Decision making forms an integral part of any business to be successful and involves different processes influenced by technology. For a company to flourish, there must be a right and proper information system to facilitate decision making.Technology simplifies’ decision making in any business. Information system refers to a set of interlinked components acting together towards producing and processing information. Businesses have improved in productivity and efficiency under technology, and a lot of companies are coming up with customized products making the market to be more competitive in terms of services offered (Pérez & Machado, 2015). Emerging trends such as mobile phone platforms for business involvement and technologies to handle vast volumes of data have provided numerous opportunities for companies to stay ahead of the competition and has promoted the delivery of customer satisfied products. Lack of information system in an organization decrease profitability and efficiency in an organization.
For the right and proper information system to work efficiently, four main components must come together. The four components are hardware, software, network/internet, and database. Hardware refers to the physical aspect of communication or just a storage device (Maier, 2004). Examples of hardware include smartphones, computer, routers and external disk drives. Hardware act as an integral part of the information system in storage and also communication. Software refers to computer programs that direct the circuits within the hardware part of the system to work in a way that generates useful and meaningful information from the data. Software includes an operating system such as android, windows and internal operating system (IOS) used to manage hardware operation such as documents creation, web designs and handling of spreadsheets (Piccoli & Federico, 2018). Internet/network connects hardware and merges communication in an information system. The network can be through fiber optic, wireless or via Ethernet cable.Data refers to facts used by programs to produce relevant information. A database allows a business owner to perform several tasks with ease.
An information system is a means but not the end of processes and can bring a dramatic change in how an organization or business works as long as it has been appropriately used. The information system must be operated as per business culture and technological factors to minimize chances of failure (Carton & Frédéric, 2010). It is beyond doubt that better exchange of thoughts by institution management and professionals in information has the potential to generate information systems which will significantly change the outlook on how businesses are run today.
Carton F. & Frédéric A. (2010). Understanding the Impact of Technology on Managerial Decision Making – The Case of the ERP System. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications. 212. 407-418. 10.3233/978-1-60750-576-1-407.
Pérez J. & Machado A. (2015). The relationship between management information systems and corporate performances. Revista de Contabilidad — Spanish Accounting Review, 18(1), 32–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rcsar.2014.02.001
Maier R. (2004). Knowledge management systems: information and communication technologies for knowledge management. Zugl. Regensburg, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2001.