Infs 432. Organizational Info Systems

Lecture 1:
Introduction and Definition of Terms
LECTURER: DR. DE-GRAFT JOHNSON AMENUVEVE DEI

djdei@ug.edu.gh
0243775571
Outline
• This session will focus on the following
• What is Organisation
• Types of Organisations
• Data, information and knowledge
• Views of Information
• Organisational Information
• Communication
WHAT IS AN ORGANIZATION?
Organizations may be defined as

➢ A group of people who have come together, whether formally or informally, to achieve a
common purpose or goal.
➢ A social group, a religious group, an educational group, a professional group or even a gang of
robbers.
➢ the aggregation of people who are expected to create, communicate and use data and
information, as well as knowledge towards achieving specific goals.
➢ an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more
people and having a particular purpose.
➢ All organizations are human-centered
• Every organization, whether small or big has three basic features.
• These are:
1. Structure
2. Purpose
3. Co-ordination
Types of Organisations
• Types of Organisations
• There are two broad categories of organisation, which are:
1. Formal Organisation
• the authority, roles and responsibility are clearly defined.
• has predefined policies, rules, schedules, procedures and programs.
• The decision making activity in a formal organisation is mostly based on
predefined policies.
2. Informal Organisation
• They do not have a defined hierarchy of authority and responsibility.
• The relationship between employees is formed based on common interests,
preferences and prejudices.
Types of Organisations
• Formal Organisation:
• Formal organisation is that type of organisation structure where the
authority and responsibility are clearly defined. The organisation
structure has a defined delegation of authority and roles and
responsibilities for the members.
• The formal organisation has predefined policies, rules, schedules,
procedures and programs. The decision making activity in a formal
organisation is mostly based on predefined policies.
• Formal organisation structure is created by the management with the
objective of attaining the organisational goals.
•Data, information and knowledge
The Concept of Information
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• Data becomes information through:
• Contextualisation:
• explaining the purpose of the data
• Categorisation:
• defining data into units of analysis or key components
• Calculating:
• analysing the data using mathematics or statistics
• Correction:
• removing errors from data
• Condensation:
• summarising data to form a concise message
•VIEWS OF INFORMATION
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Views of Information
• Information as process
• information-as-knowledge,
• Information-as-thing
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Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh Slide 12
Views of Information:
Information-as-process
• In this sense "information" is

• The act of informing...;
• communication of the knowledge or `news' of some fact or occurrence;
• the action of telling or fact of being told of something.
• When someone is informed, what they know is changed.
• A system of the telling of something or being told of something.
• Example, being in dialogue with others.
• As a student, you are informed of new ideas and new facts through class
lectures or peer conversations that influence the way you think and how
you perceive the world around me.
Information-as-knowledge
• The intelligence being communicated through information-as-process –

• What is been perceived
• The content
• the "knowledge communicated concerning some particular fact, subject, or
event; that of which one is apprised or told; intelligence, news
• Eg,
• Mastering a language after years of practice and dialogue in that particular
language for learning.
• This information turns into a form of knowledge (specifically, a language skill) in
my brain that you can impart in the future through conversation or text.
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Information-as-thing
• It consists objects, such as
• data and documents, that are referred to as "information" because they are
regarded as being informative, as "having the quality of imparting knowledge or
communicating information; instructive
• The kind of information we encounter in passing in our every day lives.
• Eg.
• Information through news, whether it is news on social media or news in the
newspaper
• You learn about the robot and the features it has to accomplish certain tasks.
• the robot you are studying for research in human-centered design.
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•Forms & Sources of
Information

Forms of Information
Forms of information include:

• Internal and external
• Electronic, hard copy (paper-based) and spoken
• Formal/Informal
• Quantitative and Qualitative.
• Public, private, personal
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Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh
Sources of Information
• Three main sources of information:

• Primary,
• Secondary,
• Tertiary
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CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATION
 Static or Dynamic
 Recurrent or Non-recurrent
 Action oriented or Non- action oriented
 Internally generated or Externally generated
 Machine dependent or non machine dependent
Importance of Organizational Information
• As administrative tool
• For decision making
• For accountability
• Reduction of uncertainty
• Source of empowerment
• Monitoring, evaluation control
• Corporate memory
Communication
• For information to impart knowledge, it must be communicated and
used.
• Communication is basically the transmission of information from one
location (the source) to another (the destination) through a medium
(the channel).
• Seital (2004) defines communication as the process of exchanging
information, imparting ideas and making one’s self understood by
others.
Communication
It can be done:
• Orally – through durbars, forums, etc.
• Writing-through reports, figures correspondence etc.
• Graphically – pictures, illustrations, etc.
• Visually – through slides, microforms, etc.
• Audio visually – film shows, videos, etc.
• Electronically – through computer networks.
Choice of communication channel
When transmitting information, the channel of communication must be
carefully selected with regard to the following:
• The nature of the information
• The purpose of the information
• The speed required
• The requirements and the needs of the users.
• The capabilities of the users at the destination.
• The technology that is available at the intended destination for reception
and decoding the transmitted information.
Good quality, relevant and timely information is crucial to the efficient
functioning of every organization.
•Knowledge

What is Knowledge?
• Understanding derived from information
• Fact/information and skills acquired through education, experience,
or practical understanding of a subject/event
• Familiarity, awareness or understanding of something, person,
activity, event etc
• a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information and
expert insight that provide a framework for evaluating and
incorporating new experiences and information
Types of Knowledge
Types of
Knowledge

Types of Knowledge

Types of Knowledge

•Wisdom
Slide
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6/19/2023 Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh

Wisdom
• The appreciation and application of knowledge
• It requires mental function that we call judgment.
• Wisdom is therefore, the process by which we also discern, or
judge, between right and wrong, good and bad.
• It is sometimes described as
• integrated knowledge (ie. information made super-useful).
• knowing the right things to do" and "the ability to make sound
judgments and decisions apparently without thought".
• Wisdom is a uniquely human state, or as I see it, wisdom requires
one to have a soul, for it resides as much in the heart as in the
mind.
Information Fatigue Syndrome (IFS)
• IFS (information fatigue syndrome) is defined as
• a condition in which the volume of potentially useful and relevant
information exceeds the processing capacity of a person.
• Mental exhaustion arising from exposure to too much information,
especially stress induced by the attempt to assimilate excessive
amounts of information.
• Information Fatigue Syndrome causes employees to
• devote insufficient amounts of time to their messages or even to stop reading
some of the mail.
Information Fatigue Syndrome (IFS)
The symptoms of Information Fatigue Syndrome:
• Poor concentration due to the overloading
• often resulting in diminished multi-tasking rather than increased
productivity
• Pervasive hostility resulting in a chronic state of irritability near anger or
even rage
• Habituation or over stimulation which causes the brain to shut down and
enter a trance-like state
• “Plugged in” compulsion is the strong need to check email, voice mail and
the Internet in order to stay “in touch”
• Traditional stress including lowered immune response, endocrine
imbalance, depression and the experience of “burn out”
Activities
1 2
• Using the Knowledge pyramid as • List eight information sources that
a guide, list five items of data, you use on a regular basis
information and knowledge.
• Categorise them as formal or
• Summarize what you use each informal, internal or external,
item for – your purpose electronic, hard copy
• Note how you add value to each • Identify your three most useful
item to create information or
sources and analyse why these are
knowledge
the most useful
• Who is involved in this process?
6/19/2023 Slide 33
Lecture: 3
SYSTEMS & INFORMATION SYSTEMS CONCEPT

djdei@ug.edu.gh
0243775571
Outline
• System Concept
• Elements of Systems
• Characteristics of Systems
• Types of Systems
• Functions of System
•Systems Concept
Systems Concept
• System is a group of interrelated components working together
towards a common goal by accepting inputs and producing outputs
in an organized transformation process.
• they are linked together according to a plan to achieve a specific
goal".
Systems Concept
• All systems operate in an environment.
• The environment may influence the system in its design and
performance.
• When a system is designed to achieve certain objective, it
automatically sets the boundaries for itself.
• The understanding of boundaries of the system is essential to bring
clarity in explaining the system components and their arrangement
Elements of Systems
• Elements of Systems
• Inputs
• Outputs
• Processing or transformation
• Monitoring & Control
• Environment/surroundings
• Feedback
• Boundaries and interface
• Relationship
Elements of Systems
• Input :
• It is defined as energizing or start up component on which system operates.
• It may be raw material, data, physical source, knowledge or any energy to decide
the nature of output.
• Processor :
• It is defined as the activity that makes possible the transformation of input to
output.
• When data is processed through computer it is processed through logical steps.
• However these steps are required to be instructed in series to the computer.
Elements of Systems
• Output :
• It is end result of the operation.
• In other words it is the purpose or the main objective for which the system is
designed.
• Though output is largely dependent on input, its nature or format may vary vastly
from the input.
• For example:
• If data keyed is in numerical form it may display output which is in form of graph or pictorial
form.
Elements of Systems
• Boundary & environment:
• Every system has its limits that determine the sphere of influence & control is
called as Boundary of the system.
• Everything within the circumscribed space is called system & everything
outside it is environment.
• Flow from environment to the system is its input while a flow from system to
its environment is the output.
• Boundary of the system may exist physically or conceptually.
Elements of Systems
• Feedback control:
• In order to improve the performance of any system feedback control
mechanism can be used as a tool or device to control or modify the input of
the system after analyzing the output properly
Common Characteristics of Systems
• System boundary and environment

