NAME: JUNAID HAFIZ ADEYINKA

MATRIC NUMBER: CSC/2017/077

COURSE CODE: CSC 311
COURSE TITLE: INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION SYSTEM

EVALUATION QUESTIONS
1. Identify major steps of the systems development process and state the goal of
each
2. Discuss why it is important to study and understand information systems.
3. Consider the expense involved in opening regional call centres. How does this
investment assist home depot in being a more efficient and effective company
4. What defines the problems and opportunities of the existing systems?

1. The system development process (also known as the system development life
cycle) is a term used in the development of a software using a set of
methodical processes to develop and implement the system. The process is
broadly divided into 7 stages or steps identified below.
a. Planning Stage: In any software development project, planning comes first.
Before getting started, it is important to make sure the project has enough
people and financial backing. You can have the best idea in the world, but if
you don’t have people or money, moving forward will be a poor business
decision.
b. Feasibility/Requirements Analysis Stage: This stage focuses on analyzing your
drafted plan to ensure the project requirements help the end-user. It focuses
on acquiring relevant data and resources from stakeholders and everyone
involved.
c. Design/Prototype Stage: During the design phase, developers and designers
prototype a feature or map out a solution. Prototyping is useful for getting
early feedback and informing technical decisions. Without prototypes, there’s
a risk that the team will waste time on production-ready solutions that don’t
meet user needs.
d. Software Development Stage: Software development turns your project’s
requirements and prototypes into working code. it’s the earliest phase in
which you start to see something that resembles the final product. In this
stage, you will have a working feature to share with customers.
e. Software Testing Stage: Here, testers thoroughly inspect the code and check
for code quality, stated requirements, code performance, evidence of code
security.

f. Implementation(Integration/Deployment): This takes the developed software

product and puts it where users may use it. The output of this stage is usable
software.

g. Maintenance: In the operations and maintenance phase, developers watch

software for bugs or defects. If they find one, they create a bug report. During
maintenance, it is important to consider opportunities for when the
development cycle starts over again. A sign that this phase is working well
when developers are able to quickly identify and resolve problems.

2. It is very important to study and understand Information systems now more

than ever for various reasons, specifically business wise. Information systems
(IS) importance has increased dramatically, and most businesses have been
prompted to introduce it to keep their competitive edge. Today, nobody can
envisage a business without an effective information system. Introduction of
an information system to a business can bring numerous benefits and assist in
the way the business handles its external and internal processes that a
business encounters daily and decision making for the future. Some of the
benefits of an information system include:

a. Infromation Storage: Every organization needs records of its activities to

find the cause of problems and proper solutions. Information systems
come in handy when it comes to storing operational data, communication
records, documents, and revision histories.
b. Easier Decision Making: Without an information system, a company can
take a lot of time and energy in the decision making process. However,
with the use of IS, it’s easier to deliver all the necessary information and
model the results and this can help you make better decisions.
c. Behavioral Change: Employers and employees can communicate rapidly
and more effectively with an information system. While emails are quick
and effective, the use of Information systems is more efficient since
documents are stored in folders that can be shared and accessed by
employees.
3. I would like to start with the definition of a call center. A call center is
an office where people work answering or making telephone calls for a
particular company. The call center handles customer service as well as retail
sales, billing, and collection. Many companies are now choosing to repatriate
their customer service call centers and set them up in the US.

Such an investment can help a company like Home Depot to be more

effective in so many ways. First, it saves times for employees drastically. This is
because there are already designated people to receive phone orders and relay
the order to order department instead of that department wasting manpower
hours receiving calls and taking orders while also preparing the orders.

Second of all, it helps increase productivity and increase profit. The call centres
may be inbound, outbound or a mix of both. This focuses most consumer relation
activities and promotional activities to one department thereby increasing their
productivity.

It can also help large companies in gathering and collecting vital geographic
information about their consumers and goods in different regions of an area

4. The problems of the existing Information Systems are

a. Lack of Effective Strategy: Many of the most common IS issues can be

traced back to a lack of a solid strategy. Information systems leaders are
well aware of the many tools available to gather data on their network.
But putting that information to use is often a challenge.
b. Keeping up with Constant Change: If one thing is for certain in
information technology, it’s that nothing will remain the same for long.
From one year to the next, innovations mean that software needs to be
upgraded and even replaced. In order to remain competitive, businesses
have to keep up with this, investing in software that will give them an
edge.
c. Integrating latest Tech: Although there are plenty of comprehensive
solutions, businesses will inevitably find that they have multiple types of
software operating at once. This includes general administrative tools like
Microsoft Office, as well as specialized tools for accounting, customer
relationship management and project-management tools, among many
others. Ensuring all these tools work together is essential since
otherwise, employees will find they have to duplicate processes.
ASSIGNMENT QUESTION: Using the internet, search for information on the use of
information systems in a company or organization that interests you. How does the
organization use technology to help it accomplish its goals?
For this task, my company of interest is Amazon. I have done my extensive
research on their use of advanced information systems to achieve goals and I will
discuss it below.
Firstly, Amazon is one of the biggest if not the biggest E-commerce multinational
companies with a vast clientele and customer base. They have integrated specialized
and advanced Information Systems into their business process to gain an advantage
over their competition. My aim is to study how their implemented Information
Systems help them as a company.
The implementation their advanced Information System is one of the major
reasons Amazon is where they are today. They implemented it into their business
process which helps to decentralize decision making processes and increase
efficiency of key business processes. They operate a two-piece Info management
software; Simple storage service and Amazon Web Service. The web service allows
customers to creation of user accounts and personalize their profiles for improved
efficiency in the processing of transactions. Amazon Web Service is made up of
different systems with different functionalities to promote efficiency in information
management and delivery of business processes.
Effectiveness of the Amazon information systems is determined by its
efficiency in delivery key business processes such as ordering, transaction processing,
order delivery, and customer relations management. Amazon has successfully
integrated different components of its information system with its database and
customer relationship management system to improve business process analysis.
This is achieved through decentralization of the decision making processes thus
increasing information transparency. This has made it possible for the company to
utilize business intelligence analytics to understand the market environment and
inform the formulation of improvement strategies to ensure that the systems are
able to process more orders in a unit time. Amazon information management system
creates a virtual copy of the physical marketplace to enhance the understanding of
variations in demand and supply (Hajli, 2012). Integration of communication
structures with the information system allows for business process automation and
faster resolution of customer queries. Moreover, the order processing and delivery
systems are streamlined with the ordering process to enhance the real-time
resolution of customer queries for a smooth flow of business processes.
When a customer places an order, through the web service, the information
system sends a query to the data warehouse and avails the product details to the
customer’s consol. Once the customer is satisfied with the product and adds it to the
cart, the payment processing system redirects them to the payment form where the
customer adds location and makes electronic payment. The customer receives a
payment notification and the product details through email or short message service.
The transaction system automatically records the payment details and sends them to
the supply chain system, where the order is prepared for shipping. The supply chain
system notifies the customer that the product has been shipped through mail service
or sms.