It Compliance And Controls: Best Practices for Implementation

Chapter 2. How Technology Enables the World Market

PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS

The productivity of a single worker today is vastly superior when compared to a similar individual of equal capability10 years ago, and 10 years prior to that. This productivity is attributable to information technology and to those who rely and depend on IT to satisfy ever-increasing complex business processes and relationships.^[22] At the macro-U.S. level, economists broadly agree that economic productivity gains that surged around 1995 through 2003 at 3.90 percent were largely attributable to technology: the development of new industries, the acquisition of hardware/software, and the services that are attached to these products, which are higher than periods prior to 1995 according to publications by the Federal Reserve Banks.^[23] The period following the post-2003 resurgence is at a macroeconomic scale trending downward, which implies that the U.S. general economy is receiving a decrease in gains from the technology industry.^[24] A diverging set of hypotheses on the macroeffects are too tangential to the topic of this book to discuss, on the economy after the massive buildup within corporations, but a consensus is beginning to emerge on the gains within companies. Technology has contributed efficiency gains in productivity, as indicated by the growth through the mid-1990s. The projected harder times after 2000 resulted in companies purchasing less technology and focusing more on streamlining their business ...