If someone asks me what this is. What should I say?

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IT= information technology actually has three levels: the first level is hardware, which mainly refers to the host computer and network communication equipment used for data storage, processing and transmission; The second layer refers to software, including all kinds of software that can be used to collect, store, retrieve, analyze, apply and evaluate information. Including ERP (enterprise resource planning), CRM (customer relationship management), SCM (supply chain management) and other business management software, as well as WF (workflow) management software to strengthen process management and DW/DM (data warehouse and data mining) to assist analysis. The third layer refers to the application, which refers to the collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, application, evaluation and use of all kinds of information, including the application of ERP, CRM, SCM and other software to directly assist decision-making, and also including the use of other decision-making analysis models or the use of DW/DM and other technical means to further improve the analysis quality and assist decision-makers to make decisions (to emphasize one point, it only assists rather than replaces people's decisions). Some people understand that it combines the first two layers into one, which refers to the storage, processing and transmission of information, while the latter refers to the application of information; Some people combine the last two layers into one, which is divided into hard front and soft back. Usually, the third layer has not been paid enough attention, but in fact, only when information is effectively applied can its value be fully exerted and the goal of informatization be truly realized. Informatization is not an end in itself, but a better means to achieve the goal in the current era background.

Carl's. What does that mean? In that article, he didn't make it clear, but he mentioned the core functions of information technology-data storage, processing and transmission. From the logic of his reasoning, that is, from the infrastructure construction such as steam engine, railway, telegraph and telephone, electric power, Moore's law has also been used to prove the development of mainframe and optical fiber. If he stops here, only from this point, his logical argument is very rigorous. Those who comment that "it is no longer important" basically agree with this (except those hardware and network vendors), and the author also agrees with this. In the whole article, he paid a lot of attention to the materialized IT infrastructure construction, and basically did not pay attention to the application level. But later, when he talked about the trend of popularization, he also mentioned that "information technology is easy to be copied", which pushed it to commercial software, which has taken a "dangerous" step. In 2004, when he published the book of the same name, he defined the IT he studied and compared. "When I use' IT', I mean all the hardware and software used to store, process and transmit information in digital form. It is particularly emphasized that I only refer to the technology itself, and the' it' I refer to does not include the information flowing in the technology and the skills of the talents who use the technology ",so he refers to its first two layers. If we stop here, there may not be much controversy (this time plus those uncomfortable software vendors). Objectively analyzing the characteristics of software itself does not have three of the four criteria of core competitiveness, namely scarcity, difficulty in copying and difficulty in substitution. Carl himself does not deny that he has the fourth criterion of core competitiveness, namely value. But he just decided that the topic was "It doesn't matter anymore" and wanted to kill it with a stick!

Unfortunately, he often confuses the concept of IT: one refers to the host network and the other refers to the software. In his later books, he even "accidentally" went to the third floor, which completely violated the IT scope defined by him at the beginning of the book, such as discussing the application of information technology and questioning CIO. Many readers, including the editor of Harvard Business Review, pointed this out at that time. Many people attacked him for it, and some even said that Carl didn't understand it at all, which may be true because he didn't do it after all. This also gives us researchers great enlightenment and vigilance, and we should be especially careful when applying other methods in areas we are not familiar with, otherwise many jokes will be made.

Here, I want to emphasize that there are often software vendors (both at home and abroad) who claim that they can strengthen the core competitiveness of enterprises through informationization (anyway, they just follow the popular things and "keep pace with the times"). I don't know whether they are intentional or unintentional, nor do they infer according to the four standards of core competitiveness. Try to ask a few simple questions: what will happen if they go informatization? How many de-informatized enterprises have lost money or even closed down? Especially those software companies that claim that hundreds of thousands of customers use their software should ask themselves. What if it's informationized? If all information such as warehousing, warehousing, sales and inventory are assumed to be accurate, can sales be automatically increased and inventory reduced? If before informatization, the boss may still be confused because he can't see but live happily, what about now? It's just painful to know that so many goods have been kept in the warehouse for so long, and so many goods have occupied the counter for a long time without bringing any sales, let alone profits! There are only two conclusions to analyze the phenomenon that software manufacturers publicize that "information technology is the core competitiveness of enterprises": either these enterprises don't understand what core competitiveness is (I think most of them do, and I hope they do and they don't), and the result is that software enterprises can at least understand some management concepts instead of burying themselves in purely technical companies, and I hope that they don't understand because they have no professional ethics and can be attacked less by others, so people who don't know can't stand it, or they have other reasons. There is a serious information asymmetry between general enterprise customers and IT enterprises. The final result of the game between IT enterprises and enterprise customers is often the suboptimal choice, the so-called "lemon effect". At this point, in addition to IT enterprises and employees to improve their professional ethics, the government or industry must strengthen the training and education of informatization construction, improve enterprises' understanding of informatization construction, and introduce management consulting companies and supervision companies to change the outcome of this game, so as to achieve a new balance and promote the healthier development of IT industry.

