AI Adoption and Business Performance Dissertation – In recent years, the rapid advancement of technology has transformed the way businesses operate. One of the most significant technological developments is the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In the United Kingdom, the Information Technology (IT) sector stands at the forefront of embracing AI to enhance its operations and improve business performance. My dissertation project, “Assessing the Impact of AI Adoption on Business Performance in the UK IT Sector,” delves into this intriguing intersection between technology and business.
Understanding the Significance of AI in the UK IT Sector
AI refers to the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, particularly computer systems. Its applications span various industries, including finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and of course, IT. In the UK, the IT sector plays a crucial role in driving innovation and productivity. With the advent of AI, IT firms are leveraging this technology to streamline processes, make data-driven decisions, and gain a competitive edge in the market.
The Research Methodology
To unravel the impact of AI adoption on business performance in the UK IT sector, my dissertation project employs a comprehensive research methodology. Through the collection of primary data via questionnaires, I aim to gather insights directly from professionals working in the field. A deductive approach coupled with quantitative techniques enables a systematic analysis of the data, ensuring robust findings.
Key Findings and AI Adoption Insights
Preliminary findings from the research highlight the significant influence of AI adoption on business performance within the UK IT sector. Companies that have embraced AI technologies experience improvements in efficiency, productivity, and overall competitiveness. However, challenges such as skill gaps, resource constraints, and ethical considerations emerge as barriers to widespread AI adoption.
AI Adoption and Implications for Businesses
For IT firms operating in the UK, the findings of this research project carry profound implications. Recognizing the transformative power of AI, businesses are urged to invest in employee training and development to harness the full potential of AI technologies. Moreover, the development of clear policies and frameworks that promote responsible AI usage is paramount to mitigate potential risks and ensure ethical practices.
As the landscape of AI continues to evolve, further research is warranted to delve deeper into its implications for business performance. Exploring topics such as the impact of AI on job roles, gender disparities in AI adoption, and the role of AI in driving innovation can offer valuable insights for academia and industry alike.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this dissertation project sheds light on the transformative impact of AI adoption on business performance within the UK IT sector. By examining the current landscape, identifying key challenges, and proposing actionable recommendations, this research contributes to the ongoing discourse on technology-driven innovation. As businesses navigate the digital age, embracing AI presents both opportunities and challenges. By embracing a proactive approach and leveraging AI responsibly, UK IT firms can chart a course towards sustained growth and success in an increasingly competitive global market.
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The today’s highly competitive and fast moving business environment is only favorable to businesses that make the best decision. This is due to the fact that with big data intelligence at hand, businesses, such retail business industry, are able to come up with any type of data visualization which comprises of dashboards, info graphics amongst other types of data visualization. According to Krish Krishnan (2013) the volumes of data available in varying degrees of complexity, generated at different velocities and varying degrees of ambiguity, that cannot be processed using traditional technologies, processing methods, algorithms or any commercial off-the-shelf solutions.” Huge volumes of data which can give insights about data that was or it has been produced in an identifiable form can be accessed by big data and for this reason various businesses can use this form of technology in coming up with different processes of decision making.
So as the operations of the business to become efficient and effective, the businesses can also use big data. With this technology, the businesses will be able to compete effectively without the fear of being kicked out of the context. There is improved performance with this new technology as it has increased the speed, flexibility and the ease of measuring the quantities of various data automatically. When compared to the traditional technologies of data processing, the data technology due to its ability to process architecture and measure quantities of data, the data technology is found to be of more benefit and thus more advantageous.
Through the big
data analytics and the newly advanced computing technology, even the
complicated and the most challenging problems that are associated with various
businesses are now easy to solve. Therefore, the process of finding out the
useful information, hidden patterns and unknown correlations so as to come up
with better and productive decision can simply be referred to as the extraction
of big data analytics (Chen , et al., 2012). With this kind of
technology, the best decision making and even driven innovation amongst other
relevant and important steps of a business can be made by any organization’s
top management can be made as a means of survival and development. This is
because with this technology, with it the application of high performance tools
for data mining, optimization, text mining, forecasting and relevant data
extraction is much simpler and even faster.
So as to optimize funnel conversion, the data intelligence can play a very big role to ensure the management makes the decisions that are important and vital to the company business. Other roles that can be played by the data intelligence includes prediction of security threats towards the business, predicting the support the company may land, it can also detect fraud, optimization of prices and carrying out an analysis on the available markets for business and also the big data intelligence plays a role in behavioral analytics. It is noted that when it comes to a right decision making, it is very essential to adapt business intelligence in such a highly competitive and an economy that is growing worldwide so fast.
