AC 2003

Introduction to Business computing

Last session : conclusions

21 january 2003

AC 2003

Official topics

• Master the Microsoft Office suite– Word– Excel– PowerPoint– Access

• An a bit of Internet

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The larger view

• To study tools for treating information

• and to communicate

• That involves– the office suite tools

– Internet

– Information systems

– E-commerce

– CRM (Customer relationship mgt), SCM (Supply chain mgt)

• And the history of all this

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Why study the history of information treatment and communication ?

• The purpose of studying history, in general, is to be better prepared to understand the future

• The XXIst century is likely to be everything but uneventful !

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Let ’s look at the NTIC

• New Technologies in Information and Communication

• As future managers you will deal a lot with Information and Communication

• These are tools to create wealth

• (To create wealth is one of the central purposes of running businesses)

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Let ’s look at the NTIC (2)

• Communication has tremendous new tools at its disposal :– Internet

• e-mail

• Newsgroups (= forums)

• ICQ (= I seek you)

– Mobile phones

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Communication• In terms of tools it has a long history• Not to go farther in the past we can mention

– The telephone– Edison’s electric telegraph– The Post office (mid XIXth century)– Pigeons– Chappe’s Telegraph (1800, by Claude Chappe, in Paris there is a

subway station called Télégraphe, because a télégraphe was installed there)

– Indian ’s smoke fires– The Gaulois also used fires to communicate, to gather for

Gergovie, and to call for reinforcements at Alesia– The Marathon runner

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The XIXth century : the century of electricity

• All along the XIXth century scientists worked to understand electricity (from Volta, Ampère, Faraday to Maxwell)

• Then engineers were able to replace many mechanical devices by electrical devices :– Steam engine -> electric motor

– Mechanical/optical telegraph -> electrical telegraph

– Invention of the telephone

• The understanding of the electromagnetic waves lead to the invention of the radio (télégraphie sans fil, in French)

• Internet is the grand child of all these researches and inventions

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The technical XXth century :

• The XXth century capitalized on and developped many inventions of the XIXth century :– Electricity

– Railways

– Cars

– Vaccination

• It added some new breakthroughs, among them :– Aeronautics

– Medical breakthroughs (penicillin,…)

– Nuclear power

• The XXIst century is already fascinating…

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Communication (2)

• More to come

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Information

• Information media also have a long history– the invention of History about -3000 BC

– the invention of the press by Gutenberg (the first metal caracters in the West ; there were some in Korea before http://130.238.50.3/ilmh/Ren/bokt-chartier-china.htm)

– Which date ? The Google reflex : 1447

– Newspapers (T. Renaudot) : 1631 (or 16something)

– more here : http://www.lian.com/TANAKA/comhosei/NPinEB.htm

– Photography (Niepce 1826 http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/wfp/)

– (improved by Daguerre, Eatsman, the Lumière brothers, etc.)

– Cinema : Les frères Lumière 1895

– Radio (in the 20 ’s)

– TV (in the 30 ’s)

– Internet

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Technology

• As we see Information and Communication have been using more and more sophisticated technologies

• It is unlikely that it will stop (right now we are witnessing the end of the argent-based cameras, more than half the cameras sold nowadays are digital ; we can buy a 3.3 million pixel camera for 670€ rue du marché notre dame, and send pictures of Poitiers to Beijing in seconds)

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New

• As we see there have been many steps in developping information media and communication techniques before the present day tools

• The Office suite softwares are a very small part of the history of new information and communication tools

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When using Word, Excel, PPT, or Access...• … it is important that we realise we use

information and communication tools• These have been created with a goal

– Word : to make nice looking but first of all efficient business letters, etc.

– Excel : to calculate and present productively, for instance accounting and budgeting data (Visicalc 1978)

– Access : same kind of comment

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Back to Communication

• The tools have undergone tremendous technological leaps…

• … but the people are the same as before• Therefore the rules of communicating haven ’t

changed much – Know who we talk to

– Respect

– etc.

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NTIC and palaver

• When discussing, for instance, daily fees for an intervention with some interlocutor…

• … and the discussion goes on and on.• It would be a tremendous mistake to curtail

it by saying : – « well my fees are this, and that ’s it », – or by saying right away « OK I accept your

conditions »

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NTIC and palaver (2)

• It would be a tremendous mistake to curtail it by saying : – « well my fees are this, and that ’s it », – or by saying right away « OK I accept your

conditions »

• Why ?• Because the real subject is not « my fees » but

« who I ’m and who are you ? »• That is a palaver.

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NTIC and palaver (3)• The real subject is not « my fees » but « who I ’m

and who are you ? »• That ’s a palaver.• The purpose of a palaver is to get to know each

other and see whether we can and want to work together

• For instance :– « Is he rigid/stuck up ? Or flexible ? »

– « Is he too weak ? Or able to assert what he wants ? »

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Communication

• Communication tools nowadays are flabbergasting

• Yet we communicate usually with one of the following goals :– convince people to take such and such action– to sign a contract

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Communication

• In both cases we need to master the psychological aspect of the communication– who are we talking to– what do they perceive of me– how to convince them– do I want to sign a contract with them– do they want to sign a contract with me– etc.

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Communication

• Mastering the tools without mastering the psychology of communication...

