What is an Information System ?
An information system cab be defined technically as a set of inter-related components that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization. In addition to supporting decision making, coordination, and control, information systems and also help managers and workers analyze problems, visualize complex subjects, and create new products.
Information systems contain information about significant people's places and things within the organization or in the environment surrounding it. By information, we mean data that have been shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to human beings. Data, in contrast, are streams of raw facts representing events occurring in organizations or the physical environment before they have been organized and arranged into a form that people can understand and use.
Three activities in an information system produce the information that organizations need to make decisions, control operations, analyze problems, and create new products or services. These activities are input, processing, and output as shown in figure
Input – Captures or collects raw data from within the organization or from its external environment.
Processing – Convert this raw input into a more meaningful form.
Output – Transfers the processed information to the people who will use it or to the activities for which it will be used. Information systems also require feedback, which is output that is returned to appropriate members of the organization to help them evaluate or correct the input stage.
Classification of information system based on functions types of processing, usage, and application are as :
1. Classification of information system is by function:
- Operations (resources, processes, products)
- Administrative (support functions)
- Planning and control (management use)
- Environmental (e.g. competition)
2. Classification of information system is by usage:
- Transaction Processing
- Management Information
- Decision Support System
- Executive Support System
- Expert System
3. Classification of information system is by type of processing:
- Batch
- Online, Real-time
- Distributed
4. Classification of information system is by application
- Manufacturing
- Warehousing
- Marketing
- Banking
- Transportation
- Geographic Information Systems
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