• System inputs, outputs and processes
• Ability to change or adapt or respond to varying inputs
• System purpose, goal or objectives
• System feedback
• System control
Types of Systems
Systems are classified in different ways:
• Physical Systems
• Abstract systems.
• Open System
• Closed systems.
• Man-made system
• Sub-system
Types of Systems
Systems are classified in different ways:
• Physical Systems
• They are tangible or the material entities.
• In the case of a library, the physical parts are the books, shelves, desks, chairs, etc.
Types of Systems
• Abstract systems.
• They are conceptual on non-physical entities.
• They may be prototypes or formulas of relationships among sets of
variables or models- the abstract conceptualization of physical
situations.
• For example a model is a representation of a real or planned system.
• The utilization of models makes it simpler for the analyst to visualize
relationships in the system under study
Types of Systems
• Open Systems:
• An open system is one which has several interfaces with its
environment.
• It allows interface across its boundary.
• It receives inputs and delivers outputs to the outside.
• The library system falls into this category, since it must adapt to the
changing demands of the user.
Types of Systems
• Closed Systems:
• A closed system is one that is isolated from environmental influences.
• In actual, a closed system is uncommon.
• In system analysis, organizations, applications, and computers are
invariably open, dynamic systems influenced by their environment.
• The concept of closed system is more relevant to scientific systems
than to social systems.
Types of Systems
• Man–Made Information Systems
• It is an interconnected set of information resources to manage data for particular
organization.
• This system includes hardware, software, communication, data, and application
for producing information according to the need of an organization.
• Man-made information systems are divided into three types −
• Formal Information System −
• It is based on the flow of information in the form of memos, instructions, etc., from top level to lower
levels of management.
• Informal Information System −
• This is employee based system which solves the day to day work related problems.
• Computer Based System −
• This system is directly dependent on the computer for managing business applications. For example,
automatic library system, railway reservation system, banking system, etc.
Types of Systems
• Subsystem
• A subsystem is a set of elements, which is a system itself, and a component
of a larger system.
• Sub systems are the smaller systems within a system.
• Each system is part of a large system.
• The business firm is viewed as the system or total system when focus is on
production, distribution of goal and sources of profit and income.
• The total system consists of all the objects, attributes and relationship
necessary to accomplish an objective given a number of constraints.
Functions of Information Systems
• All information systems carry out a series of functions that may be
classified as follows:
• Data capture and collection.
• Storage.
• Information processing.
• Distribution or dissemination of information.
Lecture: 3
INFORMATION SYSTEMS

djdei@ug.edu.gh
0243775571
Outline
• Information Systems Concept
• Components of Information System
• People resources
• Hardware resources
• Software resources
• Data and Information resources
• Networking systems
• Facts of information systems
•Information Systems
What is Information System?
• An information system is
• a combination of software, hardware, and telecommunication networks to
collect useful data, especially in an organisation.
• an integration of components for collection, storage
and processing of data of which the data is used to provide information,
contribute to knowledge as well as digital products that facilitate decision
making
• a sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, store,
and distribute information.
• From a sociotechnical perspective, information systems are composed by four
components: task, people, structure (or roles), and technology
What is Information System?
An information system (IS)
• a set of interrelated components that collect, process, store, and distribute
information to support decision making and control in an organization.”
• A combinations of hardware, software, and telecommunications networks that

people build and use to collect, create, and distribute useful data, typically in
organizational settings.”
• interrelated components working together to collect, process, store, and

disseminate information to support decision making, coordination, control,
analysis, and visualization in an organization.”
What is Information System
• As you can see these definitions focus on two different ways of describing
information systems:
• the components that make up an information system and the role those
components play in an organization.
• Each of these need to be examined.
• Many organisations use information technology to complete and manage
their operations, interact with their consumers, and stay ahead of their
competition.
• Business firms and other organizations rely on information systems to
carry out and manage their operations, interact with their customers and
suppliers, and compete in the marketplace.
Some examples of such systems are:
• intelligent system • geographic information system

• computing platform • global information system
• data warehouses • management information system
• decision support system • multimedia information system
• enterprise systems • process control system
• enterprise resource planning • social information systems
• expert systems • search engines
• office automation
• Information systems include
• Formal information systems.
• Informal information systems.
• Computer-based information systems
• Formal information systems.
• A system where information is organized in a formal way.
• This means that the system is designed to collect, store, and process information in
a way that is efficient and effective.
• The system may be used to support decision making, to track progress, or to
provide information to users.
• In the formal information system, there is very clear work-flow system,
communication flow-down and the authority.
• Informal information systems.
• it is an employee based system designed to meet personal and vocational needs
and to help in the solution of work related problems.
• It also funnels information upward through indirect channels.
• It works within the framework of the business and its stated policies.
• Computer-based information systems.
• This category of information system depends mainly on the computer for handling
business applications.
• System analyst develops different types of information systems to meet variety of
business needs.
• There is a class of system collectively known as computer based information
system.
• They can be classified as
• Transaction Processing System (TPS)
• Management Information System(MIS)
• Decision Support System (DSS)
• Office Automation System (OAS)
•Facts of information systems
Facts of information systems
• The products of information technology are part of our daily lives.
• Here are some of the facts about information systems.
• Necessary for businesses to grow
• Better data storage and access
• Better decision making
• Necessary for businesses to grow
• Every organisation has computer-related operations that are critical to getting the
job done.
• In a business, there may be a need for computer software, implementation of
network architecture to achieve the company’s objectives or designing apps,
websites, or games.
• So, any company that is looking to secure its future needs to integrate a well-
designed information system.
• Better data storage and access
• Such a system is also useful for storing operational data, documents,
communication records, and histories.
• As manual data may cost a lot of time, information systems can be very helpful in it.
• Information system stores data in a sophisticated manner, making the process of
finding the data much easier.
• Better decision making
• Information system helps a business in its decision-making process.
• With an information system, delivering all the important information is easier to
make better decisions.
• In addition, an information system allows employees to communicate effectively.
• As the documents are stored in folders, it is easier to share and access them with
the employees.
•Components of Information System
Components of the Information
Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh -

0243775571 -
18
System
People Resources
20
People Resources
People Resources
• People are required for the operation of all information systems.
• These people resources include end users and information system
specialists.
• The people interacting with the computer system are also an element of it.
• It describe human involvement in the development of computer technology
• They are the ultimate “users” of the computer systems.
• It refer to anything that has to do with the role of people in the
development or use of computer software and hardware systems
Components of Information System
People Resources
• End users (also called users or clients)
• They are people who use an information system or the information it produces.
• They can be accountants, salespersons, engineers, clerks, customers, or managers.
• Most of us are information system end users.
• Information System Specialists
• They are people who develop and operate information systems.
• They include systems analysts, programmers, computer operators, and other managerial
technical, and clerical IS personnel.
• Briefly, systems analysts design information systems based on the information requirements
of end uses, programmers prepare computer programs based on the specifications of
systems analysts, and computer operators operate large computer systems.
People Resources
• Programmers:
• Professionals who write the computer programs that allow users to interact with the
computer.
• They must have technical knowledge of computers and computer languages.
• System Analyst:
• They mainly design data processing systems, and solve problems that arise in data
processing
• Systems administrators
• Webtech specialists
• Hardware expects 23
Hardware Resources
• The concept of Hardware resources includes all physical devices and
materials used in information processing.
• Specially, it includes not only machines, such as computers and other
equipment, but also all data media, that is, all tangible objects on which
data is recorded, from sheets of paper to magnetic disks.
• Example of hardware in computer-based information systems are:
• Computer systems,
• Computer peripherals,
Hardware Resources
• Computer systems,
• which consist of central processing units containing microprocessors, and variety
of interconnected peripheral devices.
• Examples are microcomputer systems, midrange computer systems, and large
mainframe computer systems.
• Computer peripherals,
• which are devices such as a keyboard or electronic mouse for input of data and
commands, a video screen or printer for output of information, and magnetic or
optical disks for storage of data resources.
Categories/components of Hardware
1. Input
2. Process
3. Output Devices
4. Storage
5. Internal
6. External
Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh - 0243775571 - Slide 26

