Answer the questions

1. What is your future profession?

2. What modifications of personal computers do you know?

3. Where are computers used?

4. What kind of games do modern children play?

5. Who has introduced local computer networks and information systems into business and management?

6, Why is a computer becoming an indispensable “must-have”?

7. What fields have local computer networks been introduced into?

8. What do portable computers provide?

9. How do computers and the Internet enable us to pick up knowledge and to maintain remote control?

10. How can you computerise your house?

Text 2. Information Technology

I am planning to become an information technology engineer. As far as I know, IT experts are in great demand in many industries and businesses, because nowadays information technology is essential for almost all fields of human activities.

It was time when information systems and technology was applied only in the sphere of high technologies, design construction, science, research and development. Now information technology is introduced into all institutions of Russian government and Moscow municipal authorities. Many corporations, banks and numerous companies have set up local networks and information systems to facilitate management, accounting, inventorying and information flows.

Information technology is widely used in transportation industry too. Russian railways have already installed computerised systems of selling tickets, personnel management accounting, railway signalling and automated train protection. There are modern sophisticated electronic systems for passenger and freight traffic control, logistic monitoring and rolling stock operations. The underground rapid transit systems in Moscow and other cities of Russia are also controlled with computerised systems.

It is highly profitable to invest into IT systems because they improve productivity,customer services and stimulate cost savings. It is common knowledge that IT is paying off handsomely. That is why a Chief Information Officer (CIO) is now a person of great importance in every company; his position has become the third in a company’s list of top managers, straight under a Chief Executive (CEO) and a Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Answer the questions

1. Why are information technology experts in great demand now?

2. Where was IT applied earlier?

3. What fields has IT been introduced into?

4. What computerised systems are used on Russian railways?

5. How are underground and rapid transit systems controlled in the Russian Federation?

6. Why are IT systems profitable?

7. What business metrics can be improved by means of IT?

8. Why is information technology paying off handsomely?

9. What is widely used in transportation industry?

10. What position is occupied by a Chief Information Officer in the list of a company’s top managers?

Tex t3. Information Management

Information management (IM) is collection and management of information from one or more sources with further distribution of that information to one or more audience. It involves those who have a stake in, or a right to that information. Management means organisation of and control over the structure, processing and delivery of information. Throughout the 1970s it was largely limited to files, file maintenance, and the life cycle management of paper-based files, other media and records. However, with the proliferation of information technology in the 1970s, the job of the information management took on a new light, and began to include the field of data maintenance.

No longer was the information management a simple job that could be performed by almost anyone. As information storage shifted to electronic means,data processing demanded a deep understanding of theory and technology.

As information was regularly disseminated across computer networks and other electronic means, by the late 1990s, network managers had become information managers.

Those individuals found themselves faced with increasingly complex tasks, advanced hardware and sophisticated software. With the latest tools available, information management has become a powerful resource and a large expense for many organisations.

In short, information management includes organising, retrieving, acquiring and maintaining the information.

Following the behavioural science theory of management, mainly developed at Carnegie Mellon University most of what is going

on in service organisations is actually decision making and information processes.

Thus the crucial factor in the information and decision process analysis is the individual's limited ability to process information and to make decisions under these limitations.