It has also allowed small companies to become giants in their industries by giving them the greatest equalizer since the Colt pistol arrived in the Old West. Where only the upper reaches of the Fortune 500 could afford computing power in the 1950s and 1960s, starving students have equal power on their desks in the 1990s. Mid-sized companies have access to the same quality of information as General Motors. ERP We would argue that the answer is much more complex than the question. Information must first be defined, separate from the delivery mechanism, data.
Data does nothing but fill computer drives until it is presented in an intelligent form to people.
Then it becomes information. There are many computer programs designed to convert data into information, usually for a specific purpose or function. Same data, different information. In many situations, data are available but uncollected. This could require manual entry, bar code scanning or sensor monitoring to correct.