Operational Level System For example, decision support Office Systems aid data

Supports operational managers systems, systems to indicate workers

by keeping track of elementary total expenditure against the It increase productivity by
activities (sales, payroll, and budgets. supporting coordinating and
inventory). Strategic Level System communications
Principle purpose is to answer It serves the senior management For example, word processing,
routine questions and to track tackle and address strategic issues desktop publishing, document
the flow of business transactions. and long term trends (both within imaging
For example, receipt from ATM, organization and in responds to Decision Support System and
employees time sheet. environmental changes) Management Information System
Knowledge Level System For example, system to forecast (Management Level)
Supports knowledge and data sales performance over a five MIS aid management plans,
workers (clerks, lawyers, R&D year period. controls and manages oriented
developers etc.) Transaction Processing System exclusively internal, not
Principle purpose is to help (Operational System) environmental or external.
integrate new knowledge into the It computerised system that It summarize and report
business and control the flow of performs and records daily company basic operations
paperwork routine business transactions DSS help managers make
Among the most widely used Tasks, resources and goals are decision that are unique, rapidly
applications in business today pre-defined and structured changing
For example, workstations and For example, scheduling system, It combines data and
office systems purchasing, shipping, general sophisticated analytical models
Management Level System ledger, accounting, budgeting or data analysis tools to support
It serves the middle managers Knowledge Work System and non-routine decision making
for monitoring, controlling, Office System (Knowledge Level) For example, word processing,
decision making and KWS aid knowledge workers desktop publishing, document
administrative activities. It promotes creation of new imaging.
It provide periodic reports. knowledge/process information Executive Support System
(Strategic Level)
 It serve the strategic level of Finance : Managing financial To become competitive participants
organization assets in international markets, firms need
Almost like MIS or DSS Accounting : Maintaining financial powerful ICT systems
however from the strategic records, flow of funds Transformation of Industrial
level/senior managers. Human Resources: Managing and Economic
maintaining employees Major industrial powers are beings
.
transformed from industrial based
IT infrastructure in organization economies to information based
.
Computer hardware economies
Key Elements in Organisation Computer Software Manufacturing has been moving to
Storage technology low-wage countries, does not
o People : Managers, knowledge
Communication technology require a lot of funds
workers, data workers, production
Network (intranet/extranet) Knowledge and information are
or service workers
Security becoming the foundation for many
o Structure : Organizational chart,
People in organization new services and products
groups of specialist, geography,
products Transformation of business
Knowledge workers enterprise
o Operating Procedures : Rules and Data Workers
Regulations, SOPs Moving away from the traditional,
Production/Service workers hierarchical, centralized, structured
o Politics : Power to persuade, get Senior managers
things done arrangement of specialist, relied on
Middle managers a fixed set of SOP
o Culture : Customs/Behaviours Operational Managers The new style is flattened,
Major business functions in organisation decentralized, flexible arrangement
What are the current trends? of specialist, relies on instant
Sales and Marketing : Selling the Globalisation
organizations products and information
The success of firms today and in Relies on knowledge, learning and
services the future depends on their ability
Manufacturing and Production : decision making of individual
to operate globally employees to ensure proper
Producing products and services
It calling for global work groups, operation of the firm
global delivery systems
 The emergence of digital firm Approach to information system mutually adjust to one another until
Where nearly all of the Technical approach a satisfactory fit is obtained.
organizations significant business Management science which is Technology must be changes and
processes are digitally enabled and revolves around decision makings designed in such a way as to fit the
mediated and management practices. organizational and individual needs.
Core business processes are Computer science which is Similarly, organizations and
accomplished through the digital revolves around theories and individuals must also be changed
networks implementation of computability, through training and planning to
Key corporate assets are managed efficient data storage and access. facilitate the operation of
digitally Operations research which is technology.
Rapid sensing and responding to revolves around optimizing
environmental changes selected parameters of organization .
In digital firms, IT is not just such as logistics, transportation,
enabler but the core of the business and inventory control. .
and the primary tools Behavioural Approach What is software?
Psychology which is revolves Detailed instructions that control
Information System Literacy the operation of a computer system.
around how human decisions will
Information system literacy is Series of instructions written to
be made, perception information.
important in managing information communicate with the computer
Sociology which is revolves around
systems within an organization. hardware components.
how systems will affect individuals,
It means understanding of The process of writing or coding
groups and organizations.
management and organizational the software is called programming.
