Business Information Systems

Business Information System

An information System is the interactivity and implementation of the Human activity system and the information technology system.

The Information Technology System:

An Information technology system is the system that supports communication within the information system.. Information systems can also be the means by which data is collected, process, store and implement the use of data. This communication can also involve communication between two different systems e.g. Finance and HR or even between two separate companies.

An I.T system contains three major groups all of which must be successful to achieve the desired results. These are hardware, communication technology and software.

Hardware: The physical parts that create the including the digital circuitry. The hardware of a computer is infrequently changed. Computer hardware is rarely seen by normal users. Although it is the foundation of all electronic circuitry. A company must insure they have the correct hardware for the job for example whilst it is important to create a system that can perform a certain task buying hardware that only uses 20% of its resources is wasteful.

Software: enables a computer to perform specific tasks. This includes application software such as a word processor, which enables a user to perform a task, and system software such as an operating system, which enables other software to run properly, by interfacing with hardware and with other software or custom software made to user specifications.

Communication Technology. Communicating computer systems are called a computer network these networks involve two or more devices capable of being networked with at least one usually being a computer. The devices can be separated by a few meters or huge distances like the Internet.

A computer network is any set of computers or devices connected to each other. Examples of networks are the Internet, a wide area network, Local area network e.g. in a home or office or a Wireless network e.g. a single point of sale in a supermarket linked to a larger sales database.

There are three major levels of systems: Transaction Processing Systems (TPS), Management. Information Systems (MIS) and Decision Support Systems (DSS)/Executive Information Systems (EIS). Each level will output data for different uses.

Information and information technology systems are constantly evolving to support changes in the human activity system. This is a very important process as it maintains cohesion between the two entities and allows for efficient performance. Human processes in business change constantly with new regulations or new processes being introduced into a business. Improvements in the information systems also has an affect on the human activity system increasing productivity and reliability.

Human Activity System

A Human Activity system is a group of people gathered to accomplish a purpose. Members of the system will have their activities affected by the system and the system is affected by the groups and individuals contained in it. The HAS contains the groups of people who will use the information supplied by the information technology systems to aide the business as a whole.

The human activity system is defined by the social system within which it is contained. This is controlled by variables such as a role within a team, a person's authority and status. Also what are the current social norms within a HAS are they a benefit to the current system or are they detrimental to its implementation and would a change in the I.T system be affected by this.

The Human activity system contains the following levels Organisational level: The lowest level workers on the shop floor will not lead any teams and are concentrated on implementing the lesser tasks, Tactical Management: often in charge of a team of people or group and the Strategic Management level: The highest tier of the organisation who will decide the focus and main objectives of the business. It is therefore imperative that each tier of the managerial chain not only supplies the correct and relevant information into the I.T. System but it is also important that each tier is supplied with correct and relevant data. If one part of the HAS is failing it will have an impact on an organisational wide scale. Effective management decision-making is reliant on good information. Good information can be characterised by the accuracy, relevance and the age of data which leads to correct decision making after the data has been analysed. For example information on current buying trends can lead purchasers to make the correct decision maximising resources and profit.

Time scales must also be taken into consideration when applying data to the correct managerial tier. Time frames are much shorter at the operational level than the tactical management level. The reasons for this are simple the organisational level will be handling small menial tasks which have a re structured and contain detailed data. At the tactical level the tasks are much greater and occur over a long period of time as project can take years to enter fruition the formation will be summarised and the problem will be unstructured.

A HAS can be seen as a set of relationships which when implemented correctly improve the system. The HAS impacts the ITS and together they must evolve to remain as effective as possible.

The chosen business

The organisation I have chosen is the DVLA in Swansea. The reason is when the agency was first created all of the documents and driver and vehicle records were stored on paper and magnetic tape. Due to the increase in vehicles on the road and the amount of licenses issued this is no longer a viable method of operating.

The DVLA contains the structure seen in many businesses with the structured tasks performed by administrative assistants and the strategic managerial level controlled by a board of directors who are ultimately held responsible by the minister for transport.

The DVLA is split into two main areas at the strategic level these are Vehicle information and Driver information.

The Vehicle information is a collection of all the vehicles in the UK mainland. This information is also used by many other orgaisations for example the police when a car is stolen and also insurance companies. The information