All
companies are users of Information and Communications Technology (ICT),
and will need computer systems to provide information to their employees
and their customers (often via web sites). They may have demands for specialist
types of software or hardware. They may employ people within the company
to provide these things, or may buy them from the two other kinds of company.
They will need people in the following kinds of roles.
Data analysts / programmer
Traditionally (20 year ago - tradition is short in the Computing industry),
these jobs were entry-level positions, often done by people who joined
a company straight from school after A-levels. That is becoming much more
rare. Either the job is simple enough it can be outsourced overseas, or
it demands the kinds of skills that Computing graduates are trained to
have. People in data analyst / programmer jobs today need to be able to
implement computer-based systems for their company, to explain to users
how the system they are programming will work, to understand how the system
they are building fits with the needs of the company, and to be able to
produce a system that can be maintained over many years.
Web developers
Over the past ten years, almost every company has developed a web presence
- including schools and universities! A mixture of Computing, graphical,
commercial and presentation skills are needed to provide a successful
web site. Typically, no one person will have all of these skills. The
Computing graduate may be called upon to provide several of these skills
as part of a larger team, or within a smaller company may be the only
employee in this area, perhaps working with outside graphical experts.
Telecommunications/network specialist
The need for this kind of skill will depend on the company. Most companies
will have their computers linked to each other, with central file servers,
so that files can be accessed from anywhere. They will also have links
to computers outside the company, so that other companies and customers
can access information. Many companies are moving to broadband, and upgrading
their internal facilities to match. Network specialists have the knowledge
to configure and maintain the quality of service on such networks of computers.
User training / technical support
Within many modern companies, everyone will be a computer user. They
will often have a computer on their desk, and will use it to access company
information, or to write letters or read email, or to record what has
been produced or sold. When they do not know how to perform some task,
or when the computer does not work as they expected, they turn to the
computer professional. This type of job needs someone who understands
the technicalities of what the computer is doing, but who is also able
to explain to users what is happening and what they should do next.
Security specialist
I observed earlier that computers are being linked both within companies
and to the outside world. One consequence of that is that it makes computers
vulnerable both to malicious threats such as computer viruses and worms,
and also to criminal threats such as stealing information or money. Security
specialists are able to assess the threats to a company and to put in
place procedures and software that protects the company’s computer
systems against such threats.
Database administrator
Much of the information within a company will be held in databases. For
some companies that might be as simple as an Access database, and little
administration of such a database would be needed beyond occasionally
backing it up in case the system crashes. However, take the extreme example
of amazon.co.uk. They will have a database containing the details of perhaps
a million customers in the UK, and another database containing details
of the hundreds of thousands of products that they sell. Because of the
number of sales that they make at one time, they cannot run those databases
on one computer - they will have a cluster of server computers containing
copies of the databases, interfacing to a cluster of web server computers
sending web pages to people’s desktops. Every time a customer purchases
a book or DVD, a change needs to be made to a database, and all of the
database server computers need to be consistent in the information that
they hold. The database and web server machines must be available 24 hours
per day, seven days a week, or amazon.co.uk will lose money through not
being able to sell goods. The database administrator is responsible for
the availability of the database service and for it providing the correct
information.
Information Systems manager
Within many user companies, this used to be called the data processing
manager. It is traditionally portrayed as the top of the tree for a computing
career, and within many user companies, it is. The information services
manager is responsible for all of the ICT provision within the company
(or at a lower level, within one site of the company). This will include
considering all of the individual areas of computing (such as security,
networking, databases, user training, provision of new systems), along
with making sure that the computing provision meets the business needs
of the company, and planning how much ICT provision will cost the company.
In many companies, this position is so important that the information
services manager reports directly to the board of the company.
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