Post 5 - Computers in the Workplace

I work for a contractor with Business Units in Defense, Intelligence, Health and Civil Sectors. I work in Finance specifically and the company could not function without a powerful Enterprise Resource Planner (ERP). With over 3000 active contracts, the main product the company sells is labor and a very sophisticated timekeeping software is needed to help set up and manage the time, move costs into the correct account with burdens, fees, as well as indirect costs and to report on all these for financial statements, balance sheets, all levels of management from the line to the executive level and provide reports for investors. Additionally the ERP the company uses is designed specifically for government contractors which helps to manage many rules and regulations that are required for Sarbanes Oxley and other compliance requirements as well as accounting standards like FAR and GAAP. 


For finance a literacy in certain types of computer programs are required, however many of the line organizations are using computers to fulfill contract and mission requirements so they are using programs that are much more technical. In the 7 years I have worked for the company there have been several evolutions. There were always sophisticated password systems, and this has been augmented over time with the requirement for usb dongles that have authentication hardware in order to access network resources and use computers assigned to a specific user. For instance in order to use my work computer there is an authentication password, then the password for the computer, then my dongle has to be inserted and a password for the dongle as well. Additionally if I am offsite another 2 passwords for the VPN are required. Another evolution is using the cloud for computer backups and recovery. In the next ten years I see a lot more intelligent automation being used, as robotic process automation is already something that is being implemented to automate various repetitive tasks.