Information systems (IS) is the study of complementary networks of hardware and software that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create, and distribute data. In other words, Information systems are interrelated components working together to collect, process, store, and disseminate information to support decision making, coordination, control, analysis, and visualization of information in an organization. Almost all IS are software applications that takes data as input and produces meaningful information as input.
Main Components of Information Systems
Almost all of the Information Systems comprised of the following types despite of which genre of organizations they’re being used:
- Hardware: Information systems use computer hardware such as processors, input/output devices and printers etc.
- Software: These are the programs used to collect, organize, process, clean, vizualize and analyze data.
- Data: Information systems work with data, organized into tables and files referred to as relational database.
- Network: Different elements need to disseminate information among sub-components and need to be connected to each other, especially if many different people in an organization use the same information system.
- Process: These describe how specific data are processed and analyzed in order to get the answers for which the information system is designed.
The first four components are part of the general information technology (IT) of an organization. Procedures, the fifth component, are very specific to the information needed to answer a specific question.
The term Business Information System is used to describe a variety of types of information systems (transaction processing, information reporting, decision support, etc.) that support the functions of business such as accounting, finance, marketing, or human resource management.
As a prospective managerial end user you should have a general understanding of the major ways information systems are used to support each of the functions of business. Applications of information systems in the functional areas of business include:
- Financial Information System
- Marketing Information System
- Accounting Information System
- Production/Operations Information System
- Human Resource Management Information System
Business firms are turning to Internet technologies to integrate the flow of information among their internal business functions and their customers and suppliers. Companies are using the World Wide Web and their intranets and extranets as the technology platform for their cross-functional and inter organizational information systems.
In addition, many companies have moved from functional mainframe legacy systems to cross functional client/server network applications. This typically has involved installing enterprise resource planning (ERP) or supply chain management (SCM) software. Instead of focusing on the information processing requirements of business functions, ERP software focuses on supporting the supply chain processes involved in the operations of a business.
Main Types of Information System includes
You may be interested in detailed article on Marketing Information System(MkIS) here.
References:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/information-system.html
