The Business Owner and Business Information

Either a small business owner or you are a big business owner, or maybe yours is just a Start-up, you need all the vital information about your field. Business information is peculiar to whichever field you choose to delve into.

BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS

If You have a business in this 21^st century. You must pay attention to “information” (ICT). Almost all business is found on the internet, whether you are buying groceries, land, house, a car or even books you’ll find almost anything on the internet.

Business Information Systems play a pivotal role in the new economy and enterprise setting characterized by strategic procurement, global outsourcing, physically distributed operational environments, and global business alliances. Business Information Systems is a boundary-spanning field of study relating to how information and communication technologies (ICT) can be deployed to improve business processes and enhance the organization’s value chain networks, which organizations use to acquire, produce, and deliver goods and services all over the world, through efficient, effective and competitive use of ICT.

An understanding of Business Information Systems will help you as a business owner develop critical skills needed to function effectively in a global information-based and technology-driven business environment in order to improve business efficiency, develop effective decision making, and maintain competitiveness in your industry.

For most businesses, there are a variety of requirements for information:

Senior managers need information to help with their business planning, Middle management need more detailed information to help them monitor and control business activities, Employees with operational roles need information to help them carry out their duties. But you as a business owner or an entrepreneur you need all the information available if you will manage your business more effectively.

Try as much as you can to seek out information regarding your field of business.

Here are the categories of the business information system.

Executive support systems (ESS)

Designed to help senior management make strategic decisions. An ESS gathers, analyses and summarizes the key internal and external information used in the business. ESS typically involve lots of data analysis and modeling tools, such as "what-if" analysis, to help strategic decision-making.

A good way to think about an ESS is to imagine the senior management team in an aircraft cockpit, with the instrument panel showing them the status of all the key business activities.

Management information systems (MIS)

Primarily concerned with internal sources of information. MIS usually take data from the transaction processing systems (see below) and summarizes it into a series of management reports. MIS reports tend to be used by middle management and operational supervisors.

Decision support systems (DSS)

Specifically designed to help management make decisions in situations where there is uncertainty about the outcomes of those decisions. DSS use tools and techniques to help gather relevant information and analyze the options and alternatives. DSS often involves the use of complex spreadsheet and databases to create "what-if" models.

Knowledge management systems (KMS)

Exist to help businesses create and share information. They are typically used in businesses where employees create new knowledge and expertise, which can then be shared by other people in the organization to create further commercial opportunities. Good examples include firms of lawyers, accountants, and management consultants. KMS are built around systems which allow efficient categorization and distribution of knowledge. For example, the knowledge itself might be contained in word processing documents, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations. Internet pages etc. To share the knowledge, a KMS would use group collaboration systems, such as an intranet.

Transaction processing systems (TPS)

Designed to process routine transactions efficiently and accurately.

A business will have several TPS; for example:

1. Billing systems to send invoices to customers
2. Systems to calculate the weekly and monthly payroll and tax payments
3. Production and purchasing systems to calculate raw material requirements
4. Stock control systems to process all movements into, within and out of the business
5. Office automation systems

Try to improve the productivity of employees who need to process data and information.

Perhaps the best example is the wide range of software systems that exist to improve the productivity of employees working in an office (for example, Microsoft Office XP), or systems that allow employees to work from home or while on the move.