Information systems in today’s day and age are a necessity.

Businesses today are focussing on

collecting more and more information everyday. The market in the present times is data driven,
which makes Information Systems the need of the hour. The market today is saturated with
businesses that are data driven and many businesses would have overlapping data but what
differentiates a business is how well they can process that data and use it to grow their business and
that can be done by better and advance information systems. The quality of information is
determined and fully utilised with the help of information systems. Businesses use Information
systems to communicate and work with their customers and suppliers, perform business operations,
manage the organisation and introduce and maintain marketing campaigns.

In comparison to the case study “Radically Simple IT” which mentions businesses in 2008, and
development of Information systems in its primitive stage, today’s businesses are completely
digitized and are functioning with advance information systems.

There are 6 primary types of Information systems.

1. Transaction Processing System (TPS)

It is essentially used in daily operations of a business like deposits, withdrawals, shipping,
order entry, billing customers and placing orders. These daily operations are defined as
Transactions by the system.
2. Office Automation System (OAS)
OAS supports official activity at every level of the organisation. These activities are further
subdivided into managerial and clerical activities. It consists of computers, communication-
related technology and a personnel which is assigned to perform the official tasks. Its
applications include emails, voice mails, word processing etc.
3. Knowledge Works System (KWS)
It is an advance system that fastens knowledge creation and ensures that businesses apply
their technical skills and knowledge correctly. It helps workers in creating and spreading
information using graphics, communication and document management tools. CAD,
Financial Workstations, Virtual Reality Systems are some of its examples.
4. Management Information Systems (MIS)
It helps the middle managers and supervisors by pulling transactional data from various
Transactional Processing Systems, compiling the information and presenting it in reports and
displays, overall controlling the work flow.
5. Decision Support System (DSS)
It gives middle managers the information necessary to make informed and smart decisions.
It is interactive and converts large pieces of information into easy to use form that can be
easily analysed and used in decision making.
6. Executive Support System (ESS)
It is very similar to MIS but has higher stakes involved as it helps in Executive decision
making. It aids in monitoring performances, track competitors, spot opportunities and
predict future trends.

Companies today are using even more advance systems, by using the “path-based-approach” and
making advancements in these according to their requirements at different stages. Different IT
systems are used in supporting a different level of the organisation.

Information systems are widely used in various applications through out the organisation. In this
digital age people have learned and adapted to co work with information systems. They make
processing of information way easier. More so, the amount of data that is generated in this digital
age is so vast that it humanly not possible to process it in such a short time.

For example, Swiggy reduces customer wait time and increases customer retention by banking on its
history of order-level data and delivery fleet data. They process around 40 billion data points per day
using AI and IT systems. It is not practically possible to process this data manually.

Businesses today are applying IT Systems in various domains.

 Data Storage
 Rolling out new products and services
 Simplified Decision Making
 Improving Employee behaviours and attitudes
 Communication
 Education
 Employment
 Finance
 Healthcare
 Security