UU – COM-1011-MW

Fundamentals of Computer Organiza-

tion and Operations

WEEK 7 – INFORMATION SYSTEMS

For this week’s material, you will be introduced to information systems and provided with several

exercises and questions are designed to improve your understanding of the core concepts.

The following will be covered this week:

A. Information Systems

o Information Systems concepts

o Information System components

B. Exercises

o Types of Information Systems

o Describing the components of different information systems

o Q&A

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INFORMATION SYSTEMS

INFORMATION SYSTEMS CONCEPTS

An Information System is the collection of personnel, information technologies, processes and pro-

cedures that an organization, business or entity uses to carry out their day-to-day objectives. Person-

nel refers to the people, stakeholders and partners that engage, interact or participate in key processes

and procedures. Processes and Procedures refer to goal oriented tasks that are required for success-

ful outcomes (i.e. business objectives). Information Technologies refer to the computer hardware

and software that are used by personnel to towards the successful achievement of goal oriented tasks.

(Stair & Reynolds, 2017).

Types of information systems

Although many information systems are built accordingly to the field of work or profession, there

exists a general hierarchical structure of common systems that are found in the majority of modern

working environments. The general categories of information systems are for; operational support,

knowledge work support, management support, and strategy support.

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1. Operational Support: used by Operational Workers for activities such as sales, marketing,

manufacturing, production, finance, accounting and human relations

2. Knowledge Work Support: used by Knowledge Workers within the organization for

knowledge optimisation, retention, acquisition and documentation

3. Management Support: used by Middle Managers for middle management based activities

and decision making

4. Strategy Support: used by Senior Management for upper management strategic decision

making

Types of Operational Support Information Systems

1. Supply Chain Management (SCM)

SCM is an information system that manages activities that aid in getting products and services

to consumers. Activities can include management of the movement, storage, supply of prod-

ucts and services, inventory management and partner relationship management.

2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM is an information system that is used for the management of interactions between current

and future customers of an organization or a business. CRM systems can be used for a variety

of purposes including customer support or as a platform for marketing and sales.

3. Transaction Processing System (TPS)

A TPS is used for the tracking and recording of day-to-day business transactions. These types

of systems can include point-of-sale, payroll, stock-control and various types of booking sys-

tems. The output from a TPS can be used by management to assist in decision making related

to organization wide transactions.

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4. Office Automation System (OAS)

An OAS is a system that consists of hardware, software, information and communication

technologies used by personnel to carry out all essential organization wide day-to-day busi-

ness tasks and activities. Tasks and activities can include word-processing, sending emails,

scheduling, printing or generating reports.

Types of Knowledge Work Support Information Systems

1. Professional Support Systems (PSS)

A PSS is a specialised system used for a particular tasks related to a specific field of work or

profession. Some examples of PSS are Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided En-

gineering (CAE), these are information systems used to assist prototyping, modelling, design-

ing and engineering of products.

2. Knowledge Management Systems (KMS)

A KMS is a system that is used to create, store, share and use internal organizational infor-

mation, knowledge and experience for use by staff inside an organization. The use of infor-

mation in a KMS can be done for the sharing of knowledge, maintenance and transfer of best

practice, adherence to ethical standards and for internal and external collaboration.

3. Knowledge Work Systems (KWS)

Similar to Knowledge Management Systems, a KWS supports the creation, storage, sharing

and use of organizational information knowledge and experience for use by staff inside an

organization. As with a KMS, a KWS supports knowledge maintenance sharing and acquisi-

tion.

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Types of Management Support Information Systems

1. Decision Support Systems (DSS)

A DSS is a system compromising of an organized set of people, procedures, software, data-

bases and devices that provide management support for problem-specific decision making. A

DSS is optimised for providing valuable solutions to complex problems that can assist man-

agers in making better decisions.

2. Management Information System (MIS)

A MIS is a system compromising of an organized set of people, procedures, software, data-

bases and devices that provide management essential information for critical decision making

tasks. A MIS is optimised for operational efficiency and provides managers the ability to gen-

erate reports that contain information and data from within the organization.

3. Management Reporting System (MRS)

A MRS contains critical data and information that mangers can use to run the business or

organization more effectively. Information and data in a MRS is specific to the company but

include a variety of reports including financial, key success factors and metrics or perfor-

mance statistics.

