Introduction to Computer-Based Information System

Information is one of five main types of resources to which the manager has access. All the resources, including information, can be managed. The importance of information management increases as business becomes more complex and computer capabilities expand. Computer output is used by managers, non-managers, and persons and organizations in the firm’s environment. Managers are found on all levels and in all business areas. As managers perform their functions and play their roles, they augment their basic communication and problem-solving skills with computer and information literacy.

A system is an integration of elements, all working toward an objective. All systems include three primary elements-input, transformation and output. Some systems can control their own operations; these are called closed-loop systems. Closed-loop system includes a control mechanism, objectives and a feedback loop in addition to the three primary elements. All of the systems that we study in this text are open systems, in so far as they interface with their environment. A firm is an example of both an open system and a closed-loop system.

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The manager manages a physical system composed of personnel, material, machines and money.

The manager monitors the physical system by using a conceptual system. The conceptual system provides information that describes the physical system of the firm in its environment. Manager should take a systems view of their organizational units. Such a view enables managers to more easily focus the system elements on the organizational objectives. There is a difference between information and data. Data is raw material consisting of relatively meaningless facts and figures that are transformed into information by an information processor.

Information is meaningful to the user.

An information processor provides information in both oral and written forms. The information comes from both internal and external (environmental) resources and is used in making decisions to solve problems. The computer was initially applied as an accounting information system (AIS), but then it was recognized to have potential value as a management information system (MIS). And what do you understand by information system? Subsequently, interest expanded into such areas as decision support systems (DSS), the virtual office and knowledge-based systems. All five of these application areas compose the computer-based information system (CBIS) and provide problem-solving information.

The first computer using firms established computer departments and gave them the responsibility for systems development. This practice continues; with the units including such information specialists as systems analysts, database administrators, network specialists, programmers, and operators. We use the name information services to describe these units. During recent years, many users have taken the initiative to develop their own applications rather than relay entirely on information specialists. This approach has been named End-user Computing or EUC. When a user is completely dedicated to EUC, there is no need for information specialists.

However, the user can use information specialists to perform a portion of the development work or to serve as consultants. Early computer-using firms attempted to justify their data processing systems based on displaced electrical costs, but they failed to carry through with the termination of unneeded employees. More success was achieved in striving for increased efficiency or increased return on investment. Today, it is extremely difficult to place a dollar value on the output of the information-oriented CBIS subsystems such as MIS, DSS, and knowledge-based systems.

Instead, more weight is placed on subjective measures. A CBIS evolves through stages- planning, analysis, design, implementation, and use. These stages are called the system life cycle and can be carried out by the user alone or by the user working with information specialists. Even when systems are developed jointly, it is the manager who is responsible for each life cycle phase. When a manager decides that a system is no longer performing as it should, the system life cycle can be repeated or a more broad-based reengineering approach can be taken.