Information Systems
An information system is a collection of hardware and software components that manipulate, store, and disseminate data for a wide range of tasks returned as feedback. Information systems have become ingrained into our everyday functions both professional and personal. From the car taking a person to a drive through depending on and information system to the person taking our order at the drive through a verity of information systems would have been used in that simple process.
Information Systems primaary objective is to consume, manipulate, and return information, or data. Data is considerd to be a collection of facts such as dates, titles, and descriptions. Information is the result of putting those dates, titles, and descriptions into organized collections of facts. Knowledge is gained by understanding the information presented in the information and utilizing to accomplish a goal.
Six characteristics of valuable information.
- Accessible – having the information at the users disposal when they need the information.
- Accurate – the information provided needs to be calculated, extracted, etc. correctly, along with the information being stored correctly as well. With inaccurate information you mind as well not have it.
- Complete – Having all the information needed to complete a task is paramount. Therefore it is imperative that information container all needed data.
- Secure – Information, more often than not, needs to be protected from unauthorized access. One of the leading illegal activities today is the acquisition of sensitive data and using for fraudulent access to resources such as bank accounts or invasion of privacy.
- Relevant – Information must be meaningful to the purpose of its retrieval; boat prices mean nothing to a person purchasing an automobile.
- Simple – Ironically the simpler the data the more that can be done with it. When information has to much data presented/to present it can bog down retrieving result sets or even make the information difficult to comprehend.
What role does an information system play in today’s organizations?
2011-01-24 15:12:28
Currently information systems play a key role in practically any successful organization. From small businesses where they replace, or at least reduce, the need for professional services such as accounting, marketing and various managerial functions to large enterprise organizations where fundamental operations such as human resources, product development, production, and finance. Additionally, no matter the size of an organization, information system have drastically changed the way a bus...