• ...is useless

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Information (cont ’d)

• Besides Internet there are many other recent tools– CRM customer relationship management : it treats customer information

to make the sales dept much more efficient

– SCM supply chain management : it makes plants/factories much more efficient in getting their supplies (Raw materials)

– Manufacturing Information systems : to make plants more productive

• E-commerce : commerce using Internet ; the commerce part hasn ’t changed (and in fact there are examples in the past of distribution channels with no client/product contact and no client/salespeople contact : mail order sales !)

• E-learning : using to NTIC to make teaching and learning more efficient

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What ’s the purpose of learning ?• (not get a diploma : that ’s only the proof that we learned, that ’s not

the goal)

• Get a great job– To be well trained, well prepared

– to open minded

• Prepare for a good future (for ourselves and for what we will have in charge)

• Improve our knowledge

• To have informed opininons

• To be autonomous and creative and not just a « mold-copy »

• To be useful

• To be accomplished, TO BE RESPONSIBLE

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Learning (cont ’d)

• So we need to get information– mastery of techniques and facts

• Understand facts

• Think

• We need to know quite a bit of History

• Why ? To foresee a little bit the Future

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Learning (cont ’d)

• We need to know quite a bit of History• Why ? To foresee a little bit the Future

• The XXth century was rather hectic (cf for instance the US interest rates in the 19th and 20th centuries http://www.forecasts.org/data/index.htm)

• What will the XXIst be ?

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US interest rate

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Will there be major conflicts ?

• Conflicts of the XXth century :– WWI

– Armenia

– WWII

– Middle-East wars (1956, 1967, 1973, 1991, Intifadas)

– Korea

– Vietnam

– Algeria

– Many wars in Africa : Boers, Tutsis and Hutus

• How to reduce their number in the XXIst century ?

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Will there be major conflicts ? (2)

• How to reduce their number in the XXIst century ?• Let ’s understand better how they arise• -> let ’s study History• Internet is a great provider of information (neither

more nor less reliable than in books), but much faster to get !

• Then let ’s understand and think.

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Will there be major changes in the World order ?• What happened in the past ? Leading countries per period :

– 200 AD : Roman empire, Han empire

– 1200 : Cheng Ji Sihan (Genghis Khan)

– 1500 : Spain

– 1700 : France

– 1850 : British empire

– 1950 : America

• 2030 - 2050 ?– Possibly China (if you work hard at ESCEM ; here we teach mostly

techniques and also some facts…)

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Will there be major changes in the World order ? (2)• 2030 - 2050 ?

– Possibly China (if you work hard at ESCEM ; here we learn mostly techniques and also some facts…)

• We need to develop a business and historical culture– Read the newspaper at least once a week

– Take part in discussions

– Have an opinion on all important societal topics (but an informed one)

• Not only will this land you great jobs…

• … but it will make you great managers and people responsible for the Future

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Techniques, Facts and Opinions

• Techniques : ESCEM teachings

• Facts : your questions, read the newspaper at least once a week, Internet– example : today is the 40th anniversary of the

Elysée Treaty. What is the Elysée Treaty ?– 1963 French-German cooperation treaty

• Opinions (informed ones ; uninformed opinions are useless, weak and dangerous)

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What were the Evian accords ?

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Techniques, Facts and Opinions (2)

• An example of question :– related to Turkey– « should it become a member of the European

community ? »

• Have an opinion ! (an informed one)

• Defend the Pros, then the Cons.

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Techniques, Facts and Opinions (3)

• An example of question :– related to South America– « should the IMF lend more money to

Argentina or not ? »

• Have an opinion ! (an informed one)

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International legal system

• It is likely that the XXIst century will witness the emergence of an international right to intervene into domestic affairs of countries

• But it will have to be codified

• Argentina is one of the next candidates for such an intervention

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Techniques, Facts and Opinions (4)

• An example of question :– related to Africa– « what ’s going on these days in Marcoussis ? »– There is a peace conference concerning Ivory

Coast

• Know the fact !

• Have an opinion ! (an informed one)

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Techniques, Facts and Opinions (5)

• An example of more business oriented question :– related to America

– « what is the US trade deficit in 2001 ? (the difference between their exports and their imports) »

– http://www.uaw.org/publications/jobs_pay/01/0901/jpe06.html

• Know the fact !• Have an opinion ! (an informed one)

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Good sources of Information

• General : – Search engines : Google, Altavista, Fast, Voilà, etc.

– Newsgroups : Google Newsgroups (ex-déjà News)

• On line newspapers : – NYT, LeMonde, WSJ, Washington Post, etc.

• Specialised sites : – for instance Hoover ’s on line for financial data

• A page of tools : http://lapasserelle.com/sm/web_tools.html

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Good sources of Information• A page of tools : http://lapasserelle.com/sm/web_tools.html

• Use it to find Amazon sales revenues for the quarter ending Sept 2002 : ….. ?

• In three days will be published the figures for the next quarter.– Those persons working at Amazon, that already know

the figures are forbidden to buy or sell Amazon stocks on the Nasdaq

– Why ? (After all they have the information…)

– Because it would be using « Insider information »

AC 2003

Using Hoover ’s on line...

• Who are Amazon ’s main competitors ?• Which ones are profitable ?• What is Microsoft last quarter data

– Revenue 7.7 billion dollars

– and Profit 2.7 billion dollars

• What is IBM last quarter data– Revenue 19.8 billion dollars

– and Profit 1.3 billion dollars