The use of computers in business has transformed not only the way we do business, it also has transformed the way we regard and use computers. The first generation of business computers–early mainframes–were nothing but numbers crunchers. Back then we called what we did "data processing." We took raw data–sales numbers, hours worked, mortality statistics–and used that data to tabulate results we then were able to apply to business processes. The programming languages we used on those mainframes–COBOL and FORTRAN–simply processed data.

I remember writing a payroll program in COBOL. It consisted of a couple thousand punch cards of code, followed by a few cards with tax rates, followed by a couple hundred cards with information on the people getting paid. The output was three or four pages of printed green bar that accounting would use to manually type payroll checks. The computer was doing nothing an individual couldn't have done manually. And COBOL wasn't much fun.

The next generation of mainframes–smaller machines–added the functionality of a database. Data was stored in tables, which conceptually mimicked those big, wide ledger sheets you used to see everywhere. I suppose some readers of this column may not even know what I am talking about. Never mind: Think spreadsheet on paper. The ability to store data on the machine was a major breakthrough.