Abstraction
“An information system can be defined as a set of interconnected constituents that collect ( or recover ) , procedure, shop, and distribute information to back up determination devising, coordination, and control in an organisation.A In add-on to back uping determination devising, coordination and control, information systems may besides assist directors and workers analyse jobs visualise complex topics, and make new products”
( Laudon & A ; Laudon, 2001 )
1. Introduction
In order for an administration to to the full appreciate the information systems available to them they must appreciate the value of information available. Information Technology and Information Management have experienced enormous growth.A Information is available everyplace and anytime. The Internet has surely devalued information, before its creative activity many administrations benefited from assemblage, screening and selling information to stakeholders in demand information to turn their concern.
When printed information is turned into digital information the monetary value drops.A Take for illustration newspapers.A It is the norm that Newspapers today publishes portion of its information on the Newspapers web site for free, if you want to see the remainder of the articles you must pay for it at a premium.A Meta information suppliers such as Google pick up this digital information and supply it free over the cyberspace. The value of the information to the suppliers is evidently pecuniary but to the consumer of these on-line merchandises it is easiness of entree and less clip devouring to buy on-line information.
Although much of information provided is considered to be free, we do pay the cyberspace supplier, and the cyberspace supplier charges a 3rd party for entree to the information.
The cyberspace today has turned into the largest library in the universe. In the past pupils when looking for information for assignments, research undertakings and tests gathered information from books, newspapers and research diaries. The cyberspace has made achieving information uncomplicated.
1.1 The Value of Information to the Administration
It does non count what type of concern you are running whether it be a fabrication concern or supplying a service the critical ingredient for any administration is information. It is an administration most critical plus. Information enables us to find the demand to make new merchandises and services. “Information tells us to travel into new markets or to retreat from other markets. Without information, the goods do non acquire made, the orders are non placed, the stuffs are non procured, the cargos are non delivered, the clients are non billed, and the concern can non survive.” www.referenceforbusiness.com [ 2 ]
2. Information Management Systems
An Information System ( IS ) is more than hardware or package. The most of import constituents of the system are the people who design it, keep it, and utilize it. While the overall system must run into assorted demands in footings of power and public presentation, it must besides be functional for the administration ‘s employees.
Regardless which Information System an administration chooses it is a major investing for any house in today ‘s concern environment.A A ailing chosen or designed Information System can go an hindrance to an administration in achieving its ends. If the Information system if non capable of roll uping, hive awaying and reassigning critical information for the concern so the result can be catastrophic.A Customers of the concern may be discontented or worse lost. Valuable gross may be lost due to increased operating expenses and the concern may lose coveted concern way due to an uneffective Information System.
2.1 Information Management Challenges
It may be indispensable to plan different systems aimed at different degrees of the administration, houses are likely to happen wagess in incorporating systems, although incorporating systems for different degrees to freely interchange information can be complicated and expensive.A Administrations need to make up one’s mind what degree of systems integrating is required and how much it is traveling to be.
Prolonging a competitory advantage does non needfully last long.A Rivals can reproduce a rival ‘s strategic information direction system.A Changing market conditions, alterations in what the consumer wants today and alterations in the concern environment all add to the loss of competitory advantage within an administration if old criterions are non maintained.A Updated engineering from rival companies can take to your administration losing its competitory advantage.
- Operational Level Systems
- Knowledge Level Systems
- Management Level Systems
- Strategic Level Systems
3. Operational Level Systems
3.1 The Transaction Support System
TSS supports directors in the twenty-four hours to twenty-four hours running of the business.A It keeps path of basic minutess such as gross revenues figures, lodgments to bank, payments to creditors, paysheet etc.A The chief intent of the system is to reply inquiries which arise on a day-to-day basis.A Information must be easy obtained and precise.A
These are cardinal systems that serve the operational degree of the organisation.A Transaction Support System is a computerised system that executes the day-to-day everyday minutess necessary to transport out the twenty-four hours to twenty-four hours undertakings of running a business.A At the operational degree responsibilities, resources and ends are predefined and organize the foundation of day-to-day concern. Example of which is a bank imparting money to clients, the preset inquiries are on the computing machine if the client has the capacity to fund the refunds of the loan the dealing support system will give the reply as to whether the loan can be grant or non as the instance may be.
