COALESCENCE: The Inevitable Fate of Data Processing

Cascading inventions and innovations in computer and communications technologies, and other technologies in the field of electronics and physics, have spawned numerous devices that represent a coalescence, or merging, of both technological and occupational functions. The one common thread in this process is the data resource, the raw material that these devices collect, process, and communicate. Computers and peripheral equipment permeate every part of the organization, and communications have shrunk the size of the organization. Even whole industries are going through the technological coalescence process. One result is to force a new look at the meaning of management information system. The MIS manager has the opportunity to recognize the changes taking place, and to assume the leadership in managing the firm’s data resources and all that implies. To ignore this challenge is to invite the coalescence of the MIS manager into some other data-related organization.