This type of technology is applicable in various situations i.e. in a data repository, customer relations, integrated marketing strategies or even identifying and weighing the constantly changing industry trends. Mobility, social collaboration, cloud and big data are a few but examples of the areas that are influenced by the industry trends thus the business intelligence is an important aspect as it is the one that keeps the industry trends going (Chaudhuri & Narasayya , 2011). So as to achieve their motives i.e. raising the market reach, increased profits and better performance of finance, the organization groups of various sizes and companies target their customers use these data that is collected from these sources.
The structured or unstructured data in a business environment that is experiencing completion at global level and is at risky position is capable of provision of trading, assets, price related detailed information and industry related trends to an organization thereby enabling the organization to plan ahead of other competitive industries. Thus such data is very crucial to any industry that needs to grow and work for the best of its objectives in a very competitive business environment.
Big data and
customer segmentation
All over the world, for the companies to compete effectively, they have had to find out and identify what their customers want .i.e. the customers’ opinions, reviews, customers’ preferences in their day-to-day needs and these companies are also putting in contest the other factors that affect their businesses as an added advantage for their co-existence in the business world. All these information after being collected, it is analyzed by the company’s experts so as to reach conclusions that will aid in their decision making.
A better decision making will put the company at a position to win the price by shooting at the target as per the objectives and aims that the company had put in place earlier. Such important information can be collected from various social media sites, official websites, interactive sites and various search engines. This is achievable when the companies that are in need of such information retrieve the information from the customer’s purchase history, search items made by the customer, the customer’s history of transaction from the data.
A company with such vital information is able to come up with a strategized marketing form of a message that is composed of customized and personalized contents that exhibit certain features that interest a specific group and thus becomes customer specific.
Retailing
analytics
In the process of monitoring, to identify and to measure the extent at which the customers are influenced by the products and services offered by the company, the retailers collect the information that is customer related through the built-in data repository globally from public data and social data so as to know the opinions of their customers. Apart from the individual’s opinion on the products and services offered by the company, the data that is gathered by the company is also composed of the opinion of other people i.e. the friends’ opinions and even other parties’ opinions that are found in the sites of social media.
Data warehousing
Through the collection of data, a large quantity of structured as well as unstructured data keeps on piling and very important and valuable information about the customers is extracted from these piles of data by the companies that are seeking the information. In businesses that are retail oriented, big data intelligence and analytics is used to identify and target the relevant customers i.e. as Walmart does. Other relevant tools for customer preferences and needs are used by Walmart.
Due to
continuous piling up of data, a huge data is created as a result. To most
businesses this huge data pose a challenge as it becomes tiresome in the event
of scanning of products at POS as well as some data also piling from the
surveillance cameras etc. A lot more
value can be achieved by a business through proper management of data and thus
the business processes can be improved by a large extent which as a result can
cause the whole business to succeed. This value can also lead to a good
decision making which can as well transform the methodology and value tools for
undertaking the business activities. By using Enterprise Data Warehouse concept
in any operations of the business, for decision making, any business enterprise
is capable of transformation of raw data into knowledge that is quite useful.
Data bases and
business intelligence
Big data has been declared by Forbes as the greatest weapon for business prosperity for sales and marketing of various products and this is because with data at hand, the businesses are transforming all over the world since the various businesses have sought to find the actionable insights from the unstructured data that is highly piled. A database that consists of data taken from e-commerce sites, customer call records, customer history and social media sites has been put forward by Walmart. This kind of data presented by Walmart is not structured data but is an extensive and complex data that is accumulated in its data repository which in order to mine, collect and manage needs the tools for data analysis and specialized software.
Walmart focuses on implementing business intelligence and the other tools for data visualization like reports, charts and dashboards and maintenance of such information in in their database for easier retrieval and use when the information is in need. For the marketing manager at Walmart to retrieve the customers’ tastes and preferences, complaints, purchase history and opinions, they use the information from the data so as to divide their customers into categories depending on their characteristics. This is because this mode of characterizing enables Walmart to beat the competition as it is able to understand the competition completely.
Micro-segmentation
Through
targeting the behavior and the attitude of the customer towards the products
and services offered by a company aids the company to go through the decision
making of the customer so that it becomes simple for the companies involved to
measure and put into records the differences in products that seek to identify
the market and those customers participating in the businesses.