Typical TPS have five major functional classs, gross revenues & A ; selling, fabricating & A ; production, finance & A ; accounting and Human Resource.
3. 2 Knowledge Level Systems
Knowledge Work Systems ( KWS ) supports the administration employee ‘s involved in informations processing.A The cognition based system helps incorporate new information into the administration and controls the flow of paper.A Knowledge Level Systems are found in workstations throughout the organisation.A Normally cognition workers are people who hold formal university grades and are frequently members of professional organic structures such as physicians, applied scientists, attorneies and scientists. Their chief function is to chiefly make new information and cognition. KWS, such as scientific or technology design work Stationss, promote the creative activity new cognition and guarantee that new cognition and proficient expertness are decently integrated into the concern.
4. Management Level Systems
Management Information Systems ( MIS ) are used to supervise and command determination devising and administrative activities.A Management degree studies provide regular intelligence instead than information on operations.A Some direction systems centre on less structured determinations from which the information received may non ever be clear.A These systems frequently answer the inquiry “what if” an illustration of which would be “what will go on if our gross revenues figures double in the following two months” . Answers to inquiries frequently need new informations from outside the administration every bit good as the readily available informations found from the bing operational degree system.A MIS chiefly serve the map of commanding, planning and determination devising at direction degree, depending on dealing processing system for their data.A
The MIS condense and study on the company ‘s basic operations.A This system normally provides directors with hebdomadal, monthly and annual results.A It will supply specified replies to routine inquiries that have been prepared in progress and have a predefined expression for replying them.A For case, MIS studies might name the sum of java used last one-fourth in a concatenation of java stores, or it can do comparings between one one-fourth and another.A Management information systems are normally non flexible and they have small diagnostic capablenesss, they use simple everyday studies such as sum-ups and comparisons.A
4.1Decision Support Systems
DSS besides supports direction degree in the organisation.A DSS aid directors make determinations that are sole, briskly adjusting, non easy to stipulate beforehand.A They address jobs where the process for geting at a solution may non be to the full predefined.A Even though DSS use internal information from TPS and MIS, they often bring in information from external beginnings, such as merchandise monetary value of rivals or current stock monetary value.
By design the Decision Support System have more analytical power that the other systems.A Built for the exclusive intent with a assortment of theoretical accounts to analyze informations, or compact big sums of informations into a signifier where they can so be studied by the determination shapers.
“DSS are designed so that users can work with them straight ; these systems explicitly include user-friendly software.A DSS are synergistic ; the user can alter premises, inquire new inquiries, and include new data” ( Laudon & A ; Laudon. 2001 )
4.2Strategic Level Systems
Executive Support System ( ESS ) assists senior directors attempt to turn to strategic issues and long term ends within the internal and external environments.A The chief concern is fiting alterations in the external environment to organizational capabilities.A Information systems besides supply major concern maps as in gross revenues, selling, fabrication and finance, accounting and human resource.A A authoritative system will hold each of the information systems designed to give the information required from each of the assorted departments.A The gross revenues map has a gross revenues system on the operational degree to enter day-to-day gross revenues figures and to treat client ‘s orders. A direction degree system can track monthly gross revenues, can direct studies and cipher if there is an addition or lessening in sales.A The system can finish gross revenues prognosiss for specific periods of clip depending on the strategic construction the administration requires.
The ESS serves to turn to non everyday determinations necessitating rating, opinion and penetration as there is no in agreement process to happen a solution.A The system creates a sweeping computer science and communications environment instead than providing any fixed application or specific capabilities.A The design is such ; that the system incorporates informations about external events like new revenue enhancement Torahs or rivals, but they besides illustrate information from the MIS and DIS.A The system filters, compresses and path important informations, foregrounding the decrease of clip and attempt in happening information of value to the executives.A Within the Executive Support System there is the most advanced artworks package with the ability to present graphs and informations from many beginnings without hold.