Information technology itself is just a tool, like a sword or a good pen. Buying it does not necessarily guarantee how much your martial arts will improve, and how beautiful your handwriting is. You also need to practice how to dance swords and write. Informatization construction also needs you to constantly improve your ability to use information. This is the real core and the most difficult place. Kung fu is beside the point! The purpose of informatization (digitalization) is not to get a few figures from the system, but to serve as a foundation. Its core lies in the word "transformation", which integrates all kinds of information related to resources and then "rationalizes" and "optimizes" the configuration. For example, using historical information to assist in making sales forecast, purchase plan, production plan, distribution plan and inventory plan, and issuing instructions according to these plans, and modifying the plan according to the actual operation situation. Computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) proposed by Dr. Joseph Harrington in the United States contains two basic viewpoints: First, all aspects of enterprise production, including market analysis, product design, processing and manufacturing, management and after-sales service, are an inseparable whole, which must be closely related and considered in a unified way; Second, the whole operation process is essentially a process of data collection, transmission and processing, and the final product can be regarded as the material expression of data. If you get on the information system but don't use it to assist decision-making, or operate according to the original operation mode, the role of the information system may be limited to liberating some work, such as statistical reports, and it will increase the workload of other work. A lot of experience shows that it is impossible to realize accurate, timely and complete information-aided decision-making without the data collected by the information system, and only by using it can the information system gradually improve its accuracy, timeliness and integrity. According to the evaluation standard of core competitiveness, to build core competitiveness, only integration ability is essential, and the more dominant the ability, the easier it is to be imitated. The tip of the iceberg, the less exposed, the less likely it is to be imitated, and the more it can constitute the core competitiveness.

As Hal Varian, editor of Harvard Business Review, pointed out: "Carl is right, it is being commercialized and no longer provides a competitive advantage. But knowing how to use it effectively is still a very scarce skill. " "It is not itself that provides competitive advantage, but those who know how to use it effectively." "The company spent thousands of dollars on data storage and obtaining customer transaction data, but a lot of data lay there, not analyzed and not used, but the same data can generate huge returns in the hands of trained analysts!" This is an era of rich data, but at the same time it is an era of poor knowledge!

Thomas H. Davenport, a professor of information system management at Boston University School of Management, wants to describe "the past 40 years as a data age, not an information age". "It takes a lot of manpower and wisdom to turn data into something more useful, but most organizations only look at this problem from a technical point of view. Having a database or data mining system is as necessary as having other technologies, but it is not enough for high-quality information and knowledge. "

So here we need to clarify some basic concepts that are often confused.

Data = a record of facts. Last quarter, the sales of series A products in East China was 6.5438+0.2 million.

Information = (information) = data+meaning. Last quarter, the sales of A series products in East China decreased by 25% compared with the same period of last year.

Intelligence = information+understanding and reasoning. For example, is it because the sales units in East China are not good, or the A series products are in recession, or the overall marketing activities of the company are backward and the competitors are vigorously promoting them? Or other reasons.

Knowledge = problem-solving skills. What is the company's strategy to solve this problem?

Wisdom = knowledge selection There may be many action plans to deal with, but which wisdom (strategy) to choose. The activity will generate new transaction data.

There is a multiple loop relationship among data, information, intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, action and management activities.

