4.3 Role of networks in organizations

Networks are used for many different activities in an organization. Many companies use
the internet to sell goods and services to customers. For example, if you want to book a
hotel room you may do it online through the hotel website. In banking, you may transfer
money between accounts using the Internet.

As the above examples show, networks try to facilitate communication between two or
more parties. Communication means the exchange of information between two or more
parties. It is an important business activity because it helps customers to be in touch with
an organization, employees to share ideas and the organization as a whole to
communicate with other organizations.



In organizations, people communicate not only verbally, but perhaps also using some
sort of electric means. The most common example of using some sort of electric means
to communicate is the use of the telephone network also called the telecommunications
network to get calls. For example telecommunications help a manager at the head office
in Colombo to speak with a divisional manager in Galle.



In a computer network two or more computers communicate through some link. An
example for the use of a computer network is an information system of a supermarket
where transaction details entered at the checkouts are summarised and presented to the
management over a communication link.



Communication can be synchronous or asynchronous. In synchronous communication the
receiver gets the message at the same time it is sent whereas in asynchronous
communication the receiver gets the message later. Ordinary telephone calls are examples
of synchronous communication. Another example is video conferencing where all the
parties involved hear and see each other at the same time. Video conferencing is used
nowadays to hold business meetings from distant locations. An example for asynchronous
communication is e mail.

Communication is an important aspect of an information system. For example consider a
transaction processing system of a modern supermarket. The computers at the checkouts
may need to connect to a database to maintain backups of the transactions. On the other
hand transaction details may need to be summarised and presented to a manager who is at
the head office in Colombo over a management information system.

Communication networks avoid the need to be in the same place and some times the same
time for communication to happen. For example an e mail message you sent to your
favourite booshop in Colombo this morning reserving a book may have been read only
this evening.

There are computers called database servers which are used to store data because they are
designed to do data management. By storing shared data in a database server, computers
can have access to the data at the same time through a network. Further, there are
program versions called network versions which can be stored in a server and shared by
the computers of a network. This avoids duplicating programs in each machine.





Another use of a network is to share peripheral devices such as laser printers which are
expensive. In this case the network operating system manages the use of the shared
peripheral device. For example a network operating system will not allow a printer to be
used by a computer in the network if it is used by another computer in the network at the
same time.



Networks link computers together. As a result networks provide a means to communicate
between machines. For example we use networks when we send e-mails and download
information from the web.



A network can be used to send backups of data from a computer in the network to a
database server which is attached to the network. The software which manages and
coordinates a network called the network operating system usually backup data time to
time.