Information system

An information system (IS) is any combination of information technology and people's activities using that technology to support operations, management, and decisionmaking. In a very broad sense, the term information system is frequently used to refer to the interaction between people, algorithmic processes, data and technology

. As illustrated by the Venn Diagram on the right, the history of information systems coincides with the history of computer science that began long before the modern discipline of computer science emerged in the twentieth century.[18] Regarding the circulation of information and ideas, numerous legacy information systems still exist today that are continuously updated to promote ethnographic approaches, to ensuredata integrity, and to improve the social effectiveness & efficiency of the whole process.[19] In general, information systems are focused upon processing information within organizations, especially within business enterprises, and sharing the benefits with modern society

In this sense, the term is used to refer not only to the information and communication technology (ICT) an organization uses, but also to the way in which people interact with this technology in support of business processes.[3] Some make a clear distinction between information systems, and computer systems ICT, and business processes. Information systems are distinct from information technology in that an information system is typically seen as having an ICT component. Information systems are also different from business processes. Information systems help to control the performance of business processes.[ Information systems are the primary focus of study for the information systems discipline and for organisational informatics It consists of computers, instructions, stored facts, people and procedures. ISs can be categorized in three parts: 1. 2. 3. 4. Management Information System (MIS). Decision Support System (DSS). Executive Information System (EIS) Transaction processing system ( TPS )

Types of information systems

The 'classic' view of Information systems found in the textbooks of the 1980s was of a pyramid of systems that reflected the hierarchy of the organization, usually Transaction processing systems at the bottom of the pyramid, followed by Management information systems, Decision support systems and ending with Executive information systems at the top. Although the pyramid model remains useful, since it was first formulated a number of new technologies have been developed and new categories of information systems have emerged, some of which no longer fit easily into the original pyramid model. Some examples of such systems are:

Data warehouses Enterprise resource planning Enterprise systems Expert systems

Geographic information system Global information system Office Automation

A four level pyramid model of different types of Information Systems based on the different levels of hierarchy in an organization

Management information system

A management information system (MIS) is a system that provides information needed to manage organizations effectively. [1] Management information systems involve three primary resources: technology, information, and people. It's important to recognize that while all three resources are key components when studying management information systems the most important resource is people. An 'MIS' is a planned system of the collection, processing, storage and dissemination of data in the form of information needed to carry out the management functions. In a way, it is a documented report of the activities that were planned and executed. According to Philip Kotler "A marketing information system consists of people, equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision makers

Earlier, business computers were mostly used for relatively simple operations such as tracking sales or payroll data, often without much detail. Over time, these applications became more complex and began to store increasing amount of information while also interlinking with previously separate information systems

Types of information management systems

There are many types of information management systems in the market that provide a wide range of benefits for companies. Strategic information management system, customer relation management systems and enterprise resource planning systems are some of them. The following are some of the benefits that can be attained for different types of information management systems.[4] Advantages of information management systems (1) The company is able to highlight their strength and weaknesses due to the presence of revenue reports, employee performance records etc. The identification of these aspects can help the company to improve their business processes and operations. (2) The availability of the customer data and feedback can help the company to align their business processes according to the needs of the customers. The effective management of customer data can help the company to perform direct marketing and promotion activities. (3) Information is considered to be an important asset for any company in the modern competitive world. The consumer buying trends and behaviors can be predicted by the analysis of sales and revenue reports from each operating region of the company. An MIS provides the following advantages. 1. It Facilitates planning : MIS improves the quality of plants by providing relevant information for sound decision making . Due to increase in the size and complexity of organizations, managers have lost personal contact with the scene of operations. 2. In Minimizes information overload : MIS change the larger amount of data in to summarized form and there by avoids the confusion which may arise when managers are flooded with detailed facts. 3. MIS Encourages Decentralization : Decentralization of authority is possibly when there is a system for monitoring operations at lower levels. MIS is successfully used for measuring performance and making necessary change in the organizational plans and procedures. 4. It brings Co ordination : MIS facilities integration of specialized activities by keeping each department aware of the problem and requirements of other departments. It connects all decision centers in the organization .