Types of Strategy Support Information Systems

1. Executive Support System (ESS)

An ESS is used by senior managers to aid strategic and organization wide decision making

tasks. ESS provides the ability to produce reports with critical information useful for strategic

planning such as short-term and long-term trend analysis and forecasting.

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INFORMATION SYSTEM C OMPONENTS

Within a given Information System you have a set of system activities and a set of resources that

allow the system to function optimally. The system activities consists of tasks that control the perfor-

mance of the system, tasks for the input and output of data, the processing of data and the output of

information with the ability to store data at any given point of any process.

The components of an information system are grouped into the following categories;

1. People Resources

a. These resources are the users within an organisation and other stakeholders such as

internal staff, IT support or the end users.

2. Software Resources

a. These resources are used by the people and consists of programs and procedures to

carry out day-to-day activities

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3. Hardware Resources

a. These resources consist of the physical computer hardware including computing ma-

chines, storage mediums, input and output peripherals and other useful accessories

4. Network Resources

a. These resources include communications hardware including such as mobile phones,

internal and external networks and other internet and network enabled devices.

5. Data Resources

a. Includes both internal and external data and knowledge used to support day-to-day

activities.

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EXERCISES

TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS (WEEKLY DISCUSSION TOPIC)

Choose ONE type of information system from the list below, explain how it works and provide a few

practical applications in which it may be used.

 Executive Support System (ESS)

 Management Information System (MIS)

 Decision Support System (DSS)

 Knowledge Management System (KMS)

 Geographic Information System

 Search Engines

 Data Warehouse

 Office Automation System (OAS)

DESCRIBING THE COMPO NENTS OF DIFFERENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

You are required to build an information system for a company that specialises in graphic design for

businesses needing to advertise their services. This company’s day to day processes and activities are

mainly working on designs for their clients, providing walk-in printing services as well as managing

customer requests via an interactive communication platform that ensures customers are engaged in

the design process prior to being delivered the final product.

From your knowledge of information systems, describe the layout of the IS, the components of the

IS and the function and interaction of each component in the system, describe the following;

1. Personnel requirements

a. Describe the processes, procedures, roles and responsibilities of each person

2. Hardware requirements

a. Describe the choice of CPU suitable the different departments of the business

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b. Describe the computer or device configuration(s) that is suitable for each department

c. Describe the types of storage system(s) required and the required configuration

d. Describe the essential I/O output devices required to support the business processes

3. Software requirements

a. Describe the types of software needed for the key business processes

b. Describe the choice of software model based on the business priorities and other re-

quirements (i.e. Proprietary software, open-source or in-house)

c. Describe the communication software requirements for relevant business processes

4. Network requirements

a. Describe the suitable network system and additional network based hardware devices

or configurations needed

5. Data requirements

a. Describe the type of data and storage management requirements

b. Describe the processes for data risk management

c. Describe the processes and procedures for data storage and backup

Q&A

The questions in this section will test your knowledge of the previous weekly material. Answer each

of the questions and make sure you can effectively demonstrate your understanding by providing

useful and relevant examples.

1. For what type of information system may you need to consider choosing a hardware configu-

ration that is capable of high performance multiprocessing and parallel computing?

2. Which choice of secondary storage devices are most effective for the storage of data in a

Knowledge Management System?

3. List each of the key Input and Output devices that are normally used in the information system

(or systems) that your local bank may use.

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a. What type of information system(s) is it?

b. Describe briefly each input/output device and it’s role inside the information system

4. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used in a number of Information Systems for the purpose

of improving or adapting processes and procedures based on certain sets data.

a. Explain how an AI can be used in a Football League

b. What types of data will be most relevant for the AI in the above scenario?

c. What business specific outcomes can be improved by the use of an AI in a football

league?

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Fundamentals of Computer Organiza-
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REFERENCES

Brookshear, J. G., & Brylow, D. (2015). Computer Science: An Overview (12th Edition). Pearson

Education.

Forouzan, B. A. (2017). Foundations of Computer Science. Cengage Learning.

Stair, R., & Reynolds, G. (2017). Fundamentals of Information Systems (9th ed.). Cengage Learning.

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