Information Systems

4 Levels of Information System

 Operational-level Systems
 Knowledge-level Systems
 Management-level Systems
 Strategic-level Systems
 Operational-level Systems
 Support operational managers by keeping track of the
elementary activities and transactions of the
organization.
 The principle purpose of systems at this level is to
answer routine questions and track the flow of
transactions through the organization.
 Covers things such as sales, receipts, cash deposits,
payroll, credit decisions, flow of materials.
 Knowledge-level Systems
 Support knowledge and data workers in an
organization.
 The purpose of these systems is to help the
organization discover, organize and integrate
new and existing knowledge into the business,
and to help control the flow of paperwork.
 These systems, specially in the form of
collaboration tools, workstations, and office
systems, are the fastest growing applications in
business today.
 Management-level Systems
 Designed to serve the monitoring, controlling,
decision-making, and administrative activities
of middle managers.
 These systems typically provide periodic
reports rather than instant information on
operations.
 Some of these systems support non-routine
decision-making, focusing on less-structured
decisions for which information requirements
are not always clear. This will often require
information from normal operational-level data.
 Strategic-level Systems
 Help senior management tackle and address
strategic issues and long-term trends, both
within the organisation and in the external
environment.
 Principal concern is matching organizational
capability to changes, and opportunities,
occurring in the medium to long term (i.e. 5 -
10 years) in the external environment.
 Typically, an organization might have
operational, knowledge, management and
strategic level systems for each functional area
within the organisation.
 Operational-level Systems
 Transaction-Processing Systems (TPS)
 Basic business systems
 Perform daily routine transactions necessary for
business functions
 At the operational level, tasks, resources and
goals are predefined and highly structured
 Generally, five functional categories are
identified, as shown in the diagram.
 Knowledge-level Systems
 Office Automation Systems (OAS)
 Targeted at meeting the knowledge needs of
data workers within the organization
 Data workers tend to process rather than create
information. Primarily involved in information
use, manipulation or dissemination.
 Typical OAS handle and manage documents,
scheduling and communication.
 Knowledge Work Systems (KWS)
 Targeted at meeting the knowledge needs of
knowledge workers within the organization
 In general, knowledge workers hold degree-
level professional qualifications (e.g. engineers,
scientists, lawyers), their jobs consist primarily
in creating new information and knowledge
 KWS, such as scientific or engineering design
workstations, promote the creation of new
knowledge, and its dissemination and
integration throughout the organization.
 Management-level Systems
 Management Information Systems (MIS)
 MIS provide managers with reports and, in
some cases, on-line access to the organization’s
current performance and historical records
 Typically these systems focus entirely on
internal events, providing the information for
short-term planning and decision making.
 MIS summarise and report on the basic
operations of the organisation, dependent on the
underlying TPS for their data.
 Decision-Support Systems (DSS)
 As MIS, these serve the needs of the
management level of the organization
 Focus on helping managers make decisions that
are semi-structured, unique, or rapidly
changing, and not easily specified in advance
 Use internal information from TPS and MIS,
but also information from external sources
 Greater analytical power than other systems,
incorporate modelling tools, aggregation and
analysis tools, and support what-if scenarios
Voyage-estimating Decision Support System
 Strategic-level Systems
 Executive Support/Information Systems
(ESS/EIS)
 Serve the strategic level of the organization
 ESS/EIS address unstructured decisions and create
a generalized computing and communications
environment, rather than providing any fixed
application or specific capability.
 Such systems are not designed to solve specific
problems, but to tackle a changing array of
problems
 ESS/EIS are designed to incorporate data about
external events, such as new tax laws or
competitors, and also draw summarised
information from internal MIS and DSS
 These systems filter, compress, and track critical
data, emphasising the reduction of time and effort
required to obtain information useful to executive
management
 ESS/EIS employ advanced graphics software to
provide highly visual and easy-to-use
representations of complex information and
current trends, but they tend not to provide
analytical models
Inter-relationships and inter-dependencies between IS types
SYSTEM FROM A FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Information system can be classified by specific organizational
function they serve as well as by organizational level.

Sales and Marketing System

The sales and marketing function is responsible for selling
organization’s products or services. Marketing is concerned
with identifying customers for the firm’s product or service,
determining what customer need, planning and developing
products and services to meet their needs, and advertising
and promoting these products and services. Sales is
concerned with contacting customers, selling the product and
services, taking orders, and following up on sales. Sales and
marketing information system support these activities.
At the Strategic level, Sales and marketing Monitor trends
affecting new products and sales opportunities, support
planning for new products and services, monitor the
performance of competitors.
At Management level, sales and marketing system support
market research, advertising and promotional campaigns,
and pricing decision. They analyze sales performance and
performance of sales staff.
At Operational level, sales and marketing system assist in
locating and contacting prospective customer, tackling
sales, processing orders and providing customer service
support.
Manufacturing and Production system
The manufacturing and production system is responsible for
actually producing the firm’s goods and services. manufacturing
and production system deals with planning, development and
maintenance of production facilities; the establishment of
production goals; the acquisition , storage, and availability of
production, and material; and the scheduling of equipments,
facilities, materials, and labor required to fashion finished
products. Manufacturing and production system support these
activities.
At Strategic level, manufacturing system deals with firms long-term
manufacturing goals, such as where to locate new plants or whether to
invest in new manufacturing technology.
At Management level, manufacturing and production system
analyze and monitor manufacturing and production cost and
resources.
At Operational level, manufacturing and production system deals
with status of production task.
Product Life Cycle Management [PLM] systems