The topic of computers in business is probably the broadest topic available to me. It covers every way that the computer affects the business world – from computers used by businesses to the rapid rise of computer manufacturing businesses to the computers used by the customer at home to access web based businesses. I am also going to assume that in this instance the topic is limited to the use of PCs, as with the inclusion of, for example, the process control instrumentation used by an automobile manufacturer the scope of this essay would broaden to unmanageable proportions.
             The topic is open to a lot of interpretation as computers in business could be taken as "How do computers affect the business world?" – the answer explaining the different sectors of business that have arisen as a direct result of the rise of computers – for example the world of the solutions provider, which is climbing ever higher in the stock market, despite being nothing more than a group of third-party companies selling and maintaining bespoke packages of pre-made software to companies looking to revamp their systems. I could look at the rise of computer and software manufacture – again a fast moving sector that is having more and more effect on the industrial climate, but my own interpretation of the title (given the module I am working for) would be closer to "How essential to a business is a sound computer infrastructure, and how does this affect the businesses that use computers (with particular reference to e-commerce)?".
             To look at industries now, it may seem that the PC is everywhere, fully settled as the tool of choice for almost any application (just look at the depth of the scare perpetrated by the "Millennium Bug" two years ago), and yet comparing business computer use now to that over the last few years will show the use of computers still rising at an exponential rate – showing clea...