Electronic data processing: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Use of automated methods to process commercial data}}

{{more citations needed|date=October 2009}}

'''Electronic data processing''' ('''EDP''') or '''business information processing''' can refer to the use of automated methods to process commercial data. Typically, this uses relatively simple, repetitive activities to process large volumes of similar information. For example: stock updates applied to an inventory, banking transactions applied to account and customer master files, booking and ticketing transactions to an airline's reservation system, billing for utility services. The modifier "electronic" or "automatic" was used with "data processing" (DP), especially c. 1960, to distinguish human clerical data processing from that done by computer.<ref>{{cite book | title=Dictionary of Computing | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=9780192800466 | edition=4th | first=Valerie | last=Illingworth | series=Oxford Paperback Reference | page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofcomp00illi/page/126 126] | date=11 December 1997 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofcomp00illi/page/126 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Computer Science 4ed.|publisher=Nature group|author=Anthony Ralston|page=502}}</ref>

== History ==

[[File:Used Punchcard (5151286161).jpg|thumb|A punched card from the mid-twentieth century.]]

[[Herman Hollerith]] then at the [[U.S. Census Bureau]] devised a tabulating system that included cards ([[Punched card|Hollerith card, later Punched card]]), a punch for holes in them representing data, a tabulator and a sorter.<ref name="IBM">{{cite web |title=From Herman Hollerith to IBM |url=https://womenshistory.si.edu/spotlight/tabulating-equipment/from-herman-hollerith-to-ibm |website=Because of Her Story |publisher=Smithsonian |access-date=22 August 2021}}</ref> The system was tested in computing mortality statistics for the city of Baltimore.<ref name=IBM/> In the first commercial electronic data processing Hollerith machines were used to compile the data accumulated in the 1890 U.S. Census of population.<ref>{{cite web

|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/tabulating-equipment/from-herman-hollerith-to-ibm

|title=Tabulating Equipment, From Herman Hollerith to IBM |publisher=Smithsonian, National Museum of American History |access-date=July 6, 2019}}</ref> Hollerith's [[Tabulating machine|Tabulating Machine]] Company merged with two other firms to form the [[Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company]], later renamed [[IBM]]. The punch-card and tabulation machine business remained the core of electronic data processing until the advent of electronic computing in the 1950s (which then still rested on punch cards for storing information).<ref>{{cite web

|url=https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=286#h16

|title=Herman Hollerith (1860-1929) |publisher=Immigrant Entrepreneurship |access-date=July 6, 2019}}</ref>

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Early commercial systems were installed exclusively by large organizations. These could afford to invest the time and capital necessary to purchase hardware, hire specialist staff to develop [[bespoke]] [[software]] and work through the consequent (and often unexpected) organizational and cultural changes.

At first, individual organizations developed their own software, including [[data management]] utilities, themselves. Different products might also have 'one-off' bespoke software. This fragmented approach led to duplicated effort and the production of management information needed manual effort.

High hardware costs and relatively slow processing speeds forced developers to use resources 'efficiently'. [[Computer storage|Data storage]] formats were heavily compacted, for example. A common example is the removal of the century from dates, which eventually led to the '[[millennium bug]]'.

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Data input required intermediate processing via [[Punched tape|punched paper tape]] or [[punched card]] and separate input to a repetitive, labor-intensive task, removed from user control and error-prone. Invalid or incorrect data needed correction and resubmission with consequences for data and account reconciliation.

Data storage was strictly serial on paper tape, and then later to [[magnetic tape]]: the use of data storage within readily accessible memory was not cost-effective until [[hard disk drives]] were first invented and [[History of IBM magnetic disk drives#IBM 350|began shipping in 1957]]. Significant developments took place in 1959 with IBM announcing the [[IBM 1401|1401 computer]] and in 1962 with [[International Computers and Tabulators|ICT (International Computers & Tabulators)]] making delivery of the [[ICT 1301]]. Like all machines during this time the processor together with the [[Peripheral|peripherals]] – magnetic tape drives, disks drives, drums, printers and card and paper tape input and output required considerable space in specially constructed air conditioned accommodation.<ref name="IT">{{cite book |last1=Goyal |first1=Meera |last2=Mathur | first2=Nishit |title=Information Technology & Its Implications in Business |date=2020 |publisher=SBPD Publications |isbn=978-93-5167-164-0 |url=https://wwwbooks.google.com/books/edition/_/8O8OEAAAQBAJ?hlid=en&gbpv=08O8OEAAAQBAJ |access-date=22 August 2021}}</ref> Often parts of the punched card installation, in particular sorters, were retained to present the card input to the computer in a pre-sort form that reduced the processing time involved in sorting large amounts of data.<ref name=IT/>

Data processing facilities became available to smaller organizations in the form of the [[computer bureau|computer services bureau]]. These offered processing of specific applications e.g. payroll and were often a prelude to the purchase of customers' own computers. Organizations used these facilities for testing programs while awaiting the arrival of their own machine.

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Software is available off the shelf. Apart from products such as [[Microsoft Office]] and [[Lotus Software | IBM Lotus]], there are also specialist packages for payroll and personnel management, account maintenance and customer management, to name a few. These are highly specialized and intricate components of larger environments, but they rely upon common conventions and interfaces.

Data storage has also been standardized. [[Relational database | Relational databases]] are developed by different suppliers using common formats and conventions. Common [[file format]]s can be shared by [[Mainframe computer | large mainframes]] and desktop [[Desktop computer | personal computers]], allowing online, real-time input and validation.

In parallel, software development has fragmented. There are still specialist technicians, but these increasingly use standardized methodologies where outcomes are predictable and accessible.<ref name=IT/> At the other end of the scale, any office manager can dabble in spreadsheets or databases and obtain acceptable results (but there are risks, because many don'tdo not know what [[Software testing]] is). Specialized software is software that is written for a specific task rather for a broad application area. These programs provide facilities specifically for the purpose for which they were designed. At the other end of the scale, any office manager can dabble in spreadsheets or databases and obtain acceptable results.<ref name=IT/>

==See also==

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*[[Data processing]]

*[[Data processing system]]

*[[Information Technologytechnology]]

==References==