Unit-II: Kinds of Information Systems
Transaction Processing System (TPS), Office Automation System (OAS), Management Information System (MIS), Decision Support System (DSS) and Group Decision Support System (GDSS), Expert System (ES), Executive Support System (EIS or ESS).
What Does Transaction Process System (TPS) Mean?
A transaction process system (TPS) is an information processing system for business transactions involving the collection, modification and retrieval of all transaction data. Characteristics of a TPS include performance, reliability and consistency.
TPS is also known as transaction processing or real-time processing.
Techopedia Explains Transaction Process System (TPS)
A transaction process system and transaction processing are often contrasted with a batch process system and batch processing, where many requests are all executed at one time. The former requires the interaction of a user, whereas batch processing does not require user involvement. In batch processing the results of each transaction are not immediately available. Additionally, there is a delay while the many requests are being organized, stored and eventually executed. In transaction processing there is no delay and the results of each transaction are immediately available. During the delay time for batch processing, errors can occur. Although errors can occur in transaction processing, they are infrequent and tolerated, but do not warrant shutting down the entire system.
To achieve performance, reliability and consistency, data must be readily accessible in a data warehouse, backup procedures must be in place and the recovery process must be in place to deal with system failure, human failure, computer viruses, software applications or natural disasters.
Office automation systems (OAS)
Office automation systems (OAS) are systems that are designed to increase the productivity of clerical workers and knowledge workers and enhance communication in the workplace.
Example:
- OAS are word processing, desktop publishing, voice mail, e-mail, videoconferencing, and multimedia systems.
Office automation systems (OAS), also referred to as office information systems are computer-based information systems whose primary purpose is to facilitate oral and written communication. Such a system is a set of tools that gather, process, store, retrieve, and disseminate information between individual workers, team of workers, and business entities, both inside and outside the organization.
WHAT IS MIS? | MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Management Information Systems (MIS) is the study of people, technology, organizations, and the relationships among them. MIS professionals help firms realize maximum benefit from investment in personnel, equipment, and business processes. MIS is a people-oriented field with an emphasis on service through technology. If you have an interest in technology and have the desire to use technology to improve people’s lives, a degree in MIS may be for you.
MIS PROFESSIONALS MAKE BUSINESS BETTER
Businesses use information systems at all levels of operation to collect, process, and store data. Management aggregates and disseminates this data in the form of information needed to carry out the daily operations of business. Everyone who works in business, from someone who pays the bills to the person who makes employment decisions, uses information systems. A car dealership could use a computer database to keep track of which products sell best. A retail store might use a computer-based information system to sell products over the Internet. In fact, many (if not most) businesses concentrate on the alignment of MIS with business goals to achieve competitive advantage over other businesses. MIS professionals create information systems for data management (i.e., storing, searching, and analyzing data). In addition, they manage various information systems to meet the needs of managers, staff and customers. By working collaboratively with various members of their work group, as well as with their customers and clients, MIS professionals are able to play a key role in areas such as information security, integration, and exchange. As an MIS major, you will learn to design, implement, and use business information systems in innovative ways to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your company.
MORE THAN CODING
A common misconception is that MIS only concerns coding (or writing computer code). While coding concepts represent some of the fundamental principles of information systems development, implementation, and use, many jobs in MIS do not utilize coding at all. A large portion of the MIS degree focuses on data analysis, teamwork, leadership, project management, customer service, and underlying business theories. These aspects of the degree are what set the MIS professional apart from a computer science specialist.
● Do you enjoy working with people?
● Would you enjoy the chance to work on global problems with people from all over the world?
● Do you enjoy analyzing and solving problems?
● Do you want to create innovative, cutting-edge technology solutions? ● Do you want to learn how to make businesses more efficient, effective and competitive?
Then you should consider as your major the field that is experiencing a critical shortage of professionally trained individuals. A field where demand is skyrocketing with projected growth rates of 38 percent – the fastest of any business discipline (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
WHAT KINDS OF PEOPLE PURSUE MIS DEGREES?
The profiles of MIS professionals are varied, but in general, such individuals possess many of the following traits:
● good problem solving skills
● ability to effectively manage time and resources
● a clear vision of “the big picture” as well as the “small details”
● a desire to work closely with other people
● excellent communication skills
● ability to think strategically about technology
● a desire to take responsibility for developing and implementing their own ideas
WHAT ARE TYPICAL CAREER OPTIONS FOR MIS PROFESSIONALS?
