Slide 1

Question 1

What is information system?

Answer 1

A group of interrelated components working to collect, process, store and disseminate/distribute the information needed to support decisionmaking, planning, coordination, control and analysis in an organization.

Question 2

A system is :

Answer 2

an entity consisting of interacting parts or components that are attempt to achieve one or more goals.

Firms depend on information systems in order to stay competitive.

Question 3

Data are:

Answer 3

raw facts about events that have no organization or meaning. – A large number of data points

Question 4

Information is:

Answer 4

data that have been processed and is meaningful and useful to users. – Placed in some report format so that it can be utilized to make decisions

Question 5

Why Information systems are important?

Answer 5

Without Data —- Information; Organizations can not make intelligent, viable, prudent decisions about the direction of their business.

Question 6

Components of an Information system:

Answer 6

An information system uses the resources of people, hardware, software, data, and networks to perform input, processing, output, storage and control activities.

Question 7

Six (6) Major Types of Information Systems

Answer 7

1. EXECUTIVE SUPPORT SYSTEMS (ESS)
    Systems designed to address non-routine decision making through advanced graphics and communications
    Upper level Managers use the system
    Better be “idiot proof” – simple
2. DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS (DSS)
    Systems that combine data and sophisticated analytical models or data analysis tools to support non-routine decision making.
    Landsend.com
3. MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS (MIS)
    Systems that serve the functions of planning, controlling and decision making by providing routine summary and exception reports

4.KNOWLEDGE WORK SYSTEMS (KWS)
 Systems that aid knowledge workers in the creation and integration of new knowledge into the organization
 CAD/CAM: Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing

5. OFFICE AUTOMATION SYSTEMS (OAS)
    Systems such as word processing, electronic mail, scheduling systems designed to increase the productivity of data workers in the office
    Typical wordprocessing, etc.
6. TRANSACTION PROCESSING SYSTEMS (TPS)
    Systems that perform and record the routine transactions necessary to conduct business
    Grocery Store, ATM’s, Bank

Question 8

Financial accounting:

Answer 8

• The objective of financial accounting is to provide relevant information to individuals and groups outside an organization’s boundaries.
• Users include investors, tax agencies, and creditors.
• Objectives achieved through preparation of financial statements.

Question 9

Audit trail:

Answer 9

• The audit trail enables information users to follow the flow of data through the system.
• Audit trail parallels the accounting cycle, which begins with a transaction and ends with producing financial statements and closing temporary accounts. • A good audit trail permits managers to follow source document data from input through processing to the data’s location on an output report (and vice versa).

Question 10

Elements that make up a relational database:

Answer 10

• Tables—place to store data • Queries-allow users to access the data stored in the tables
• Forms—on screen presentations of data in tables and collected by queries from one or more tables
• Reports—printed lists and summaries of data stored in tables or collected by queries from one or more tables. – Most important step = designing the tables properly!!!!

Question 11

Objectives of a database

Answer 11

– Systematic recording of data – Convenient and useful formats – Easy access to required information Improves the efficiency of processing business event data by eliminating data redundancies and improving data integrity!!!!

Question 12

Data Warehouses

Answer 12

 Built from multiple databases and operational systems (finance, marketing, operations management) in the organization
 Built for analysis, not for storage. Allow you to access data in various ways  Supports several analytical tools (statistical packages) and OLAP
 Data Marts – smaller “warehouses” – usually an intermediate step towards the “big thing”.

Question 13

Data Mining：

Answer 13

finding “nuggets” of value-adding information from data. Finding patterns and trends that can be used to guide decision making.

Question 14

Logical hierarchy of structured data ：

Answer 14

 Character
 Field: Characteristic about the record (SSN, Name, Date, etc)
 Record: A collection of related fields about an observation or occurrence.
 Database – integrated collection of logically related records (logical relationships are part of the database)

Question 15

Types of database:

Answer 15

• Operational Databases (production, transaction) – captures on-line transactions
 Centrally Managed or Centralized
 Distributed across departments / geographic locations

• Legacy Data Sources – old data used for analysis
 No additions to this data

• External Databases – Not owned by the organization (may be shared or purchased) E.g., Neilsons (consumer data), Barra (financial data), etc.