Information systems

They are mostly used in every profession. Information systems are not meant for a select class or profession of people in the society.

Information systems are indispensable, as it helps its users to remain updated and competitive in the environment he/she is working.

Data is a collection of raw facts and figures. Data is a element of transaction. Any transaction facts collected which reflect about the lifestyle of credit card customers, or point of sales or demographics and geographic are examples of data.

Information is a collection of data (facts and figures) arranged in more meaningful manner, which helps in decision-making. It is not enough to just process the data but it has to be useful for decision making purpose.

Knowledge is defined as the experience and expertise acquired by an individual. Knowledge can also be defined as level of understanding in interpreting the information available for effective decision-making purpose.

System can be defined as group of entities that work together to achieve a common predefined goal.

A system can be open or closed; stable or dynamic

A closed system is one that does not interact with other systems or with the environment.

An Open system is one that interacts with other systems and also with the environment.

Stable system is a static system, where as the dynamic system is one which changes with the change in needs. While creating systems, one prefers to create dynamic open systems.

Information system is a set of procedures that collect, process, store and disseminate information to support decision-making.

Computer based information systems (CBIS) are the systems that are dependent on Information Technology.

Information systems also includes inputs, process, output and feedback.

Input process output

Feedback

The above diagram shows the Components of System

The following diagram shows the components of Information system.

PROCESS

INPUT

OUTPUT

FEEDB

ACKSYSTEM

BOUNDARY

ENVIRONMENT

ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEM

Information systems have a pre-defined boundary and operate in an environment which includes other systems and also players like customers, suppliers and government departments, etc.,

Information technology versus information system Information technology is a means to Information System as they are similar to heart and soul relationship.

In today’s technology one cannot think of building information system solution without strong information technology backbone.

Information technology provides effective and efficient means of storing, processing and disseminating information.

Information system provides best practices to manage business processes.

Major characteristics of Information Systems

1) Intrinsic:i. Accurate and error free informationii. Meet the objective of the systemiii. Information must be gathered from reliable and

authenticated sources. 2) Accessibility:

i. Information systems are easily accessibleii. While providing accessibility, access security must be

maintained.3) Contextual:

i. Relevant information as per the contextii. Information System must add valut to the outputsiii. Timeliness—must provide timely information when it is

needediv. Completeness—must generate complete reportsv. Information needs to be made available as per defined

frequency.4) Representation:

i. Interpretability—Easy to interpret the reports.ii. Ease of usage and understanding

iii. Concise representationiv. Consistent representation

5) Information system needs to be economical to develop and maintain.6) Information system needs to be flexible and adaptable.

USES OF INFORMATION

Organizations need information for many purposes. The needs of each organization are different at different levels. The main uses of information include:

Identification,

Collection,

Controlling,

Measuring

Decision Making.

Identification is used to identify the information associated with the existing and required resources. i.e. right information leads to right decision, so identification of right information is key usage.

Collection: information identified needs to be collected and stored for further processes. Information needs to be collected to manage the business properly.

Controlling: It is important to ascertain the quality and relevance of information, which in turn help in managing the business properly.

Measuring: For the success of any business it is important to keep measuring its performance. We use information to measure performance of any business activity.

Decision Making: One of the major usages of information is decision-making. It can be used to take decisions at all levels in an organization. Information can be used to take decisions at the lowest possible level in an organization to the topmost level.

FUNCTIONS OF A MANAGER:

1) Planning2) Organising3) Directing 4) Controlling

Planning is the basics of management. It is the foundation upon which all the areas of management should be built. Planning is an ongoing process of developing the organizational goals and objectives and determining how they will be accomplished.

Organising: It also means to establish the internal organizational structure of the organization. The focus is division, coordination, and control of tasks and the flow of information within the organization.

Directing: It helps the management to control and supervise the actions of the staff. It also means to influence staff behavior through motivation, communication, group dynamics, leadership and discipline. The purpose of directing is to channel the behavior of all personnel to accomplish the organization’s goal and objectives while simultaneously helping them accomplish their own career objectives.

Controlling: It is a multi stage process which includes establishing performance standards based on the firms objectives; evaluating and reporting actual job performance; comparing the two, and taking corrective or preventive action as necessary.

Management Skill

There are three basic management skills

1) Technical2) Human3) Conceptual.

Technical skill is the ability to use tools, techniques, and specialized knowledge to carry out a method, process, or procedure.

Human Skills are used to build positive interpersonal relationships, solve human relations problems, build acceptance of co-workers, and subordinates.

Conceptual Skills involve the ability to see the organization as a whole and to solve problems in a way that benefits the entire organization. Analytical, creative, intuitive talents make up the manager’s conceptual skills.

The relative importance of the above management skills changes as a person progresses from lower to middle to top management.

Although all three management skills are important at all three levels of management, conceptual skills become relatively more important at the top level of management.

MANAGEMENT LEVELS:-

In organizations, there are typically three levels of management.

1) Top level2) Middle level3) Lower level

These three main levels of managers form a hierarchy, in which they are ranked in order of importance.

In most of the organizations, the number of managers at each level is such that the hierarchy resembles a pyramid, with the largest number at the lowest level managers, lesser middle managers, and the lease managers at the top level.

There are differences across the management levels as to what the types of management tasks each level does and the roles that they perform in their jobs.

There are a number of changes that are occurring in many organizations that are altering the management hierarchies in them, such as increasing use of teams, the prevalence of outsourcing, and the flattening of organizational structures.