Economics which is revolves
dimensions and technical The individuals who specialise in
around what impacts systems have
dimensions of systems programming task are called
on cost structures within
Includes a behavioural and programmers.
organizations.
technical approach in studying
Information systems Sociotechnical Approach Two major types of software
Different from computer literacy to The performance of a system is System software
hardware. optimized when both the
technology and the organization
 Program that manages the Allocates and assigns system A word processing program may be
computers resources (the resources in the execution queue formatting one document while
peripherals) Schedules the use of computer checking the spelling and grammar
Programmers who write system resources and the jobs of another document.
software are called system Monitors computer system Multiprocessing
programmers activities, keeps track of the It is the ability to execute two or
Application software activities. more instructions by using multiple
Programs for a specific To keep up with the complexity CPUs.
functionalities specified by end and performance driven todays It coordinated processing of
users application software, OS is programs by more than one CPU.
Programmers who write application equipped with a series of It speeds up processing.
software are called application specialized capabilities Graphical User Interface
programmers Multiprogramming It is parts of OS that interact with
It is the method of executing two or users through the use of pictures
System software includes: more programs concurrently using and icons in executing command,
Operating system coordinates the same computer. allow cognition, more usable.
various parts of the computer On single user operating system It as opposed to command driven.
system and mediates between also known as multitasking. Proprietary
application software and computer For example, you do not have to It is the software that is privately
hardware. quit word processing to run a web owned and limited to license
Language translator converts browser. holders to use, may also be device
programming languages into While multi programming, the dependent i.e. can only run on a
machine language program that is currently being specific hardware specification.
Utility program performs common worked on is in the foreground. The Open source
processing task. others that are running but not It is the software that provides free
being used are in the background. access to its program code,
Operating system
Multithreading allowing users to modify the
Operating system performs 3
It is ability of an operating system program code to make
functions which are:
to execute different part of the improvement or fix errors.
same program simultaneously.
Application Software (Programming exploit them to come up with more Three important criteria to consider to
language) powerful applications. select right software
First generation, machine Fourth generation consists of Appropriateness
language variety of software tools that enable Some languages can be used on
It requires programmer to write all end users to develop software variety of problems, whereas others
codes in binary, hard coding applications with minimal or no are special purpose languages that
storage location for every technical assistance. are suitable for only limited tasks.
instruction. Very slow and hard to For systems software the choice
do. Labour intensive. can be determined by looking at the
The only language understood by a companys size and the budget as
computer. Every CPU has its own Application software (software tools) well as the employees skills.
unique machine language. Word processing produces Compatibility
Programs written in high level professional quality documents, It must be able to run on the firms
language is translated into machine special layout features. network infrastructure/hardware.
language by a compiler. Spreadsheet displays data or It must also be compatible with
Second layer, assembly language information in grid of columns and other existing software/legacy
It makes use of certain mnemonics, rows, capable of easily calculating software required by mainstream
easier to handle however still numerical data. business applications.
relatively difficult to debug, read Data management software uses for Support which is easy to learn by
and learn. creating and manipulating data. the staff, use a popular one to
It used primarily today in system Presentation graphics create guarantee good support.
software. professional graphic presentation.
.
Third generation COBOL, Integrated software suites.
Pascal, C, C++ Web browsers.
.
Instructions are written as brief Groupware supports collaborative
Traditional file environment
statements, more natural language activities of work groups. Consists
Data redundancy duplicate
than assembly language. of software for information sharing,
data in multiple data files when
It is easier to write and understand e-meeting and scheduling.
data entry is done in isolation
hence programmers can really
on different applications
 Program/Data dependency easily and effectively extract the users needs, use of entity
tight relationship between data data needed for the business relationship diagram to illustrate
stored in files and specific It acts as the interface between the relationship between various
programs required to update application programs and the entities in the database
and maintain those files, any physical data files Physical design detailed model
change in data will require a It relieves the burden for by database specialists, hardware
change in all programs that programmers/end users from the specific
access the data task of understanding or Distributed databases are
Lack of flexibility hard to memorizing where and how data is partitioned which remote CPU,
deliver ad hoc reports or stored. each location has the data that
respond to unanticipated Types of DBMS: belongs to only that location.
information requirement in a Relational which can relate data Distributed databases duplicate
timely fashion stored in a table to another table as which each remote CPUs have
Poor security Little control or longs as both table has shared a copies of the common files e.g.
management of data, access to common data element standard layout for reports.
and dissemination of Hierarchical which is for a human
information may be out of resources system. Looks like an .
control. No way of knowing organizational chart or a family tree
who is accessing or making (considered outdated, much less .
changes to the organizations flexible, do not support ad hoc, all Major risks and uncertainties in systems
data. paths for accessing data must be development
Lack of sharing and availability specified in advance and cannot be Difficulties in establishing
confused environment, does change without a major requirement information, to suit the
not make it easy for people to programming, still available in a end users and organization as a
access information legacy system. whole.
Creating a database: Too complex and always subject to
Database management system
Conceptual design abstract change.
