The 6 Types Of Information Systems And Their Applications

Information systems are the core of organizations' functioning as data is the key to the positive functioning of a business. Being able to manage the data with proficiency, this task should be on the prior list of organizations. From shortlisting the crucial data to placing them in the respective locations and manner, all associated information should be handled professionally and with impactful strategies. 

Generally, information technology systems are of various types such as software databases, internet, devices, computers, communication systems, etc, and collecting, organizing, and storing data is essential to cope with industry changes.

As the famous saying by Clive Humby still holds its significance “Data is the new oil”, Data is something that makes an organization or breaks it completely. So, to be on top and excel in the complete game, managing data efficiency and transforming it into an updated form from raw data are the prior tasks of information technology. 

In simple terms, an information system covers the major features and aspects of the dynamic realm of IT. From the Internet to software, everything associated with information and data is directly connected to it. 

Essential Aspects Influencing Information Systems

The following are some of the essential aspects that play a major role in influencing information systems:

1) Design a Strategy

The fact is that no business can develop and thrive if there is no plan and vision for its future. According to strategy, informational plans are prepared to leverage existing opportunities and deal with threats in the outside world. That, of course, is where computers can be most useful. They are not only memory boxes, they allow the user to perform data analysis in an unbelievably fast and accurate manner. Therefore, computerized information systems support the right and quick manner in which managers use that information in wise strategic decisions; which makes this operation not only essential but also paramount.

2) High-Quality

It is always said that in business or industry, nothing should be sacrificed for the other; therefore, information systems are one such technology that enables the enhancement of the quality of the data. Several techniques exist that should be employed to improve the quality of data being collected. Some of the main tools used are check sheets, histograms, fishbone diagrams, etc, some of the major tools that have a rewarding effect on the businesses and are beneficial to a large extent as the main tool helps the businesses to multiply to a greater extent.

3) Budget and Expenses

To use the benefits of IT one requires a computer system. While it is true that the purchase of a computer system may prove to be costly, it is a cost that has to be incurred only once while on the other end having a human workforce is a cost that you have to bear regularly in terms of the checks that has got to be given out to your workers and employees. Thus, relatively, a computer is cheaper and achieves the goal within a shorter amount of time while doing it correctly.

6 Major Types Of Information Systems

In the realm where data is power and strategically simplifying it and making the most out of huge memory of data, it is classified into 6 fundamental types that are discussed down below:

1) Knowledge Management Systems (KMS)

Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) are to identify, acquire, organize, and disseminate an organization’s knowledge to make sure that key content and vital knowledge whether textual or observational is retrievable by the employees at different levels.

KMS enables the enterprise structural and cognitive knowledge and this enhances vision and execution in matters of problems and invention as well as people interaction. For instance, a multinational firm can use KMS to disseminate new ideas, samples, solutions, experiences, lessons learned, and technical tips internationally, which will eventually increase efficiency and decrease costs.

The knowledge management system's primary work is to make crucial data available to employees and consumers so that all can make the most out of the information and meet business objectives at their best. The KMS is generally classified into three major categories i.e., Explicit, Tacit, and Implicit.Explicit on the first hand means the type of information that can be effortlessly coded and shared. This kind of information is simple and essential to communicate and is easily understandable. Some major examples of explicit information are HR rules and regulations, employee handbooks, general operating procedures, etc. 

Secondly, Tacit knowledge is a quite comprehensive and complex method compared to explicit knowledge. This kind of information should be securely placed and is difficult to share. Information such as design abilities, customer service expertise, etc are some of the major examples of tacit knowledge. Lastly, implicit knowledge is referred to as the knowledge that can be effortlessly written in computer language. This kind of knowledge is similar to tacit knowledge keeping in mind the fact that implicit kneeled is more codable and easy to share. 

2) Decision Support Systems (DSS)

Decision Support Systems (DSS) refer to the special class of information systems that support decision-making through the delivery of pertinent data and analysis. They allow managers to make reasonable choices when they are presented with a problem that is hard to solve and where there is a lot of uncertainty.

DSS uses both quantitative data (for instance, sales data) and qualitative data (accounts for customers’ feedback or tweets). For instance; in the healthcare sector DSS healthcare by doctors to advise on the next course of action regarding the particular patient results from the medical test results. Similarly, in the field of banking and financial institutions, the DSS is also used for risk evaluation and to analyze the markets.

Data analysis helps managers to make better decisions by providing them with solutions based on analysis of the data collected and results of best and worst case scenarios thus minimizing chances of minimizers. In simple words. A Decision Support system (DSS) is a web database system that streamlines companies' processes in decision-making and problem-solving which will eventually help companies to take better action based on facts and future trends. 

