all of their information in a very accessible
manner. The ability to store large amounts of
data on a computer is convenient and
inexpensive, and saves space. A computer's
ability to allow a company to organize its files
efficiently leads to better time management
and productivity.

 Self-Sufficiency: Computers have made staff and
companies more self-sufficient by allowing them
to do tasks that previously had to be outsourced.
For example, a company can now use office
software to create their own training material.
Desktop publishing software can be used to
create marketing materials. Online tax and
accounting programs allow companies to prepare
their own taxes. This allows the dominant
operations of a company to remain in-house and
empowers the company to become more
independent and less susceptible to errors
committed by outside parties.

 Cost-Effective: Emerging technology makes new
tools and services more affordable and allows
companies to save on their staff payroll and office
equipment. Because computers allow work to be
done faster and more efficiently, it is possible for a
company to hire fewer staff. In addition, with
networked and relatively inexpensive computers,
companies can store data more easily, saving on
the cost of outside file storage, and can avoid
having to purchase as many copiers, fax
machines, typewriters, and other such items that
were used before computers became popular.
Contd….

Correspondingly, potentially profitable
businesses can be started with a smaller
overhead cost. Email capabilities decrease
postage costs; software applications reduce
the need for large accounting departments,
while videoconferencing reduces the need for
travel. All resources saved will trickle down to
the consumers, who are then provided with
much more affordable products and service.

 Speed: Computers help speed up other
business operations. The collecting of
consumer feedback, ordering of raw materials,
and inspection of products is made quicker
through the use of computers, allowing
companies to operate much faster and to
produce better quality results.

 Cheaper Research and Development: R&D, or
research and development, costs will also
decrease with the help of computers. Scientific
research can now be done using the Internet
and computer software applications designed
to develop and produce new products and
services. For example, instead of a company
having to do in-person focus groups on a
potential new product or to determine their
target market, the company can conduct a
widespread online survey for a far lower cost.
Contd….

In addition, new models of a product can be
created online using virtual pictures and
drawings instead of having to be hand-drawn.
These interactive models created using
software programs can help bring the product
and its features to life for a far lower cost than
creating an actual physical model of the given
product.

 Sales: Computers can help generate higher
sales and profits for businesses via a company
website. Many businesses now operate online
and around the clock to allow customers from
around the world to shop for their products and
services.

5.4 MANAGING THE CHANGES
OF IT
 It means managing the process of
implementing major changes in IT, business
processes, organizational structures, and job
assignments to reduce the risks and costs of
change, and to optimize its benefits.

 What Does Change Management Require?
A commitment from top management and an
organizational design to plan the future of IT
and Information Systems within the business.
Change management involves analyzing and
defining all changes facing the organization,
and developing programs to reduce the risks
and costs, and to maximize the benefits of
change.
``

 End User Resistance
 New ways of doing things creates resistance
among employees.
 This is the biggest obstacle to the implementation
of new information systems.
 End User Implications
Dealing with end user resistance:
 Proper education and training.
 Direct end user participation before
implementation helps ensure that the end users
assume ownership of a system, and that its
design meets their needs.

 Reengineering a Business Process
 Develop a change action plan.
 Assign selected managers as change sponsors.
 Develop employee change teams.
 Encourage open communications and feedback
about organizational changes.

 Change Management Activities
Human resource management handles activities -
Such as
 developing innovative ways to measure, motivate,
and reward performance.
 Program - Design a way to recruit and train
employees in the core competencies required in a
changing workplace.

 Recommendations of Consultants
 Involve as many people as possible in
reengineering and other change programs.
 Make constant change part of the culture.
 Tell everyone as much as possible about
everything as often as possible, preferably in
person.
 Make liberal use of financial incentives and
recognition.
 Work within the company culture, not around it.

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