Within investment banking, there is likely to be increased use of the Internet for communication among brokers and clients, and increased use of videoconferencing as investment banks continue their worldwide expansion. The sheer volume of transactions which are now generated in the investment banking industry means that companies are likely to continue to invest in technologies such as ComStock and Maxus in order to help their employees (and customers) sort through the available information in a meaningful way.

Maxus Systems uses a three-dimensional display to provide information; ComStock uses information from more than 50 financial markets in order to perform its calculations and present its information. Neural networks are also likely to see increased popularity as the investment banking industry is based on uncertainty and these expert systems can provide a competitive edge to those companies which implement them.

Current Operational Information Systems

Information technology has traditionally been the domain of a company's management information system (MIS) department. Com

The rise of ATM technology has resulted in increased information being available for transmission of more than just traditional textual data across LANs as well as through the Internet. In this way, companies with far-flung offices are able to use videoconferencing to hold meetings without having to have participants travel from one office to another. While timezones can be a problem when the locations are particularly dispersed, the logistics are far easier to manage when videoconferencing is used. The following chart illustrates the market penetration by a single provider, Sprint, with regard to broadband data networks. By the end of 1999, the company anticipates having 60 major metropolitan cities able to access high-bandwidth networks (Rendleman, 1998, p. 6).

Using personal computers and associated peripherals, companies have been able to create local area networks (LANs) within their offices; wide area networks (WANs) have been implemented when companies link computer systems across wide geographic areas. These networks make it possible for users in one location to access and modify data created in another location. Confidentiality is ensured since the data is maintained within a company-only network, and there can be significant improvements in productivity. The following diagram provides a sample network layout for a company with offices in different locations which needs to transfer multimedia information across a wide variety of locations; such geographic considerations are key in a business world which is increasingly global:

Royal, W. F. (1995, October). Do databases really work? Sales & Marketing Management, pp. 66-71.

Another benefit associated with information technology is the integrity of data. Instead of individuals relying on manual information, they are able to use the computer to perform som