3) Transaction Processing System (TPS)

TPS or Transaction Processing Systems (TPS) manage core business activities including sales, employee salaries, and employees. These systems are relevant to the facilitation of smooth and accurate running of the usual operations of any business. For instance, in retail, a TPS captures customers’ buying history, keeps a record of stock, and manages customers' records. In a banking system, TPS is involved in the processing of such activities as deposits and withdrawals with great p withdrawal is locked in real-time.

TPS systems are most sensitive to input accuracy or input data uniformity. They also produce critical working information which forms input to other systems like the Management Information System (MIS), giving an insightful outlook of the organization.

In simple language, to be easily understood, the Transaction Process System (TPS) helps businesses in their day-to-day activities. It gathers information in one place which will eventually give rise to the ultimate growth of organizations. In addition to these majors, a TPS gives rise to effective connections between business and customers at its best. 

4) Office Automation Systems (OAS) 

Office Automation Systems (OAS) deal with clerical activities that involve the preparation of documents and communications as well as the scheduling of activities and events in an organization. Such systems consist of word processing tools, data management systems, project tracking systems, and collaboration systems.

For example, tools such as MS Office or Google Workspace allow employees to work in real time, track paperwork, or manage processes. OAS systems eliminate repetitive jobs and save many human hours to accomplish strategic objectives of the organization’s employees spending most of their time and energy on mundane functions of office work.

Finally, OAS helps increase efficiency by reducing administrative tasks; as the usage of remote leadership grows, these solutions also transition to cloud and AI-driven capabilities.

5) Management Information System (MIS)

of people, data, processes, computers, telecommunications, and nutrients used to gather, process, transmit, and disseminate data for managing an organization effectively.Managing Information Systems (MISs) collect and analyze data to feed working managers with information about an organization. These systems provide reports, dashboards, and reports that assist managers in overseeing the operations, overseeing the functions of the business as well as using information to make the missions.

For instance, an MIS in a manufacturing company may monitor the amount and rates of production, stock, and performance among others to enhance its operations. In manufacturing, it follows market trends and custom requirements needed to inform stocking and pricing decisions.

MIS enables the provision of good value information to support managers’ decisions, increase organizational productivity, and enable planning for future trends as a result of the growing popularity of other business analytics environments.

6) Executive Information Systems (EIS)

Executive information systems (EIS) are decision support tools that help to deliver timely essential information to the managers of an enterprise. These systems provide top-line views of an ortop-lineons’ status using graphical interfaces such as gauges, Trend Charts, and Key Performance In, dictators.

For instance, an ESS can provide a CEO with one view of financial results, sales, customer satisfaction, and staff morale. This leaves the executives able to make the necessary strategic decisions within a short time without having to go through several reports by the different departments.

The ability of MIS and DSS to feed ESS with information enhances tracking of the company performance and enhances executives' decision-making for business success.

Main Applications of Information Technology

Information technology plays a crucial role in the overall functioning of the business industry. By making data accessible and easily placed, the essential information can be used in various aspects.

Some of the major Information System applications are mentioned down below: 

1) Easy Decision Making 

One of the crucial information system applications is to help the decision-making factor positively in organizations. Coming to a final decision leads to proper research and suggestions of all and decision making is considered to be a challenging factor as many aspects have to be taken into consideration when concluding.  

Businesses never know what their decision will impact and the major doubt arises whether this decision will be a success or not. In order to come out with positive decision-making, information systems help organizations to make researched and fact-based decisions. The research includes intrinsic charts, reports, comparison sheets, etc which will lead businesses to conclude their decision-making on the safe side. 

In this way, information systems help company stakeholders to make factual moves quickly and lead the companies to excellence through better decision-making. The fact that knowledge is power, so, this benefit lets companies grow tremendously in both the short and long term. 

2) Storing Information and Data 

Data is as crucial as anything else as it directly affects the core functioning of organizations. To align every piece of information perfectly with the business needs, information systems store information and data in their respective places so it is easily accessible when needed. As there is a huge amount of data available at every organization at any level, they need to make sure that they make the most out of the information systems. 

These beneficial systems place data and information accurately to reduce unnecessary space or storage. As beneficially storing data leads to businesses being profitable, storing them by impactful strategies is crucially essential. 

Storing data is also essential because it assists organizations in keeping track of what is happening in the departments and operations so that they make the right decisions accordingly. All this information should be set in the right place so the organization gets a complete idea of how and where to find what. 

3) Launching New Products and Services

Launching new products and services is the core of any business growth as the frequency of launching products and services is quite high in the majority of workplaces. Due to the increase in consumers' desires and demands, information systems help keep track of business supplies and demands to align the procedures, principles, and practices. 