Software Resources
• The concept of Software Resources includes all sets of information processing instructions.
• This generic concept of software includes not only the sets of operating instructions called
programs, which direct and control computer hardware, but also the sets of information
processing instructions needed by people, called procedures.
• It is important to understand that even information systems that don’t use computers have a
software resource component.
• This is true even for the information systems of ancient times, or the manual and machine-
supported information systems still used in the world today.
• They all require software resources in the form of information processing instructions and
procedures in order to properly capture, process, and disseminate information to their users.
• The following are the examples of software resources:
• System Software,
• Application Software,
Software Resources
• System Software,
• such as an operating system program, which con controls and supports the
operations of a computer system.
• Application Software,
• which are programs that direct processing for a particular use of computers by
end users.
• Examples are a sales analysis program, a payroll program, and a work processing
program.
Network Resources
• Telecommunications networks like the Internet, intranets, and extranets
have become essential to the successful operations of all types of
organizations and their computer-based information systems.
• Telecommunications networks consist of computers, communications
processors, and other devices interconnected by communications media
and controlled by communications software.
• The concept of Network resources emphasizes that communications
networks are a fundamental resource component of all information
systems. Network resources include:
• Communication media,
• Network Support,
Network Resources
• Communication media,
• Examples include twisted pair wire, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable, microwave
systems, and communication satellite systems.
• Network Support,
• This generic category includes all of the people, hardware, software, and data
resources that directly support the operation and use of a communications
network.
• Examples include communications control software such as network operating
systems and Internet packages.
Lecture: 4
SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE OFFICE

djdei@ug.edu.gh
0243775571
Outline
• A systems View of an Office
• Characteristics of Office System
• Office Automation
• Types of office Automation systems
• Need or Importance of Systems and Procedures
• Principles of an Office System
• Benefits of Office Automation
•A systems View of an Office
A systems View of an Office
• An office has its own system to do office work.
• The reason is that volume of work of an office differ from
another.
• System means a preplanned approach to do the day to day
work to achieve the desired objectives of an organization.
• Three factors are involved in doing office work. They are
• persons,
• forms and
• equipment.
• Hence, right types of persons should be selected.
• The standard forms are used to do the office work very
effectively.
• The selected equipment should be standard one.
• An office is
• an organizational unit that processes the information on which the
functioning of an organization depends.
• an orderly arrangement of whole activities of an office and framing of

procedures to be followed for the effective and economic performance
of work.
• planning of an office work systematically to achieve the main and

subsidiary objectives of an organization within minimum efforts and
costs.
• An office systems contains
• Layout:
• Services
• Infrastructure
• Activities
• Operators
• How the above components of an office system are brought together to

serve and support the organisation constitutes the office configuration
• The configuration of an office system is largely determined by the
organization system that contains it and is mainly affected by
1. the nature of the organization,
2. size of the organization,
3. its requirement and
4. types of office technology employed.
• Taking the extent of office technology utilization, one can then have a
continuum of offices ranging from
• Traditional, Beginner, IT supported, Networked office, to Virtual offices.
•Characteristics of Office System
Characteristics of Office System
• These are the following characteristic of a good office system:
• Office systems are inter-related parts operating in a sequence and they are not
isolated actions.
• Office systems are concerned with the method of work in the office.
• They aim at achieving the goal of an enterprise.
• They are concerned with the place and the time of performance of work in the
office or any part of the enterprise.
•Office Automation
Office Automation
• Office automation refers to
• the use of information technology to support
routine office activities and functions.
• any information systems intended to increase the
productivity of office workers.
• Such systems would enable things to be done
• faster, cheaper and better, i.e., inefficiency and
effectiveness gains.
Office Automation
• This work includes, but not limited to
1. Document management:
• capturing, processing, producing, communicating,
storing and sharing
2. Collaborative work
3. Management of project activities:
• time, money, idea, and other resources
4. Personal organization,
5. Other administrative tasks, organizing meetings,
office record handling
Office Automation
• Further, OAS could be used
organisationally to
• coordinate and manage work of office
workers within an organizational unit
• link the work being performed across
all levels and functions and
• link the organization to its extended
enterprises, that is customers,
suppliers and other partners.
•Types of office Automation systems
Types of office Automation systems
• Office Automation Systems include
1. Personal OAS
2. Group OAS
1. Personal OAS include

• Dictation and transcription
• Word processing • Filling
• Spreadsheet • Inter-office communication
• Database management • Duplicating and reproductive
• Data Presentation services
• Desktop Publishing • Mailing-incoming and outgoing
• Personal Schedulers • Telephone and telegraph services
• Communication
2. Group OAS
• Groupware applications support collaboration and communication of
groups in either synchronous or asynchronous basis.
• While synchronous systems support same time collaboration and
communication, asynchronous modes support these across different
times.
• These applications assist teams of people within and/or across an
organisation in working together and help in achieving the three Cs –
• Communication,
• Collaboration and
• Coordination.
•Need or Importance of Systems and
Procedures
Need or Importance of Systems and Procedures
• An office system is based on the nature of work performed and the extent of inter-
linking among them. So, office system is required to achieve the following objectives.
• Improve Operating Efficiency: • Facilitating the introduction of

• Maintain Uniform Procedure: new checks
• Optimum Utilization of Resources:
• Achieving Organization Goals:
• Simplify the training
• Reduce office Expenses:
• Errors Reduced
• Minimize the Operating Expenses:
• Smooth Running of an Office
• Fixation of Responsibility:
• Prevention of Fraud
• Better Coordination:
• Minimize the Operating Expenses:
• Standard or maximum limit i» fixed for each and every type of expenses.
• The actual expenses can be measured and compared with standard.
• Necessary steps can be taken to minimize the operating expenses, if needed.
• Fixation of Responsibility:
• Works are assigned to the office personnel specifically.
• In this way, the responsibility is fixed for satisfactory performance.
• Facilitating the introduction of new checks:
• Sometimes, duty lists can he prepared for office personnel separately and
also included in the office manual.
• This process facilitates the introduction of new check system.
• Achieving Organization Goals:

• The performance of any work leads to achievement of organization goals.
• Here, well designed office system helps to achieve organization goals in a
better way.
• Simplify the training:
• Office system clearly indicates degree of skill required to do a job.
• The result is selecting the best training requirements of office
personnel.
• Errors Reduced:
• A good office system can reduce the chances of errors and improve the
overall efficiency of an organization.
• Smooth Running of an Office:
• Delays and bottlenecks in the performance of work are reduced with the help of
good office systems.
• Prevention of Fraud:
• Office system includes internal verification or internal checking.
• Internal checking assists to prevent the frauds and exercise better control over
work.
• Better Coordination:
• Coordination is necessary among various sections or departments.
• The required coordination can be arrived by having good office system.
1. Eliminates human error.
2. Saves time and increases work efficiency.
3. Provides timely analysis and reporting of performance metrics.
4. Integrates your office database, and creates a secure, centralized data access
platform.
5. Quick on identifying any potential issues and serves you with a sound business
solution.
6. It gives you an overall perspective of ongoing processes and office workflow.
7. Reduced labor on a single task, making extra room for undertaking multiple
projects simultaneously.
8. Helps offices with data backup and recovery solutions, and provides security
from any internal or external threats.
•Principles of an Office System
Principles of an Office System
• General principles of office system are listed below.
• To avoid any interruption in the smooth running of office work.
• To avoid duplication of work and records.
• To avoid unnecessary movement of persons.
• To avoid unnecessary writing.
• To avoid using unnecessary forms.
• To prepare the best use of specialization.
• To adopt labour-saving machines.
Principles of an Office System
• To minimize the writing work of the staff.
• To apply the principle of management by exception
• To have simple, economic, efficient and practicable system and
procedure.
• To avoid unnecessary checking or verification.
• To use simple forms to be filled in.
• To avoid use of machines for personal gains.
• To increase the efficiency of the office work.
• To achieve goals at the minimum cost.
Exercise 1: A paperless office
• Futurist Alvin Toffler wrote in 1970 “making paper copies of anything is a
primitive use of machines and violates their very spirit”. According to the
predictions of that time, most people by now should be working in offices
so computerized that paper is virtually obsolete. It was also predicted that
as offices turned to electronic files, the use of printed-paper would decline
dramatically.
1. Reflect back to an office (offices) that you are familiarized with, if the office was
using office automation systems, do you think that the use of OAS increased or
decreased printed papers?
1. Why?
2. What are the primary factors that facilitate or inhibit the trend towards a
paperless office?
Exercise 2 : Automating an Office Mini Case
• (Developed from Sculli and Ho, 2001)
• A company is engaged in the production of industrial products. The prime function of the company is to
distribute the products in the far east region, Korea, China and Hong Kong. It also provides pre-sale and
after sale services. The company is based in Hong Kong and has about 50 staff. The office layout consisted
of rooms for executives, cubicles for senior technical and administrative staff and an open working area
with desks for other minor staff. The computer infrastructure in the general office consisted of a
mainframe, for running integrated application software for distribution management and accounting.
There was also a smaller computer for sending, receiving and routing telex messages. New investments in
computer systems are planned that include the installation of PC’s, a local area network and the purchase
of related software to automate the office.
• Required
• Management is uncertain about the new office configuration and has called upon you as a consultant to
investigate and identify the key issues that they should be concerned with.
• What will be the primary concerns of managers, users?
• Why?
Lecture: 6
TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

