Visit to local computer store

I visited CompUSA to conduct my study regarding latest products in digital storage, input and output devices, and software. I selected the store as it carries wide range of products and software. By selecting a store which offers more variety, I would be able to see more products in limited amount of time. They also have knowledgeable salespersons to help me and provide information about the products.

An information system is an interconnected set of information resources used for decision- making, planning and evaluation. A system normally consists of hardware, software, information, data, applications, communications and people. The hardware is physical component of computer system, for e.g. in desktop computer, the various parts like monitor, keyboard, mouse, CPU, motherboard, etc are the hardware. Software are the program that runs on the computer like operating system, browser.

HARDWARE The various products on display included desktop computers, laptop, mp3 players, iPods, game consoles. Let us take an example of laptop computer that represent an information system. The laptop comes with an inbuilt keyboard and touch pad, these are input devices. The user uses keyboard to enter the information into the system. The user can also use touch pad to give instructions to the system. It also consists of hard-disk, which serves as a storage device – it stores the data. Apart from hard-disk the laptop has CD drive or DVD drive, which can read data from secondary storage devices like CD or DVD. The laptop computer has a screen, where data and information is displayed, it serves as an output.

An iPod is also good example of information system. In iPod, the input devices are the USB and touch dial. The user can load the songs or information through the USB, or he can give instructions through the touch dial. It consists of a flash drive which serves as storage device, this is where the songs in an iPod are stored. The output components in iPod are the screen, the headphones and USB. The screen displays the information to the user like what is the song currently playing. In case of video iPod, the screen displays the images of video. The song stored is heard with the help of headphones. It is interesting to note that USB serves as input as well as output. It can be used to input the data into the storage device or to retrieve the data from the storage device. SOFTWARE As described earlier software are the programs that runs on the computer. The software are broadly classified as system software and application software. The system software refers to the operating system. The application software is used to accomplish specific tasks not related to the computer itself. Examples are word processors, spreadsheets, and accounting systems. The current product for system software was Windows Vista and application software was Microsoft Office.

The Microsoft (MS) Office consists of various applications – Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint, Microsoft Project. The MS Office has become very important tool in business situations. The MS Word allows the users to create documents, reports. Its easy to use formatting features makes the document presentable. The MS Excel is used to perform financial calculations and to represent data graphically. With the help of MS Excel, one can create bar charts, pie charts in minutes with a click of button. MS Powerpoint is a tool to make presentations on the computer. The user can easily incorporate images, pictures, even video clips into the presentation. MS Project helps in scheduling a particular project’s timelines.

In order to fully utilize the MS Office, various hardware and software components are required. Hardware components like input devices (keyboard) are required to enter the data into the system. Processing components like processor, motherboard are required to process the information. Storage devices like hard disk are required to store the information. The documents, spreadsheets and presentations can be stored on hard disk or secondary storage devices like CDs. Output devices like monitor or screen is required to display the processed information. Output devices like printers can be used to print the documents made with the help of MS Word. Sometimes output devices like projectors are used to display the presentations made in MS Powerpoint.

Software components like a good operating system is necessary to operate any computer. Apart from this, anti-virus software, browser are required. Anti-virus software will ensure that no malicious program enter the system at the time of data transfer between various systems.

My visit to the computer store helped me in gathering information about the hardware products and software products available in the market. Also I was able to apply the concept of information systems to various products. I also understood the importance and role of various software products used in business.