Sharing Information

Today, information technologies are letting companies communicate data, share data, and provide data access to workers, managers, suppliers, and customers in ways that were unthinkable just a few years ago. Executives, managers, and workers inside the company use three kinds of information technology to access and share information: executive information systems, intranets, and portals.

An executive information system (EIS) uses internal and external sources of data to provide managers and executives the information they need to monitor and analyze organizational performance. The goal of an EIS is to provide accurate, complete, relevant, and timely information to managers.

Intranets are private company networks that allow employees to easily access, share, and publish information using Internet software. Intranet websites are just like external websites, but the firewall separating the internal company network from the Internet permits only authorized internal access.

Finally, corporate portals are a hybrid of executive information systems and intranets. With electronic data interchange, or EDI, two companies convert purchase and ordering information to a standardized format to enable direct electronic transmission of that information from one company’s computer system to the other company’s system.

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is the capability of computerized systems to learn and adapt through experience.Devices and applications that have this capability are said to possess artificial intelligence. That feedback helps the AI system “learn” and become more accurate over time.