prof. Dr.

Hanafy Ismail 1


INTRODUCTION TO
INFORMATION SYSTEMS


Prof. Dr. Hanafy Ismail


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Some Ideas About Information
Systems
An information system is a conceptual system that
enables managers to control and monitor a firms
physical systems used to transform input resources
into output resources
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Some Ideas About Information Systems
The essential feature of an information system
is the use of paper or other data records to
represent the movement, status or existence of
objects in some other (physical) system. These
objects may be physical or they may be
abstractions.
An information system is a model (or
representation) of the physical systems which
uses symbols (e.g. the names of objects and
numbers) to replace the objects themselves.
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Some Ideas About Information Systems
Example:

Warehouse
Goods
Goods
Customer
Supplier
Contains piles of
goods
(a) Physical System
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Some Ideas About Information Systems
Example:

Inventory
bill Shipping note
Customer
Supplier
(b) Information System
Sales order Purchase order
Information system Physical System
the inventory represents goods in the warehouse
the bill represents goods coming in
the shipping note represents goods leaving

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Some Ideas About Information Systems
A system is a set of interrelated elements
A purposive system is a system that seeks a set of
related goals
An open system is a system that interacts with an
environment (e.g. a user types a command and the
computer responds with a display of data)
An information system is open, purposive system that
produces information using input/process/output cycle
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Components of an Information System
Components of an Information System
People, procedures, and data
People follow procedures to manipulate data to
produce information
Components of a computer-based Information System (CBIS)
People, procedures, data, programs, and computers
Programs are instructions for the computers just as
procedures are instructions for people

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The role of computer in information production
Serve as a data storage and retrieval device
Provide processing capabilities for the
production of information (e.g. calculation of
totals, averages, .)
Serve as a communication device to obtain data
or information from other computers
Present information by producing tables,
reports, charts, graphs, and formatted
documents.
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Physical system and information system as
subsystems of organization
Although the information system is a model of the
physical system, it also interacts with it.
The physical and information systems can be regarded
as subsystems of some larger organization system.
The inputs to the information system from the physical
system are usually observations (e.g. the actual number
of packets on the shelf).
The outputs from the information system to the
physical system are actions needed (e.g. the shipping
note implies an instruction to load certain goods onto a
truck and to drive that truck to a certain destination
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Physical system and information system as
subsystems of organization


Physical system
Information system
Actions
needed
observations
Organization
(system)
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Fundamental Types of
Information Systems
Transaction Processing Systems ( TPS).
Management Information Systems (MIS).
Decision Support Systems (DSS).
Expert Systems (ES)
Office Automation Systems (OAS)
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Information System Example:
Training Centre
The Centre offers public seminars and provides
consulting services for improving human
communication.
The centre markets its seminars via direct mail,
advertising, and professional associations.
It employs an administrative assistant. The assistant
answers the telephone, responds to routine questions,
maintains business records, arranges for the printing of
seminar materials, make reservations for seminar
hotels, and make travel arrangements.
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Information System Example:
Questions that the Centre Asks
Question about day-to-day operations:
Is Aly enrolled in XXX seminar next week?
How much money has company-x paid for the seven
attendees at the YYY seminar next month?
What are the names of the attendees at tomorrows
seminar.
This type of questions is most often answered by
TPS; questions can be answered by looking at
data in a file.
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Information System Example:
Questions that the Centre Asks
Management Questions:
Are there sufficient attendees to justify holding the
XXX seminar next week?
What was the profit from the ZZZ seminar ?
Whats the most profitable seminar?
This type of questions is most often answered by
MIS.
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Information System Example:
Questions that the Centre Asks
Strategic Questions:
Should we increase prices?
Are follow-on seminars ?
Do we want to be in the business?
This type of questions is most often answered by a DSS:
The first question is less quantitative than those in
the management group; analysis of data can help,
but subjective judgment is also required.


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Information System Example:
Questions that the Centre Asks
The third question is highly unstructured;
although its answer depends to some extent
on information produced from data, it
depends primarily on the owner subjective
feelings, beliefs, and attitudes.
It is easier to build information systems to
answer questions for more structured
questions. The strategic (unstructured)
questions requires a balance of information
from systems and subjective human analysis.
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Transaction Processing Systems
A transaction processing systems is shown in the
next figure.
It gathers data from the firms physical system
and environment and enters it into its database
The software also transforms the data into
information for the firms managers and other
individuals in the firms environment
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Transaction Processing Systems
Support day-to-day operations.
A few examples are
Ticket reservation systems
Order entry systems
Account payable systems
Account receivable systems
Payroll processing systems
All of these systems help a company to conduct
its operations and keep track of its activities.
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Transaction Processing Systems
The event could be:
A request for a ticket for a concert
An order request
The presentation of a check for payment
The event is recorded by keying it into the
computer system as a transaction; the
transaction is a representation of the event.
One or more TPS programs process the
transaction against TPS data.
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Transaction Processing Systems
For example:
in the case of a ticket reservation system, this data
contains the location of the available seats.
in the case of an order entry system, this data
contains a list of available products, their prices,
and related data.
in the case of a check processing system, this data
contains account balances, customer lists , and other
data.


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Management Information Systems
Management information systems (MIS) transform the data
in frontline systems, such as transaction processing
systems into information useful to managers
Typical MIS modules are report-writing software, and
models that can simulate firm operations
Information from the MIS is then used by organizational
problem solvers as an aid in decision-making, as
illustrated in the next figure
Firms can also interact with suppliers or others to form
inter organizational information systems (IOS), in which the
MIS supplies information to the other members of the
IOS as well as the firm's users
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Decision Support Systems (DSS)
A DSS is a system used to assist managers in making
decisions to help solve a specific problem
The next figure shows the 3 sources for the
information to be delivered to users: a relational
database, a knowledge base, and a multidimensional
database
Two additional types of DSS-related software are:
Group Decision Support Systems: used in aiding a group of
managers work out decisions, and
Artificial Intelligence: in which a program is created for a
computer to logically analyze a problem on its own
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MANAGERS AS INFORMATION SYSTEM
USERS
Managers exist at various managerial levels
and within various business areas of the firm
What level an IS is developed for influences
how it operates
The 3 primary management levels are :
1. Strategic planning level
2. Management control level
3. Operational control level
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What Managers Do
Managerial Functions (Managers do the following):
Plan what they are to do
Organize to meet the plan
Staff their organization with resources
Direct them to execute the plan
Control the resources, keeping them on course
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