djdei@ug.edu.gh
0243775571
Outline
• Introduction
• Levels of Information System and decision making
• Types of Information System
1. Office automation systems
2. Transaction processing system
3. Decision support systems
4. Executive information systems
5. Business expert system
Introduction
• A typical organization is divided into
• operational,
• middle, and
• upper level.
• The information requirements for users at each level differ.
• Towards that end, there are number of information systems that
support each level in an organization.
• Understanding the various levels of an organization is essential to
understand the information required by the users who operate at
their respective levels.
Levels of Information System and decision making
• Operational management level
• The operational level is concerned with performing day to day business transactions of
the organization.
• Examples of users at this level of management include cashiers at a point of sale, bank
tellers, nurses in a hospital, customer care staff, etc.
• Users at this level use make structured decisions.
• This means that they have defined rules that guides them while making decisions.
• For example,
• if a store sells items on credit and they have a credit policy that has some set limit on the
borrowing.
• All the sales person needs to decide whether to give credit to a customer or not is
based on the current credit information from the system.
• Tactical Management Level
• This organization level is dominated by middle-level managers, heads of departments,
supervisors, etc.
• The users at this level usually oversee the activities of the users at the operational
management level.
• Tactical users make semi-structured decisions.
• The decisions are partly based on set guidelines and judgmental calls.
• As an example,
• a tactical manager can check the credit limit and payments history of a customer and decide to
make an exception to raise the credit limit for a particular customer.
• The decision is partly structured in the sense that the tactical manager has to use
existing information to identify a payments history that benefits the organization and
an allowed increase percentage.
• Strategic Management Level
• This is the most senior level in an organization.
• The users at this level make unstructured decisions.
• Senior level managers are concerned with the long-term planning of
the organization.
• They use information from tactical managers and external data to
guide them when making unstructured decisions.
•Types of Information System
Types of Information System
• Organizations use several types of information systems to suit their
needs.
• The various types of information systems that an organization uses may
be classified into the following categories:
1.Office automation systems
2.Transaction processing system
3.Decision support systems
4.Executive information systems
5.Business expert system
• Apart from these broad classes of information systems, organizations
also use specific information systems for some special tasks like executive
information system, enterprise (wide) resource planning systems,
customer relationship management systems and supply chain
management system.
Office Automation Systems
• This type of information system aids in automating office tasks.
• They have a limited role in decision-making and are more useful for operational level
people.
• The information coming out of this kind of system can be used for rule-based decision-
making for managers at the operational level.
• These systems however play an important role in automating several functions of an
office and thus help in creating paperless offices.
• These kinds of systems help in increasing the productivity and efficiency of the office
workforce by automating simple tasks.
• These systems mostly deal with operational data.
• More and more modern businesses are opting for this paperless office environment as
this brings in the following unique advantages for the business:
• Office work becomes faster and process driven.
• All basic level data is digitized and stored for future action.
• An example of office automation system is the office suite of software that helps
in automating simple office tasks like presentations and documentation.
• Sometimes we also come across a class of systems called the operations support
system (OSS).
• OSS also work with the lowest level of management is ensuring that the
operations of the firm are performed smoothly.
• OSS can be very different from Office Automation System even though they both
help bottom level managers, in term of the information complexity involved.
Transaction Processing System
• This type of system is critical to the smooth functioning of an organization.
• The objective of this kind of system is to capture all transaction related
data between the organization and its external and internal customers.
• Typically, these transaction level data are stored in a pre-formatted
manner in a relational database for further action in future.
• TPS is the most widely used form of information systems as they provide
the management with the flexibility of storing data in a structured manner
and retrieving it at a later date using a query facility.
• The system also helps in aggregating and summarizing the data for
creating of management reports.
• These reports are further improved by using visualization tools that help
the management in understanding situations and scenarios better.
• These systems deal with tactical data from within the organization.
• An example of TPS would be
• the sales management system with a relational database management
system at the server side back end and a customized front end to
interact with the users.
Decision Support Systems
• Decision support systems help senior management to take strategic
decisions.
• Contrary to the other systems, DSS are developed with the objective of
providing the users (top management personnel) with unstructured
information.
• These systems help the management to develop ‘what if analysis’ so that
different scenarios can be developed for decision-making.
• Such systems are
• custom built with features like business dashboard and scenario panel.
• complex with working models (internal) on the data to provide the senior
managers with decision support.
• Unlike transaction processing systems, these systems are not query
dependent only.
• Their main role is to access data from a data repository and then pass
that data through a model (mathematical, heuristic, statistical,
econometric, operations research and combinatorial), so that the senior
management can take better decisions by doing either ‘what if analysis’
and scenario building or by doing ‘predictive analysis’ to get some insight
into a business issue.
• DSS are very costly to build and require advanced analytics tools.
• The decision support system can be classified in to five different types which
are:
1.Communication driven DSS
2.Data driven DSS
3.Document driven DSS
4.Knowledge driven DSS
5.Model driven DSS
• The above different types of decision support system are used to make
decision based on different situation.
• The implementation of Decision support system in business helps to make
effective decision in order to make business development.
Executive Support System
• Executive support system is also known as the executive information (support)
system.
• In functionality, it is nearer to decision support systems than management
information systems.
• Its main objectives are to provide a macro-organization wide view for senior
executives, by providing a very user-friendly user-interface so that proactive steps
may be taken to beat competition.
• It provides timely and proactive organization tracking and control.
• It is able to perform these tasks by providing fast access to all type of data and by
filtering and tracking critical data and information.
• It helps to identify problems and opportunities and thus, helps senior executives
to troubleshoot problems and take advantage of opportunities.
Business Intelligence Systems
• Some business scenarios are so complex that they require the help of advanced
systems that can provide expert solutions.
• These systems use artificial intelligence and neutral networks to reach the
performance level of a human expert thereby helping the organization.
• These systems are different from any other information system as they are
capable of decision-making by themselves without human intervention.
• Actually, these systems are loaded with the knowledge of experts and these
systems simply simulate the expert knowledge to arrive at decisions.
• BIS can be complex as they identify, extract and analyze data for various
operational needs, particularly for decision-making purposes.
• BIS information systems may provide analyses that predict future sales
patterns, summarize current costs and forecast sales revenues.
• Business intelligence systems collect data from the various data
warehouses in an organization and provide management with analyses
according to lines of business, department or any breakdown that
management desires.
• For example,
• financial institutions use BIS systems to develop credit risk models that analyze the
number and extent of lending or credit given to various sectors.
• These systems may use various techniques and formulas to determine the
probability of loan defaults.
Customer Relationship Management Systems
• Business owners use customer relationship management (CRM) systems to
synchronize sales and marketing efforts.
• CRM systems accumulate and track customer activities, including purchasing
trends, product defects and customer inquiries.
• The capabilities of typically CRM information systems allow customers to
interact with companies for service or product feedback and problem
resolutions.
• Businesses may also use CRM systems internally as a component of their
collaboration strategies.
• As such, CRM information systems allow business partners to interact with each
other as they develop ideas and products.
• Collaboration can occur in real time even when business partners are in remote
locations.
Knowledge Management Systems
• Knowledge management systems (KMS) organize and dissect knowledge and then
redistribute or share it with individuals of an organization.
• The purpose of these information systems is to bring innovation, improve
performance, bring integration and retain knowledge within the organization.
• Although KMS information systems are typically marketed to larger enterprises,
small businesses can also benefit from harvesting knowledge.
• KMS information systems serve as a central repository and retain information in a
standard format.
• These systems can help business owners maintain consistency and enable speedy
responses to customer and partner inquiries.
Management Information System (MIS):
• MIS is designed to take relatively raw data available through a Transaction
Processing System and convert them into a summarized and aggregated
form for the manager, usually in a report format.
• It reports tending to be used by middle management and operational
supervisors.
• Tactical managers are responsible for the semi-structured decision.
• MIS systems provide the information needed to make the structured
decision and based on the experience of the tactical managers, they make
judgement calls i.e. predict how much of goods or inventory should be
ordered for the second quarter based on the sales of the first quarter.
• Many different types of report are produced in MIS.
• Some of the reports are a summary report, on-demand report, ad-hoc
reports and an exception report.
• Examples of management information systems include;
• Sales management systems – they get input from the point of sale system
• Budgeting systems – gives an overview of how much money is spent within the
organization for the short and long terms.
• Human resource management system – overall welfare of the employees, staff
turnover, etc.
Experts System:
• Experts systems include expertise in order to aid managers in diagnosing
problems or in problem-solving.
• These systems are based on the principles of artificial intelligence research.
• Experts Systems is a knowledge-based information system.
• It uses its knowledge about a specify are to act as an expert consultant to
users.
• Knowledgebase and software modules are the components of an expert
system.
• These modules perform inference on the knowledge and offer answers to a
user’s question
Artificial intelligence techniques in business
• Artificial intelligence systems mimic human expertise to identify patterns
in large data sets.
• Companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google, etc. use artificial
intelligence techniques to identify data that is most relevant to you.
• These techniques have greatly contributed in making these companies
very successful because they are able to provide value to their
customers.
• Example
• Facebook usually makes very accurate predictions of people that you might know
or went with to school. They use the data that you provide to them, the data that
your friends provide and based on this information make predictions of people
that you might know.
• Amazon uses artificial intelligence techniques too to suggest products that you
should buy also based on what you are currently getting.
• Google also uses artificial intelligence to give you the most relevant search results
based on your interactions with Google and your location.
Lecture: 6
TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

