What Is an Information System?
Introduction
If you are reading this, you are most likely taking a course in information
systems, but do you even know what the course is going to cover? When
you tell your friends or your family that you are taking a course in
information systems, can you explain what it is about? Sometimes when
students are asked what they think an information system is, they give
answers such as “computers,” “databases,” or “Excel.” These are good
answers, but definitely incomplete ones. The study of information
systems goes far beyond understanding some technologies. Let’s begin
our study by defining information systems.
Defining Information Systems
Almost all programs in business require students to take a course in
something called information systems. But what exactly does that term
mean? Let’s take a look at some of the more popular definitions, first from
Wikipedia and then from a couple of textbooks:
• “Information systems (IS) is the study of complementary networks of
hardware and software that people and organizations use to collect,
filter, process, create, and distribute data (“Information Systems,”
2012).
Learning Resource
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• “Information systems are combinations of hardware, software, and
telecommunications networks that people build and use to collect,
create, and distribute useful data, typically in organizational settings
(Valacich & Schneider, 2010).
• “Information systems are interrelated components working together
to collect, process, store, and disseminate information to support
decision making, coordination, control, analysis, and visualization in
an organization (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).
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 that those components play in an
organization. Let’s take a look at each of these.
The Components of Information Systems
Many students understand that an information system has something to
do with databases, spreadsheets, computers and e‐commerce. And they
are all right, at least in part: information systems are made up of different
components that work together to provide value to an organization.
Information systems are made up of five components: hardware,
software, data, people, and process. The first three, fitting under the
category technology, are generally what most students think of when
asked to define information systems. But the last two, people and
process, are really what separate the idea of information systems from
more technical fields, such as computer science. In order to fully
understand information systems, students must understand how all of
these components work together to bring value to an organization.
Technology
Technology can be thought of as the application of scientific knowledge
for practical purposes. From the invention of the wheel to the harnessing
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of electricity for artificial lighting, technology is a part of our lives in so
many ways that we tend to take it for granted. As discussed before, the
first three components of information systems—hardware, software, and
data—all fall under the category of technology. Each will be discussed in
more detail in later sections, but we will take a moment here to introduce
them so we can get a full understanding of what an information system is.
Hardware
Information systems hardware is the part of an information system you
can touch—the physical components of the technology. Computers,
keyboards, disk drives, iPads, and flash drives are all examples of
information systems hardware.
Software
Software is a set of instructions that tells the hardware what to do.
Software is not tangible—it cannot be touched. When programmers
create software programs, what they are really doing is simply typing out
lists of instructions that tell the hardware what to do. There are several
categories of software, with the two main categories being operating‐
system software, which makes the hardware usable, and application
software, which does something useful. Examples of operating systems
include Microsoft Windows on a personal computer and Google’s Android
on a mobile phone. Examples of application software are Microsoft Excel
and Angry Birds.
Data
The third component is data. You can think of data as a collection of facts.
For example, your street address, the city you live in, and your phone
number are all pieces of data. Like software, data is also intangible. By
themselves, pieces of data are not really very useful. But aggregated,
indexed, and organized together into a database, data can become a
powerful tool for businesses. In fact, all of the definitions presented at
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the beginning of this section focused on how information systems
manage data. Organizations collect all kinds of data and use it to make
decisions. These decisions can then be analyzed as to their effectiveness
and the organization can be improved. The reading, Data and Databases,
will cover their uses in organizations.
Networking Communication: A Fourth Technology Piece?
Besides the components of hardware, software, and data, which have
long been considered the core technology of information systems, it has
been suggested that one other component should be added:
communication. An information system can exist without the ability to
communicate—the first personal computers were stand‐alone machines
that did not access the internet. However, in today’s hyper‐connected
world, it is an extremely rare computer that does not connect to another
device or to a network. Technically, the networking communication
component is made up of hardware and software, but it is such a core
feature of today’s information systems that it has become its own
category.
People
When thinking about information systems, it is easy to get focused on the
technology components and forget that we must look beyond these tools
to fully understand how they integrate into an organization. A focus on
the people involved in information systems is the next step. From the
frontline help‐desk workers, to systems analysts, to programmers, all the
way up to the chief information officer, the people involved with
information systems are an essential element that must not be
overlooked.
Process
The last component of information systems is process. A process is a
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Information systems are tools that help organizations do business. They can be physical or virtual, but either way they’re designed to collect, store, organize and process data. Information systems are often categorized by their technology or purpose, such as CRM (customer relationship management) software or ERP (enterprise resource planning) software; however these two categories aren’t enough on their own to define an information system.
An information system is a technological or non-technological method that supports the collection, organization, storage, retrieval, transmission and use of information. Information systems may be used in all industries and by governments and organizations. They also support business processes by providing input/output data streams from which decisions can be made about what to do next.
Information systems are used to collect data from people who work in an organization or government agency so they can be analyzed to gain insights into trends within their workforce or across different departments within an organization. This information can then be stored in databases where it can be accessed at any point in time by anyone with proper authorization levels (or permissions).
An information system is a collection of all the relevant data that is necessary to manage an organization’s operations. It can be thought of as a filing cabinet for all of your company’s information, from financial records to customer service requests and everything in between.
Information systems are used by businesses everywhere–from large corporations with hundreds or thousands of employees, who rely on them for everything from payroll processing and human resource management to marketing campaigns; to small businesses who need only basic accounting functions like invoicing customers or keeping track of inventory levels; even medium-sized businesses may use them as well if they don’t want their employees spending time manually entering data into spreadsheets every day (although this could still be done manually).
An information system is designed to collect, store, organize and process data. Information is collected from a variety of sources and stored in databases. The database contains tables with fields that hold the data (e.g., customer name). The table may also contain other fields such as a field for gender or birthday depending on what kind of information you want to collect about your customers.
The organization of this type of information is called database design which involves creating tables with specific combinations of columns (rows) along with rules that control how these tables relate to one another when they’re joined together into larger reports or graphs like pie charts or bar graphs etcetera!
An information system is a technical tool for helping people do business. It’s an integral part of what we call “information technology,” or IT. The term “IT” can refer to many things, including computer hardware, software and services such as cloud computing.
An IT department manages these resources so that they’re available when needed–whether you’re at home or on the road, in meetings with clients or customers, or working late into the night because there’s no one else around who could take care of important matters like sending out invoices electronically instead of manually sending them out by mail (which saves time but costs money).
An information system is a technical tool for helping people do business. It can be used to support the company’s operations, or it can be used on its own. An information system may include hardware and software components that are used to store data, manage information systems and interact with other systems in an organization.
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