Chapter 6

Organizational
Information Systems

Chapter 6 Objectives
Understand characteristics of operational,
managerial, and executive information
systems
Understand characteristics of transaction
processing systems, management
information systems, and executive
information systems
Understand characteristics of information
systems that span organizational boundaries

Types of Information Systems

An organization consists of many people with
different interests, specialties, and levels.
How a single information system can provide all
the information that an organization needs?
There is no such single information system.
An organization should have different info
systems for different interests, specialties, and
levels.

Decision-Making Levels of an Organization

Decision-Making Levels of an Organization

Executive level (top)
Long-term decisions
Unstructured decisions

Managerial level (middle)

Decisions covering weeks and months
Semistructured decisions

Operational level (bottom)

Day-to-day decisions
Structured decisions

Basic systems model for all Info. Systems

General Types of Information Systems

Transaction Processing Systems
(TPSs)
Transactions
Used at Operational level of the organization
Goal: to automate repetitive information
processing activities
Increase speed
Increase accuracy
Greater efficiency

General Types of Information Systems

Transaction Processing Systems
(TPSs)
Online processing
Batch processing

Data input
Manual data entry
Semiautomated data entry
Fully automated data entry

General Types of Information Systems

Transaction Processing Systems
(TPSs)
Examples:

Payroll
Sales and ordering
Inventory
Purchasing, receiving, shipping
Accounts payable and receivable

General Types of Information Systems

Management Information Systems
(MISs)
Two Types:
Management of IS in organizations
Specific information systems for mid-level managers

Used at managerial level of the organization

General Types of Information Systems

Management Information System
It helps the middle managers with reports, with on-line
access to the organizations current performance and
historical records.
It primarily serves the functions of planning, controlling,
decision-making at the management level.
Generally it depends on TPS for data.
It summarizes and reports on the basic operations of
the organization.
It usually serve managers interested in weekly, monthly,
and yearly results, not day-to-day activities.
It generally addresses structured questions that are
known in advance.
It is not flexible and have little analytical capability.

General Types of Information Systems

Management Information System
What are the functions of management-level info system?
=> Helps middle managers for monitoring, controlling,
decision-making, and administrative activities.
=> Generally it provides periodic reports rather than
instant information
=> However, some systems supports nonroutine decision
making.
It should answer the questions:
=> Relocation Control System: It reports on the total
moving, house-hunting, and home financing costs for all
employees in the organization. It will also notify if actual
costs exceed the budgets.
=> What would happen to our return on investment if an
organization schedule were delayed for six months?

General Types of Information Systems

Management Information Systems
Types of reports:

Scheduled report
Key-indicator report
Exception report
Drill-down report
Ad hoc report

General Types of Information Systems

Management Information Systems
(MISs)
Examples:

Sales forecasting
Financial management and forecasting
Manufacturing planning and scheduling
Inventory management and planning
Advertising and product pricing

General Types of Information Systems

Executive Information Systems
It helps senior managers.
It addresses unstructured decisions.
It provides a generalized computing &
telecommunications capability to solve problems.
It employs the most advanced graphics software.
It can deliver graphs & (historical data and
competitive data) from internal corporate systems
and external databases.
Senior managers often have little experience with
computer-based information systems, ESS
should have easy-to-use graphic interfaces.

General Types of Information Systems

Executive Information Systems (EISs)
Used at executive level of the organization
Highly aggregated form
Data types
Soft data news and nonanalytical data
Hard data facts and numbers

General Types of Information Systems

Executive Information Systems (EISs)
Examples:

Executive-level decision making

Long-range and strategic planning
Monitoring internal and external events
Crisis management
Staffing and labor relations

Information Systems that Span Organizational

Boundaries

Information Systems that

Span Organizational Boundaries
Decision Support Systems (DSSs)
Designed to support organizational decision
making
What-if analysis
Example of a DSS tool: Microsoft Excel
Text and graphs

Models for each of the functional areas

Accounting, finance, personnel, etc.

Information Systems that

Span Organizational Boundaries
Expert Systems (ESs)
Mimics human expertise by manipulating
knowledge
Rules (If-then)
Inferencing

Information Systems that

Span Organizational Boundaries
Office Automation Systems (OASs)
Examples:
Communicating and scheduling
Document preparation
Analyzing data
Consolidating information

Relationship of Systems to one another:

Integration
ESS

MIS

OAS

DSS

TPS

Information Systems that

Span Organizational Boundaries
Collaboration Technologies

Virtual teams
Videoconferencing
Groupware
Electronic Meeting Systems (EMSs)

Information Systems that

Span Organizational Boundaries
Functional Area Information Systems
Geared toward specific areas in the company:
Human Resources
Benefits
Marketing

Information Systems that

Span Organizational Boundaries
Global Information Systems

International IS
Transnational IS
Multinational IS
Global IS