Any product or service entering the market needs proper assessment and research and most importantly it needs proper judgment. In this manner, information systems help companies to successfully launch their product and services so that their business objectives align with the market trends. 

In basic terms, information systems help businesses beneficially so that they make the most out of their product or service launch. The advanced system incorporated in the same, lets them make better business decisions which are both demand and supply-based.  

4) Improving Employee Attitude and Behaviour 

Information systems beneficially help in improving employee attitude and behavior and this benefit encourages employees that the communication between companies and its various departments is significantly nurtured. The information system helps employees by providing them with what they need in order to make the most out of the data and information available. 

Due to this benefit, employees feel a sense of value that will eventually lead them to become a valuable asset to the company. In addition to this, the sense of empowerment among the workforce is crucial in order to meet the business objectives whether short or long-term. 

What Are The Complexities Associated With Information Systems?

Information Systems come with several complexities that need to be addressed professionally and down below there are some of the fundamental challenges associated with information systems.

1) Security and Privacy 

Security and privacy are key elements of the organizations that use information systems. In this digital age, proper protection of information from threats such as hacking and other cybercrimes is crucial as is compliance with the privacy regulations. Furthermore, it is difficult to manage new technologies as business organizations require both new and old technologies for different operations at the same time. It makes it difficult to maintain security and privacy by having constant change giving businesses the pressure of adapting quickly to threats and privacy needs.

2) Technical Challenges

Ideally, delivering data and keeping efficiency are pet issues that organizations struggle to solve. As businesses grow further, there is a need to ensure that the data is both findable and usable irrespective of the volumes that may be involved. Interoperability across technologies is important to ensure effective data sharing and avoid interruptions of operations. Achieving performance, scalability, and integration is a challenging optimization problem, where the technical dependencies between systems must match logical integration needs while systems keep changing over time.

3) Data Management

Data management can be narrowly defined as data aggregation accompanied by data validation and quality management. To tackle these challenges organizations have to put in place frameworks that support data consistency and governance. Since the levels of data produced increase, their storage, search, and processing require proper management. It is therefore important that data quality is checked and/or corrected before the data is used in its process to allow decision-making on accurate and up-to-date results.

4) Human Factors

That is why the key factor in IS success is a set of adequate skills that let them use the technology successfully. This is important to ensure that employees are aware of how they operate and how to utilize systems most productively. Privacy and security are equally important factors that also have to be addressed while dealing with the data, and this has to be done ethically. Mandatory data ethics maintains the organization’s credibility and encourages goodwill with stakeholders before, during, and after data analysis is conducted.

5) Global Nature of Business

Some of the activities require international operations, which has some limitations hence the need to consider the following; Cultural perspective and flexibility to changes in different laws. It is particularly challenging when norms and the legal system in the various countries change from one level to the other. To overcome these issues, organizations need to be more pliable and culture-sensitive, because business management and compliance, need to cater both to the local and the global needs taking into consideration the regulations and laws of various countries.

Major Upcoming Trends In Information Systems

As the industry is significantly growing, regular updates and trends are coming up and the following are some of the major trends in Information Systems:

1) Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is developing fast, combining information technology to enhance decision-making, automation systems, and data analytics. Of these, the machine learning segment is expected to experience most of the growth as algorithms get more sophisticated to enable data learning and skills improvement. This evolution will put pressure on various industries including health care, finance, and production to embrace change and shift towards more adaptive forms of operation thereby changing the way that business makes decisions based on big data. With the growth of AI technology, the effects are said to become even more profound with the development of smarter systems, capable of solving elaborate problems with the least human assistance.

2) Cybersecurity Advancements

When people get connected to the world thus increasing their standard of living, it also increases their susceptibility to cyber theft. These threats are being worked on through the application of AI, M, L, and other solutions to increase cybersecurity. These innovations deal with the confidentiality of valuable information, identification of risks as well as preventing cyber threats in a business environment. Due to the advancement in cyber offenses and crimes, constant advancements in cybersecurity measures shall be pragmatic to protect virtual platforms and regain the confidence of users and organizations around the globe.

3) AR and VR

AR and VR are related through the acronym AR means augmented reality and VR means virtual reality. Such opportunities are gained through industries where augmented reality and virtual reality are gradually becoming a new reality. In such areas as gaming, healthcare, education, and working from home, these technologies are improving human interactions and offering fresh possibilities for learning and working. In the field of health care, VR is applied to the training of surgeons and the use of AR when a doctor needs to see a patient’s data during the operation. With cost and ease of implementation decreasing, these technologies will find increased application across sectors resulting in more creative answers to challenges.