The same highway, the same high-end car, different drivers will drive at completely different levels, and then the more critical factor-driving ability is very important. At the beginning, the competition was relatively extensive, which may mainly depend on who can build roads and who can buy good cars. Everyone's hardware infrastructure is similar, and the competition is becoming more and more fierce. At this time, the role of people is highlighted. It is not enough to have a good car, but a top player like Schumacher can win the game. Business management is not the same as racing. Some people make rules for running races, stipulating that they can only run the same road. The competition between enterprises is that the Eight Immortals cross the sea to show their magical powers. If they have money, they can buy high-end servers and minicomputers. If they have no money, they can only buy a PC server. You can use fiber-optic broadband if you have money, but you can only use ADSL or even dial-up if you have no money; Those who have money can spend tens of millions on SAP and Oracle, while those who have no money can only use Kingdee, UFIDA or even small invoices or some basic financial software. Rich people can ask the Big Five to help them formulate strategies in line with future trends and conduct training. Without money, entrepreneurs can only cross the river by feeling the stones themselves ... indeed, this is an unfair competition. But the network economy is coming. In Karl's words, IT technology has become "popular" and a commodity. What's more, the appearance of ASP mode will greatly lower the threshold of enterprise informatization, and the threshold of expensive server, network and software costs will be lowered at once. For example, although you have a private BMW and Mercedes-Benz, you can get where you want to go quickly. But I can also take a taxi to achieve almost the same effect. I almost have a bus and subway, and I can basically achieve my goal at a very low cost. But the same broadband, the same set of system software, users are the same, but the effect is completely different. Don't you see that SAP, Oracle, Kingdee and UFIDA are also in use, and there have been some successes and some failures? Again, kung fu is outside the poem!

form

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It is the abbreviation of information technology, which means "information technology", including modern computer, network, communication and other information fields. The wide application of information technology is a sign of entering the information society. Different people and books have different explanations for this. But basically everyone agrees that it consists of the following three parts:

-Sensing technology This is the extension and expansion of human sensory organs, and the most obvious example is the bar code reader;

-Communication technology, which is the extension and expansion of human nervous system, undertakes the function of transmitting information;

-Computer technology This is the extension and expansion of the function of the human brain, which undertakes the function of processing information.

The so-called informatization is to transform other industries and industries with information technology, so as to improve the efficiency of enterprises. In this process, information technology plays the role of a powerful tool.

By the way, what is the IT industry? There is a general classification for your reference:

Provide IT basic technology, ic research and development, software writing, such as INTEL, MS, etc.

IT technology productized parts, components, assembly manufacturing such as elite, Volkswagen, etc.

IT products integrate computer and peripheral manufacturers such as Lenovo and IBM.

Systematic solutions and information systems for IT products such as Huawei and Hewlett-Packard.

Distribution channels and sales of IT products, such as Digital China.

Blue Express and other IT products, services, consulting services and after-sales services.

Public opinion in IT industry supports IT media such as World Plan Information and CCID.

The third party in IT industry provides various matching services, such as legal consultation and public relations services.

It trains reserve talents in various colleges and universities such as computer specialty.

The IT industry cooperates to organize various associations and parties.

The whole cycle of integration testing will systematically include software acceptance testing, end-to-end testing, TV picture synthesis testing, system testing, user acceptance testing, multi-motion comprehensive testing and technical drills. Its purpose is to ensure that all IT systems have the required functions and reliability, so as to serve Beijing 2008 Olympic Games smoothly.

Occupational classification of information technology practitioners in China

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IT discipline occupation

1. 1 software class

1. 1. 1 system analyst 1. 1.2 computer programmer 1. 1.3 software tester1.

1.2 hardware class

1.2. 1 computer maintenance workers

1.3 network class

1.3. 1 computer network administrator 1.3.2 network system designer 1.3.3 network integrated router 1.3.4 network construction engineer.

1.4 information system class

1.4. 1 computer operator 1.4.2 information system security engineer 1.4.3 information system administrator 1.4.4 database system administrator 1.4.5 information system supervisor.

1.4.6 information system appraiser 1.4.7 information resources development and management personnel 1.4.8 information system designer.

