Many large businesses such as manufacturers or suppliers, factories or distribution centres have many Information Systems set up and designed to handle the large quantities of processes involved in conducting their function.
Large Information Systems
Some businesses are so large that their processes may require information systems to handle day-to-day business processes. One such example is order processing. Businesses with large order systems or large quantities of products to manufacture may only handle order processing through information systems.
One such information system used in a logistical setting is one that would be used to record inbound goods. Physical product businesses for example need to record incoming raw materials or ordered products to process them and turn them into a product. Without a centralised information system it can be very hard to keep track of stock levels, although maintaining the whereabouts of goods used by the business can be useful but in the real world some of these goods can go missing, be wasted, damaged or arrive having already being damaged. This is why information systems must be able to handle losses and inform stock keepers when the product is becoming depleted and must be re-ordered especially on systems that involve Kanban or Just in Time systems. This is one such example of where information systems must be able to handle all scenarios that an employee will encounter.
Examples of Business Information Systems
Business information systems have different requirements throughout the various departments;
Human Resources must be able to use information systems to
handle processes such as,
- Employee Payroll.
- Employee Performance.
- Hiring and Job Roles.
- Staff Records and Employee Contracts.
- Holiday Management and Illness.
- Training Programs.
- Attendance and Absenteeism.
- Staff Disciplinary Records.
Senior Management may not always use information systems as their roles may be too strategic or sporadic to construct an information system, however they may have daily or even business cyclic tasks such as,
- Monitoring performance of the business or business processes.
- Maintaining customer relationships through relationship management software or CRM.
- Assess generalised performance of a store or business through warehouse management software or employee performance.
- Make strategic decisions about business processes by using sales data or reporting software.
- Identify problems with processes or business cycles.
- Generate Reports for Sales, Product Development or Manufacturers.
General Management may use information systems to,
- Distribute work to employees.
- Identify problems with processes or business cycles.
- Monitor Employee clock-in times.
- Monitor Employee processes or performance.
- Record Paying Hours or Overtime.
- Action directions from higher up.
- Discipline employees.
- Correct or Normalise Data on the System.
- Query or edit the database.
- Prioritise.
Employees may use information systems to,
- Action Jobs tasked to them.
- Query a database.
- Create orders for customers.
Some of the advantages of using an information system
- It may aide the speed a process in a business can be completed as all of the data needed is centralised and managed in one place.
- The information system may enable employees to manage large orders or information as a batch.
- The information system may be able to prioritise important jobs on the system.
- Mistakes could be identified by the system and prompt the user to rectify it.
- The system may improve or identify bottlenecks in the business process.
- The system may allow for customers to interact with it directly and therefore reduce the time it takes for a business to fulfill a customers desires.
- The system may be compatible with other systems through an API which can link systems together.
Some of the disadvantages of using an information system
- If the system is custom or highly specialised making changes to it can be hard or expensive or slow.
- The information system may be slow which could frustrate users.
- The system may not have all the features an employee desires or,
- The system may not allow some of their users to change data that they need to change.
- The information system may not be suited for its use case.
- Employees may have preferred the previous method or may not be it savvy enough to use the system.
- The system may be designed in such a way that mistakes become a problem.
- The system may be abused by employees for gain. (clocking out early, marking work as completed when it isn’t)
- If it breaks a business may not be able to function if they are reliant on it.
- If it breaks it may corrupt data that may be unrecoverable.
Custom Information Systems
And there are many more examples of businesses using information systems. Many of them my abe trivial or bespoke, however there are programs designed to make information systems at a higher level than writing a program for them, One such example is Microsoft Access.
Many businesses will use Microsoft Access or custom programs to create their data and manage company process. Added advantages of using a custom program is that the company may use a single program (or a single database) for a large business process are,
- Having a custom program allows the business to construct the data they wish to use when they need to, such as recording information that other companies may not.
- Using a custom program may allow for the business to create specific access control levels.
- Customisation like company logos or specific company colors or themes.
- Many Many more…