Segmentation is
where the company is able to come up with relevant a very message that is
passed in media perceiving and in it having a greater ability to break through
a broad region and generate a response that is desirable and in turn cause a
desirable action or behavior on the target group and cause an engagement of
that individual or group thereby resulting in their loyalty to the company thus
achieving the expected objective. Therefore, the process of understanding the
customer and their behavior and engaging them is the only key to
micro-segmentation.
Fig I: Customer understanding and benefits
Activity-based
data
From mobile
data, history made from purchases, data from call center, queries concerning
the products incentive responses, the search information and tracking that is
made from various websites are some of the activities that enable Walmart to
understand its customers. Social media sites like Facebook and tweeter among
others have also been monitored and recorded to have given a pushing hand in
marketing of products through the marketing messages that they bare. The
information about the customer demand can also be provided by the collection of
data from the tracking tools on the websites.
The social
influence can also be as a result of sentiment data which are affected by the
reviews and comments that are made online, the associated company, the involved
product and the records that are made concerning the customer in terms of the
services offered to such a customer or the products sold to that customer. This
information is stored in the database as it can be of use in the future or may
be used elsewhere. Through the various activities that leverage the efficiency
and the effectiveness of insights that are of high value when it comes to
decision making matters, the real cost of micro-segmentation is reached and
known as soon as there is an identification of the target market and customers
at large.
Master data
management
To clean up the old data and create new, accurate, modern and a complete set of data that is necessary for carrying out management and also the growth of the business enterprise, master data management is fondly used. Very crucial and important information about the products, the accounts, relationships, suppliers and customers is exhibited by the master data and through it , the business enterprise is able to understand who it supplies goods and services to, the products or goods that it offers, the services it offers, the accounts it holds with its customers and its suppliers at large. The lack of such information to the enterprise lands it in a dangerous spot and therefore, the enterprise needs this information so as to operate usefully.
A business enterprise is able to allow changing needs in enterprise and also allowing the enterprise to form business processes through integration of data through the master data management which in turn allows the whole activity to go through. There are several advantages that are exhibited by the initiatives on the Master data management. These advantages include the naturally strategic initiatives, the master data management initiative have also affected a good number of business areas at Walmart at large.
The managers at Walmart have been able to solve a number of problems and issues pertaining to their customers, effectiveness of the products they offer etc. And all these are by the business intelligence practices and analytics combined with both the management and the IT involved processes. This is because the master data management has the phrases that direct the organization to the objectives. These phrases that made the master data management relevant include “single view of my customer”, “time span of introducing a new product”, “profitability report of this week” and “how long it would take to penetrate a specific market”. This has thus made Walmart a great competitor when it comes to big data and its management and as a result maximizing its profits and increasing its performance financially.
Big Data Strategy Dissertation
Fig II: Master data management at Walmart
IT process
management and Big Data
For an organization to come up with good strategy for decision making in various occasions, both the big data and the IT process management must be involved as a single unit. This is because these two are very important in development and maintenance of the data repository which is composed of the information on the opinions, preferences, clients, orders, complaints and the information of many more factors.
The main objective of the IT data is to achieve the goals that were set on the area of business provided while the business analytics that is applied and the decision making process are used and for a good decision making be approached, the business intelligence process, the IT system and the enterprise solution system have to be done harmoniously. For collection and storage of information on an online customer and the transactions carried out, the information technology system is put into use. This information collected and stored can be further utilized during the process of decision making (Mayer-Schönberger, 2013) and therefore making it vital for categorizing of the clients to a given business enterprise.
Merging
unstructured data with structured data
The middleware technology is an efficient and affordable and effective technology that is applied and used in the drawing of valuable information. The middleware technology is developed from the merging of both the structured data and unstructured data which is used in the business intelligence system. The various companies develop management systems and data integration and come up with the integration of big data- the integration used for the extraction of reports, data visualization and charts e.g. the Net-mark which was developed at NASA as one of these integrations and the management systems. This software can be scaled and be measured; it is cost effective and very efficient.
Once this software receives unstructured data, for it to be used for analysis or reports, the software cleans automatically and regulates the structure in it. (Mayer-Schönberger, 2013). These are some of its properties and it allows for merging of data as the enterprise involved would like the data to be represented.
Importance of
social media in decision making
Social media has today become an important factor in the today’s world of business which is competitive. Social media has enabled various individuals across the world to share and communicate with each other over the internet. There are different activities and behaviors in various social networking sites with a particular trend. Businesses can therefore use the internet to monitor such behaviors and activities so that they can get information about the market trend and the preferences of customers.
