Information systems
Lecture 1
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
- Combinations of hardware, software and, telecommunications networks that
people build and use to collect, create, and distribute data in organizational
settings
- Three main components:
- Technology
- Organization
- People
- Technology, organization, and people are interrelated, so the field of information
systems typically adopts an integrative (i.e., socio-technical) perspective
- Focus on aligning business and IT
When an organization changes, the technology also has to change. But usually they do not
change at the same speed. So how do you align this?
,All systems need to be connected and integrated to each other. Almost each company has
more than 100 different systems.
E-business and online commerce have everything to do with technology
E-business= Conducting business transactions (e.g., with customers, suppliers, partners,
internally…) using information and communication technology (i.e., ICTs)
Online commerce= Selling products and services over the Internet
Connecting data sources
,Back-end vs Front-end information systems
Front-end= what we as customers see
Back-end= the technological backbone
Back-end information systems: The corporate information systems that are for internal use
and that are crucial to the infrastructure and internal operations of the organization
Front-end information systems: The corporate information systems that external
stakeholders (e.g., customers, suppliers) interact with to access back-end information and
services
, WHY DO INFORMATION SYSTEMS LANDSCAPES LOOK LIKE THIS
- Information systems support business processes, but many business processes are
cross-functional
- E.g., a simple sales process could involve Sales (generate and book orders),
Accounting and Finance (check and approve creditworthiness, generate
invoice), Manufacturing and Production (produce and/or assemble product,
ship to customer), and Customer Service (follow up with customers on order
and delivery)
- Business processes (and organizations) are becoming more and more complex, and
so are the information systems that have to support them
- Increasing information needs all across the organization (e.g., dashboards for
managers, updated customer information for customer service representatives)
- Increasing specialization at the level of teams, business functions, business units,
etc.
- They all have their own data needs
- Decentralization and/or a lack of oversight
- E.g., departments can acquire their own systems, no central oversight in who
uses what
- Aging of information systems, we refer to old systems as legacy systems
- What to do with those old systems, keep them running (e.g., mainframes in
banks), build around them (e.g., patient registration systems in hospitals), or
phase them out?
INSTAGRAM SHOPPING, SIMPLE RIGHT?
- In theory, sellers could host/import all their product information on Instagram and
have Instagram process payments
- Great for casual sellers, not for professional ones!
- Sellers need to integrate their own information systems with Instagram
- Using standard application programming interfaces (APIs)
- Information systems of small sellers are increasingly created using no-code or
low-code platforms, integrated with other systems
- Focus is on business and data logic that govern the creation of applications
- E.g., Betty Blocks, Joomla, Mendix, Shopify, Wix, WordPress