5. It makes control easier : MIS serves as a link between managerial planning and control. It improves the ability of management to evaluate and improve performance . The used computers has increased the data processing and storage capabilities and reduced the cost . 6. MIS assembles, process , stores , Retrieves , evaluates and Disseminates the information .

Decision support system

decision-making activities that supports business or organizational DSSs serve the management, operations, and planning levels of an organization and help to make decisions, which may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance.

Typical information that a decision support application might gather and present are: inventories of information assets (including legacy and relational data sources, cubes, data

warehouses, and data marts), comparative sales figures between one period and the next, projected revenue figures based on product sales assumptions.

One example is the clinical decision support system for medical diagnosis. Other examples include a bank loan officer verifying the credit of a loan applicant or an engineering firm that has bids on several projects and wants to know if they can be competitive with their costs.
DSS is extensively used in business and management. Executive dashboard and other business performance software allow faster decision making, identification of negative trends, and better allocation of business resources.

Benefits
1. Improves personal efficiency 2. Speed up the process of decision making

3. Increases organizational control 4. Encourages exploration and discovery on the part of the decision maker 5. Speeds up problem solving in an organization 6. Facilitates interpersonal communication 7. Promotes learning or training 8. Generates new evidence in support of a decision 9. Creates a competitive advantage over competition 10. Reveals new approaches to thinking about the problem space 11. Helps automate managerial processes

Executive information system

An Executive Information System (EIS) is a type of management information system intended to facilitate and support the information and decision-making needs of senior executives by providing easy access to both internal and external informationrelevant to meeting the strategic goals of the organization. It is commonly considered as a specialized form of a Decision Support System (DSS) The emphasis of EIS is on graphical displays and easy-to-use user interfaces. They offer strong reporting and drill-down capabilities. In general, EIS are enterprise-wide DSS that help top-level executives analyze, compare, and highlight trends in importantvariables so that they can monitor performance and identify opportunities and problems. EIS and data warehousing technologies are converging in the marketplace.

Applications
EIS enables executives to find those data according to user-defined criteria and promote informationbased insight and understanding. Unlike a traditional management information system presentation, EIS can distinguish between vital and seldom-used data, and track different key critical activities for executives, both which are helpful in evaluating if the company is meeting its corporate objectives. After realizing its advantages, people have applied EIS in many areas, especially, in manufacturing, marketing, and finance areas.

Manufacturing
Basically, manufacturing is the transformation of raw materials into finished goods for sale, or intermediate processes involving the production or finishing of semi-manufactures.

Marketing
In an organization, marketing executives role is to create the future. decisions.

Financial
A financial analysis is one of the most important steps to companies today.

Advantages and disadvantages

[edit]Advantages

of EIS

Easy for upper-level executives to use, extensive computer experience is not required in Provides timely delivery of company summary information Information that is provided is better understood Filters data for management Improves to tracking information Offers efficiency to decision makers

operations

[edit]Disadvantages

of EIS

System dependent Limited functionality, by design Information overload for some managers Benefits hard to quantify High implementation costs System may become slow, large, and hard to manage

Need good internal processes for data management May lead to less reliable and less secure data

Transaction processing system

A transaction processing system is a type of information system. TPSs collect, store, modify, and retrieve the transactions of an organization.

A transaction is an event that generates or modifies data that is eventually stored in an information system.
To be considered a transaction processing system the computer must pass the ACID test. The essence of a transaction program is that it manages data that must be left in a consistent state. E.g. if an electronic payment is made, the amount must be both withdrawn from one account and added to the other; it cannot complete only one of those steps. More :http://www.management-hub.com/information-management-advantages.html

ERP [ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING]

RESOURCE A resource is any physical or virtual entity of limited availability that needs to be consumed to obtain a benefit from it. In most cases, commercial or even noncommerial factors require resource allocation through resource management. There are two types of resources; renewable and non-renewable. ENTERPRISE
Willingness or eagerness to engage in labor which requires boldness, prompt ness, energy, and like qualities; as, a man of great enterprise. an organization created for business ventures; "a growing enterprise must ha ve a bold leader"

Entrepreneur is a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and is accountable for the inherent risks and the outcome.