It is software to create and maintain
mode, business perspectives, how Hard to analyze time and cost
a database and enable business to
will data be grouped, relationships factor, especially for large projects.
among elements, establish end
 System Design Organizations write the software
System Development It is details how a system will meet program themselves or purchase
A new information system is built the information requirements application software packages for
as a solution to some type of determined by the systems analysts this purpose.
problem or set of problems the Overall model of a system that will Testing process
organization perceive it is facing. provide the identified information The exhaustive and through process
Activities of producing IS solution Equivalent to a house plan in that determines whether the system
are called systems development. building architecture produces the desired results under
A structured kind of problem Systems design specification that conditions
solving with distinct activities will deliver the functions identified, It has different types of testing
namely system analysis, system should address all of the managerial, Unit testing tests each
design, programming, testing, organizational and technological function/module separately. Also
conversion, production and components of the system solution called program testing
maintenance. The design is considered better- Systems testing tests the
System analysis quality when it offers the ease and functioning of the IS as a whole to
The analysis of the problem that the efficiency with which it fulfills user determine if discrete modules will
organization will try to solve with requirements within a specific set function together as planned
IS. of technical, organizational, Acceptance testing provides final
Defining problems, identify causes, financial and constraints user and management approval that
specifying solutions, identifying Systems design specification covers the system is ready to be used in a
information requirements must be output, input, user interface, production setting
met by a system solution. database design, manual procedure, Test plan is prepared by the
Also includes feasibility study to security, documentation, training development team with users,
determine whether the solution is and organizational changes. includes all preparation for the
achievable given the organizations Programming above mentioned series of tests.
resources and constraints. It is the process of translating the Conversion process
Information requirements is who systems specifications prepared It is the process of changing from
needs what information, when, during the design stage into the old system to the new system
where and how information is program codes. Roll out or migration
needed. Four main strategies can be adapted:
 Parallel strategy which both old and 2 principal methodologies to establish Strategic analysis using CSF to
new run together until users are essential information requirement of org develop IS relies on interviews with
assured that the new functions well, Enterprise analysis key managers of functional units to
expensive, additional resources It is an analysis of organization- identify their success factors.
required to maintain the two wide information requirements that Individual CSFs are compiled to
systems. looks at the entire organization in develop CSFs for entire firm.
Direct cutover which replaces old terms of organizational units, IS can then be developed to deliver
system entirely, risky. functions, processes. information on these CSFs.
Pilot study which introduction of It helps to identify the key entities
system only to limited area of and attributes in the organizations
organization, such as single data. .
department or operating unit. Data is expensive and difficult to
Phased approach which new collect and analyze. .
systems introduced in stages either Strategic Analysis
by functions or by organizational Organizations information What is Decision Support System (DSS)?
units. requirements are determined by a Decision Support Systems (DSS) is
Production and maintenance small number of critical success computer systems at the
Production is the stage after new factors (CSFs) management level of an
system is rolled out and the CSFs = easily identifiable organization that combines data,
conversion is complete, during this operational goals shaped by the analytical tools and models to
time the system is reviewed by industry, the firm, the manager, the support decision making
users and technical specialists to environment. Provided new set of capabilities for
determine how well it has met its Example of CSF, hospital (goals) non-routine decisions.
original goals. which is excellent health care, MIS provides managers with report
Maintenance is changes in meeting regulation, future health based on routine flows of data and
hardware, software, documentation needs. assist in general control of
or procedures to a production Hospital (csf) which is efficient use organizations.
system to correct errors, meet new of resources, improve monitoring DSS emphasizes changes,
requirements, or improve regulation, regional integration flexibility and a rapid response.
processing efficiency. with other hospital.
 It supports unstructured and semi analyze useful information from the In classification : can help to
structured problem analysis. organization's large database as identify customers who are most
For example, systems that provides well as from outside organization likely to stop patronizing the
information on the summary of Online analytical processing business, managers can come up
food cost, labour cost and period- (OLAP) and datamining can then with a campaign to retain such
to-date cost of a restaurant. be used to analyze the data customers.
For example, it identifies patients
with drug-use patterns, and list In forecasting : managers can
them in a risk list. 3 types of datamining estimate the future value of
For example, it identifies the most products.
popular programme offered in an Datamining is more discovery
educational institution and its driven. Provides insight into
relation to the price of the course corporate data that cannot be
and time when people are most obtained with OLAP by finding
likely to enroll. patterns and relationship. The types
of information that can be drawn
Two basic types of decision-support include association, classifications
systems and forecasts.
Model driven
In association : In supermarket
It stands alone systems that uses
when corn chips are purchased, a
some type of model to perform
cola drink will also be purchased
what-if and other analysis
65% of the time, but when there is
It often developed by end-user
a promotion, cola will be purchased
divisions or groups not under
85%. This helps manager makes
central IS control
decision as they learn profitability
Ready made formula to forecast the
of a promotion.
result of a certain happening
Data-driven
It supports decision making by
allowing users to extract and