The Role of IT in Business

1. Share your opinion with your partner. What do you think about:

A. How has the process of developing companies been changed in recent years? Why?

B. What place do IT technologies take in modern world?

C. In which fields can IT technologies be used?

2. Read the words from the text and find them in the appropriate paragraphs. Match the words with their definitions.

1) software	a) money that a business spends on supplies, workers, services in order to operate
2) expense	b) to translate instructions from a computer language into a form that can be read directly by the computer
3) to prioritize	c) a program designed to do a particular job; a piece of software
4) hardware	d) a company or person that sells something
5) application	e) the programs used to operate a computer
6) device	f) to make something as good as it can be
7) vendor	g) an object or a piece of equipment that has been designed to do a particular job
8) to optimize	h) a computer program designed specifically to damage or disrupt a system, such as a virus
9) to compile	i) the machinery and electronic parts of a computer system
10) malware	j) to put tasks, problems in order of importance, so that you can deal with the most important first

3. Skim the text and state the main idea of each paragraph of the text.

4. Read the text and decide on a suitable title for it.

(1) Today the role of information technologies in business increases; they became the key-factor of successful development of the company. Top-management started to treat the IT not like the expenses but like the profitable investments, necessary for the competitive struggle and commercial success. Businesses compete with each other not only due to the wide range of goods and services but mostly due to the possession of information management, the ability to analyze and correctly use the results. It is possible only with the use of modern information technologies. Most IT-related jobs have developed to meet the need to analyze, design, develop, manage or support computer software, hardware or networks.

(2) ANALYZE. A database analyst is in charge of research and development of databases; network analysts study the network requirements and recommend the most suitable type of network; system analysts decide what ICT-system will cater for the requirement of a specific institution.

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT. Web-designers, also called webmasters, create and maintain web pages and web applications for websites. Software engineers, either application programmers, plan, design and test computer programs. Hardware engineers design and develop ICT devices. Security specialists specialize in the design of software and hardware to protect the information from malware: viruses, spyware, etc.

MANAGE. Networks or computer systems administrators install and maintain networks. Database administrators manage the accuracy and efficiency of databases.

SUPPORT. Computer operators control computer processing. Help desk technicians are in charge of troubleshooting, the solution of technical problems. Computer training instructors and trainers teach people how to use hardware and software.

(3) Complex event processing (CEP) technologies promise to speed differenet processes of developing businesses and enable them to stay on top of the IT and application performance issues that pose customer satisfaction problems. The software combines event processing capabilities often seen in management applications with business process and intelligence tools to deliver information in real-time about the state of a business application, transaction or service. Data streaming features coupled with event processing capabilities are able to integrate data from multiple sources to deliver actionable information. Its evolution has been many years in the making and CEP is a core capability that enables real-time business intelligence and business activity monitoring. It makes it possible to respond to business events in real time and alert the appropriate people and feed the event information into automated workflows. For business managers, a delay in learning why a customer didn't receive requested merchandise, service or information isn’t acceptable. That means waiting for IT to uncover the reason why, say, a Web server failed to deliver isn’t an option.

(4) CEP is an early adopter’s technology, used in stovepipe fashion for specific applications. Marketplace confusion and a lack of standards have inhibited CEP from becoming an everyday tool. On the standards front, groups such as the Event Processing Technical Society are working on developing common languages, formats and more for CEP tools. In the meantime, enterprise IT managers today should work with their business intelligence or middleware vendors on how they can make CEP work in their environments. Enterprise users need to understand the technologies they have today that could augment or enable more advanced CEP capabilities before selecting a vendor or tool.

(5) One of the biggest challenges today for IT organizations is changing from a bottoms-up approach, in which they put together and manage components, to a top-down understanding of what the critical business applications are and how they can proactively manage them so as not to impact the business. IT organizations still very much need to know what the bottom components are, but they need to be able to relate them to the applications that rise to the surface.

Enter application dependency mapping (ADM). This new breed of discovery technology goes beyond compiling a list of simple components to generating a map of how the components interact and rely on each other. Network managers equipped with that information can more easily prevent performance problems from reaching users and prioritize work around the most critical applications. For customers, ADM means getting a complete picture of what they have and knowing better how to optimize it.

5. Define whether the following statements are true or false. Give the correct answer.

1. Now IT do not play a great part in business as they did several years ago.

2. New technologies are considered to be competitive advantages for achieving success.

3. Today software and networks don’t meet our needs in processing information.

4. Hardware engineers create different applications and programmes.

5. CEP can give you an opportunity to work with processes in business easier and faster.

6. IT manager has to find out how CEP can work in their environment.

7. Before selecting a vendor or a tool it is not necessary to comprehend the technologies which are used.

8. Using ADM enables managers to set priorities in their work.

6. Work in pairs. Discuss with your partner.

1. How does top management treat IT now?

2. What is the main competition among businesses? What is needed to be competitive?

3. What kinds of jobs have been created to meet the need of dealing with information?

4. What is the task of hardware and software engineers?

5. Who is in charge if catering networks?

6. What is the main purpose of complex event processing?

7. What should IT managers work today with and what for?

8. What is considered to be the greatest challenge for IT organizations?

9. How would you describe application dependency mapping?

10. What can application dependency mapping show to an ordinary customer?

7. Translate paragraph 1 into your native language.

8. Think of several pitfalls which IT organizations can face when working with information technologies.

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