ICT Questions

What is ICT?

ICT stands for Information and Communications Technologies, it is an umbrella term used to describe the technologies required for both the processing and communication of information in any way.

A good way to think of ICT is to consider all the uses of technology that already exist to help businesses, organisations and individuals that use information in any manner. ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive information electronically in a digital form. For example Computers, Laptops, Broadband, Hard Drives, Word Processing Software, DVD, Mobile Phones, Digital Video … etc

ICT can typically be categorised into two broad types of product

1. Traditional Computer Technologies
2. Communication Technologies

Traditional Computer Technologies

The term Traditional Computer Technologies encompasses an almost infinite amount of new and old technologies, and as Computer Technologies are constantly evolving more and more new Computer Technologies are coming onto the Market.

Looking at some of the most widely recognisable Traditional Computer Technologies, they include: Computers, Laptops, Printers, Scanners, Portable Storage, CD-ROM, PDA’s, Office Software, Customer Relational Management Software etc

Communication Technologies

In today’s modern world Communication Technologies are probably one of the fastest moving technologies there are, constantly evolving to provide businesses and homes around the world with faster, more efficient and different ways to transfer information.

The most widely recognisable Communication Technologies include: The Internet, Broadband, Local Area Networks (LAN), Wide Area Networks (WAN), Satellite Receivers, SMS, E-Mail, Mobile Phones, Routers, Video Conferencing, E-commerce etc

What are the main uses of ICT?

The uses for ICT are endless, ranging from the simple viewing of information on web pages on the Internet, to writing of an e-mail or document, to holding a video conference with colleagues half way around the world, to buying or selling products or services online etc

Browsing the World Wide Web

The Internet is often referred to as the World Wide Web, in the way that all the web pages on it are linked to other pages, which in turn are linked to other pages, and so on, and so forth. As every second of the clock ticks, hundreds of new web pages are going onto the web from all over the world, delivering the latest information to everyone with an Internet connection on just about every topic conceivable to man at the click of a button.

To browse the web all that is needed is a freely available simple web browser such as the one you are using just now to view this page and an Internet connection of some kind. As technologies have evolved, web pages can now be viewed on all kinds of devices, not just a computer or laptop, devices such as mobile phones, PDA’s, and televisions are all now capable of browsing the World Wide Web.

To businesses, the World Wide Web is an invaluable resource, not just as a resource for finding out information or promoting a business, but also as a tool for buying and selling various materials, products and services.

Communicating via E-mail

Like the World Wide Web, E-mail has revolutionised the ways in which people communicate today, it allows people to almost instantly send messages and information of varying sizes to one or many people. E-mail is not just restricted to sending basic text based messages, as other forms of data such as images, documents, video, audio, spreadsheets etc can also be sent.

In the business world E-mail has become one of the primary tools of communication between both businesses and businesses and customers.

Online Collaboration via Video Conferencing

With high speed communication now much more readily available to businesses through technologies such as Broadband, it broadens the use of the very latest technologies to businesses, organisations and individuals. One technology that is predominantly reliant on a high speed communication in order for it to function smoothly is Video Conferencing.

Video Conferencing allows businesses to interact with other businesses and customers in real time, using both live video and audio, so the people at one location are seeing and hearing the people at the other location instantly. The only other technology required is a web cam and some kind of microphone, which are very low cost pieces of equipment.

Video Conferencing has a number of uses in the business place, be it meetings, demonstrations, support etc, its uses are endless where there is a need to interact through sound and vision when at two different geographical locations anywhere in the world as long as they have a high speed Internet connection, a computer and a web cam.

Taking Video Conferencing for a meeting as an example, it allows all invited parties to interact with each other from the comfort of their own premises, where they have all the resources they would require at hand, and also making financial savings as they don’t have to physically travel to the meeting location.

Secure Online Data Storage

Businesses today amass large amounts of data on their computers such as financial accounts, key documents, customer databases that are both key to day to day operations, as well as key to the business on a whole. It is good business practice for a business to have a business continuity plan in place to ensure that all data is safely backed up in case of some kind of sudden disaster taking place in the office.

With high speed connections to the Internet through technologies such as Broadband a new simple way for backing up data has evolved. Online Data Storage means businesses can easily backup their data by simply uploading the files to a private area on the Internet that only they can access.

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