1.5 manufacturing class

1.5. 1 semiconductor device tester 1.5.2 semiconductor device manufacturing technician 1.5.3 semiconductor device manufacturer 1.5.4 semiconductor device support worker 1.5.5 semiconductor device packaging worker.

IT application occupation

2. 1 control class

2. 1. 1 SCM application designer 2. 1.2 control system designer 2. 1.3 logic control chip editor 2. 1.4 automatic data acquisition and analysis.

2.2 Application System Development Class

2.2. 1 embedded system developer 2.2.2 website developer 2.2.3 game program developer 2.2.4 radio frequency identification system developer

2.3 Design class

2.3. 1 computer graphic designer

2.4 Business class

2.4. 1 network editor 2.4.2 computer network customer service personnel 2.4.3 online sales personnel

2.5 entertainment

2.5. 1 digital video producer 2.5.2 digital audio producer 2.5.3 3D animation producer 2.5.4 game art designer

2.6 Education

2.6. 1 network courseware making

2.7 communication class

IT-related occupations

3.3. 1 electronic tag operator

History of World Information Technology Development (1936-2004)

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1936 British mathematician A.M. Turing invented the Turing machine, which made theoretical preparations for modern computer hardware and software.

1942

The world's first electronic computer ABC has been successfully developed. It has 300 electron tubes, using binary. Its basic architecture is no different from that of modern computers.

1943

British computer "Giant" put into operation. But it was kept secret until 1970.

1945

The father of modern computer: von Neumann first put forward the concept of stored program computer, that is, "von Neumann machine".

1946

10 February, electronic digital integrator and computer were born. Equipped with18,000 vacuum tubes, with a total weight of 30 tons and a cost of nearly 500,000 US dollars. It is the world's first multi-functional, all-electronic digital computer, which can realize thousands of multiplication operations per minute.

1946

In May, Cambridge University successfully developed the first von Neumann machine EDSAC.

1947

12 On February 23rd, Bell Telephone Laboratory invented the first transistor in the world.

1948

The University of Manchester developed the world's first robot baby with stored programs.

1950

Engineering Research Associates made the world's first commercial computer era 1 10 1.

195 1 year

The first digital computer UNIVAC 1 was designed for the American census.

1952

Grace Hopper outlined the blueprint of the first "compiler", that is, all programs were translated into machine language before execution, which made great contributions to the computer industry.

1955

Grace Hopper developed the A-3 compiler Math-Matic.

1956

The world's first computer with transistor elements was successfully developed.

The first transatlantic telephone cable was laid.

Bell Labs developed the prototype of videophone.

1957

IBM designed the world's first computer hard disk RAMAC 350, with a diameter of 24 inches and a total capacity of 5 megabytes.

IBM developed FORTRAN language.

1958

The first commercial electron tube computer Univac Model 80 was released.

MIT john mccarthy began to develop Lisp language, which was completed in 1960.

1959

The world's first integrated circuit came out.

Cobol language specification was published in 196 1 year.

1964

IBM releases IBM System/360 computer.

1965

DEC launched the world's first standard minicomputer PDP-8, which was truly recognized by the industry.

Thomas E.Kurtz and John Kemeny of Dartmouth College in the United States developed the Basic language.

The world's first program-controlled telephone exchange-American Bell System 1 electronic exchange came out.

The international satellite communication organization launched a semi-experimental and semi-practical stationary (synchronous) communication satellite, marking the beginning of the era of synchronous satellite communication.

1967

The American newspaper Computerworld was founded.

IBM introduced the world's first floppy disk with a diameter of 32 inches.

Njklaus Wirth of Switzerland started to develop Pascal language on the basis of Algol, which was completed in 197 1.

1968

IBM developed the world's first database management system IMS.

J.Dahl and K.Nygard of the Norwegian Computing Center published the first object-oriented language, Simula 67.

1969

Bell Laboratories developed the first multi-task and multi-user computer time-sharing system Unix with assembly language.

IBM established the software market by allowing customers to purchase their software and hardware separately.

The U.S. Department of Defense began to study ARPANET, which is regarded as the beginning of the Internet.

1970

Ken Thompson and Dennis M. Ritchie of Bell Laboratories began to develop Unix operating systems.

