Chapter 1 – Introduction to Information Systems 

 

Hi everyone,

Today, we will be looking at what Information Systems (IS) are: - uses IT's skillset to collect, process, store, analyse and disperse information for an individual purpose.

Every household now has, most likely, several personal phones and computers, all being able to access an unbelievable amount of information and cat photos from Aunty Margaret on Facebook.

This provides a serious motive to become an informed user of this highway of people and information. All different types of business within different industries are all getting on board with this internet surge as well, so being knowledgeable in this area would certainly make you employable. And, if you did get a job in this particular area, you can also take part in managing information resources.

Furthermore, considering how prevalent IT is nowadays, it's no surprise that businesses are adopting IT to help with different processes to make daily running’s more efficient. Businesses are constantly looking for personnel to fill the role of 'IT Project Manager' or 'Business Analyst', and many more.

Now, we'll quickly look at applications. You probably already know what an application is because, chances are, you use many of them every day. An application, or app, is a program designed for a specific task. For example, you may have the Spotify app on your computer, which has the job of running and playing music for you, or you may have the Angry Birds app on your phone which has the job of entertaining you.

Lastly, we'll briefly touch on the support that IS provides for organisations. Functional Area Information Systems (or FAISs) are specific ISs that are meant for a specific function, such as accounting and finance, Human resources or other. There are also systems meant for the entire organisation, namely Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that coordinate and share data across FAISs. And the other form of system is Transaction Processing Systems (TPSs). These systems monitor, collect, store and process data from transactions that generate data. 

 

Reference from:

Management Information Systems 1st Edition

Gray, H., Issa, T., Pye, G., Troshani, I., Rainer, R. K., Prince, B., & Hugh J. W. (2015). Management information systems. John Wiley.