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Dimensions of Information Systems

Information Systems encompass more than just computers; they integrate organizations, people, and technology to address business challenges. Management Information Systems (MIS) focus on both behavioral and technical aspects of these systems, emphasizing the importance of understanding organizational culture and structure. The effective use of information technology relies heavily on skilled personnel who can leverage these systems to achieve business objectives.

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25 views

Dimensions of Information Systems

Information Systems encompass more than just computers; they integrate organizations, people, and technology to address business challenges. Management Information Systems (MIS) focus on both behavioral and technical aspects of these systems, emphasizing the importance of understanding organizational culture and structure. The effective use of information technology relies heavily on skilled personnel who can leverage these systems to achieve business objectives.

Uploaded by

christineanyango687
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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INFORMATION SYSTEMS OVERVIEW

Information Systems are more than computers’

Information Systems Are More Than Computers


Using information systems effectively requires an understanding of the
organization, people, and information technology shaping the systems. An
information system provides a solution to important business problems or
challenges facing the firm.

The field of management information systems (MIS) tries to achieve this broader
information systems literacy. MIS deals with behavioral issues as well as technical
issues surrounding the development, use, and impact of information systems used
by managers and employees in the firm.

Dimensions of Information Systems

Dimensions of information systems include ; organizations, people, and


information technology. These are briefly discussed as below;

1.Organizations
Information systems are an integral part of organizations. And although we tend to
think about information technology changing organizations and business firms, it
is, in fact, a two-way street: The history and culture of business firms also affects
how the technology is used and how it should be used. In order to understand how
a specific business firm uses information systems, you need to know something
about the structure, history, and culture of the company.

Organizations have a structure that is composed of different levels and specialties.


Their structures reveal a clear-cut division of labor. Authority and responsibility in
a business firm is organized as a hierarchy, or a pyramid structure, of rising
authority and responsibility. The upper levels of the hierarchy consist of
managerial, professional, and technical employees, whereas the lower levels
consist of operational personnel. Experts are employed and trained for different
business functions, such as sales and marketing, manufacturing and production,
finance and accounting, and human resources. Information systems are built by the
firm in order to serve these different specialties and different levels of the firm. An
organization accomplishes and coordinates work through this structured hierarchy
and through its business processes, which are logically related tasks and behaviors
for accomplishing work. Developing a new product, fulfilling an order, or hiring a
new employee are examples of business processes.

Most organizations’ business processes include formal rules that have been
developed over a long time for accomplishing tasks. These rules guide employees
in a variety of procedures, from writing an invoice to responding to customer
complaints. Some of these business processes have been written down, but others
are informal work practices, such as a requirement to return telephone calls from
co-workers or customers, that are not formally documented. Information systems
automate many business processes. For instance, how a customer receives credit or
how a customer is billed is often determined by an information system that
incorporates a set of formal business processes.

Each organization has a unique culture, or fundamental set of assumptions, values,


and ways of doing things, that has been accepted by most of its members. Parts of
an organization’s culture can always be found embedded in its information
systems. For instance, the United Parcel Service’s concern with placing service to
the customer first is an aspect of its organizational culture that can be found in the
company’s package tracking systems, which we describe in the Focus on
Organizations.
2. People

A business is only as good as the people who work there and run it. Likewise with
information systems—they are useless without skilled people to build and maintain
them, and without people who can understand how to use the information in a
system to achieve business objectives.

For instance, a call center that provides help to customers using an advanced
customer relationship management system (described in later chapters) is useless if
employees are not adequately trained to deal with customers, find solutions to their
problems, and leave the customer feeling that the company cares for them.
Likewise, employee attitudes about their jobs, employers, or technology can have a
powerful effect on their abilities to use information systems productively.

Business firms require many different kinds of skills and people, including
managers as well as rank-and-file employees. The job of managers is to make
sense out of the many situations faced by organizations, make decisions, and
formulate action plans to solve organizational problems. Managers perceive
business challenges in the environment; they set the organizational strategy for
responding to those challenges; and they allocate the human and financial
resources to coordinate the work and achieve success. Throughout, they must
exercise responsible leadership.

But managers must do more than manage what already exists. They must also
create new products and services and even re-create the organization from time to
time. A substantial part of management responsibility is creative work driven by
new knowledge and information. Information technology can play a powerful role
in helping managers develop novel solutions to a broad range of problems.

Technology is today relatively inexpensive, but people are very expensive.


Because people are the only ones capable of business problem solving and
converting information technology into useful business solutions, we spend
considerable effort in this text looking at the people dimension of information
systems.

 Technology

Information technology is one of many tools managers use to cope with


change. Computer hardware is the physical equipment used for input,
processing, and output activities in an information system. It consists of the
following: computers of various sizes and shapes; various input, output, and
storage devices; and physical media to link these devices together.

Computer software consists of the detailed, preprogrammed instructions that


control and coordinate the computer hardware components in an information
system. Chapter 4 describes the contemporary software and hardware
platforms used by firms today in greater detail.

Data management technology consists of the software governing the


organization of data on physical storage media.
Networking and telecommunications technology, consisting of both
physical devices and software, links the various pieces of hardware and
transfers data from one physical location to another. Computers and
communications equipment can be connected in networks for sharing voice,
data, images, sound, and video. A network links two or more computers to
share data or resources, such as a printer.

The world’s largest and most widely used network is the Internet, Inc. The
Internet is a global “network of networks” that uses universal standards
(described in Chapter 6) to connect millions of different networks with more
than 350 million host computers in over 200 countries around the world

The Internet has created a new “universal” technology platform on which


to build new products, services, strategies, and business models. This same
technology platform has internal uses, providing the connectivity to link
different systems and networks within the firm. Internal corporate networks
based on Internet technology are called intranets. Private intranets extended
to authorized users outside the organization are called extranets, and firms
use such networks to coordinate their activities with other firms for making
purchases, collaborating on design, and other interorganizational work. For
most business firms today, using Internet technology is both a business
necessity and a competitive advantage.

The World Wide Web is a service provided by the Internet that uses
universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and
displaying information in a page format on the Internet. Web pages contain
text, graphics, animations, sound, and video and are linked to other Web
pages. By clicking on highlighted words or buttons on a Web page, you can
link to related pages to find additional information and links to other
locations on the Web.
All of these technologies, along with the people required to run and
manage them, represent resources that can be shared throughout the
organization and constitute the firm’s information technology (IT)
infrastructure. The IT infrastructure provides the foundation, or platform, on
which the firm can build its specific information systems. Each organization
must carefully design and manage its information technology infrastructure
so that it has the set of technology services it needs for the work it wants to
accomplish with information systems.

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