djdei@ug.edu.gh
0243775571
Outline
• Introduction
• Levels of Information System and decision making
• Types of Information System
1. Office automation systems
2. Transaction processing system
3. Decision support systems
4. Executive information systems
5. Business expert system
Introduction
• A typical organization is divided into
• operational,
• middle, and
• upper level.
• The information requirements for users at each level differ.
• Towards that end, there are number of information systems that
support each level in an organization.
• Understanding the various levels of an organization is essential to
understand the information required by the users who operate at
their respective levels.
• Operational management level
• The operational level is concerned with performing day to day business transactions of
the organization.
• Examples of users at this level of management include cashiers at a point of sale, bank
tellers, nurses in a hospital, customer care staff, etc.
• Users at this level use make structured decisions.
• This means that they have defined rules that guides them while making decisions.
• For example,
• if a store sells items on credit and they have a credit policy that has some set limit on the
borrowing.
• All the sales person needs to decide whether to give credit to a customer or not is
based on the current credit information from the system.
• Tactical Management Level
• This organization level is dominated by middle-level managers, heads of departments,
supervisors, etc.
• The users at this level usually oversee the activities of the users at the operational
management level.
• Tactical users make semi-structured decisions.
• The decisions are partly based on set guidelines and judgmental calls.
• As an example,
• a tactical manager can check the credit limit and payments history of a customer and decide to
make an exception to raise the credit limit for a particular customer.
• The decision is partly structured in the sense that the tactical manager has to use
existing information to identify a payments history that benefits the organization and
an allowed increase percentage.
• Strategic Management Level
• This is the most senior level in an organization.
• The users at this level make unstructured decisions.
• Senior level managers are concerned with the long-term planning of
the organization.
• They use information from tactical managers and external data to
guide them when making unstructured decisions.
•Types of Information System
• Organizations use several types of information systems to suit their
needs.
• The various types of information systems that an organization uses may
be classified into the following categories:
1.Office automation systems
2.Transaction processing system
3.Decision support systems
4.Business expert system
• Apart from these broad classes of information systems, organizations
also use specific information systems for some special tasks like
• executive information system,
• enterprise (wide) resource planning systems,
• customer relationship management systems and
• supply chain management system.
• This type of information system aids in automating office tasks.
• They have a limited role in decision-making and are more useful for operational level
people.
• The information coming out of this kind of system can be used for rule-based decision-
making for managers at the operational level.
• These systems however play an important role in automating several functions of an
office and thus help in creating paperless offices.
• These kinds of systems help in increasing the productivity and efficiency of the office
workforce by automating simple tasks.
• These systems mostly deal with operational data.
• More and more modern businesses are opting for this paperless office environment as
this brings in the following unique advantages for the business:
• Office work becomes faster and process driven.
• All basic level data is digitized and stored for future action.
• An example of office automation system is the office suite of software that helps
in automating simple office tasks like presentations and documentation.
• Sometimes we also come across a class of systems called the operations support
system (OSS).
• OSS also work with the lowest level of management is ensuring that the
operations of the firm are performed smoothly.
• OSS can be very different from Office Automation System even though they both
help bottom level managers, in term of the information complexity involved.
Transaction
Processing System
• This type of system is critical
to the smooth functioning of
an organization.
• The objective of this kind of
system is to capture all
transaction related data
between the organization
and its external and internal
customers.
• Typically, these transaction level data are stored in a pre-formatted
manner in a relational database for further action in future.
• TPS is the most widely used form of information systems as they
provide the management with the flexibility of storing data in a
structured manner and retrieving it at a later date using a query facility.
• The system also helps in aggregating and summarizing the data for
creating of management reports.
• These reports are further improved by using visualization tools that help
the management in understanding situations and scenarios better.
Transaction
Processing System
• These systems deal with tactical
data from within the
organization.
• An example of TPS would be
• the sales management
system with a
relational database
management system at the
server side back end and a
customized front end to
interact with the users.
Decision Support
Systems
• Decision support systems help senior
management to take strategic
decisions.
• Contrary to the other systems, DSS
are developed with the objective of
providing the users (top management
personnel) with unstructured
information.
• These systems help the management
to develop ‘what if analysis’ so that
different scenarios can be developed
for decision-making.
• Such systems are
• custom built with features like business dashboard and scenario panel.
• complex with working models (internal) on the data to provide the senior managers with
decision support.
• Unlike transaction processing systems, these systems are not query dependent
only.
• Their main role is to access data from a data repository and then pass that
data through a model (mathematical, heuristic, statistical, econometric,
operations research and combinatorial), so that the senior management can
take better decisions by doing either ‘what if analysis’ and scenario building or
by doing ‘predictive analysis’ to get some insight into a business issue.
• DSS are very costly to build and require advanced analytics tools.
• The decision support system can be classified in to five different types which
are:
1.Communication driven DSS
2.Data driven DSS
3.Document driven DSS
4.Knowledge driven DSS
5.Model driven DSS
• The above different types of decision support system are used to make
decision based on different situation.
• The implementation of Decision support system in business helps to make
effective decision in order to make business development.
• Executive support system is also known as
the executive information (support) system.
• In functionality, it is nearer to decision
support systems than management
information systems.
• Its main objectives are to provide a macro-
organization wide view for senior
executives, by providing a very user-friendly
user-interface so that proactive steps may
be taken to beat competition.
• It provides timely and proactive organization
tracking and control.
• It is able to perform these tasks by providing
fast access to all type of data and by filtering
and tracking critical data and information.
• It helps to identify problems and
opportunities and thus, helps senior
executives to troubleshoot problems and
take advantage of opportunities.
• Some business scenarios are so complex that they require the help of advanced
systems that can provide expert solutions.
• These systems use artificial intelligence and neutral networks to reach the
performance level of a human expert thereby helping the organization.
• These systems are different from any other information system as they are
capable of decision-making by themselves without human intervention.
• Actually, these systems are loaded with the knowledge of experts and these
systems simply simulate the expert knowledge to arrive at decisions.
• BIS can be complex as they identify, extract and analyze data for various
operational needs, particularly for decision-making purposes.
• BIS information systems may provide analyses that predict future sales
patterns, summarize current costs and forecast sales revenues.
• Business intelligence systems collect data from the various data
warehouses in an organization and provide management with analyses
according to lines of business, department or any breakdown that
management desires.
• For example,
• financial institutions use BIS systems to develop credit risk models that analyze the
number and extent of lending or credit given to various sectors.
• These systems may use various techniques and formulas to determine the
probability of loan defaults.
Customer Relationship
Management Systems
• Business owners use customer
relationship management (CRM)
systems to synchronize sales and
marketing efforts.
• CRM systems accumulate and track
customer activities, including
purchasing trends, product defects
and customer inquiries.
• The capabilities of typically CRM
information systems allow
customers to interact with
companies for service or product
feedback and problem resolutions.
Customer Relationship
Management Systems
• Businesses may also use CRM
systems internally as a
component of their collaboration
strategies.
• As such, CRM information
systems allow business partners
to interact with each other as
they develop ideas and products.
• Collaboration can occur in real
time even when business
partners are in remote locations.
Knowledge Management
Systems
• Knowledge management systems
(KMS) organize and dissect knowledge
and then redistribute or share it with
individuals of an organization.
• The purpose of these information
systems is to bring innovation,
improve performance, bring
integration and retain knowledge
within the organization.
Knowledge Management
Systems
• Although KMS information systems
are typically marketed to larger
enterprises, small businesses can also
benefit from harvesting knowledge.
• KMS information systems serve as a
central repository and retain
information in a standard format.
• These systems can help business
owners maintain consistency and
enable speedy responses to customer
and partner inquiries.
• MIS is designed to take relatively raw data available through a Transaction
Processing System and convert them into a summarized and aggregated
form for the manager, usually in a report format.
• It reports tending to be used by middle management and operational
supervisors.
• Tactical managers are responsible for the semi-structured decision.
• MIS systems provide the information needed to make the structured
decision and based on the experience of the tactical managers, they make
judgement calls i.e. predict how much of goods or inventory should be
ordered for the second quarter based on the sales of the first quarter.
• Many different types of report are produced in MIS.
• Some of the reports are a summary report, on-demand report, ad-hoc
reports and an exception report.
• Examples of management information systems include;
• Sales management systems – they get input from the point of sale system
• Budgeting systems – gives an overview of how much money is spent within the
organization for the short and long terms.
• Human resource management system – overall welfare of the employees, staff
turnover, etc.
Experts System:
• Experts systems include expertise in order to aid managers in diagnosing
problems or in problem-solving.
• These systems are based on the principles of artificial intelligence research.
• Experts Systems is a knowledge-based information system.
• It uses its knowledge about a specify are to act as an expert consultant to
users.
• Knowledgebase and software modules are the components of an expert
system.
• These modules perform inference on the knowledge and offer answers to a
user’s question
Artificial intelligence
System
• Artificial intelligence systems mimic
human expertise to identify patterns in
large data sets.
• Companies such as Amazon, Facebook,
and Google, etc. use artificial
intelligence techniques to identify data
that is most relevant to you.
• These techniques have greatly
contributed in making these companies
very successful because they are able
to provide value to their customers.
Artificial intelligence System
• Example
• Facebook usually makes very accurate predictions of people that you might know
or went with to school. They use the data that you provide to them, the data that
your friends provide and based on this information make predictions of people
that you might know.
• Amazon uses artificial intelligence techniques too to suggest products that you
should buy also based on what you are currently getting.
• Google also uses artificial intelligence to give you the most relevant search results
based on your interactions with Google and your location.
Lecture: 7
Information System for Strategy and Decision Making in