Activities, likes, comments, recommendations, time spent on pages, feedback and online reviews about a given product on social sites can provide useful information that managers may need during decision making process. Companies such as Walmart can point out a trend of clothing and fashion that exactly match the needs of their customers (Leonardi, 2013).
Conclusion
The use of business analytics and tools in information technology management, big data technology, data warehousing, etc. has helps various businesses in the present business environment. Development and maintenance of database is today used to monitor and record customers’ behaviors such as purchases and transaction histories. Information from internet search engines, and comments, complaints, tastes and preferences can be used by companies to study their customers. Customer behavior and preferences can also be studied through information about their online activities and participation in internet campaigns.
Such information about customers can be used to make strategic decisions for the effectiveness and efficiency of the company. Business analytics and intelligence is not limited to decision making only but can be used also in marketing, operation and supply chain management among many other applications. Walmart has been using business intelligence in cross selling, segmentation, campaign, advertisement channeling, monitoring of customer behavior and sentiment analysis to study and know their customer needs.
Works Cited
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customer commitment and trust as a strategy for the smaller Hong Kong
corporate banking sector.. International journal of bank marketing.
Chaudhuri ,
S. & Narasayya , V., 2011. An overview of business intelligence
technology. Communications of the ACM, 54(8), pp. 88-98.
Chen , H.,
CHiang , R. H. & Storey , V. C., 2012. Business Intelligence and
Analytics: From Big Data to Big Impact. MIS quarterly, 36(4), pp.
1165-1188.
Leonardi,
P., 2013. Enterprise social media: Definition, history, and prospects for the
study of social technologies in organizations. Journal of Computer‐Mediated
Communication, pp. 1-19.
Mayer-Schönberger, V., 2013. A revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think. s.l.:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt..
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2001. Cross-functional issues in the implementation of relationship marketing
through customer relationship management. European management journal.
Rygielski,
C., 2002. Data mining techniques for customer relationship management. Technology
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D., Delen , D. & Turban , E., 2013. Business Intelligence: A Managerial
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Cloud gaming has increasingly become one of the most popular technological advances in IT and has seen a massive increase in start-up companies. Many subscribers have been attracted to a majority of public gaming companies; a move that has shown success on the services being offered by cloud gaming. However, by pushing services for the cloud gaming, many barriers have created a stabling blocks in the success to its propelling. The objectives of this dissertation is to bring forth the prospect of the cloud gaming at the same time pointing out research problems that may have emerged over the wide spectrum of the various directions; those that are inclusive of video coders, distributed systems, visualisation, resource allocation, human-interaction, and quality of experience, not forgetting dynamic adaptations. The main approach to the research is based on the way service providers will move forward in offering high quality services; since this far, cloud gaming remains a profitable and promising business in the new technologically advanced world. The facts about cloud gaming remain that more fresh ideas shall come in to capitalise the profuse and elastic cloud resources for the purposes of better clouding experiences and further see such ideas to be associated with the challenges in the coming years.
The dissertation aims at offering information about cloud gaming for the purpose of elaborating the vast field of its continued improvements. In concern to this, the research will highlight the various games available through cloud gaming; hence, forming the ground for discussion and exploration. Further, the research will also provide ways that cloud games can be enhanced for efficiency and validity realised from the expert opinion. The primary objective of this study is to explore cloud gaming with the intention of demonstrating the emergent technological advances which are being adopted in gaming.
Cloud gaming entails the inclusion of online streaming of video games and music in technological devices such as TVs, Personal computers, tablets, by using cloud services such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon among others. In light of this, cloud gaming is known to contribute to the convenience with large clouds being managed and libraries that have a vast collection of the games and high possibility making it impossible to resist.
With cloud gaming availed by many service providers, it becomes possible to stream video games from the Internet. Besides, with the inclusion of 3D games such as Fortnite, the gaming quality is enhanced with the utilisation of either wired or wireless connections. However, bearing in mind that internet users endorse the concept, it becomes important to investigate the cloud gaming technologies to demonstrate the potential and its magnificent performance. As such, a study to bridge the knowledge gap about cloud gaming is imperative as it will provide more information to the public domain while also publicising the potential of cloud gaming.
Qualitative research that seeks the opinion of technological experts and conventional gamers becomes useful to provide an analytical insight about cloud gaming. As such, in a bid to make improvement in cloud gaming performance, the study also contains a conclusion that forms a basis for making recommendations. Additionally, the expert opinion on the best way to improve cloud gaming is imperative. Moreover, the adoption of modern technology that enhances the speed and quality of the gaming will be elaborated in the various ways.
