Electronic data processing: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:22, 26 March 2004

Revision as of 23:23, 4 April 2004

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Early commercial systems were installed exclusively by large organisations. 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) organisational and cultural changes.

At first, individual organisations developed their own software, including data management utilities, themselves. Different products might also have 'one-off' bespoke software. This fragmented approach leadled 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 lead to the '[[millennium bug]]'.

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Results would be presented to users on paper. Enquiries were delayed by whatever turn round was available.

== Today ==