Basically an Information System handles the flow and maintenance of information that supports a business or some other operation. It contains information about significant people, places and things within the organization or in the environment surrounding it. Information is derived from meaningful interpretation of data.Data consists of the raw facts representing events occurring in the organization before they are organized into an understandable and useful form for humans.
An Information System can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization. Another definition of an Information system (by Buckingham et al (1987b) is :
A system which assembles, stores, processes, and delivers information relevant to an organization (or to a society), in such a way that the information is accessible and useful to those who wish to use it, including managers, staff, clients and citizens. An information system is a human activity (social) system, which may or may not involve the use of computer systems. Also, in addition to supporting decision-making, information systems help workers and managers to analyze complex problems, to develop new products and to integrate the various modules and departments. Moreover the 'transmission losses'n inter-departmental communication are reduced considerably leading to better coordination and improved transparency (information sharing) within the organization as a whole.
Three activities provide the information that organizations need. These activities are Input, Processing and Output. 'Input' consists of acquisition of the 'raw data', which is transformed into more meaningful packets of 'Information' by means of 'Processing'. The processed information now flows to the users or activities also called as 'Output'. The shortcomings are analyzed and the information is sent back to the appropriate members of the organization to help them evaluate and refine the input. This is termed as 'feedback'.
Examples of 'Information Inputs' would be Transactions, events which would undergo 'processing' in the form of sorting, listing, merging and updating resulting in 'outputs' such as detailed reports, lists and summaries. Another example would be in the manufacturing environment with 'information inputs' such as design specs material requirements and the SOPs (standard operating procedures). These would be 'processed' by the information system by modeling and simulation techniques and would result in standard production models along with the overall cost of the production process which is calculated by the information system from the knowledge base containing material costs, hourly labor costs and other indirect costs. Hence almost totally eliminating a distinct costing function in the scheme of things.
However an information system cannot just be broadly described as an Input-Process-output mechanism in vacuum. It is required to provide major organizational solutions to challenges and problems posed in the business environment. Hence a manager needs to be not just computer-literate but also have a good idea of the organizational structure and functions as a whole. This concept is illustrated in the figure on the opening page.
Also, at the heart of the issue Information systems should not be confused with information technology. They exist independent of each other and irrespective of whether they are implemented well. Information systems use computers (or Information Technology) as tools for the storing and rapid processing of information leading to analysis, decision-making and better coordination and control. Hence information technology forms the basis of modern information systems.
source : http://www.uh.edu/~mrana/try.htm
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