Experiences by users in games and in particular interactive gaming systems have developed to be a real spotlight among researchers. In the field of cloud gaming, various factors have the likelihood of affecting the quality of user experience. Studies on the measurement of quantitative methods for the user experience are largely depended on skewed factors that are inclusive of response time and quality of graphics or the quality of videos received. Response time in cloud gaming is the real total duration that has elapsed from the control command of the user takes place to match video or graphic structure showing on the screen of the device under usage. Response time in cloud gaming is influenced by various parameters of the network such as bandwidth, delay, packet loss and jitter. Moreover, the quality of the received video game is subjective to the quality of image in every structure and the effortlessness of all other structures, which are similarly, altered by the video settings, for example, resolution and rate of data.
Cloud Gaming Dissertation
Dissertation Contents
1 – Introduction
Overview
2 – Aims and Objectives
Aim
Project Objectives
Research Questions
Statement of Problem
Definitions
3 – Methodology
Overview
Outline of the Research
Research Philosophy
Epistemology
Axiology
Approaches to the Research
Strategies of the Research
Structured Interview
Structured Interview Design and Validation
Waterfall Methodology
Moscow Methodology
Secondary Data
5 – Literature Review
Introduction of Cloud Gaming
Definition
Terminologies in Cloud Computing
Cloud Deployment Models
Cloud Delivery Models
Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Software as a Service
Related Technologies and Definitions
Distributed Computing
Latency
Cloud Computing Supporting Technology
Virtualisation
Load Balancing
Streaming
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
Thin Client Platform
Technology Acceptance Model
Applicability of TAM
Applications to the Research
Summary of user Related Issues
6 – Main Research Questions and Data
Primary Data
Secondary Data
Automatic Upgrades and Updates
Overall Costs
Limited Choice Games
Availability of Internet
7 – Data Analysis
Features
Bandwidth and Latency
Automatic Updates and Upgrades
Risk of Viruses
Benefits of Thin Client
Costs
Features Emanating from Open-ended Questions
Factors
Attitudes on Using the Technology
Summary of Factors and Conditions Forming the User Attitude
8 – Conclusion
Contribution of the Dissertation
Further Research
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A Study of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementation and Critical Factors that Affect Chinese Small-Medium Enterprise
Title: ERP Dissertation Enterprise Resource Planning. Following the global economic recession caused by several economic crises during the first decade of the twenty-first century, the business world market has become more intensely competitive, but also more cooperative between organizations and firms, in order to achieve their goals and reach the next level. SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) have become one of the most significant forces in leading the economic recovery globally and domestically, as they occupy a large percentage of every domestic economy in the world.
It was quoted by U.S. Presidential candidate Romney in 2012, when running for election, small businesses are the foundation of our nation’s economy. He raised the importance of SME’s development as being crucial, having a strong effect on the economy. Meanwhile, the usage of the ERP (enterprise resource planning) has developed widely. It has been recognised as an effective tool for use by both large organizations and SMEs to improve their performance in the complexity of business expansions, following many real life experiences and experiments over decades. ERP’s implementation and effect on success and failure has been studied by many experts in recent years and is becoming a popular topic in the business field.
At the same time, ERP system implementation’s critical factors and their adoptions have also been reviewed by practitioners worldwide. Therefore much effort has been made on improvements, following many reconsiderations and gap fittings. China, as one of the industrialized nations and being the second-largest economy in the world, is predicted to close the growth gap with the U.S. by 2030. Hence, the examination of ERP system circumstances as they relate to Chinese SMEs has been noted as a critical area for business development, and studying Chinese ERP implementation in SMEs will provide more insights for future development and expansion in business.
