TABLE OF CONTENTS Most of the features of an information system are based on communication technology enabling data transfer from one place to another. It used to be established primarily as direct communication between people, either in direct contact or using mail, telephone or fax. Subsequently telecommunications, defined as the communication of information by electronic means over some distance, has become ever-increasingly important and has also enabled a direct link between computers.
The development of telecommunications is so rapid today that some authors argue that we are currently in the middle of a telecommunications revolution that has two components: rapid changes in the technology of communications and equally important changes in the ownership, control and marketing of telecommunications services (Laudon and Laudon, 1998). It is therefore important to understand capabilities, costs and benefits of alternative communications technologies and how to maximize their benefits for a manufacturing organization.
A telecommunications system is a collection of compatible hardware and software arranged to communicate information from one location to another. Telecommunications systems can transmit text, graphic images, voice, or video information. The major components of a communications system are (Figure 5.1):
computers to process information;
terminals or any input/output devices that send or receive data;
communications channels, the links by which data or voice are transmitted between sending and receiving devices in a network using various media, such as telephone lines, fibre optic cables, coaxial cables and wireless transmission;
communications processors, such...