● IT Consultant
● Web Developer
● Information Systems Manager
● Business Intelligence Analyst
● Network Administrator
● Business Application Developer
● Systems Analyst
● Technical Support Specialist
● Business Analyst
● Systems Developer
WHY SHOULD I CHOOSE TO MAJOR IN MIS?
● Job satisfaction
● High placement rate
● High salaries
● Exciting field
● Challenging field
● Hands-on problem solving
● Innovation and creativity
● Global opportunities
● Great chance for advancement
● You can have an impact!
What is a decision support system (DSS)?
A decision support system (DSS) is a computer program application used to improve a company's decision-making capabilities. It analyzes large amounts of data and presents an organization with the best possible options available.
Decision support systems bring together data and knowledge from different areas and sources to provide users with information beyond the usual reports and summaries. This is intended to help people make informed decisions.
Typical information a decision support application might gather and present include the following:
● comparative sales figures between one week and the next; ● projected revenue figures based on new product sales assumptions; and
● the consequences of different decisions.
A decision support system is an informational application as opposed to an operational application. Informational applications provide users with relevant information based on a variety of data sources to support better-informed decision-making. Operational applications, by contrast, record the details of business transactions, including the data required for the decision-support needs of a business.
Decision support system components
A typical DSS consists of three different parts: knowledge database, software and user interface.
Knowledge base. A knowledge base is an integral part of a decision support system database, containing information from both internal and external sources. It is a library of information related to particular subjects and is the part of a DSS that stores information used by the system's reasoning engine to determine a course of action.
Learn about knowledge base uses in customer service and call centers.
Software system. The software system is composed of model management systems. A model is a simulation of a real-world system with the goal of understanding how the system works and how it can be improved. Organizations use models to predict how outcomes will change with different adjustments to the system.
For example, models can be helpful for understanding systems that are too complicated, too expensive or too dangerous to fully explore in real life. That's the idea behind computer simulations used for scientific research, engineering tests, weather forecasting and many other applications.
Models can also be used to represent and explore systems that don't yet exist, like a proposed new technology, a planned factory or a business's supply chain. Businesses also use models to predict the outcomes of different changes to a system -- such as policies, risks and regulations -- to help make business decisions.
User interface. The user interface enables easy system navigation. The primary goal of the decision support system's user interface is to make it easy for the user to manipulate the data that is stored on it. Businesses can use the interface to evaluate the effectiveness of DSS transactions for the end users. DSS interfaces include simple windows, complex menu-driven interfaces and command-line interfaces.
Types of decision support systems
Decision support systems can be broken down into categories, each based on their primary sources of information.
Data-driven DSS
A data-driven DSS is a computer program that makes decisions based on data from internal databases or external databases. Typically, a data-driven DSS uses data mining techniques to discern trends and patterns, enabling it to predict future events. Businesses often use data-driven DSSes to help make decisions about inventory, sales and other business processes. Some are used to help make decisions in the public sector, such as predicting the likelihood of future criminal behavior.
Model-driven DSS
Built on an underlying decision model, model-driven decision support systems are customized according to a predefined set of user requirements to help analyze different scenarios that meet these requirements. For example, a model-driven DSS may assist with scheduling or developing financial statements.
Communication-driven and group DSS
A communication-driven and group decision support system uses a variety of communication tools -- such as email, instant messaging or voice chat -- to allow more than one person to work on the same task. The goal behind
this type of DSS is to increase collaboration between the users and the system and to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the system.
Knowledge-driven DSS
In this type of decision support system, the data that drives the system resides in a knowledge base that is continuously updated and maintained by a knowledge management system. A knowledge-driven DSS provides information to users that is consistent with a company's business processes and knowledge.
Document-driven DSS
A document-driven DSS is a type of information management system that uses documents to retrieve data. Document-driven DSSes enable users to search webpages or databases, or find specific search terms. Examples of documents accessed by a document-driven DSS include policies and procedures, meeting minutes and corporate records.
Group Decision Support System (GDSS)
A group decision support system (GDSS) is an interactive computer-based system that facilitates a number of decision-makers (working together in a group) in finding solutions to problems that are unstructured in nature. They are designed in such a way that they take input from multiple users interacting simultaneously with the systems to arrive at a decision as a group.
The tools and techniques provided by the group decision support system improve the quality and effectiveness of the group meetings. Groupware and web-based tools for electronic meetings and videoconferencing also support some of the group decision making processes, but their main function is to make communication possible between the decision-makers.
