Information Systems Essay ⋆ Business Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

An information system (IS) consists of the people, processes, and data involved in the handling of information in an organization, and as a field, information systems is the study, design, and implementation of such. Nonspecialists often use “information system” to refer specifically to the software used in such systems, likely because that constitutes the bulk of the new information they need to learn if a new IS is implemented in their workplace. But the IS would include, for instance, not simply the new software in use on the store’s cash register, but the delegation of authority—who is authorized to issue a refund if a customer asks for one, who counts out the money in the register at the end of a shift or the end of the working day—and the handling of information not accounted for by the software, such as where the receipt from the refund is filed, and where the money from the register is transferred.

In many companies large enough to support the role, the management of information systems falls under the purview of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), the executive in charge of IT-related operations. The CIO typically answers to the chief financial officer, since much of the information systems in use at the company will be devoted to accounting tasks. At tech companies, he or she may answer directly to the CEO. Some companies refer to their CIO as the IT Director, but the CIO title has become preferred because of its parallelism with CEO, CFO, et cetera. Typical CIO qualifications vary greatly according to the company and the nature of their reliance on IT; the CIO may come from a tech field, may be an MBA who picked up IT knowledge on the job, or increasingly may have earned a degree in information systems. With computer expertise no longer as rare a thing as it was in the early 1990s at the dawn of home internet access, nor as niche a field, a great many more CIOs are rising to their positions from the business management part of their industry rather than the IT support side. Duties may or may not include information security; in some organizations, there will be a separate chief information security officer (CISO) who reports to the CIO.

When referring to the software, many people use “information system” to refer to an information processing system, a program that turns one kind of information into another. Tax software is a common example most people are familiar with: it takes the user’s input (income and certain outgo), processes it according to the algorithms derived from applicable tax law, and outputs the amount of tax owed. These days, computers are flexible enough that when integrated with electronic payment systems and an internet connection, such a system can be used to determine and pay taxes in one fell swoop, and may be used to suggest possible deductions the user may not have considered, thus doing a good deal more than acting as the sophisticated calculator that computers were for so long relegated to.

The three-schema approach was once common in the construction of information systems, though more sophisticated approaches have taken up much of its share as software has become more sophisticated and computer power has increased. A schema—which shares a root with “schematic,” “scheme,” and “scenario”—is a model consisting of a diagram, usually with both words and images. An obvious example of a schema is the mock blueprints used by schemers in old cartoons, depicting an oblivious mouse in front of a trap, a mouse caught in the trap, and a mouse on a cat’s dinner plate, with directional arrows and captions. The three schemas of this particular approach are the external schema that defines how users view the data involved in the system; the internal schema that defines the physical system itself, or storage of the data; and the conceptual schema, which integrates the two.

System Types

Information systems may include transaction processing systems (TPS), which automate the processing of transaction-generated information. Sales and purchases can be handled automatically—such as in online shopping, with systems generating warehouse orders and adjusting inventory, as well as handling the validation of credit card information—with information then recorded, summarized, and stored in appropriate places. The amount of paperwork that can be generated by a TPS has been made infamous by the film Office Space’s repeated mention of TPS reports.

Information systems meant to handle especially high-level tasks, such as serving a large corporation, are sometimes called Enterprise Information Systems, extending the modifier from Enterprise software. Enterprise software is that which is intended to be used “at the enterprise level” rather than with a departmental focus. This software is often proprietary, developed specifically for the business (by the IT division or a contracted software developer), or is custom-constructed from a highly customizable software suite. Sun, Adobe, Oracle, and Microsoft all offer Enterprise software and the tools to develop it, but interestingly there is a lot of attention and effort spent on Enterprise software in the Open Source Software community, which not only offers software for free (sometimes charging a fee for tech support or implementation) but puts the code in the public domain so that anyone who wants to can modify it themselves.

The usefulness of the Enterprise software designation is facing diminution, as some vendors push overly complex software suites on businesses too small to benefit from them, while others package relatively ordinary business management software as Enterprise software because of the prestige appeal of the label.

At the information system level, the purpose of an Enterprise Information System is to avoid the conflicts, redundancies, and inconsistencies that can result from using separate segregated information systems in various departments. The entire company’s information system is conceived as a whole, with a unified means of handling data and spotting problems. Such systems will usually include a content management system (CMS). A CMS is a software package that handles digital media, including text. Internet and intranet technologies are used to manage content like documents and procedures, structured and unstructured records, and other information, providing interfaces for it to be accessed in-house, by other businesses (vendors, customers, industry agencies), by the general public, and by the government. Often the end-user is unaware of the content management system; it’s “middleware,” providing infrastructure and a framework that integrates the foundation (content) with the edifice (the interface).

Other subsets of information systems relevant to business are management information systems (MIS), accounting information systems (AIS), and strategic information systems (SIS). Management information systems examine business operations and internal control—the way the business’s resources are allocated and recorded. MIS is concerned with making sure that the operations and processes of the business are consistent with achieving the company’s objectives and compliant with its standards. Accounting information systems focus on the financial transactions and behavior of the company. Either can include decision support systems, information systems that guide decision making by organizing data in various categories. DSSes can be communication-driven, facilitating the decision-making processes involving multiple people; data-driven, as in the purchasing example; document driven, when the relevant data is “unstructured” (in the form of customer letters, for instance, as opposed to manipulable numbers in a spreadsheet); knowledge-driven, when procedures or problem-solving are involved; or model-driven, when the current situation can be compared to others.

Executive information systems are subtype of decision support systems, and are specifically designed for executive-level decision making affecting the whole of the company, and focused on the overall goals of the company more than the day to day transactional operations. The needs of these systems vary by the company’s industry, but will include significant data about and evaluations of the other parties the company works with—buyers, vendors, contractors, regulatory agencies, and so on—and relevant industry-wide information.

Strategic information systems are similar to executive information systems, but focus specifically on assisting decision making related to the company’s competing in the industry. Ideally, an SIS gives the company a competitive edge by enabling them to react quickly to changes in the industry environment—to maintain this edge, the system needs to be updated regularly in order to keep up with those changes.

Bibliography:

Mark W. Huber, Craig Piercy, and Patrick G. McKeown, Information Systems: Creating Business Value (Wiley, 2006);
Leonard Jessup and Joseph Valacich, Information Systems Today: Managing in the Digital World (Prentice Hall, 2007);
Keri E. Pearlson and Carol S. Saunders, Managing and Using Information Systems (Wiley, 2009);

Ralph Stair and George Reynolds, Fundamentals of Information Systems (Course Technology, 2008).

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