Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

EDI reffers to the transmission and receipt of such common-place trading documentation as involves, purchase orders and credit notes.

EDI benefits

• A much faster trading cycle cutting out the postal services and ensuring a higher degree of accuracy and security.

• EDI trading can enable a company to offer shorter delivery times.

• An example is Philips, the Dutch electronics company.
  

The Technology and their Application

The general heading of IS can be broken down into six generic types-these are listed below;

• Data- Data technology is based on the collection.

• Text;

• Image;

• Voice;

• Vision;

• Communication.
  

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a new type of application that includes powerful facilities to manage the enterprise as a whole.

ERP can also include models for the finance and human resources aspects of a business.

Excutive support systems (ESS)

Excutive support systems (ESS) are a relatively new category of systems that support decision making by senior management. They serve the stategic level of the organisation.

Important :- ESS are oriented toward external events, although they do take summarised information from MIS and DSS.

Decision Support Systems(DSS)

Decision Support Systems(DSS) are devoted to supporting management decision that are semi-sturctured.

These systems draw on internal information from TPS and MIS. and they often bring in information from external sources.

Important:- DSS tend to be interactive, providing users with easy access to data and analytical models through user friendly interface.

Management Information Systems(MIS)

At the management level, management infromation systems(MIS) provide managers with reports and online access to the organisations current performance and historical records.

Control Systems

The majority of the discussion so far has concentrated on systems that process information alone. It should not be forgotten that many organisations use computers-based systems to perfrom physical control function within business as well.

Office Automation Systems

Office Automation Systems can be defined as any application of IT that intends ti increase the productivity of office workers.

Transaction Processing systems (TPS)

A Transaction Processing systems (TPS) is a computarised systems that performs and records the daily routine trasaction necessary to the conduct of the business.

Examples include: sales order entry, hotel reservation systems.

Business Value Chain

• Inbound logistics.

• Operations.

• Outbound logistics.

• Marketing and sales.

• Service.

We can expand the support activities as follows:

• Procurement

• Technological development.

• Human resource management.

• A companys infrastructure.

Within each category of primary and support activities, there are three activity types that play a different role in competitive advantage.

• Direct.

• Indirect.

• Quality assuarance.
  

Formulating a business strategy

• Market performance;

• Business mission;

• Operational needs;

• Business environment;

• Social and human environment;

• Customers;

• Suppliers.
  

Business Strategy

A business must first formulate a business strategy for itself. It will then expand this into a competitive strategy depending on what industry sector it is operating in.

Information Systems and Society

The developed nations of the world live in the information age. or as often referred to as the knowledge age. This high-tech world is populated by knowledge workers.

Computers are everywhere in the factory, in the shop, the office and the home. Developing countries are using the cheap technology to catapult themselves into the knowledge age and their knowledge workers can link over the electronic superhighways and provide service to any business in the world.

Importance of information systems

In the early of computing - during the 1950s and much of the 1960s managers generally did not need to know much about how information was processed in their organisations.

IS now play a strategic role in most business. They affect :

• how managers decide;

• how senior managers plan;

• what produced and services are produced.
  

Computer Application- Some definition

Systems :- a set of connected things that from a whole or work together.

• A systems must have an object.

• In order to meet its object a system will produce an output, as a result of carrying out some process on a set of inputs.

• We may have many inputs and outputs.

• Identifying the boundry of a system is difficult.

Computer:- An electronic device that processes data according to a set of stored instructions.

Information:- Derived from data, information is useful in solving problems.

Information Technology(IT) :- any technology connected with the capture,storage,transmittal of information.