In a group decision support system (GDSS) electronic meeting, each participant is provided with a computer. The computers are connected to each other, to the facilitator’s computer and to the file server. A projection screen is available at the front of the room. The facilitator and the participants can both project digital text and images onto this screen.
A group decision support system (GDSS) meeting comprises different phases, such as idea generation, discussion, voting, vote
counting and so on. The facilitator manages and controls the execution of these phases. The use of various software tools in the meeting is also controlled by the facilitator.
A group decision support system (GDSS) is composed of 3 main components, namely hardware, software tools, and people.
● Hardware: It includes electronic hardware like the computer, equipment used for networking, electronic display boards and audiovisual equipment. It also
includes the conference facility, including the physical set up – the room, the tables, and the chairs – laid out in such a manner that they can support group discussion and teamwork.
● Software Tools: It includes various tools and techniques, such as electronic questionnaires, electronic
brainstorming tools, idea organizers, tools for setting priority, policy formation tool, etc. The use of these
software tools in a group meeting helps the group
decision-makers to plan, organize ideas, gather
information, establish priorities, take decisions and
document the meeting proceedings. As a result,
meetings become more productive.
● People: It compromises the members participating in the meeting, a trained facilitator who helps with the
proceedings of the meeting, and an expert staff to
support the hardware and software. The GDSS
components together provide a favorable environment for carrying out group meetings.
Meaning of Expert System:
An expert system is the highest form of management computing office automation which allows the communication and manipulation of documents.
Decision support systems aid in problem solving by allowing for manipulation of data and models.
Expert systems go beyond traditional manipulation of this type as they allow experts to ‘teach’ computers about their fields so that the system may support more of the decision making process for less expert decision makers.
In this sense, an expert system is software that contains a knowledge base of facts and relationships and has the ability to make inferences based on that knowledge base. An expert system is a computer based information system in which knowledge is represented in data, in which the processing of the knowledge is directed primarily by computer programs.
Expert systems represent one of the most advanced facts of information technology. That is, they aid people in some of the most complex and least understood human information handling tasks, i.e., decision making, problem solving, diagnosis and learning. They do this by storing a large amount of factual information on a subject area, together with lines of reasoning employed by human experts in that area.
Most of this material is supplied to the program at the time it is written, but it also has facilities for adding to this base of information as it is applied in new situations. The subject expertise is provided initially by interviews and observations of successful PR actioners of the subject.
Classes of Expert System:
The expert system has following sub classes:
(a) The consultant:
A consultant is an expert person, who possesses a high level of expertise in the area. He guide and educate the executives regarding establishing the expert system.
(b) The expert interface or intelligent front end: This consultant is an expert on using some complex computer system or operation and assists an inexperience user to use the established expert system.
(c) Assistant:
These people have a lower level of expertise than those persons, which undertake routine job and leaves the executives to make final difficult decisions. This is the easiest and cheapest class of expert system to build and has importance in business.
(d) The idiot servant:
These workers have a small amount of intelligence, and low level of expertise, and a great deal of information. The work of this class is to use its limited expertise to decide what information it should retrieve and offer to its user. The most common example of this class is maintenance expert, which retrieves detailed information on part of a machine as and when they are required.
xecutive support systems are intended to be used by the senior managers directly to provide support to non-programmed decisions in strategic management.
These information are often external, unstructured and even uncertain. Exact scope and context of such information is often not known beforehand.
This information is intelligence based −
● Market intelligence
● Investment intelligence
● Technology intelligence
Examples of Intelligent Information
Following are some examples of intelligent information, which is often the source of an ESS −
● External databases
● Technology reports like patent records etc.
● Technical reports from consultants
● Market reports
● Confidential information about competitors
● Speculative information like market conditions
● Government policies
● Financial reports and information
Features of Executive Information System
Advantages of ESS
● Easy for upper level executive to use
● Ability to analyze trends
● Augmentation of managers' leadership capabilities
● Enhance personal thinking and decision-making
● Contribution to strategic control flexibility
● Enhance organizational competitiveness in the market place
● Instruments of change
● Increased executive time horizons.
● Better reporting system
● Improved mental model of business executive
● Help improve consensus building and communication ● Improve office automation
● Reduce time for finding information
● Early identification of company performance
● Detail examination of critical success factor
● Better understanding
● Time management
● Increased communication capacity and quality
Disadvantage of ESS
● Functions are limited
● Hard to quantify benefits
● Executive may encounter information overload ● System may become slow
● Difficult to keep current data
● May lead to less reliable and insecure data
● Excessive cost for small company
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