4) 5G Technology Adaptations

With advancements in the technology to create the 5G network, we will primarily find faster and more reliable internet connections to make possible new application solutions across sectors. As 5G will come through, real-time data transfer is expected to be smoother in areas like autonomous vehicles, health care, and smart cities. It will also help boost the fast-growing Internet market that connects millions of devices for optimal performance. There is, therefore, strong potential for 5G technology to provide access to new application and service development opportunities as it continues to grow.

6) Genomics

Genomics is gradually transforming the healthcare sector because it is now possible to analyze genes and plot possible threats against personal health. It can be used to practice medicine on an individual basis. The use of this technology makes it possible for the doctor to give his patient treatment depending on his or her genotype. Through DNA, doctors can see those who are susceptible to certain diseases early before they are developed. As the field of genomics develops further, improved knowledge of the disorders and their difficult diagnosis will gradually appear, which will serve to improve the conditions of patient treatment.

7) Robotics Process Automation

Robotics Process Automation (RPA) is revolutionizing business processes as it automates, or in other words, reborn operations and operational activities. It is applied more and more frequently in fields such as the financial industry, customer relations, and the supply chain to reduce the time taken in a process. On one hand, RPA frees and reallocates employees from re-hoping repetitive and tedious tasks which ultimately results in better productivity and cost reduction. In the future, with the development of RPA technology, its function or its application will increase to provide efficiency for the business, and its role will help to boost business performance.

8) Data Privacy and Ethics

Thus, privacy and ethical factors play a more considerable role in larger amounts of collected information. Due to high records of data breaches, and increased awareness of data privacy organizations have taken stringent measures into account. These are: encryption; anonymization; and legislation to protect the privacy of the individuals, respectively. They are also being built for ethical data usage and to safeguard individual autonomy. The aim is to make the world wide web safer for users; and more transparent, where users’ data should be valued and used properly.

9) Blockchain Technologies

Thus, it proves that the blockchain industry is no longer limited to cryptocurrencies and has gone further, and is used in sectors such as financial, areas of health, and supply chain markets. Its absence of a central authority promotes quick and secure record keeping that is immutable, subsequently suitable for uses that demand data integrity. For instance, through the supply chain, the use of blockchain provides information about the origin and even the authenticity of the products being traded. With time, blockchain is becoming more and more acknowledged as the technology with the ability to change industries improving the level of security and the results’ transparency.

10) Quantum Computing

Quantum computing will potentially bring disruptive impacts in various sectors because it would solve problems that often cannot be solved by traditional computers. Quantum computers are many, many orders of magnitude faster than classical computers when using quantum mechanics to solve calculations, thus new doors are being opened in fields such as cryptography, medicine, artificial intelligence, and many more. Although it is a relatively new field, it can lead to unprecedented discoveries and changes in industries because such problems can now be solved.

How Information Systems Help Improve Business Performance

The management of firms can tap the benefit of information systems in many ways that enhance the performance of their businesses. They can mitigate repetitive functions, minimize errors made, and enhance communication and data processing. They can also help managers to obtain relevant and timely information on which data they can rely to make their decisions; also, enable innovation and flexibility and improve customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the use of information systems can automate activities through the development of solutions thus cutting costs by minimizing wastage and inefficient resource utilization.

On the whole, information systems usage may provide a competitive advantage to businesses by increasing the effectiveness, decision support capabilities, and flexibility when responding to market changes and customer demands. It also facilitates the process of extending the business visibility by offering strong marketing platforms like web applications and capturing customers’ information and trends. 

Through this data, business organizations can develop an understanding and recognition of their customers and also be in a position to be able to work towards satisfying these customers. There is potential for an increase in customer loyalty and therefore more revenues. Further, information systems make it easier for the business organization to act more flexibly in the changing state of operations in the market.The use of real-time data and analytics as a competitive advantage is numerous; the businesses can change their strategies and structures within minutes thus enabling them to optimize newly emerged opportunities.

Conclusion

Today, information systems are considered to be critical organizational components that contribute to organizations’ performance. Every organization depends on these systems for their day-to-day operations, from entering transactions to getting top-end analytics for decision-making, these applications are critical to keeping organizations competitive

. Irrespective of whether it is a Knowledge Management System to facilitate the sharing and dissemination of ideas, expertise, or latent know-how, a Decision Support System to facilitate analysis of problems and issues of significant complexity, or an Executive Support System to provide support to an organization in monitoring its performance each of these types of information system has a well-defined use.Appreciating information and its management has never been more critical due to the rising trends in the computerization of all assets.

Over the years the use of technology has advanced, and so has the business, thus businesses incorporate new tools as well as systems into their business to transform into top performers. Proper implementation of those systems might help organizations gain knowledge of their performance, increase efficiency, and ultimately fulfill their objectives.