Internal Resources of a System

3.3.4

What you will learn…

The aim of this presentation is to help you understand how to describe the internal resources of a system including:› Human resources› Technological resources› Accommodation resources

Introduction

There isn’t just one single thing that makes up a system.

It order for it to function you need:› People to operate the system› Technology to make the system work› A place to keep and use the system

Remember…this is a describe section. This means you need to:› Identify features of a particular thing.› Amplify your feature so we know what it is.› Provide a suitable example which gives us an idea of how that

feature is used.

Human Resources

All systems need to be used and operated by people.

Some systems are automated but still require human input to ensure it is working properly.

Human resources can either by contracted full time or part time, or hired by an outside agency.

Some jobs only need to be carried out once a year so it is more cost effective to employ agency/temp staff for a month than pay for a full time person for the whole year.

Common Jobs

These might include:› Data entry

(e.g. checkouts in a shop)› Maintenance

(e.g. network technician)› Programmers

(e.g. adding new features to a system)› Finance management

(e.g. finance director using spread sheets)› Researchers

(e.g. working with systems to come up with new ideas and products)

Technological

For any system to work it needs the technology to back it up.

This might include:› Computers, peripherals, servers and network hardware to run

and manage the system.

› Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM) to produce products.

› Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) to allow transactions to take place. This can include both manual systems and automated systems.

› Simulators to train staff

Accommodation

All organisations need a ‘base of operations’.

All companies need to think about:› where their human and technological resources

will be based. This also includes where their workers will park and

what transport links are available to those who don’t/can’t drive.

› where their products will be manufactured.

› where their products/services will be sold.

Example Play.com is a very popular e-commerce website. When shopping online

people don’t really think about all the things that happen to get their product delivered to them!

They currently have about 500 workers and over 8 million items in stock.

Example Human Resources

› Company managers› Website designers/maintainers› Marketing department› Customer services› Orders department› Delivery managers› Warehouse workers

Example Technology

› Website hosting servers› Computers used to:

Manage the website Manage the stock Process orders Design adverts Manage finances

› Printers to print off delivery labels› Scanners to process packages ready for

delivery

Example Accommodation

› Website, stock, personnel and customer information will be stored on a server in a secure location.

› Customer services in a call centre.› Offices for the managers› Warehouse to store all stock

Example 2 – Church

In the text book on page 172 there is another good example using a church as the subject matter.

Take a look.

Two examples are better than one!

Practice Exam Questions

Identify the human, technological and accommodation resources in your school.

› When you have done this, describe each of those features.

Describe two human resources which are required to work with ICT in a bank.

Describe a technological resource, other than a computer, that is used to make golf balls.

Describe the accommodation requirements of play.com.