organisations
djdei@ug.edu.gh
0243775571
OUTLINE
• Information System for Strategy
• Strategy
• Information System for Decision Making
• Decision-Making Stages/Process
•Information System for Strategy
Information System for Strategy
• In this digital age with fierce competition, it is essential that managers within
organization are completely aware and receptive to evolving changes.
• One the quickest evolving change is within information systems.
• This change in information systems is contributed to advances in computing and
information technology.
• Applying a concept that information system is strictly under the purview of IT
department can lead to adverse situation for the company.
• Therefore, it is essential for organization to recognize information systems
contribution in business effectiveness.
• information systems provide edge in this globalized world.
• Organization use information systems to achieve its various strategy,
decision making as well as short-term and long-term goals.
• Development of information systems was to improve productivity and
business effectiveness of organization.
• With correct development, deployment and usage of information
systems, organization can achieve lower costs, improved productivity,
growth in top-line as well as the bottom-line and competitive advantage
in the market.
• Success of information systems is highly dependent on the prevalent
organization structure, management style and overall organization
environment.
• The readiness of workers into accepting the information systems is the key
in realizing the full potential of them.
• Development and deployment of information systems have revolutionized
the way business is conducted.
• It has contributed to business effectiveness and increased in productivity.
•Strategy
Strategy
• Strategy is the blueprint of decisions in an organization that shows its
objectives and goals, reduces the key policies, and plans for achieving
these goals, and defines the business the company is to carry on, the type
of economic and human organization it wants to be, and the contribution
it plans to make to its shareholders, customers and society at large.
• Strategy is a well defined roadmap of an organization.

• It defines the overall mission, vision and direction of an organization.
• The objective of a strategy is to maximize an organization’s strengths and
to minimize the strengths of the competitors.
Strategy
• Strategy formulation is the process of using available knowledge to
document the intended direction of a business and the actionable steps to
reach its goals.
• This process is used for resource allocation, prioritization, organization-
wide alignment, and validation of business goals.
• Formulating an effective strategy can allow your organization to share one
clear vision, catch biases by examining the reasoning behind goals, and
track performance with measurable key performance indicators (KPIs).
Strategy
• Organizations require different types of information systems to facilitate
strategy formulation and implementation.
• information systems ensure that routine process are captured and acted
upon effectively, for example, sales transaction, cash transaction, payroll,
etc.
• Top leadership requires precise internal as well as external information to
devise a strategy for organization.
• Decision support systems are designed to execute this exact function.
• Business transaction systems and executive decision support systems
contribute to overall organizational productivity.
Steps of Strategy Formulation
• The steps of strategy formulation include the
following:
1. Establishing Organizational Objectives
2. Analysis of Organizational Environment
3. Forming quantitative goals
4. Objectives in context with divisional plans
5. Performance Analysis
6. Selection of Strategy
1.Establishing Organizational Objectives:
• This involves establishing long-term goals of an organization. Strategic decisions can
be taken once the organizational objectives are determined.
2.Analysis of Organizational Environment:
• This involves SWOT analysis, meaning identifying the company’s strengths and
weaknesses and keeping vigilance over competitors’ actions to understand
opportunities and threats.
• Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors which the company has control over.
• Opportunities and threats, on the other hand, are external factors over which the
company has no control.
• A successful organization builds on its strengths, overcomes its weakness, identifies
new opportunities and protects against external threats.
• Forming quantitative goals:
• Defining targets so as to meet the company’s short-term and long-
term objectives.
• Example, 30% increase in revenue this year of a company.
• Objectives in context with divisional plans:

• This involves setting up targets for every department so that they
work in coherence with the organization as a whole.
• Performance Analysis:
• This is done to estimate the degree of variation between the actual
and the standard performance of an organization.
• Selection of Strategy:
• This is the final step of strategy formulation.
• It involves evaluation of the alternatives and selection of the
best strategy amongst them to be the strategy of the organization.
Features of Strategy
• Features of Strategy
1. Strategy is Significant because it is not possible to foresee the future.
Without a perfect foresight, the firms must be ready to deal with the
uncertain events which constitute the business environment.
2. Strategy deals with long term developments rather than routine
operations, i.e. it deals with probability of innovations or new products,
new methods of productions, or new markets to be developed in future.
3. Strategy is created to take into account the probable behavior of
customers and competitors. Strategies dealing with employees will
predict the employee behavior.
•Information System for Decision
Making
Information System for Decision Support
• Introduction
• In the current globalized business environment, decision making is becoming
more and more difficult.
• Some of the problems faced by business are as follows:
• There is large volume of internal organizational data on hand thanks to the modern data-
storage system. However, not all data available would be useful for decision.
• The flow of information over the Internet is increasing daily. Decision makers need to keep
a tab on latest information available on the Internet.
• More and more business transactions are done online. Proliferation of e-commerce has
created opportunity as well as challenges for decision makers.
• Multi-national companies are faced with scenarios where decision makers are spread
across the globe. Every decision maker would bring his or her own perception during team
discussion. Thus reaching a decision through consensus make become difficult.
Decision Making Stages/Process
• Steps in Decision Making Process

1. Identification of Problems
2. Analysis of Problems
3. Development of Alternatives
4. Evaluation of Alternatives
5. Selection of Best Alternative
6. Implementation of Alternative
7. Review of Implementation
Lecture:
Information System for Security

djdei@ug.edu.gh
0243775571
Outline
• Data and Information Security
• Information Classification in Information Security
• Information Security
• Ensuring Information Security:
• Principles of Information Security
• Information Security Policy
•Data and Information Security
• Hacking
• Phishing
• Smishing
• Vishing
• Pharming
Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei 6/30/2023 Slide 3
Security of Data
• This refers to the security risks/ threats associated with any electronic
devise that connects to a network.
• The following are some examples:
• Hacking
• Phishing
• Smishing
• Vishing
• Pharming

Hacking (Unauthorized
Access)
• This is the act of gaining
unauthorized access to a
computer system.
• This can lead to identity theft or
misuse of personal information.
• Data can be stolen, deleted,
changed or corrupted on a user’s
computer.

Phishing
• This is normally carried out through
electronic communications, such as emails.
• This is when an authorized person attempts
to gather personal data, such as passwords
and credit card details, by distinguishing
themselves as a trustworthy person or
organization.
• The email will look legitimate and will
normally encourage a person to click on a
link on the email and when the link is
clicked, it will take the user to a website that
will ask them for their personal information.
Pharming
• Pharming is another
method of collecting
personal data.
• A hacker will install
malicious code onto a
person’s computer or
server.
• When a user types in a web
address, they will be
redirected to a fraudulent,
but legitimate looking,
replica website, without
their consent.
Smishing
• Smishing is short for SMS
phishing.
• It is similar to phishing, but it is
carried out using SMS text
messaging rather than email.

