ITC 3303- Unit VIII Essay Management Information Systems

ITC 3303- Unit VIII Essay Management Information Systems

In this paper, there is a discussion of the components of an information system. Further-more there is a discussion of the Porter’s Five Forces analysis and a summation of management systems of the organization that are necessary for the organization decision making. The paper also touches on the human and the technical safeguards of the information technology. Differences between SDLC and SCRUM are discussed further in this paper.

Components of the Information Systems

An information system has the following five components: These are computer hardware, software, the telecommunication or networks, databases and human resources or the people. Computer hardware refers to the physical components of the information technology (Ibrahim & Huimin, 2017). It could be the smartphone that can easily be fitted into the pocket, a large desk top computer that can only be carried by a vehicle and a small portable laptop that can easily fit into a bag.

Software refers to a set of instructions that inform the hardware what to do. There are two types of computer software, the system software and the application software (Ibrahim & Huimin, 2017). System software include Windows and the application software is that particular software that carries out a specific task such as Microsoft Word which is used in creation of documents.

Telecommunications refer to a set of networking devices that can connect different hardware components for ease of access. For example, there are wireless connecting devices and there are also wires such as fiber optic cables etc. Databases are a component that include the terms such as big data and the data warehouses. They include the specific storage areas where data and information to be used by the hardware and the software can easily be retrieved. The process of retrieving or querying a database occurs through a set of commands or criteria(Ibrahim & Huimin, 2017).All these systems and components must be operated by people or staff that have knowledge in software and computer engineering and even the basic knowledge. For example, a word processing software receives instructions when a person keys in important resources.

Porter’s Five Forces Model

The Porter’s Five Model is an analytical model that is applied in businesses and in industries to assess the key strengths and the key weaknesses of that particular industry when it is compared with the competitors. This model was developed in 1979 (Bruijl, 2018). The primary developer was Mr. Michael Porter of Harvard Business School. In this model, businesses can assess the readiness of the market for the introduction of the new products, it can assess the rank that the company is in the market share competitive positioning and it can also assess the financial performance of the existing products.

It is more beneficial to use the model on an industry basis rather than using it in the assessment of the strengths of an individual company. This model has the following components: The bargaining power of suppliers: These are people who supply goods to the company. The threat of new entrants into the business. It also has the bargaining power of the customers. From here there is the competitive rivalry between the companies in the same industry. Finally the model also analyzes the threat of substitution, i.e. the ability of the customers to switch from one product to another (Bruijl, 2018).

Management Information Systems

A collaborative information is an example of the company management information system that enables human beings, particularly those that are working together to share key information about the work and to share documents and communicate sometimes on a real time basis (Juneja, 2015). An example of this system is Microsoft Teams.

A database management system is designed to retrieve, to define, to classify and sometimes to provide management services to data that is found in a system. An example of this system is the object oriented management system of the organization (Susanto, 2019). A knowledge management system is an information technology system that serves the purpose of retrieving and grouping the information for the purposes of sharing and understanding knowledge and a set of processes of the organization. An example is enterprise knowledge management system used to store and share business related knowledge. In content management system, there is the accurate organizational management of content necessary for publication, editing and creating content. A popular one for this purpose is Wordpress.com.

A Customer relations management system is a companywide system for the creation of strategies, techniques that can enable the business to serve the customers even better. The CRM software can gather key information regarding customers such as purchase history, income levels, likes and dislikes etc. An Enterprise Resource Planning is a company management software that is used by the organization in daily management of business processes such as the supply, sales, and processing payments to suppliers, financials, marketing and service delivery. They ensure there is integration and collaboration of all the organizational elements of business.

Business intelligence or the decision support systems refers to an organization system that can support the work of the organization in giving real time information for use in making decision or backing judgements of the business leaders (Juneja, 2015). For example, the GPS tracking system is an important organizational system that is best applied in informing the customer on the best business routes. An Enterprise Information System is a little different from the Enterprise Resource Planning since it provides important information on planning, management activity, product life cycle management and management of organizational marketing activities for best results (Juneja, 2015).

In the organization, the Social media information system consists of the application providers that makes social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and then they make these sites to be available to the users. It also includes community which is the people that make use of the social media sites and the sponsors, these are the people or companies that pay the social media companies so that they can advertise products on their site.

Safeguards to IS security threats

A technical safeguard is the implementation of a special hardware device that can offer some safeguards to information security threat. The example is the use of proxy servers or the implementation of firewalls. The aspect of human safeguard is through training. When people are given the right tools and skills, they can offer better protection to the information security and hence prevent the occurrence of security incidents.

SDLC and SCRUM

Software Development Life Cycle is an outline of the steps that are applied in the development, testing and building of an application software. SDLC involves the specific processes in planning, the software definition, carrying out designs and development of the prototypes, development, testing and then further deployment of the software tools (Jevtic, 2019). It also involves carrying out software maintenance. SCRUM is a software development method that is iterative and incremental. SDLC is applied in a stable software development process but SCRUM is an iterative method where there is less regulation and there are many changes to the process. Both of these processes are used in software development.

Importance of Management Information Systems

Management information systems is used in providing key information to businesses. It is used in decision making. It can be applied in the process of collection of necessary data from key information sources (Aristocon, 2018). It provides key information for the company strategic planning and management. When it is used well, it can assist the company in the generation of reports that can provide further analysis to the organization.

References

Aristocon. (2018, July 12). Why MIS is Important for Business – Advantages of MIS & Reporting. Aristole Consultancy. https://aristotleconsultancy.com/mis-important-businesses/

Bruijl, G. H. Th. (2018). The relevance of porter’s five forces in today’s innovative and changing business environment. SSRN Electronic Journal, 1(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3192207

Ibrahim, M., & Huimin, M. (2017). Information Technology Components and Their Role in Knowledge Management for Product Design. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 7(12), 948–953. https://doi.org/10.18178/ijiet.2017.7.12.1001

Jevtic, G. (2019, May 15). What is SDLC? How the Software Development Life Cycle Works. PhoenixNAP Global IT Services. https://phoenixnap.com/blog/software-development-life-cycle

Juneja, P. (2015). Types of Information Systems - Components and Classification of Information Systems. Managementstudyguide.com. https://www.managementstudyguide.com/types-of-information-systems.htm

Susanto, A. (2019). Database Management System. In International Journal of Scientific Research and Technology. http://www.ijstr.org/final-print/june2019/Database-Management-System.pdf