The information needs of each of these three levels must be met if an effective solution is to be reached in the long term.

Failure to address any one of the levels will lead to failure of the system, which may not fit well within the strategic goals of the organization.

Top level Managers or Top managers, are also called senior management or executives or strategic level, which is composed of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), The Chief Operating Officer (COO), and other department heads.

They take decisions affecting the entire organization

They define policies for the organization.

Top managers do not direct the day to day activities of the organizations, rather set goals for the organizations and direct the company to achieve them.

Top managers are ultimately responsible for the performance of the organization, and often, take strategic decisions.

At the top level, one needs to create the corporate information that is useful for the entire organization. This ‘global’ information is generally fairly well addressed by the corporate network, which may include policies and procedures, HR information, online forms, phone directory, etc.,

Middle level Managers, or middle managers or tactical level, are those in the levels below top managers.

They are responsible for carrying out the goals set by the top management.

They can motivate and assist lower level managers to achieve business objectives.

They may also communicate upward, by offering suggestions and feedback to the top managers.

The middle level managers are more involved in the day to day working of a company, they may provide valuable information to top managers to help improve the organization’s bottom line.

It is most important as it covers all the information shared within teams, divisions, business units, etc.,

Lower Level Managers are also called first line managers or supervisors or operational level.

They are responsible for the daily management of line workers

They do not set goals for the organizations, they have a very strong influence on the company.

These are the managers that most employees interact with on a daily basis, and if the managers perform poorly, employees may also perform poorly, may lack motivation.

MANAGEMENT LEVELS AND MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS:-

Managers at different levels of the organizations expand variable time as required, on the four managerial functions of

1) Planning2) Organizing3) Directing4) Controlling

planning is choosing appropriate organizational and the correct directions to achieve those goals.

Organizing involves determining the tasks and the relationships that allow employees to work together to achieve the planned goals.

With directing, managers motivate and coordinate employees to work together to achieve organizational goals.

When controlling, managers monitor and measure the degree to which the organization has reached its goals.

The degree to which top, middle, and lower level managers perform each of these functions is shown in the following diagram.

The top managers do considerably more planning, organizing, and controlling than do managers at any other level.

The task of directing is much less at the top level. Most of the directing is done by first line managers with respect to daily activities.

The amount of planning, organizing, and controlling decreases down the hierarchy of management; directing increases as one moves down the hierarchy of management.

MANAGEMENT ROLES:-

In addition to broad categories of management functions, managers at different levels of the hierarchy perform different managerial roles.

These roles were categorized and grouped into three major types;

1) Decisional2) Interpersonal

planning

organisation

Directing

ControlTO

PMIDDLELOW

3) Informational

Decisional Roles require managers to plan strategy and utilize resources.

There are four specific roles that are decisional.

1) Entrepreneur role2) Disturbance handler3) Resource allocator4) Negotiator

The following figure tries to show the decision roles performed by the different levels of managers in an organization.

The complexity of decisions taken by different level manager varies—decisions taken by lower level manager are routine decisions and hence can be easily automated (or programmed), whereas decisions taken by top level managers are more complex and most of the time they are unstructured, so are difficult to programme.

Interpersonal Roles:-

Strategic management (Top Level)

Tactical management (middle level)

Operational Management (lower Level)

DECISION ROLESDecision Characteristic

Unstructured

Semi-Structured

Structured

They require managers to direct and supervise employees and the organization.

The figurehead is typically a top level manager.

These managers may communicate future organizational goals or ethical guidelines to employees at company meetings;

A leader acts as an example for other employees to follow, gives commands and directions to subordinates, make decisions, and mobilizes employee support.

Informational Roles:-

They are those in which managers obtain and transmit information. These roles have changed dramatically as technology has improved. The monitor evaluates the performance of others and takes corrective action to improve the performance, if necessary. Monitoring occurs at all levels of management, although managers at higher levels of organization are more likely to monitor external threats to the environment than middle or line managers.

Organisational functions:-

The following are the six key functions

1) Design and production2) Human Resources3) Sales and Marketing4) Administration5) Research and Development.

Each of the function need to combine together to achieve organisational objectives. To achieve the objective, communication across the various functions is the key activity. A starting point for this type of communication is the creation of a clear set of company objectives which each function needs to be aware of.

Value Chain Model:

Information technology is changing the way companies operate. It is affecting the entire process by which companies create their products and

services that they offer to their customers. Porter developed useful tool for analyzing the organisation’s competive advantage. The basic concept is that to understand the competitive advantage of any organization, one need to look at the organization has a whole. Rather it is necessary to identify the key activities being performed by an organization to do business transactions. Each organization performs a collection of activities that add value to the final product or service being delivered to the customer. These activities are numerous and are unique to every industry. It is only these activities where cost advantage or differentiation can be gained.

As per porter’s Value Chain Model, the organization’s activities can be divided into nine generic activities. These nine activities are further classified as primary and support activities. Primary activities are the activities that help the organization in creating the product, marketing it, delivering it and servicing of the product. There are five primary activities, which directly add value to organization’s factors of production they are linked, generally in a chain, and are together referred as Value Chain. The five primary activities are:

1) Inbound Logistics:

This deals with receipt, storage and management of raw materials.

2) Operations:

Deals with manufacturing or service steps.

3) Outbound Logistics:

This deals with collection, storage and distribution of finished products.

4) Marketing and Sales:

This includes order booking, price management, and customer relationship.