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Mini-Case Cy Burspace First Began Working for Qwikbilt Enterprises in the the Mid-1970s

question 94

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Mini-Case
Cy Burspace first began working for Qwikbilt Enterprises in the mid-1970s as a business technology specialist. Today, he is the department head for the company's information systems department. Cy is well known and respected by everyone in the company, and his coworkers recently threw a party to honor his 30th year with Qwikbilt. Cy did a lot of reminiscing at the party, telling the newer employees how things were done in the "old days," and comparing them to newer methods.
"I'm still amazed at how things have changed. When I first came to Qwikbilt, we had a central computer to handle everything. It took up a whole room, but all it really did was generate financial reports for management," said Cy. "Today, most employees have their own personal computer, and all these PCs are hooked up to a network. All of this connectivity has led to big improvements in our operations. For example, if a production worker wants to find out how many units of a particular component we have in inventory, or wants the name and address of a particular supplier who sells us that component, he or she can get the information in the blink of an eye. In fact, we have even given our suppliers and customers access to our network so that we can share information and provide them with better service. That change has really helped us compete against the bigger firms."
"Now," Cy continued, "Most of the workers in my department don't even have to be at the office to be connected. We have cellular phones, laptop computers, PDAs with Wi-Fi technology, and pagers so we can do much of our work from home or while we are on the road."
A new employee asked Cy if he was ready to retire. "No way," he said. "I'm in the middle of a major project right now. We're trying to design a single entry point for people to use when logging on to the Qwikbilt network. We want to set it up so that the log-on procedure identifies different types of users and automatically gives them access to the types of resources they need. For example, customers who logged on would be allowed to place orders, check on the status of previous orders, and interact with our technical support staff, but would not have access to other, more proprietary parts of our network. We think this approach will be more convenient for everyone. And," he continued, "once I finish that project, the marketing department has asked me to work on developing better ways to store and analyze the vast amounts of data we collect. So my work is cut out for me for quite a while yet."
-When Cy first came to work for Qwikbilt, the application of business technology was called:

Definitions:

Tort

An act of civil misconduct that inflicts loss or damage on a victim, leading to the legal responsibility of the perpetrator who carried out the act.

Crime

An act or omission that violates a law which results in a punishment.

Implied Permission

Consent for an action that is not explicitly granted but inferred from actions or circumstances.

Land

A natural resource that encompasses the earth's surface, excluding water bodies, and can include the resources above and beneath the surface area.