Optical fiber with transmission loss of only 20 dB/km and semiconductor laser that can work continuously at room temperature have been successfully developed, and optical fiber communication is becoming practical.

197 1 year

Intel developed the world's first microprocessor 4004.

Niklaus wirth can speak Pascal.

Gary Starkweather developed the world's first laser printer in Xerox's laboratory.

1972

Dennis ritchie of Bell Laboratories developed the C language.

CCITT first put forward the concept of ISDN.

1973

Alain Colmerauer of Lumini-Marseille University developed Prolog language.

Marty Cooper's mobile phone became famous and became the first person to use it.

1974

The US Department of Defense developed TCP (Transmission Control Protocol).

Intel introduced 8080 microprocessor, which was adopted by the world's first commercial PC.

Zilog Company introduced the processor Z-80.

The first commercially successful PC Altair 8800 was successfully developed.

IBM first proposed the computer reduced instruction set.

Xerox introduced the first workstation prototype Xerox Alto.

In the first computer chess championship, the Russian program KAISASA won.

1975

Bill Gates and paul allen developed the world's first set of standard microcomputer software Basic for Altair and founded Microsoft.

Xerox and Stanford University jointly launched "Ethernet". Network became the first industrial standard product of LAN.

1976

Cray- 1, the first commercially successful supercomputer, was successfully developed, with an operation speed of 250 million times per second.

Hayes introduced the first PC modem.

1977

The first PC Apple II with color display was officially unveiled.

The world's first commercial optical fiber communication system was opened between two telephone offices (7 kilometers apart) in Chicago, USA.

1978

TCP is divided into TCP and IP.

198 1 year

Osborne, the world's first portable computer, appeared.

/kloc-In August, the IBM PC named "Personal Computer" made its debut. It uses Intel's 8088 processor and Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system.

Ashton-Tate introduced dBase.

Ian Murphy, a 23-year-old man who calls himself Captain Zap, hacked into the computer systems of the White House, the Pentagon and BellSouth.

1983

Cellular mobile phone communication system put into commercial use.

1984

Apple introduced the Apple Macintosh.

The domain name system was created.

MIPS Computer Systems was founded and began to develop RISC architecture with Stanford University.

HP launches personal laser printer.

1985

Intel introduced 386 microprocessor.

Windows 1.0 is officially available.

1986

The National Natural Science Foundation of China established NSFnet with a backbone network speed of 56 KB/s.

1987

IBM and Microsoft released OS/2 1.0.

Kodak introduced the world's first commercial digital camera with megapixels.

1988

1 65438+1October1day, robert morris, a graduate student of Cornell University in the United States, released an experimental network worm program when he tried the feasibility of computer virus on ARPANET. Within 8 hours, this program invaded 3000 ~ 6000 VAX computers and Sun computers running Unix operating system, causing serious losses. Morris is both a virus maker and the first hacker on the Internet.

The first transatlantic submarine communication optical cable (TAT-8) system was successfully laid.

1989

The United States launched the first global positioning system (GPS) working satellite.

British scientist Timothy Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web.

The launch of Sonic Card by Singapore Innovation Company marks the arrival of PC multimedia era.

1990

IBM released RS/6000 based on RISC.

World Wide Web software has been successfully developed.

Archie, an Internet search program, came out at McGill University.

The earliest lan switches was successfully developed.

199 1 year

Linus Torvalds, a student of Helsinki University in Finland, developed the Linux operating system and spread it as free software.

1992

On March 22nd, Intel launched the fifth generation Pentium processor.

1993

Peter de Jagger published the article "The End of the Year 2000" in Computer World, warning the danger of the year 2000 problem and the cost of solving it.

The Clinton administration of the United States announced the planning of the national information infrastructure, NII for short, commonly known as the information superhighway.

Microsoft officially released Windows NT.

1994

Netscape released the Internet browser navigator.

Internet has entered the era of commercialization.

1995

Microsoft introduced Windows 95, a 32-bit desktop operating system.

Microsoft launched Internet Explorer, an Internet browser.

IP phone made its debut, and VocalTec launched VoIP client software.

