Information systems Overview

Information systems

The term information systems is used to refer to at least three things: an academic field, an area of professional work or as the plural of the term information system.

In a broad sense, the term Information Systems (IS) refers to the interaction between processes, and technology. This interaction can occur within or across organizational boundaries. An information system is not only the technology an organization uses, but also the way in which the organizations interact with the technology and the way in which the technology works with the organization's business processes. Information systems are distinct from information technology in that an information system has an information technology component that interacts with the processes components.

 

Overview

The Information System consists of four parts which include: procedures, software, hardware, and information or data, which are essentially the same. There are various types of information systems, for example: transaction processing systems, office systems, decision support systems, knowledge management systems, database management systems, and office information systems. Critical to most information systems are information technologies, which are typically designed to enable humans to perform tasks for which the human brain is not well suited, such as: handling large amounts of information, performing complex calculations, and controlling many simultaneous processes.

Information technologies are a very important and malleable resource available to executives.^[1] Many companies have created a position ofChief Information Officer (CIO) that sits on the executive board with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Technical Officer (CTO).The CTO may also serve as CIO, and vice versa. The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), who focuses on information security within an organization, normally reports to the CIO.

In computer security, an information system is described by the following components ^[2]:

§  Repositories, which hold data permanently or temporarily, such as buffers, RAM, hard disks, cache, etc. Often data stored in repositories is managed through a database management system.

§  Interfaces, which support the interaction between humans and computers, such as keyboards, speakers, scanners, printers, etc.

§  Channels, which connect repositories, such as routers, cables, etc..