Basic of Information System

Information systems (IS) are formal, sociotechnical, organizational systems designed to collect, process, store, and distribute information. In a sociotechnical perspective Information Systems are composed by four components: technology, process, people and organizational structure. An emphasis is placed on an information system having a definitive boundary, users, processors, storage, inputs, outputs and the aforementioned communication networks.

Information technologies are a very important and malleable resource available to executives. Many companies have created a position of chief 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 system officer (CISO) focuses on information security management.

There are several components of information system as follows:

• Computer Hardware

This is the physical technology that works with information. Hardware can be as small as a smartphone that fits in a pocket or as large as a computer that fills a building. Hardware also includes the peripheral device that work with computers, such as keyboards, external disk drives, and routers. With the rise of the Internet of things, in which anything from home appliances to cars to clothes will be able to receive and transmit data, sensors that interact with computers are permeating the human environment.

• Computer Software

The hardware needs to know what to do, and that is the role of software. Software can be divided into two types: system software and application software. The primary piece of system software is the operating system, such as Windows or iOS, which manages the hardware’s operation. Application software is designed for specific tasks, such as handling a spreadsheet, creating a document, or designing a Web page.

• Telecommunications

This component connects the hardware together to form a network. Connections can be through wires, such as Ethernet cables or fiber optics, or wireless, such as through Wi-Fi. A network can be designed to tie together computers in a specific area, such as an office or a school, through a local area network (LAN). If computers are more dispersed, the network is called a wide area network (WAN). The Internet itself can be considered a network of networks.

• Database and Data Warehouse

This component is where the “material” that the other components work with resides. A database is a place where data is collected and from which it can be retrieved by querying it using one or more specific criteria.

Data are raw facts that can be collected from external and internal company. The example of data from internal company are customer data, product, etc, and external data are data from social media, competitor, internet, etc. If we doing transaction to buy something in the supermarket, the data becomes information because of the transaction.

References :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_system

https://www.britannica.com/list/5-components-of-information-systems