Dissertation Objectives
To review ERP implementation success models and critical factors for SMEs from existing literature
To identify the factors that effect ERP implementation in Chinese SMEs
To Evaluate the ERP implementation factor’s influences through interview of Chinese SME users
To recommend how to adopt ERP in Chinese SMEs
ERP Dissertation Implementation
Dissertation Contents
1: Introduction
Background
Objectives of the Study
Structure of Dissertation
2: Literature Review
ERP Systems implementation Success Models
Culture Issues
Models Summary
Critical Factors on ES implementation affect to Chinese SMEs
Implementation costs to SMEs
Culture clash
Lack of top management support
Resistances in workplace
Data Accuracy from legacy system
Literature Review Summary
3: Research Methodology
Methods Analysis
Quantitative Research Methods
Qualitative and Quantitative Comparison
Review Methodologies From Previous Studies
Research Question Design
The Strategy Of Asking Questions
Participant Selections
Interview Limitation
4: Findings
Research Questions
Results
Participants
5: Conclusions
Discussion
Enterprise Capacity
Business Type
Top Management Support
Resistance In Work Place
Culture Clash And Organizational Culture
Data Accuracy
6: Recommendations and Limitations
Recommendations
Limitations
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Assignment Title: Information Systems Overview. With the passing time, business markets are becoming more complicated and financially complex. Management authorities are trying to find out different ways to stay in advantageous position in the market. An information system is considered as a well-known tool, which is helpful to gather necessary information from the market and contributes actively in the management decision making. According to Baskerville and Wood-Harper (206), there are different types of the information system that are helpful to generate information for specific users depending on their needs. Information systems can be used in day to day work or for a long term planning. Development of information systems are important in terms of improving the decision making management and stay ahead in the competition. Since change is a constant scenario in the business market, the information systems need to go through development continuously.
Managing an information system and its development is costly. However, it is not only important but also crucial to consider information system properly. It is mainly because the growth of the organization or industry is hugely dependent on the information systems used by the management. According to Ward and Peppard (2016), the information should be utilized by the directorate as well as by the employees. It is found that some information systems are developed to aid the management in decision making where the some of the other information systems are designed to meet the needs of the employees.
From the study of Melville (2010), it is noticed that employees in different levels bear various types of responsibilities. Therefore, when the position of an employee changes, it is found that the information systems can help that employee to learn about the increased responsibilities. Unlike the employees, the supervisors and other operational managers use a different type of information systems. Although various types of information systems exist in the business management out of which four kinds of information systems are considered as the most important. These four types of information systems may include transaction process system, management information systems, decision support systems and executive information systems. These four types of information systems also help to cover all of the functional areas within a business such as sales and marketing, finance and accounting, product manufacturing and human resource.
With the support of this research, it is tried to explain the importance of information systems within a business structure. Among the different types of information systems, four major types of information systems are selected and discussed in this essay. Advantages and disadvantages of using information systems can be identified. It can be assumed that a set of recommendation scan be developed based on the findings of the work.
Aim
The purpose of the current essay is to understand the importance of information systems in terms of producing more accurate and targeted information about customers, markets, suppliers and competitors to improve the decision making capabilities of the business.
Objectives
To identify the relevant types of information systems in business
To understand the impact of different types of information systems on business
To determine advantages and disadvantages of using information systems
Identification of the various types of Information Systems
As opined by Bonham-Carter (2014), different types of information systems can be identified through a classification procedure. In business management, classification of information systems is a process that helps to determine and categorize the information systems in such a way that they can be treated as a group. The authors mentioned that the classification of information systems is a bit confusing because any natural law does not control the information systems but the human factors (Watson, Boudreau and Chen, 2010). A “type’ of information systems is just a “concept,” which is developed based on the kinds of information need by the authority or client. Therefore, it can be said that depending on different concepts of information required the information systems can be categorized. As opined by Ian (2010), one of the oldest methods, which is widely used to classify the information system is the pyramid model.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Information System
The achievement and benefits of an organization are hugely dependent on their skills of using the information systems. The purpose of using information systems is to deliver the right information to the right person so that it can enhance the decision-making system. Following are the advantages and disadvantages identified of using the information systems.
There are many benefits of using the information system. These advantages may include the improvement of communications, reduction of globalization and cultural gap and development of new job roles. With the implementation of the information system, the management can share the information and develop a good employee relation within the organization (Urquhart, Lehmann and Myers, 2010). On the other hand, the use of information technology helped an organization remain open for 24×7 in all over the world. It is also proved as helpful to manufacture cost effective products within minimum time. The application of information systems promotes effective work culture within the organization, which in turn improves the decision making process. Although many of the employees get frustrated to use information systems, it is found that the development of frustration is the result of inadequate training and poor performances of systems.
The numbers of disadvantages of using the information systems are also not negligible. The major disadvantage of using the information systems is the increase of lack of job opportunity and unemployment.
With the help of information systems, most of the paper workers can be completed within short time, and the financial transaction can be easily calculated without the involvement of any extra employees. With the implementation of higher technologies, the organizations tend to decrease their employee number. Apart from that, the implementation of information systems globalized the business system, which may experience dominance of greater power on the weaker one, which can hamper the decision-making system. With the use of information systems, the communication mode of business is becoming English. Therefore, people with lack of English proficiency are suffering to get a job. The expense of implementing information systems is too heavy for many organizations. Therefore, strong economic backup required before implementing an information system.