Vishing
• Vishing is short for voice
phishing.
• It is the act of using a
telephone call to try and
scam a user into giving
their personal data.
• The scammer will
usually pretend that
they are a legitimate
person or organization.
•Information Classification in
Information Security
Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei

Information Classification in Information Security
• Information classification is a crucial aspect of information security as it
helps to ensure that sensitive information is protected and only accessible
by authorized individuals, which can help organizations to protect their
sensitive information, maintain compliance with relevant regulations, and
keep their data and systems safe from cyber threats.
• Information classification is a process used in information security to
categorize data based on its level of sensitivity and importance.
• The purpose of classification is to protect sensitive information by
implementing appropriate security controls based on the level of risk
associated with that information.
• There are several different classification schemes that organizations can
use, but they generally include a few common levels of classification, such
as:
• Public Information
• Private Information
• Internal Information
• Confidential Information
• Secret Information
• Top Secret
• Classified Information
• Restricted Information

• Public Information:
• Information that is not sensitive and can be shared freely with anyone
within and outside the organisation.
• Disclosure of this information does not expose the organisation to
financial loss or jeopardize the security of the organization’s
information assets.
• Information at this level requires no specific protective measures but
may be subject to appropriate review or disclosure procedures at the
discretion of the organization in order to mitigate potential risks

• Internal Information
• Information that is sensitive but not critical, and should only be
shared within the organization.
• Secret Information:
• extremely sensitive and requires the highest level of protection,
and should only be shared with a select group of authorized
individuals.

• Top Secret:
• Information that if disclosed would cause exceptionally grave
damage to the national security and access to this information is
restricted to a very small number of authorized individuals with a
need-to-know.
• Restricted Information –
• information that is available to most but not all employees.

Information Classification in Information
Security
Confidential Information:
• Information that is sensitive and requires protection, and should only be
shared with authorized individuals or groups.
• Information will be classified as Confidential if it meets at least one of the
criteria below:
1. Exposure Poses a Severe Risk
2. Legal Obligation
3. Other Sensitive Information

Security
Confidential Information:
1. Exposure Poses a Severe Risk
• Confidential data includes information whose unauthorized use, access, disclosure,
acquisition, modification, loss, or deletion could result in severe damage to the University,
its students, employees, or business partners.
• Financial loss, damage to the University’s reputation, and legal action could occur if such
information is not properly safeguarded.
2. Legal Obligation
• Information for which disclosure to persons outside of the institution is strictly governed by
State or Federal statute with the intention to protect the privacy of an individual’s
information.
3. Other Sensitive Information
• Information deemed by the University as highly sensitive, typically reserved solely for use
within the college and limited to those employees with a specific need to know.

Security
• Examples of Confidential information include but are not limited to:
• Passwords or credentials that grant access to Confidential and Private data
• Personal Identification Numbers (PINs)
• Birth date combined with last four digits of SSN and name
• Credit card numbers with cardholder name
• Tax ID with name
• Medical records related to an individual
• Psychological counseling records related to an individual
• Bank account

Security
Private Information:
• Information may be classified as Private if it meets at least one of the criteria
below:
• Sensitive Nature of Data
• Information which much be protected due to proprietary, ethical, contractual or privacy
considerations.
• Exposure Poses a Moderate Risk
• Information which may not be specifically protected by statute, regulations, or other legal
obligations or mandates but for which unauthorized use, access, disclosure, acquisition,
modification, loss, or deletion could cause financial loss, damage to the organization’s
reputation, violate an individual’s privacy rights, or subject the organization to legal action.
• Examples of Private information include:
• Student Information — Grades, Courses taken, Schedule, Disciplinary actions
• Employee Information – Employee net salary, Payment history, Employee evaluations
Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei Slide 21
•Information Security

Information Security
• Information systems are vulnerable to a variety of security threats,
such as hackers, viruses, and natural disasters.
• As such, it is important for organizations to implement appropriate
security measures to protect their information systems.

What is Information Assurance
• Measures that protect and defend information and information
systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication,
confidentiality, and non-repudiation.
• These measures include providing for restoration of information

systems by incorporating protection, detection, and reaction
capabilities.

What is Information Systems Security
• Information System Security
• The protection of information systems against unauthorized access to
or modification of information, whether in storage, processing or
transit, and against the denial of service to authorized users, including
those measures necessary to detect, document, and counter such
threats

What is Information Security (InfoSec)?
• Information security (sometimes referred to as InfoSec) covers the tools
and processes that organizations use to protect information.
• This includes policy settings that prevent unauthorized people from
accessing business or personal information.
• InfoSec is a growing and evolving field that covers a wide range of fields,
from network and infrastructure security to testing and auditing.
• Information security protects sensitive information from unauthorized
activities, including inspection, modification, recording, and any
disruption or destruction.

What is Information Security (InfoSec)?
• The goal is to ensure the safety and privacy of critical data such as
customer account details, financial data or intellectual property.
• The consequences of security incidents include theft of private
information, data tampering, and data deletion.
• Attacks can disrupt work processes and damage a company’s reputation,
and also have a tangible cost.
• Organizations must allocate funds for security and ensure that they are
ready to detect, respond to, and proactively prevent, attacks such
as phishing, malware, viruses, malicious insiders, and ransomware.

•Ensuring Information Security:

Ensuring Information Security:
• In order to ensure security, it is necessary to provide at least the
following services, which are given below.
• Authorization:
• Audit:
• Physical authentication:
• Data Confidentiality:

• Authorization:
• It is act of determining whether an (authenticate) entity has the
right to execute action.
• Audit:
• An auditing service providing a history of action that can be used
to determine what (if anything) went wrong and what caused it to
go wrong.

• Physical authentication:
• Some firm of authentication such as an object (a key or a smart
card) or a personal characteristic like a fingerprint, retinal pattern,
hand geometry.
• Data Confidentiality:
• It protects against disclosure of any data while in transit and is
provided by encryption of data.

•Principles of Information Security

Principles of Information Security
• The basic tenets of information security are confidentiality, integrity and
availability.
• Every element of the information security program must be designed to
implement one or more of these principles.
• Together they are called the CIA Triad.
• Confidentiality
• Integrity
• Availability

Principles of Information Security
Integrity
Confidentiality Availability
In some organisations, integrity and / or availability

may be more important than confidentiality.
Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei 35
•Information Security Policy

Information Security Policy
• An Information Security Policy (ISP) is a set of rules that guide
individuals when using IT assets.
• Companies can create information security policies to ensure that
employees and other users follow security protocols and procedures.
• Security policies are intended to ensure that only authorized users
can access sensitive systems and information.
• Creating an effective security policy and taking steps to ensure
compliance is an important step towards preventing and mitigating
security threats.

Information Security Policy
• To make your policy truly effective, update it frequently based on
company changes, new threats, conclusions drawn from
previous breaches, and changes to security systems and tools.
• Make your information security strategy practical and reasonable.
• To meet the needs and urgency of different departments within the
organization, it is necessary to deploy a system of exceptions, with an
approval process, enabling departments or individuals to deviate
from the rules in specific circumstances.

