Introduction
Information systems refer to all the machines involved in the running of a business in a given period. These factors combined to provide information that ensures smooth business operations. These information systems can be grouped into the following five categories.
- Decision support systems;
- Expert systems;
- Management information systems;
- Transaction processing systems;
- Office information systems.
Decision support systems
This system provides information that is helpful in the decision-making process of a business. The information it uses is not contained in the other information systems such as the management information or the transaction processing systems. It uses internal and external information. There are different types of decision support system that allow a user to create a model of the issues affecting the business decision. Using such a model and the projected results, it is easier to make that decision (O’Leary, 2008).
Expert systems
The expert system obtains and record knowledge from experts and uses these human decision-making processes to mimic them for use by less gifted personnel. It is made up of a knowledge base and inference rules and the use of the knowledge and human experience coupled with guided logical decisions, make them able to assist the user. The expert systems are useful for the varied nature of decision-making processes since they are not restricted (O’Leary, 2008).
Management information systems
MIS was developed from the transaction processing system, and it is used to provide timely, organized information utilized to solve challenges, coordinate activities, and decision making. It can be thought of as a reporting system because it produces reports. Its working is intertwined with the transaction processing system because it draws all its information from the transaction processing system. This system produces the detailed, summary, and exception information from data in the transaction processing system (Lindsay, 2000).
Transaction processing system
It captures records and manipulates the data resulting from the daily operations of a business. This system hastens data processing, reduces the cost of operation, and makes the handling of a large amount of data easier. They are of different types the batch processing system accumulates transactions and processes them as a group, and the online processing system processes one transaction at a time as they occur.
Office information system
OIS is used for effective workflow and ease of communication in a business premise; it uses computer networks, hardware, and software to achieve this. This system is also termed as office automation since all the office tasks are done electronically. This is used to send messages, distribute schedules, and other information effectively. This system is very useful in utilizing the various communication technologies for the benefit of the business (Lindsay, 2000).
References
Lindsay, J. (2000). Information Systems. London: Kingston University Press.
O’Leary, T. (2008). Computing Essentials Introductory. New York: McGraw-Hill.