Management Information Systems
Transaction Process System
Transaction processing system is concerned as an information system that contributes towards the collection, modification and retrieving of the data transaction for a concerned enterprise. The system is efficient for the production of the accurate data related to consumers and suppliers that are essential for the businesses. This system is associated with providing the reliable processes transaction towards the commercial organizations that ensure the consumers’ order met on time (Stair and Reynolds, 2013). It is also concerned with the partners and suppliers to get the payment and make the payment on time. Thus, it has ensured a vital portion of the effective business management process for the business organizations.
It is associated with several characteristics that enable the transaction processing systems to offer the deals with the consideration of smooth flow of data and maintain the progression of the process throughout the enterprises. Rapid processing feature enables the system to perform the transactions instantly, reliability incorporate comprehensive safeguard to the disaster recovery system to make it error free, and standardization process helps in the process to acquire identical data for each transaction regardless of the consumers (Siponen and Vance, 2010). Apart from this controlled access, atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability helps in the process of batch processing and real time processing of the information.
Management Information Systems (MIS)
Management information system is capable of providing the managers of an organization, the ability to organize, evaluate and effectively manage the departments within the organization. MIS is providing the tool towards the managers with a computer-based system. The principal purpose of the system is concerned with providing the managers the opportunity to make strategic, tactical and operational decisions to manage the data with efficient and productive manner (Chaffey and White, 2010).
It is necessary for the managers to rely on the particular data associated with the consumers, suppliers and competitors that enable the business managers of all level to rely on the reports generated by the system. Besides, MIS is effective enough that it helps in the process of evaluating the daily activities of the business and concentrate on the problems that enable the managers to make decisions and track progress in the firm.
Moreover, it is considered as the broadly used three-resource based system that required for effective organizational management. These resources are based on people, information, and technology. It is concerned with the computer automation service that contributes towards the quality and efficiency determination of the business operation and improves the human decision making capabilities (Chen et al., 2010).
Decision Support Systems
Decision support system is mainly considered as the set of the related computer program and data that assist the business organizations to analyze and make a decision within the internal operations. The program is capable of collecting the data related to consumer and suppliers and present the data towards the management to make the decision-making process easy.
It is different from the operational application and rather known as the informational application. Considering the application of the DSS at the enterprise level, it has been found that it serves as an informational application (Galliers and Leidner, 2014). With the aid of the informational application, DSS helps in the process to gather information related to comparative sales figures of every week; revenue figures projected based on the new product sales assumptions, and provide data related to the consequences of the previous experiences (Rainer et al., 2013).
DSS is considered as the broad scope application of the Management Information System that helps in the process to report on the performance based on cost and profitable or unprofitable projects. Applications of the DSS system in the organizations have indicated that it is a powerful tool as it depends on the OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) technologies (Bharadwaj et al., 2013). It provides the permission of browse, query, analyzes and summarizes the large extent of data with interactive and dynamic way.
Executive Information Systems
Executive Support System is concerned with the application of the executive information system that associated with the development of facilitating and supporting the senior executive information that maintains the decision-making needs of the organization. The system is capable enough that it maintains the access balance between the internal and external information and keep it coordinated to achieve the organizational goal (Teece, 2010). ESS is concerned with various characteristics that help the organization keep track of the information related to the business such as consumer and suppliers data. Informational features help in the process to produce relevant information; orientation characteristics offer secure access to data, managerial characteristics supports the need and executive capabilities offers the telecommunication capacity to be implemented in the enterprise (Boehm and Thomas, 2013).
Also, the development of the ESS is mainly based on the integration and aggregation of data that mainly display the pattern to the enterprise to understand better. Moreover, the application of the ESS is beyond the EIS that include the communication extent, office automation process, and provide the analysis support to the enterprise to make an effective decision (Willcocks, 2013).
Green Information Technology
Green IT is associated with maintaining the positive relationship between the environment and the use of the computers. The process is helping the organization in the aspect of managing the corporate social responsibility efficiently. This information technology is concerned with the energy related issues such as rising cost of the energy, power limitation, and enhancement of the performance demand. It has enabled the organizations to concentrate towards the design, manufacturing, disposal and reallocation extent to reduce cost and maintain effective consumer relationship (Laudon and Laudon, 2011).
