What is Information System (IS)?

Means a system for generating, sending, receiving, storing or otherwise processing electronic
communications; Information systems are the combination of people, information technology,
and business processes to accomplish a business objective.
Every information system (IS) has people, processes, and information technology. In fact, many
IS professionals add most of their value working with people and processes. They manage the
programmers but typically avoid programming themselves. We can represent an information
system as a triangle with people, processes, and information technology (computers) on the
three vertices. The three parts of an information system are often referred to as the information
systems triangle.

The three parts of the information systems triangle must interact in concert to realize business
objectives. The job of the IS professional is to ensure that a balance is maintained and enhanced
for the good of all the actors and the business as a whole.
The information systems triangle includes people, processes, and information technology. It is a
good reminder that MIS is about much more than just technology.

Importance of Information Systems in an Organization.

Decisions:
The company information system can help you make better decisions by delivering all the
information you need and by modeling the results of your decisions. If more than one choice
looks appealing, you can use the information system to run different scenarios. For each
possibility, the system can calculate key indicators such as sales, costs and profits to help you
determine which alternative gives the most beneficial result.
Records:
The information system stores documents and revision histories, communication records and
operational data. You can use such information to prepare cost estimates and forecasts and to
analyze how your actions affected the key company indicators.
Communication
Part of management is gathering and distributing information, and information systems
can make this process more efficient by allowing managers to communicate rapidly.
Email is quick and effective, but managers can use information systems even more
efficiently by storing documents in folders that they share with the employees who need
the information. This type of communication lets employees collaborate in a systematic
way.

What Does an IS Career Look Like?

A career in information systems is full of action, problem-solving, and teamwork. It is the goal of
information systems professionals to bridge the knowledge gap between business users and
technologists, and thus IS professionals must be fluent in both worlds.
When preparing to become an IS professional, students focus on learning about the types of
systems that exist, what they offer to businesses, best practices for implementation, and the
advantages and disadvantages of each.
Students also focus on how to work with business users and discover what their system needs
are and how they can best be served by information systems. Information systems professionals
focus on solving problems in businesses through the use of information systems.
When students start their careers, they frequently work on teams that connect businesspersons
with the appropriate system solution for their situation. Usually the organizations they work for
adopt a set of best practices to create consistency across project teams. Through the use of these
best practices, IS professionals determine what options are available, consider the pros and cons
of each, design a customized solution to match the specific business, and develop a plan on how
to best implement the information system, including rollout phases and training.
IS professionals focus on developing systems that businesspersons will use to create efficiency
and increase their performance. IS professionals design systems that help businesspersons
make better decisions (decision support systems) and lead organizations (executive
dashboards).
When does an issue arise?

Why do Information System Fail?

So, at what point can we say that an information system has failed? Well an information system
has failed when it:

 Goes way over budget

 Is not operational at a specific time
 Does not do what it was intended to do
 Does not fit in the organizational structure or work processes
Information system failure is not caused by just technological difficulties but also human resource
issues and the functionality within a business
Organizations need to be aware of the causes of information system failure because
unfortunately failure rates are very high, much much higher than success rate. The harsh reality
is most projects are destined to fail before they even begin.
Here are some causes of Information system failure in:

 Requirements do not represent the actual needs of the customer.

 Improper planning
 Lack of and poor communication
 Requirements are incomplete or conflicting.
 Customers, requirements analysts, and software engineers who develop the system have
problems understanding and communicating with each other.
 Both a lack of proper leadership and poor leadership
 Unrealistic expectations
 Inability to keep within the budget

Good and Bad Information Systems

Information systems professionals work with others to design and customize the systems that
you interact with every day.
Every information system is designed to make someone’s life easier. Unfortunately, that
someone is not always the consumer.
Designing Information Systems

What makes a good Information System?

The key to successful information systems is good design. But what makes a good design? A
number of disciplines weigh in on this topic. We will look at design from a number of different
perspectives. Whenever possible we will contrast good and bad designs.
Different people use the word design in different contexts. When IS professionals speak of design,
they are referring to business processes.
Problems must be analyzed and requirements documented before solutions are designed,
developed, and implemented.
After all, if the design does not satisfy the business need, then what’s the point?
Usability describes how easy the system is to navigate. The easier the system is to navigate, the
less time a user will need to spend learning to use the system. A more usable system also leaves
less room for error.
Usability theory provides rules of thumb (heuristics) that document best practice conventions for
designing a user interface.
Following conventions tremendously increases the potential acceptance of your website or app.
Graphic design refers to the visual appeal and organization of the user interface. There is
obviously some overlap here with usability.
Employing graphic design principles helps ensure that the system will have visual appeal. Designs also
need to fit with the overall brand of the client. Existing colors, fonts, and logos are all a part of the brand
for which the system is being created.

Analytical Design describes how to best represent information—especially quantitative information—

to communicate clearly and truthfully.

Does quality matters?

The term “quality” is “the standard of something when it is compared to other things like it; how
good or bad something is: to be of good/poor/top quality.”
Quality is a feature of something, especially one that makes it different from something else.
Information is a fact or detail about somebody or something.
When was the last time that you had a good registration experience? That system probably was
not designed with you in mind—but rather designed to support backend reporting for the
administration and by proxy for the government and insurance companies. So, the administrators
are happy, but not the customers. From the organizations point of view there is no business need
to make the registration experience extraordinarily pleasant. They are betting that you will not
choose your hospital based on how difficult it was to register.
Amazon.com, by contrast, delivers an extraordinary experience to its customers so that they will
stay loyal. Amazon practices user centered design—designing to meet the needs of the user.
However, the clever folks at Amazon also have tremendous backend reporting. So, it is possible
to design systems that please customers and administrators simultaneously—but it takes a bit
more effort.
In the end it is good business to make everyone happy—employees, customers, and
administrators. It is also the right thing to do.
What would any company systems look like if they were designed to Amazon standards? Imagine
1-click appointments, 1-click payments, shielding the client from the insurance companies.
A worker might choose to work for the work place with the more user-friendly system. No one
likes to be yelled at by unhappy customers.
It doesn’t take much to improve the user experience (UX) of a system. You have to design a user
interface (UI) anyway—why not make it a good one?
“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it again?”

Most Professions Use Information Systems

Marketing, accounting, finance, manufacturing – there are many different professional goals and
types of work in the business world.
There are also many different industries where this work can be performed – manufacturing,
retail, banking, healthcare.
No matter what your career goal is or what industry interests you, your success and the success
of the business rely on your ability to recognize opportunities where information systems can be
used to improve performance.
In most lines of work, you will need to store information in and retrieve information from
databases.
You will manage your relationships with contacts and clients using customer relationship
management systems.
The business’s success will depend on you leading efforts that use technology to support the
introduction of new products, efficiently manage supply chains, and effectively manage complex
financial activities.