Information System and People

Introduction:

At the heart of every organization is its information system, Twitter, Microsoft, and Facebook are all popular companies on the cutting edge of technology, and their innovations and competitive battles make front page news.

 But even organizations that don’t seem very high tech—from a family owned restaurant to a fitness gym—can hardly do without information systems, or without people who know how to build and manage them. Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, once remarked that he had no idea how many data centers Google actually managed. He might not have known, but his back office information systems certainly did.

Information is an organization’s most important asset. Creating, capturing, organizing, storing, retrieving, analyzing, and acting on information are fundamental activities in every organization. Information system is basically how people, technology and processes interact together. Many refer to the field as management information systems (MIS) which describe a type of information system that supports decision making at the managerial level. What roles do they play and how do they transform work?

Six Major Roles of Information System:

1) Managing Operations: Many organizations choose commercially produced information systems to handle their back-office information needs, relying on software packages such as SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, or QuickBooks for cost savings and competitive advantage without sacrificing quality.

2) Supporting Customer Interactions: This involves the design, operation, and improvement of the systems and processes the organization uses to deliver its goods and services. e.g Customer relationship management (CRM) systems

3) Making Decision: Managers make decisions every day. Smart managers make use of data-driven decision making, Business intelligence etc to draws on the billions of pieces of data to reveal important trends and pattern and uses many sources beyond the organization’s own information systems to make decisions.

4) Collaboration on Teams: Collaboration and teamwork have considerable support from innovative information systems that allow people to work together at any time and from any place. Regardless of where they live and work, participants can hold online meetings, share documents and applications, and interact using e.g Microsoft’s Share point, zoom app, Google meet, social networking sites. etc

5) Gaining competitive Advantage: Information systems are a fundamental part of a company’s strategic vision. So, anything that gives a firm a lead over its rivals, can be gained through the development and application of innovative information systems

6) Improving Individual Productivity: These are Tools that help people improve their own productivity and that eliminate tedious work e.g smartphones, web browsing, contact databases, email etc with an eye to the functions for effectiveness and efficiency.

The Nature of Information:

Facts, data, intelligence, knowledge, and even tips are synonyms for information

Data refers to individual facts or pieces of information,

Information refers to data or facts that are assembled and analysed to add meaning and usefulness.

Three characteristics stand out, however, that contribute to making some information very valuable: (1) Timeliness: Timeliness matters a great deal in some settings, and near real-time information.

(2) Accuracy: It Is an obvious feature of valuable information.

(3) Completeness: Completeness adds value, particularly as a means to avoid bias or spin.

The Components of Information System:

There are 4 critical components to collect, process, manage, analyse, and distribute information:

 (1) People: Often underestimated, the human element plays a crucial role in the success or failure of most information systems. The design, development, launch, and maintenance of any information system involves teams of people in marketing, finance, human resources, and other functional areas to launch user-friendly, people-oriented systems.

 (2) Technology: This includes hardware, software, and telecommunications; i.e. Anything capable of collecting, processing, storing, or displaying electronic data, and moving electronic signals from one place to another, route traffic, add features to improve transmission speeds, eliminate noise, increase security, or analyze traffic patterns. The infrastructure includes both wired and wireless transmission.

(3) Processes: Countless decisions are made about how each process should operate, what rules it should follow, how information should be handled from input to output, and especially how the information system will support the process. Basically, it is a set of activities designed to achieve a task.

(4) Data: Data are the grist for every information system, and these raw facts can present themselves in an enormous variety of shapes and forms. Regardless of its initial form, incoming data is converted into digital format, which allows it to be integrated in information systems, read by computer programs, and shared across systems.

Promises, Perils, Ethical Issues: 

Although information systems hold extraordinary promise, they also present risks and ethical concerns, especially because of amplification effects. Privacy breaches occur frequently and the damage can affect millions. Reputations are also more vulnerable because messages, whether accurate or not, can spread so quickly.

Every organization’s crisis management team, which is responsible for identifying, assessing, and addressing threats from unforeseen circumstances, must be on high alert for signs of any online firestorms

Conclusion: 

Therefore, these promises and perils make the study of information systems critically important for us all, regardless of where we work or what kind of work we do. We all share the responsibility for both harnessing the power of these systems and minimizing their risks.