FACULTY OF COMPUTING, LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

BLS 2104 / BRIM 2104: ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Lecturer: Mr. Benjamin K. Ahimbisibwe
Office: HoD’s Office
Mobile Tel: 0788709403
Email: [email protected]

WEEK 2: TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Systems analysts develop several different types of information systems to meet a variety of
business needs.

Figure1above shows the different categories of information systems in organizations

1
 Figure 2 above shows the types of information systems at functional level

Note: Organizations can be divided into strategic, management, and operational levels and into
four major functional areas: sales and marketing, manufacturing and production, finance and
accounting, and human resources. Information systems serve each of these levels and functions.

The major types of information systems include:

Transaction processing systems (TPS)

Transaction processing systems (TPS) are the basic business systems that serve the operational
level of the organization. A transaction processing system is a computerized system that
performs and records the daily routine transactions necessary to conduct business. Examples are
sales order entry, hotel reservation systems, payroll, employee record keeping, shipping,
calculation, classification, storing and retrieval, sorting and summarization, etc.

At the operational level, tasks, resources, and goals are predefined and highly structured. The
decision to grant credit to a customer, for instance, is made by a lower-level supervisor according
to predefined criteria. All that must be determined is whether the customer meets the criteria.

2
Characteristics of TPS:

 They substitute computer- based processing for manual procedures

 Deals with well-structured routine processes.
 They include record keeping operations

These characteristics allow routines to be established for handling the transactions. The routines
describe what to look for in each transaction, what steps to take and procedures to follow, and
what to do when exceptions occur. Transaction processing procedures are often called standard
operating procedures.

Management Information Systems (MIS)

In our earlier discussions, we define management information systems as the study of

information systems in business and management. The term management information systems
(MIS) also designates a specific category of information systems serving management-level
functions. Management information systems (MIS) serve the management level of the
organization, providing managers with reports and often online access to the organization’s
current performance and historical records. Typically, MIS are oriented almost exclusively to
internal, not environmental or external, events. MIS primarily serve the functions of planning,
controlling, and decision making at the management level. Generally, they depend on underlying
transaction processing systems for their data.

MIS summarize and report on the company’s basic operations. The basic transaction data from
TPS are compressed and are usually presented in long reports that are produced on a regular
schedule.

Characteristics of MIS:

 Provides input to be used in the managerial decision processes.

 Deals with supporting well-structured decision situations.
 Typical information requirements can be anticipated.

3
Decision-support systems (DSS)

Decision-Support Systems (DSS) also serve the management level of the organization. DSS help
managers make decisions that are unique, rapidly changing, and not easily specified in advance.
They address problems where the procedure for arriving at a solution may not be fully
predefined in advance. Although DSS use internal information from TPS and MIS, they often
bring in information from external sources, such as current stock prices or product prices of
competitors.

Clearly, by design, DSS have more analytical power than other systems. They use a variety of
models to analyze data, or they condense large amounts of data into a form in which they can be
analyzed by decision makers. DSS are designed so that users can work with them directly; these
systems explicitly include user-friendly software. DSS are interactive; the user can change
assumptions, ask new questions, and include new data.

Characteristics of DSS:

 Provides information to managers who must make judgements about particular situations.
 Supports decision makers in situations that are not well-structured.

Executive Support Systems (ESS)

Senior managers use Executive Support Systems (ESS) to help them make decisions. ESS serves
the strategic level of the organization. They address non routine decisions requiring judgment,
evaluation, and insight because there is no agreed-on procedure for arriving at a solution.

ESS are designed to incorporate data about external events, such as new tax laws or competitors,
but they also draw summarized information from internal MIS and DSS. They filter, compress,
and track critical data, displaying the data of greatest importance to senior managers. For
example, the CEO of a company may employ an ESS that provides a minute-to-minute view of

4
the firm’s financial performance as measured by working capital, accounts receivable, accounts
payable, cash flow, and inventory.

ESS employs the most advanced graphics software and can present graphs and data from many
sources. Often the information is delivered to senior executives through a portal, which uses a
Web interface to present integrated personalized business content from a variety of sources.

Unlike other types of information systems, an ESS is not designed primarily to solve specific
problems. Instead, ESS provides a generalized computing and communications capacity that can
be applied to a changing array of problems. Although many DSS are designed to be highly
analytical, ESS tends to make less use of analytical models.

Questions ESS assists in answering include the following: In what business should we be? What
are the competitors doing? What new acquisitions would protect us from cyclical business
swings? Which units should we sell to raise cash for acquisitions?

Because ESS are designed to be used by senior managers who often have little, if any, direct
contact or experience with computer-based information systems, they incorporate easy-to-use
graphic interfaces.

Interrelationships among systems

Figure 3 above shows Interrelationships among systems

The various types of systems in the organization have interdependencies. TPS are major

5
producers of information that is required by the other systems, which, in turn, produce
information for other systems. These different types of systems have been loosely coupled in
most organizations.

References
1. Senn, James A. (1989). Analysis and design of information system. 2 nd ed., McGraw-Hill,
Publishing Company.
2. Osborn, Larry N. and Nakamura, Margaret (2000). Systems analysis for librarians and
information professional. 2nd ed., Libraries Unlimited, Inc. USA.