Origin of "ERP"
In 1990 Gartner Group first employed the acronym ERP[4] as an extension of material requirements planning (MRP), later manufacturing resource planning[5][6] and computerintegrated manufacturing. Without supplanting these terms, ERP came to represent a larger whole, reflecting the evolution of application integration beyond manufacturing. [7] Not all ERP packages were developed from a manufacturing core. Vendors variously began with accounting, maintenance and human resources. By the mid1990s ERP systems addressed all core functions of an enterprise. Beyond corporations, governments and nonprofit organizations also began to employ ERP systems

EVOLUTION

Material requirements planning

Material requirements planning (MRP) is a production planning and inventory control system used to manage manufacturing processes. Most MRP systems are softwarebased, while it is possible to conduct MRP by hand as well. An MRP system is intended to simultaneously meet three objectives: Ensure materials are available for production and products are available for delivery to customers.

Maintain the lowest possible level of inventory. Plan manufacturing activities, delivery schedules and purchasing activities.

Prior to MRP, and before computers dominated industry, reorder-point/reorder-quantity (ROP/ROQ) type methods like EOQ had been used in manufacturing and inventory management. In the 1960s, Joseph Orlicky studied the TOYOTA Manufacturing Program and developed Material Requirements Planning (MRP), and Oliver Wight and George Plossl then developed MRP into manufacturing resource planning (MRP II).[ The basic function of MRP system includes inventory control, bill of material processing and elementary scheduling. MRP helps organizations to maintain low inventory levels. It is used to plan manufacturing, purchasing and delivering activities. "Manufacturing organizations, whatever their products, face the same daily practical problem - that customers want products to be available in a shorter time than it takes to make them. This means that some level of planning is required." Companies need to control the types and quantities of materials they purchase, plan which products are to be produced and in what quantities and ensure that they are able to meet current and future customer demand, all at the lowest possible cost. Making a bad decision in any of these areas will make the company lose money. A few examples are given below: If a company purchases insufficient quantities of an item used in manufacturing (or the wrong item) it may be unable to meet contract obligations to supply products on time.

If a company purchases excessive quantities of an item, money is wasted - the excess quantity ties up cash while it remains as stock and may never even be used at all.

Beginning production of an order at the wrong time can cause customer deadlines to be missed.

MRP is a tool to deal with these problems. It provides answers for several questions:

What items are required? How many are required? When are they required?

Manufacturing resource planning MRP II

Manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) is defined by APICS as a method for the effective planning of all resources of a manufacturing company. Ideally, it addresses operational planning in units, financial planning in dollars, and has a simulation capability to answer "what-if" questions and extension of closed-loop MRP. This is not exclusively a software function, but a marriage of people skills, dedication to data base accuracy, and computer resources. It is a total company management concept for using human resources more productively.

Enterprise resource planning

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) integrates internal and external management information across an entire organization, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, CRM, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated software application. Its purpose is

to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside stakeholders.[1]
ERP systems can run on a variety of hardware and network configurations, typically employing a database to store data. ERP systems typically include the following characteristics: An integrated system that operates in real time (or next to real time), without relying on periodic updates.[citation needed]

A common database, which supports all applications. A consistent look and feel throughout each module.

Installation of the system without elaborate application/data integration by the Information Technology (IT) department

Functional areas
Finance/Accounting

General ledger, payables, cash management, fixed assets, receivables, budgeting, consolidation Human resources payroll, training, benefits, 401K, recruiting, diversity management Manufacturing Engineering, bill of materials, work orders, scheduling, capacity, workflow management, quality control, cost management, manufacturing process, manufacturing projects, manufacturing flow, activity based costing, Product lifecycle management Supply chain management Order to cash, inventory, order entry, purchasing, product configurator, supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, inspection of goods, claim processing, commissions Project management Costing, billing, time and expense, performance units, activity management Customer relationship management Sales and marketing, commissions, service, customer contact, call center support Data services Various "selfservice" interfaces for customers, suppliers and/or employees Access control Management of user privileges for various processes

Components

Transactional database Management portal/dashboard Business intelligence system Customizable reporting External access via technology such as web services Search Document management Messaging/chat/wiki Workflow management

Advantages
The fundamental advantage of ERP is that integrating the myriad processes by which businesses operate saves time and expense. Decisions can be made more quickly and

with fewer errors. Data becomes visible across the organization. Tasks that benefit from this integration include:[citation needed]

