Information Systems in the Busines Environment

Information Systems in the Business Environment

In the 21st century information systems are the backbone of any successful organization. In a global economy the ability to process, evaluate, and manage data is critical to the competitive advantage of that organization. Information systems are the tool that will allow the people to perform the tasks necessary to meet these expectations. These systems can be simple IS (information systems) that collects, process, stores, and disseminates data for a specific function. However, it can be a CBIS (computer-based information system) which uses computer technology that can carry out some, if not all of the intended tasks.

The structure of an information system will dictate the how well an organization can reach its intended goal or purpose. The foundation of this structure starts with the IT components of the system. This includes the hardware needed to perform all the calculations, reports, and communications within the business. Devices such processors, monitors, keyboards, and printers work together to take in data, process that data, then display the data in a format that can be understood. The technology should be of the highest quality, which works within the budget of the organization. Also, there must be a database system in place to provide for storage. This is critical information for future reference.

Once the hardware is put into place, the next step will be to acquire the software that will make the system functional and efficient. This consists of programs that will process data and manipulate it so that it will be useful. Every department within the organization will have software that will be specific to the task being performed. There will also be network software that runs throughout the departments that will be used to share information. Communication among the departments is important because time is of essence when trying to work on projects in large organizations. The combination of these two components creates the platform by which the entire organization will rest upon.

The next phase consists of the people who will use the hardware and software to perform the duties that are needed to make the organization successful. There will be a set of procedures that will direct the users on how to process data and create the desired output. The fore mentioned platform will make processing large amounts of data quick and efficient. In addition, accessing information from around the globe will be fast and inexpensive on the network. Thus, providing support to parts of, or in some cases, the entire organization. These three components comprise of the IT infrastructure of the organization.

When an organization makes a business transaction there's a transaction processing system (TPS) which monitors, collects, stores, and processes this data. This data is collected continuously at the moment each transaction is made. Also, the TPS provides this data to the organization's corporate databases as input data. This system is of the utmost importance to the success of any business because its supports the core operations. Furthermore, working just above the TPS are the enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), these systems allow functional areas in ISs to communicate with one another. Since many ISs computers stand alone, they don't communicate effectively with other ISs computers within the organization. ERP systems tightly integrates these various computers and tie them into a central databases , thus providing enhanced communication as well as shared resources among the ISs. This has made the creation of ERPs an important advancement in organizational management.

The US postal services, in recent, years have tried to move its outdated manual operations to a more modern one to compete with competitors such as