Lecture: 9
Information System Development in Organisations

djdei@ug.edu.gh
0243775571
Outline
• Information Systems Development
• System Development Life Cycle:
1. planning,
2. system analysis,
3. system design,
4. Development
5. implementation,
6. maintenance.
What is Information Systems Development?
• As the name suggests, information system development or commonly known as
SLC (Systems Life Cycle) or SLDC (System Development Life Cycle) is a process of
making and changing the system and the model and methodology used.
• In other words, an SDLC is the preparation of a new system to replace the old
system, both in whole and only partially.
• Development of information systems is generally done because of problems
that cannot be accommodated by the old system.
• For example, University of Ghana decided to make an overhaul of the Library
Management Information System because the previous applications could no
longer manage the Library Collection and serve the users
System Development Life Cycle
• The aim of SDLC is to create a high quality system that matches the
customer requirements regarding time, cost, effectiveness and
efficiency.
• An effective SDLC should result in a high quality system that meets
customer expectations, reaches completion within time and cost
evaluations, and works effectively and efficiently in the current and
planned Information Technology infrastructure.
• SDLC is a conceptual model which includes policies and procedures
for developing or altering systems throughout their life cycles.
•System Development Life Cycle:
•Stages/Processes/Steps
System Development Life
Cycle Stages
• The SDLC is a project management
model that defines the stages
involved in bringing a project from
inception to completion.
• The SDLC phases include
• planning,
• system analysis,
• system design,
• Development
• implementation,
• maintenance.
•Planning Phase
System Development Life Cycle Stages:
Phase 1 – Planning
• The purpose of this step is to find out the scope of the problem and
determine solutions.
• Constraints like resources, costs, time should also be considered at this
stage.
• They include:
• Defining the problem and scope of the existing system.
• Overview of the new system and determine its objectives.
• Checking project feasibility and producing the project schedule.
• Threats, security, and any constraint.
• A feasibility report for the entire project, which is created at the end of this phase.
• Within the planning five of the main activities include:
• Define the problem
• Produce the project schedule
• Confirm project feasibility
• Staff the project
• Launch the project
• Why do plans fail? Some of the many reasons are:
1. Goals/specifications are not understood.
2. Objectives are too extensive for the time allotted.
3. Budgets were not accurate.
4. Project is understaffed or under skilled.
5. Status reviews were not scheduled or insufficient.
6. Poor morale (no commitment).
• The main objective of this phase is to determine whether it is feasible to
develop the new system.
• Feasibilities include:
• technical feasibility
• financial feasibility
• operational feasibility
• user behavioral feasibility
• management feasibility
• legal feasibility
• time feasibility.
•Analysis Phase
Phase 2 – Analysis:
• The stage is to determine what a business’ needs are, how they can be
met, who will be responsible for individual pieces of the project,
and when should be expected to accomplish the project.
• They include:
• Gathering, analyzing, and validating the information.
• Defining the requirements and prototypes for a new system.
• Evaluating the alternatives and prioritizing the requirements.
• Examining the information needs of end-user and enhancing the system goal.
• A Software Requirement Specification (SRS) document, which specifies
the software, hardware, functional, and network requirements of the
system is prepared at the end of this phase.
• The requirements analysis process goals include
1. Linking the needs of the end-users to the system, system elements, and enabling
system elements to be designed and developed.
2. Defining a system that meets end-users’ operational mission requirements within
specified cost and schedule constraints.
3. Providing insight into the interactions among various functions to achieve a set of
balanced requirements based on user objectives.
• At the same time, development team can communicate with stakeholders

in the form of user stories, use cases,
• There are several activities that must occur within the analysis phase
1. Gather Information
2. Define the new system's requirements
3. Build prototypes for the new system
4. Prioritize requirements
5. Evaluate alternatives
6. Meet with management to discuss new options
•Design Phase
Phase 3. Design:
• The stage is to explain in detail the necessary specifications, features, and
operations that will meet the functional requirements of the proposed system
which will be in place.
• This is the step for end-users to discuss and determine their specific business
information needs for the proposed system.
• This include:
• the design of application, network, databases, user interfaces, and system interfaces.
• Transforming the SRS document into a logical structure, which contains detailed and
complete set of specifications that can be implemented in a programming language.
• Creating a contingency, training, maintenance, and operation plan.
• Reviewing the proposed design.
• Ensure that the final design must meet the requirements stated in SRS document.
• Preparing a design document that will be used in the next phase.
Phase 3. Design:
• System architectural design:
• Architectural design is an early stage of the system design process.
• It represents the link between specification and design processes.
• The purpose of the system architectural design process is to
establish a system architectural design and identify which system
requirements are to be allocated to which elements of the system,
and to evaluate the system architectural design against defined
criteria.
Phase 3. Design:
• A successful process outcomes include:
• A system architectural design is defined and all elements of the system are
specified.
• System requirements are allocated to all the elements of the system.
• Each interface of system element is defined.
• Each dynamic behavior of system element is defined
• Traceability between system requirements and elements of the system
architectural design are developed.
• An architectural design is agreed. Communicate the design with all relevant
parties.
Phase 3. Design:
• Base Practices:
• BP1. Develop System Architectural Design
• BP2. Allocate System Requirements
• BP3. Define Interfaces of System Elements
• BP4. Describe Dynamic Behavior
• BP5. Evaluate Alternative System Architectures
• BP6. Establish Bidirectional Traceability
• BP7. Ensure Consistency
• BP8. Communicate agreed System Architectural Design
Phase 3. Design:
Phase 3. Design – Base Practices:
• BP1. Develop System Architectural Design
• Develop and document a system architectural design which specifies all elements
of the system with regards to all the functional and non-functional system
requirements.
• BP2. Allocate System Requirements
• Allocate the system requirements to the elements of the system architectural
design.
• BP3. Define Interfaces of System Elements
• Identify, develop and define the interfaces including internal & external interface
of each elements.
Phase 3. Design:
Phase 3. Design – Base Practices:
• BP4. Describe Dynamic Behavior
• Evaluate and document the dynamic behavior of the interaction between system
elements.
• Dynamic behavior is ascertained by operating modes such as start-up, shutdown, normal
mode, calibration, diagnosis.
• BP5. Evaluate Alternative System Architectures
• Determine evaluation criteria for the architecture.
• Those will be used to evaluate alternative system architectures.
• The explanation(rationale) for the chosen system architecture should be recorded.
Evaluation criteria should consist of results of make-buy-reuse analysis and quality
characteristics such as modularity, maintainability, expandability, scalability, reliability,
security realization, and usability.
Phase 3. Design:
• Base Practices:
• BP6. Establish Bidirectional Traceability
• Establish traceability between system requirements and elements of the system
architectural design.
• BP7. Ensure Consistency
• Ensure the consistency between our system requirements and system elements.
• Note: System requirements typically include system architectural requirements.
Refer to BP5.
• BP8. Communicate agreed System Architectural Design
• Make sure all relevant stakeholders get the updates about the agreed system
architectural design.
•Implementation Phase
Phase 4 – Implementation:
• This step puts the project into production by moving the data and
components from the old system and placing them in the new system.
• This include:
• Implementing the design into source code through coding.
• Combining all the modules together into a training environment that detects errors
and defects.
• A test report which contains errors is prepared through a test plan that includes
test-related tasks such as test case generation, testing criteria, and resource
allocation for testing.
• Integrating the information system into its environment and installing the new
system.
Phase 4 – Implementation:
• There are five activities that must be performed during the
implementation phase:
1. Construct software components
2. Verify and test
3. Convert Data
4. Training end users and document the system
5. Install the system
•Maintenance/Support Phase
Phase 6 – Maintenance/Support
• Include all the activities such as phone support or physical on-site
support for users that is required once the system is installing.
• Implement the changes that software might undergo over a period of
time, or implement any new requirements after the software is deployed
at the customer location.
• It also includes handling the residual errors and resolve any issues that
may exist in the system even after the testing phase.
• Maintenance and support may be needed for a longer time for large
systems and for a short time for smaller systems.
Summary
Stage Tasks Deliverables
Preliminary Problem Definition Scope and Objectives Data Gathering Project Charter Feasibility
Analysis Risk Assessment Feasibility Analysis Study
Systems Analysis Data Gathering Systems Modeling User Requirements User Requirements
Definition Specification
Systems Design Make or Buy Decision Physical Systems Design Technical Detailed Systems
Design Specification
Programming & Programming and testing Platform Implementation Production System
Testing
Systems User Training Data Conversion Systems Conversion Post- Live System
Implementation Implementation Review
Systems Fix system “bugs” System enhancement Working System

Maintenance

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Lecture 1:

Introduction and Definition of Terms

LECTURER: DR. DE-GRAFT JOHNSON AMENUVEVE DEI

Organizations may be defined as

6/19/2023 Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh

6/19/2023 Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh Slide 11

• In this sense "information" is

• The intelligence being communicated through information-as-process –

• The kind of information we encounter in passing in our every day lives.

6/19/2023 Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh Slide 16

Forms of information include:

• Three main sources of information:

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Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh Slide 26

Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh Slide 27

Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh Slide 28

6/19/2023 Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh

SYSTEMS & INFORMATION SYSTEMS CONCEPT

LECTURER: DR. DE-GRAFT JOHNSON AMENUVEVE DEI

• System boundary and environment

LECTURER: DR. DE-GRAFT JOHNSON AMENUVEVE DEI

• A combinations of hardware, software, and telecommunications networks that

• interrelated components working together to collect, process, store, and

• intelligent system • geographic information system

Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh -

Dr. De-Graft Johnson Dei - djdei@ug.edu.gh - 0243775571 - Slide 26

SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE OFFICE

LECTURER: DR. DE-GRAFT JOHNSON AMENUVEVE DEI

• an orderly arrangement of whole activities of an office and framing of

• planning of an office work systematically to achieve the main and

• How the above components of an office system are brought together to

1. Personal OAS include

• Improve Operating Efficiency: • Facilitating the introduction of

• Achieving Organization Goals:

TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Information System for Strategy and Decision Making in

• Strategy is a well defined roadmap of an organization.

• Objectives in context with divisional plans:

• Steps in Decision Making Process

Information System for Security

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• These measures include providing for restoration of information

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