5. Integration of Information Systems
The Transaction Processing Systems plays a cardinal function in turning natural information into information it besides provides informations to the other systems.A The ESS system relies on informations from the lower degree systems.A Data is exchanged between the different functional areas.A To help the exchange of information many administrations are now constructing endeavor systems, besides known as Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP ) systems. Enterprise package theoretical accounts mechanise many of the concern processes, such as make fulling an order, or be aftering a cargo, with the aim of incorporating information across the administration and acquiring rid of complex, extremely priced connexions between computing machine systems in assorted countries of the business.A The unflawed watercourse of information which was antecedently uneven throughout the administration can now be sent throughout the assorted sections seamlessly.A The system will roll up informations from a scope of beginnings within the concern procedure and roll up them in a individual comprehensive informations depository where it can be retrieved by other sections of the business.A For the directors it means that information is attained in a precise and timely manner.A
Enterprise systems can better organizational effectivity and efficiency, assist the directors in the determination devising procedure the troubles are that the system is highly complex and hard to build. Administrations will necessitate to reconstitute their concern patterns to better how information flows throughout the organisation.A In reexamining their patterns employees need to be trained to utilize the system and take on new duties. Enterprise systems require intricate pieces of package and big investings of clip, money, and expertness.
5.1 Industrial Networks
Some companies are widening their endeavor systems beyond their internal enviroment to portion information and synchronize their concern patterns and proccesses with other other concerns withing their industry.A Industrial Networks can besides be known as Extended Enterprises, connect together the endeavor systems of concerns within an full industry.A
“For case, Proctor and Gamble ( P & A ; G ) , the universes largest consumer goods company, have been developing and integrated industry -wide system that coordinatesthe food market shop point-of-sale systems with food market shop warehouses, shippers, its ain fabrication installations, and its providers of natural materials.A The individual industry-spanning system efficaciously allows P & A ; G to moniter the motion of all its merchandises from natural stuffs to client purchase”
( Laudon & A ; Laudon. 2001 ) [ 4 ]
6. Discussion
Depending on the type of concern the administration may hold several different types of Information Systems.
For Example: An Accounts house whose chief activity is the bite of figures, with a big volume of clients would hold assorted different sections working off a mainframe.A Each section within the administration will hold assorted different degrees of entree to the centralised computing machine system.A The Human Resource section will hold entree to the files of the employees working for the company but would non hold entree to the client ‘s concern records. The comptrollers working for the house have entree to the client ‘s files but do non hold entree to the files of the employees.
Because there are different involvements in a house no individual system can give all the information an administration requires. Information Systems can be made to supply different organizational involvements. The usage of these systems can supply an administration with a strategic competitory advantage although unless a concern can maintain up with technological progresss rivals may in fact take the advantage an administration has worked hard to retain.
7. Decision
This study is titled “Information Management Systems that support organisations” But in order to appreciate what an Information system and integrating can make for an administration it was worthwhile to look into the value of information.A The advantages to administrations are clear – natural informations processed through Transaction Report Systems and studies are generated to the specifications required for directors. Knowledge Work Systems which is specialized system making new information operated by professional employees.A Organisations and information influence each other.A Information systems must be aligned to supply information that is of import to each section in the organisation.A In order for the administration to work expeditiously and efficaciously it must be unfastened to the influence of the Information Systems.
Keeping abreast of new engineerings will essential for administrations in order to prolong competitory advantage.A Interaction between information engineerings is complex and is influenced by mediating issues, including the construction of the administration, runing processs, civilization, political relations, internal and external environment, and director ‘s determination making.A Unless it is understood that Information system changes life in the administration, they are unable to successfully plan new systems or understand active systems within the organisation.A Within the administration directors will make up one’s mind what systems will be built, what they will make, and how the nidation of the systems will happen. However the cost involved in constructing Information Management Systems has to take into consideration but can any administration afford to be without one.