Sales forecasting, which allows inventory optimization Order tracking, from acceptance through fulfillment Revenue tracking, from invoice through cash receipt Matching purchase orders (what was ordered), inventory receipts (what arrived),

and costing (what the vendor invoiced)

ERP systems centralize business data, bringing the following benefits:

They eliminate the need to synchronize changes between multiple systems

consolidation of finance, marketing and sales, human resource, and manufacturing applications

They enable standard product naming/coding. They provide a comprehensive enterprise view (no "islands of information"). They make

realtime information available to management anywhere, anytime to make proper decisions.

They protect sensitive data by consolidating multiple security systems into a single

structure.[23]

[edit]Disadvantages

Customization is problematic. Reengineering business processes to fit the ERP system may damage competitiveness ERP can cost more than less integrated and/or less comprehensive solutions. High switching costs increase vendor negotiating power vis a vis support, maintenance Overcoming resistance to sharing sensitive information between departments can divert Integration of truly independent businesses can create unnecessary dependencies. Extensive training requirements take resources from daily operations.

and/or divert focus from other critical activities

and upgrade expenses.

management attention.

Enterprise software

Enterprise software, also known as enterprise application software (EAS), is software used in organizations, such as in a business or government,[1] contrary to software chosen by individuals (for example, retail software). Enterprise software is an integral part of a (Computer Based) Information System. Services provided by enterprise software are typically business-oriented tools such as online shopping and online payment processing, interactive product catalogue, automated billing systems, security, content management, IT service management,customer relationship management, resource planning, business intelligence, HR management, manufacturing, application integration, and forms automation.

Enterprise application software

Enterprise application software is application software that performs business functions such as order processing, procurement, production scheduling, customer information management, and accounting. It is typically hosted on servers and provides simultaneous services to a large number of users, typically over a computer network. This is in contrast to a single-user application that is executed on a user's personal computer and serves only one user at a time.

ERP vendors

The largest vendors worldwide in 2005 according to Gartner Dataquest:

Market share 2005 according to Gartner Dataquest[1] # Revenue (million $) 1949 1374 Market share (%) 30.33 21.38

Vendor

1 2

SAP Oracle Applications

3 4 5

The Sage Group Microsoft Dynamics SSA Global Technologies[2]

1121 916 464

17.44 14.25 7.22

SAP AG is a German global software corporation that provides enterprise software applications and support to businesses of all sizes globally. Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the largest enterprise software company in the world (as of 2009).[2] It is also the largest software company in Europe and the fourth largest globally.[3] The company's best known products are its SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) and SAP Business Objects software. SAP was founded in June 1972 as Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung ("System Analysis and Program Development")[4] by five former IBM engineers in Mannheim, Baden-Wrttemberg (Dietmar Hopp, Klaus Tschira, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, and Claus Wellenreuther The acronym was later changed to stand for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung ("Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing").
Products SAP Business Suite SAP ERP SAP CRM SAP SCM SAP SRM SAP PLM

SAP NetWeaver SAP Sybase ASE SAP Business One SAP Business ByDesign SAP Business All-in-One SAP Business Objects portfolio

BASIC MODULES FOR AN ERP SCM- Supply Chain management CRM- Customer relationship management PLAM Product lifecycle management SRM- Supplier Relationship management

ABAP
ABAP/4
Paradigm Object-oriented, structured, imperative

Appeared in

1983

Designed by

SAP AG

Typing discipline

Static, strong, safe, nominative

Major implementations

SAP R/2, SAP R/3

Influenced by

Objective-C, COBOL, SQL

OS

Cross-platform

ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming pronounced as 'ah-bop', is a high-level programming language created by the German software company SAP. It is

currently positioned, alongside the more recently introduced Java, as the language for programming the SAP Application Server, part of its NetWeaver platform for building business applications. The syntax of ABAP is somewhat similar to COBOL. REPORT TEST. WRITE 'Hello World'. WRITE FLIGHTINFO-CITYFROM. WRITE FLIGHTINFO-CITYTO. WRITE FLIGHTINFO-AIRPTO. REPLACE 'A' WITH 'B' INTO: LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME, CITYNAME.