Information System in Organisation

The business problem

Information technology plays an important part in any organisation.Information technology
provides information systems that help people within the organisation do their particular tasks.
User requirements and technology are constantly changing. New or updated systems need to be introduced.
When any service is to be provided, the needs of the client should be determined before that service is provided.
If you do not know what the client requires,how can you be sure the client's needs are being satisfied?
In this unit you will look at how to determine client requirements.Different techniques to help you will be discussed.


Organisations and Information Systems

An organisation is a group of people all working towards a comman goal.This is a very general description that covers
a great numbers of groups.Indeed, it is difficult to think of any group of people that is not an
organisation.one example is a group of people who are competing in some way,such as a group of athlets in a race.That group
of athletes in a race. That group of athletes is not an organisation.Working towards a comman goal,or number of goals,is an important
goal,or number of goals,is an important characteristic of an organisation.
Organisations can be characterised by:
size, Industry and ownership.
Organisations range in size from one person to many thousands of people.We often use the terms 'small' and 'large' organisation.This
distinction is quite arbitary. Some say an organisation of up fifty people is small, others say a hundred.

Industry
Organisations can be categorised by the type of industry they are involved with. usually, there are many organisations within an industry.
Ownership
Organisations can be categorised by their ownership of the organisation may be private,government or social.
Individuals own organisations in the private sector.
Information Systems:
Every type of organisation has requirement for information system.An information system can be describe as a set of resources that work together
to process data into meaningful information that the organisation can in its business.
Resources are numerous,including people.Information technology resources include computer hardware
9for e.g cpu,monitor,keyboard),communication infrastructure(for exmple networks) and software.Information technologyis very technology is
veryintegrated allowing people to exhange information within an organisation( for example,by an internet) for externally
(for example,images,graphs)or non graphical.

Information systems are an important part of an organisation. Now we will consider the people
who use these information systems. These people are known as users. Users may interact
with the system directly,for example,by entering data or reading information on a screen users
Users may interact with the system directly, for example,by entering dat on reading information
on a screen users may also interact indirectly by reciving a computer generated reports.
There are various types of users. They include:
Operational staff
managers
customers
shareholders
general public

Operational staff: The operational staff are the workers. They actually use the information system
to help them do their business.
Managers: Middle managers, or line managers, manage the operational part of the business.They
supervise staff and the operations,make decision and provide leadership at the level.
Information systems help them perform those tasks.
Customers:
Customers do not work for the organisation,but do have interaction with the organisation's
computer systems.They can be indirect users,such as a person who receives an invoice from
a computerised invoicing system.The advent of the internet and e-commerce system has greatly
increased the direct interaction of users with organisation's computer systems. Customers are an
important consideration in determining information system requirements.

Shareholders
Shareholders are owners of organisations but do not take part in the day-to- day running of the organisation.By purchasing in
the organisation. By purchasing shares in the organisation,shareholders receive part of the profits. They also gain the right to
elect members to the board.They become indirect users of the organisation's information systems.The organisation must fully inform the sharehold-
ers of its performance.
Information Systems are very important in providing accurate and relevant information to shareholders. The legal
consequences of incorrect reporting to shareholders can be quite severe.
General public:
Increasingly, the general public is being exposed to information systems.This is particularly
the case with computerised information system. People actually use organisations' information
systems.There is no better example of this than the Internet.Many organisations are providing
information about their services on the Internet.Many organisations are providing information
about their services on the Internet.

Information System s provided by computers are a very important of an organisations need effective
computer systems to do their business and cannot survive witout them.Users interact with information
systems in different ways-for example ,operational staff and customers interact in order to do business
and customers interact in order to do business, and managers interact to make decisions.
Information systems can be quite complex.care must be taken in determining what users want from information systems. Techniques such as interviewing
and questionnaries are used to collect information requirements, which are then documented
and presented to the client for approval.