Business Information Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business Information Systems - Essay Example Data and information are critical components of information systems that utilized by firms. The innovation of information systems has enabled commerce to thrive since it allows organizations to be cost-effective, gain competitive edge, and efficient in their industry. Hence, the usage of information has drastically been enhanced since the advent of systems design. One cannot understand the importance of information systems without comprehending what actually an information systems. An information system is a collaborative effort that strives to connect people, network, software, hardware, and data in order to facilitate the daily operations of a business (Foulds, 2006, p. 9). There are many types of information systems that consist of: manual, informal, formal, and computer-based. Information systems in essence give valuable data to organizations that can be given evaluated upon, analyzed, and enhance the value of the key goals that the organization possesses (Nocera, 2007, p. 9). In formation Systems are important because establishing a foundation for responsible use of technology. Managing information systems stems from internetwork enterprises. Hence, the field of information systems has become critical aspects of business administration. One of the key innovations that business professionals implement is an IS Framework (Pradhan, 2010, p. 13). IS Framework is used by business professionals who need to gain competitive strategies (Pradhan, 2010, p. 14). Thus, this competitive advantage allows firms to be cost-effective by becoming cost leaders. A primary example of a company that uses IS Framework is Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart excels in providing products and services at a very low competitive price. In addition, IS Framework allows businesses to be headfirst as the leader in technology as synchronization of software and data management of customer information (Pradhan, 2010, p. 17). Likewise, the IS framework allows businesses to communicate the whole supply managem ent that is heavily associated with the customers’ demands. For instance, the order to cash process in a business requires several steps (Pradhan, 2010, p. 20). When the customer places the order, the sales order department requires credit approval from the credit department. The credit department then informs the sales order department disposition of credit request. At these stages, the use of technology is extensive (Cameron, 2009, p. 7). The credit and sales department can use of point-of-sale technologies to scan the barcode of products. In addition, the innovation of technologies can use barcodes to process the order (Cameron, 2009, p. 10). Next, sales order department acknowledges customer order notifies warehouse, revenue collection process, and payroll process. In essence, it each step of the horizontal information flows consists of heavy utilization of technology (Cameron, 2009, p. 11). Another key issue that information systems addressed was an organization’s problems regarding differentiation. Prior to the introduction of these systems, few companies possessed the ability to deliver different products and services (Foulds, 2006, p. 10). With the help of automation systems as the result of information systems, companies were able to customize products based on customer needs. Companies were able to take prototypes and then enhance the functionality features due to high levels of customization that systems had to offer (Foulds, 2006, p. 11). This idea was essentially non-existent, but was quickly