Got it in one. My company simply couldn't exist without the "IT revolution". It gives us a global reach and increases productivity and innovation by a huge amount. CAD alone is a huge productivity booster (I started out "before AutoCAD" back when drawings were done by "T-square and triangle"...in "lead" or ink...by hand). I can whip out a drawing in a few minutes that would take hours the "old-fangled way").
I had an uncle who was an aeronautical engineer, who started with a slide rule, log tables, and as you said, a T-Square and triangles... Then the technology hit and productivity went WAY up... The Teledyne "Drafting Machine." Eventually digital calculators and computers helped a bit too.
Mark