Lecture 18
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An information system is a group of components that collect, organize, store, and communicate information to help organizations operate, manage their resources, and compete in the marketplace. There are different types of information systems that support various organizational levels, including transaction processing systems, office automation systems, knowledge work systems, management information systems, decision support systems, and executive support systems. The systems development life cycle is the process used to plan, create, test, and deploy information systems and includes steps like system planning, analysis, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance.
Lecture 18
- 3. Information Systems 24-Oct-17 3 An information system (IS) is an organized system for the collection, organization, storage and communication of information. More specifically, it is the study of complementary networks that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create and distribute data. An information system (IS) is a group of components that interact to produce information. Business firms and other organizations rely on information systems to carry out and manage their operations, interact with their customers and suppliers, and compete in the marketplace. Information systems are used to run inter-organizational supply chains and electronic markets. For instance, corporations use information systems to process financial accounts, to manage their human resources, and to reach their potential customers with online promotions.
- 4. Systems development life cycle 24-Oct-17 4 The systems development life cycle (SDLC), also referred to as the application development life-cycle, is a term used in systems engineering, information systems and software engineering to describe a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an information system.
- 5. Continue 24-Oct-17 5 System Planning: Defining the problems, the objectives and the resources such as personnel and costs. Studying the ability of proposing alternative solutions after meeting with clients, suppliers, consultants and employees. Studying how to make your product better than your competitors. System Analysis: The end-user’s requirements should be determined and documented, what their expectations are for the system, and how it will perform. A feasibility study will be made for the project as well, involving determining whether it’s organizationally, economically, socially, technologically feasible. it’s very important to maintain strong communication level with the clients to make sure you have a clear vision of the finished product and its function. System Design: The design phase comes after a good understanding of customer’s requirements, this phase defines the elements of a system, the components, the security level, modules, architecture and the different interfaces and type of data that goes through the system.
- 6. Continue 24-Oct-17 6 Implementation and Deployment: This phase comes after a complete understanding of system requirements and specifications, it’s the actual construction process after having a complete and illustrated design for the requested system. System Testing and Integration: Bringing different components and subsystems together to create the whole integrated system, and then Introducing the system to different inputs to obtain and analyze its outputs and behavior and the way it functions. Testing is becoming more and more important to ensure customer’s satisfaction, and it requires no knowledge in coding, hardware configuration or design. System Maintenance: In this phase, periodic maintenance for the system will be carried out to make sure that the system won’t become obsolete, this will include replacing the old hardware and continuously evaluating system’s performance, it also includes providing latest updates for certain components to make sure it meets the right standards and the latest technologies to face current security threats.
- 7. Types of Information Systems 24-Oct-17 7 A typical organization has six of information systems with each supporting a specific organizational level. These systems include transaction processing systems (TPS) at the operational level, office automation systems (OAS) and knowledge work systems (KWS) at the knowledge level, management information systems (MIS) and decision support Systems (DSS) at the management level, and the executive support systems (ESS) at the strategic level. Transaction Processing Systems: Every firm needs to process transactions in order to perform their daily business operations. A transaction refers to any event or activity that affects the organization. Depending on the organization’s business, transactions may differ from one organization to another. In a manufacturing unit, for example, transactions include order entry, receipt of goods, shipping, etc., while in a bank, transactions include deposits and withdrawals, cashing of cheques etc. However, some transactions, including placing orders, billing customers, hiring employees, employee record keeping, etc., are common to all organizations. To support the processing of business transactions, the transaction processing systems (TPS) are used in the organizations.
- 8. Continue 24-Oct-17 8 Office Automation System: An office automation system (OAS) is a collection of communication technology, computers and persons to perform official tasks. It executes office transactions and supports official activities at every organizational level. These activities can be divided into clerical and managerial activities. Clerical activities performed with the help of office automation system include preparing written communication, typesetting, printing, mailing, scheduling meetings, calendar keeping etc. Under managerial activities, office automation system helps in conferencing, creating reports and messages, and controlling performance of organization. Many applications like word processing, electronic filing and e-mail are integrated in office automation system. Knowledge Work Systems: A knowledge work system (KWS) is a specialized system built to promote the creation of knowledge and to make sure that knowledge and technical skills are proper integrated into business. It helps the knowledge workers in creating and propagating new information and knowledge by providing them the graphics, analytical, communications, and document management tools. The knowledge workers also need to search for knowledge outside the organization. Thus, knowledge work system must give easy access to external databases. In addition, knowledge work systems should have user-friendly interface to help users to get the required information quickly and easily.
- 9. Continue 24-Oct-17 9 Management Information Systems: Management information systems are especially developed to support planning, controlling, and decision-making functions of middle managers. A management information system (MIS) extracts transaction data from underlying TPSs, compiles them, and produces information products in the form of reports, displays or responses. These information products provide information that conforms to decision-making needs of managers and supervisors. Management information systems use simple routines like summaries and comparisons which enable managers to take decisions for which the procedure of reaching at a solution has been specified in advance. Generally, the format of reports produced by MIS is pre-specified. A typical MIS report is a summary report, such as a report on the quarterly sales made by each sales representative of the organization.
- 10. Continue 24-Oct-17 10 Decision Support Systems: A decision support system (DSS) is an interactive computer-based information system that, like MIS, also serves at the management level of an organization. However, in contrast to MIS, it processes information to support the decision making process of managers. It provides middle managers with the information that enables them to make intelligent decisions. A decision support system in a bank, for example, enable a manager to analyze the changing trends in deposits and loans in order to ascertain the yearly targets. Decision support systems are designed for every manager to execute a specific managerial task or problem. Generally, they help managers to make semi-structured decisions, the solution to which can be arrived at logically. However, sometimes, they can also help in taking complex decisions. To support such decisions, they use information generated by OASs and TPSs. Decision support systems have more analytical power as compared to other information systems. They employ a wide variety of decision models to analyze data or summarize vast amount of data into a form (usually form of tables or charts) that make the comparison and analysis of data easier for managers.
- 11. Continue 24-Oct-17 11 Executive Support Systems: An executive support system (ESS) – an extension of MIS – is a computer based information system that helps decision making at the top-level of an organization. The decisions taken with the help of executive support system are non-routine decisions that effect the entire organization and, thus, require judgment and sight. As compared to DSSs, ESSs offer more general computing capabilities, better telecommunications and efficient display options. They use the advanced graphics software to display the critical information in the form of charts or graphs that help senior executives to solve a wide range of problems. To make effective decisions, they use summarized internal data from MIS and DSS as well as data from external sources about events like new tax laws, new competitors, etc. They filter, compress, and track data of high importance and make it available to the strategic-level managers. Executive support systems help to monitor performance, track activities of competitors, identify opportunities, and forecast trends.