The world's first commercial CDMA mobile communication network opened in Hong Kong.

Sun company launches Java language.

Larry Ellision, president of Oracle Bone Inscriptions Company, put forward the concept of network computer (NC).

Amazon.com sold his first book online.

Some Internet-related companies are listed. Netscape became the third largest IPO stock value on Nasdaq.

Domain name registration is no longer free, 50 dollars a year.

1996

Thirty-four famous American universities launched the "Next Generation Internet" project in Chicago.

The rewritable optical disc (CD-RW) technology came out.

PDA product Pocket Navigator 1000 went on the market.

1997

The chess software on IBM's Deep Blue defeated the world chess champion Garry Kasparov for the first time.

IETF put forward IPv6 standard.

The wireless LAN standard IEEE 802. 1 1 was released.

Yahoo and Amazon.com listed successfully.

In the development year of e-commerce, there were more than 654.38 million online retailers. By the end of 1997, Cisco's sales of network equipment on the website were $3 billion, and the daily sales of personal computers on Dell's website were10 million. 1997, 39% of Cisco's total revenue of $6.4 billion comes from its website.

1998

IMac apple computer comes out.

Larry Page and sergey brin founded Google, which became a widely used Internet search engine.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) broadcasts digital TV programs for the first time in the world.

Iridium system began to provide personal communication services to the whole world.

65438+1On October 26th, Compaq acquired DEC for $9.6 billion.

Canada's Northern Telecom acquired the US Gulf for US$ 96,543.8 billion.

65438+ 10 65438+September, the US federal court decided to formally hold a hearing on the antitrust lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice and 20 state governments against Microsoft.

165438+ 10 In October, service provider AOL acquired Netscape Communications Company with a share price of 4.2 billion US dollars.

1999

65438+ 10/4 lucent technology announced the acquisition of Ascend for $24 billion.

In 2000,

On June 65438+1October 10, AOL, the world's largest Internet access service provider, announced that it would acquire time warner Inc. by way of share swap, with a total transaction amount exceeding160 billion US dollars.

On May 17, the world's largest online fashion retailer and the most well-funded European com company announced its closure. At least 130 internet companies in the United States have closed down due to the exhaustion of funds.

The growth rate of the US IT market slowed down for the first time in nine years.

200 1 year

On April 24th, IBM announced that it would acquire Informix's database business for $6,543.8+0 billion in cash.

On May 29th, An Teng, Intel's first 64-bit processor chip, was officially released.

On August 28th, Microsoft released the limited edition of Windows Advanced Server, the first 64-bit Windows operating system.

On September 4th, HP announced that it would acquire Compaq at a share exchange price of $25 billion.

In September, NTT DoCoMo took the lead in launching 3G services in the world.

10 year1On October 25th, Microsoft released Windows XP.

In June+February, 5438, NTT announced that it would jointly conduct grid computing experiments with Intel and SGI.

In 2002

In May, the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard organization approved the final draft of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet standard.

IBM announced that it will invest $654.38+0 billion to support Linux.

According to IDC statistics, the growth rate of 2.3% made 2002 the worst year in the history of IT industry.

IBM announced that it will invest $654.38+000 billion in on-demand computing.

The Nasdaq index fell to its pre-rising level. Six years ago.

In 2003

In March of this year, SCO sued IBM for "improper use of the Linux operating system for which the company has intellectual property rights".

On March 12, Intel released its latest generation of mobile computing technology Centrino.

AMD introduced AMD Athlon 64-bit microprocessor for desktop and mobile computing platforms.

Apple launched an online music service, and sold 654.38 billion songs at a price of 99 cents each in the first week after its opening.

In 2004

On June 65438+June 65438+June 04, the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) standard organization EPCgloba said that it had established the first global standard to accelerate the company's adoption of RFID technology to improve the operation of its supply chain.

On April 2, Sun Company of the United States announced that it had reached a ten-year cooperation agreement with Microsoft Company to settle all pending lawsuits. According to the agreement, Microsoft will pay Sun $700 million to solve all outstanding antitrust problems, and another $900 million to solve all patent problems.

On June 28th, Intel introduced a new platform system based on 32/64-bit Xeon processors.