What an information system is for
The information system set apart from the IT system, its five resources and four functions, its place between steering and operations, the three decision levels it serves, its four stakes and the role of the IT department.
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Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.
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A few cards from the deck
Information system: what is it?
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The organised set of people, hardware, software, data and procedures that lets an organisation collect, store, process and distribute its information.
Every organisation has one, even without a computer: a paper register and the rule saying who fills it in are already part of it.
A small firm has good servers, a reliable network and up-to-date software. Which of these belongs to its information system without belonging to its IT system?
- The order approval procedure
- The installed invoicing software
- The head office local network
- The backup servers
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The order approval procedure
The other three answers are hardware, software or networks, so the IT system. A procedure is a resource of the information system: it says who enters, who approves and who sees what.
An information system fulfils four functions: …, …, processing and distributing information.
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An information system fulfils four functions: collecting, storing, processing and distributing information.
In the order of a datum's journey: it is captured, kept, turned into a result, then made available to those who need it.
IT system: what is it?
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The automated part of an organisation's information set-up: hardware, software and networks, without the people or the procedures.
The IT system sits inside the information system, not the other way round. Buying machines does not change how information flows.
Each branch keeps its customers in its own spreadsheet, and head office takes three weeks to produce the quarter's turnover. Which solution addresses the cause?
- Make every branch use the same spreadsheet template
- A shared customer database fed by every branch
- Ask the branches to send their spreadsheets every week
- Equip head office with more powerful PCs
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A shared customer database fed by every branch
The cause is siloed data with no shared memory: a shared database is needed. A common template or regular mailings leave the data scattered, and PC power changes nothing.