What is Technology? What is Telecommunications?

1. The Management of Telecommunications: 2nd Edition Houston H. Carr and Charles A. Snyder What is Technology?What is Telecommunications? Chapter 1

2. Introduction • Technology can be found everywhere • It changes the way we work and live. • Technology affects our lives, but because we are so familiar with it, we hardly notice it at all.

3. Technology awareness • Some technologies are so ubiquitous we tend to forget they surround us.

4. Data and Information • Technically, information is processed or meaningful data. • Data are unprocessed. • Data becomes information when they are processed so a human can act upon them. • Data are abundant • Information, the stuff with which decisions are made, is scarce.

5. Telecommunications Technology • Telecommunications technology is the means that is employed to effect communications of voice, data, and image over a distance.

6. Telecommunications technology devices • Many of the day-to-day technologies we take for granted incorporate telecommunications technologies.

7. Point-of-service or –sale (POS) • Point-of-service or point-of-sale (POS) systems automate the sales transaction data to a large extent. • The universal product code (UPC) is an example of a technology used by a POS. • POS and UPC work together to gather data. Telecommunications carries the data.

8. Virtual office • The office traditionally has meant a desk in an office building, downtown. • Today, due to telecommunications technology, the office may be your home, a small satellite office, or even your car.

9. Technology applications • The purpose of telecommunications is to provide business solutions. • Telecommunications, like any technology, has no inherent value.

10. Competitive advantage • Competitive advantage is that feature, any feature, of your organization that causes a customer to choose you over a competitor

11. Telecommunications utility • Telecommunications utility is the ability to leverage resources to remote locations

12. Channel • A channel is the communications path between a sender and receiver(s).

13. Basic communications model • Transport model is a simplistic mode of moving data from one source to one or more destinations through a medium.

14. Medium • A medium is the means of movement of signals from node to node. • A medium is any material that is used for propagation or transmission of signals.

15. Communications • Communications is a process that allows information to pass between a sender and one or more receivers. • Communications is a human process.

16. Telecommunications • Telecommunications is the transmission of data, or information, over a distance. • Telecommunications is the communication by electrical, electromagnetic, or photonic means, over a distance. • Telecommunications is a more general term and involves the transmission of information or ideas over a distance between humans or machines.

17. Data communications • Data communications is a specialized transmission of data between machines, using a code, and is generally not understandable to people in its transmitted form. • Data communications is different from telecommunications in that it is a specialized function.

18. Expanded Telecommunications Model

19. Noise • Noise is any unwanted signal that interferes with the desired signal.

20. Encoding • Encoding is the process of placing the signal of interest onto or into a carrier signal. • Encoding signals onto or into a format for transmission is required in all cases.

21. Decoding • Decoding of signals is required so the true data can be removed from the envelope they were sent in.

22. Goal of telecommunications • The goal of telecommunication systems is the reliable movement of data over a distance.

23. A Telecommunications Model • The telecommunications process requires the inclusion of an encoder/decoder and transmitter/receiver.

24. Information and resource sharing • Information and resource sharing increase their value and reduce their cost.

25. Decentralization • The ability to decentralize and operate as if centrally located is paramount to any distributed organized.

26. Communications • Communications is a process that allows information to pass between a sender and one or more receivers ... the transfer of meaningful information or ideas from one location to a second location.

27. Objectives of telecommunications The objectives of telecommunications are: • Communicate • Distribute and share information • Allow organizations to operate with dispersed or distant functions as if they were centrally located • Share resources

28. Competitive advantage • Telecommunications in many organizations is the basis for competitive advantage. • Competitive advantage is anything that favorably distinguishes a firm, its products, or services from its competitors in the eyes of its customers or end-users in such a way that they customer chooses to purchase that product or service over another.

29. Stand-alone computer • Stand-alone, non-networked computers are self-contained and self-sufficient.

30. Connectivity • The value of computers is leveraged, and then enhanced, by networking them.

31. Network • A network is a group of nodes (computers) that can communicate among themselves because they are connected via channels.

32. Elements of a basic communications system • In a basic communications system there is always a sender, a message, a medium, and a receiver (in an environment of noise).

33. Value of technology • Technology does not exist for itself. The value of technology lies only in its ability to solve a business problem.

34. The players in the telecommunications environment • The players that affect telecommunications decisions are the results of laws imposed to level the playing field.

35. System • A system is a group of interrelated and interdependent parts working together to achieve a common goal. • Systems are composed of equipment, software, people, and procedures to achieve a stated goal.

36. Management Information Systems • Management Information Systems (MIS) are all systems and capabilities necessary to manage, process, transport, and use information as a resource in the organization.

37. Elements of a system

38. Knowledge society • More people are now involved in knowledge and information related jobs than any other type.

39. Computer • A computer is a digital, internally stored program device that uses binary instruction and logic to store, retrieve, and manipulate numbers and textual data.

40. Centralized computing • Centralized computing is the environment where computing resources are in a central location and under central control. • Allowed several people to remotely access the computer from multiple locations.

41. Remote Job Entry • In a mainframe environment, individuals were connected by a remote job entry (RJE) terminal. • Jobs were submitted as batches into a queue and wait their turn for complete access to the computer.

42. Timeshare • Timeshare of computers is like the timeshare of condominiums: it allows multiple usage and lower cost. • Allows non-computer owners to enter jobs from a remote device, such as a terminal, and access the computational power of a service bureau’s computer.

43. Distributed computing • Distributed computing moved the power of the computer and its resident data close to the activities that required them. • Required telecommunications to move the data and applications among the processing sites.

44. Characteristics of Information System Capabilities

45. Attributes of information

46. Information attributes verses level within the organization (part 1)

47. Information attributes verses level within the organization (part 2)

48. The Management of Telecommunications: Houston H. Carr and Charles A. Snyder End of Chapter 1