The extent of the IT solutions that Green IT provides is associated with the data that metering energy concern and the network coverage. As for example related to the application of the Green IT, it has been found that arrangement of the video conference has reduced the carbon emission by reducing the travel expenses and transportation reduction. The basic working pattern of the Green IT system is associated with asset removal and logistics maintenance (Vom Brocke and Rosemann, 2010). On the other hand, pickup, sorting, and data destruction is concerned with asset tag removal and detailed reporting process. It also provides the disposition option to the organizations as it enables the company to recycle, lease return and employee purchase processes in the organization.
Conclusion
From the overview of the different types of information systems, it can be said that all of these information systems are essential for the growth of the organization. The use of information systems contributed in the globalization of the business management. The advanced use of information system already proved as beneficial for the extensive growth of the organizations.
The authors who worked in the field of business management identified several types of information systems. It is found that the types of the information system are dependent on the concepts of information required by the employees and the management authority. There is a misconception existing regarding the necessity of information systems. Previously it was assumed that only the management authority and operation management required the information systems. However, later it is proved that the use of information systems by the employees is also beneficial in terms of improving the responsibility senses among the employees. From the study of previous authors, it is found that employees are promoted from one level to another. With the help of information systems, the employees can quickly identify and understand their new job roles and responsibilities.
With the help of pyramid model, the authors showed the classification of information systems. Four major types of information systems are identified that are widely used in the business sector, such as Transaction Processing System, Management Information System, Decision Support System and Executive Information System. All of these information systems are helpful in the collection of valuable data for a particular organization and improve their decision-making system. The Transaction Processing System or TPS is considered as a computerized system, which performs and controls information (transactions) that are required in business. Mainly it is a fund that the TPS accumulate and process the business transaction data. Therefore, it can be said that this particular information system is controlled by the management authority or the operation management of a particular company.
Certain changes in the transaction process can be easily evaluated with the Transaction Processing System. On the other hand, the Management information system or MIS is helpful to accumulate and process information that is required in the management of an organization. It is found that the management information system extract and process the data obtained from the Transaction Processing System. This information system helps the managers to direct the organization and control the functional areas in a better way.
This information system is also beneficial to of accurate feedback and offers pre-specified reports to the different level of managers. On the other hand, the decision support system is identified as an interactive information system, which is important to develop models and data manipulation tool regarding helping the managers in semi-structured and unstructured situations. Apart from these systems many other systems are identified that can have an impact on the decision-making systems, such as communication systems, office automation systems, and expert systems. However, several flaws of introducing the information systems are also identified such as increase of unemployment, security issues (data breaching) and expenses of implementing information systems.
Recommendations
Despite the positive sides of implementation of information systems, it can be said that few challenges are limiting the efficiency of information systems. Following are the recommendations offered based on the flaws identified in the implementation process of MIS.
It is found that the use of information systems is constrained within the hand of managers and the operation management. The limited use of information may be influencing the decision-making process, but it is certainly not helpful for the overall growth of the company. To maintain overall growth within the organization, different level of the information system should be accessed by the employees. The use of information system by the employees helps them to monitor their growth rate and understand their job responsibilities easily.
The information system is dynamic in nature based on the changes occurring in the universe. It is sometimes difficult to the managers to keep pace with the sudden changes that took place in information systems. Henceforth, strategies should be taken by the managers so that can easily tailor the available information and use them effectively. Strategies should be taken to remain up to date with the current market situation.
Different departments use information systems in a different way, which may affect the decision-making system. In order to improve the decision making system, it is important to maintain a proper alignment and communication between different departments. Henceforth, steps should be taken to align the strategic plan of the various departments with the business objectives. Matching the current capabilities of the organization with the future needs of the information technology is required.
Before implementation of the information system, it is important to identify the possible threats. With the help of information technology, an organization can evaluate the market risks and analyze the possible difficult situation. Implementation of information system without proper risk assessment can be limited its performance. On the other hand, an action plan should be developed to minimize the risks that are related to information systems.
Improvement of the technology infrastructure is crucial to implement the information system quickly. Lack of proper technological infrastructure cannot ensure the proper outcome of information systems. Therefore, the organizations need to ensure that the performance of the available technical supports meets the department computing objectives. Apart from that, they need to adopt different hardware (advanced models), which are cost effective.
Maintenance of the system security is vital for an organization. With the implementation of the information systems, the organizations are becoming more dependent on the computers to keep their data and its logical result. The lower security system can lead to the security breaching, and the company can lose valuable information that can affect their market positioning. Procedures should be implemented to report, detect and respond the security threats. Firewalls should be activated that can control and limit internet protocols through the firewall.
The recruitment of physical security is also essential to secure the information technology and its related equipment from theft. Also, steps should be taken to maintain disaster recovery.
References
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