This text, designed specifically for undergraduate and MBA courses, presents coverage of technical and managerial concepts relating to the use of computers in business. The text focuses on the material that managers need to know and reflects trends in global economy, distributed systems, end-use computing, group decision support systems, multimedia, executive IT, expert systems, and strategic and competitive advantages of information systems. The authors aim to prepare graduates to participate in information systems development and show how they can offer an immediate contribution to their employers. The book illustrates concepts and encourages problem solving with realistic examples, case applications, chapter projects, maangement problems and application briefs. This edition includes a general update on client-server computing, groupware, communications, end-user computing, multimedia, executive information systems and expert systems. There are more real-world applications and improved coverage of human and organizational systems implementation issues.