Information System and Business Processes - Paper Example

Introduction

Information systems play a significant role in business expansion by providing businesses with avenues of managing and manipulating information to their advantage. Adoption of information systems enables organizations to make use of information and data in decision making by adopting sophisticated and comprehensive data storage databases that can store the organization information and make it easy for the organization to retrieve such information at the point of need. Over time, stored information in information systems can be used by an organization as it expands to point out critical solutions for the problems that an organization may experience. Organization problem mitigation processes require organizations to have access to the immense amount of data which can be used to facilitate data-driven decision making which increases the chances of correct and more yielding decisions for an organization (O'Brien & Marakas, 2005).

Information system and business processes

Business process refers to individual activities that a business or an organization undertake to achieve its overall goals. A business process is an activity aimed at achieving a business goal, and information systems have a significant impact on the development of business processes. Information systems promote the development of business processes that add value to the organization. An information system enables an organization to leverage information and data to ensure proper functioning and decision making in an all the organization processes. The adoption of an information system helps to simplify and promote understanding of an organization processes which enables an organization to get rid of any unproductive business processes and activities that can hinder an organization expansion strategy. Information system plays a critical role in an organization because they help an organization to eliminate any repetitive tasks and further increase accuracy of an organization processes which is key in achieving standardized production. Project planning is an organization activity that requires proper planning as well as information that can be used to predict the best approaches to approach a certain project. Information systems promote better planning and implementation of business projects by availing necessary information that is used in the decision-making process. Effective monitoring and decision making in a project are very important to the success if a project (Laudon & Laudon, 2015).

An organization should invest in an information system to help an organization to use the available resources well and also to ensure maximum yields from the project. The ability of the information system to increase the efficiency of an organization processes improves an organization competitive advantage. For instance, order fulfillment process is an important process through which an organization can deliver goods and services to the consumers who have placed orders for such products. The information system can be used to mine information on the client preferences as well as the best approaches to deliver the product to the consumer location. In this case, the primary role of information system in business processes in the promotion of data-based decision making which ensures that the decisions that an organization arrives at are backed by evidence and will contribute to a high chance of the process success. Information systems increase the efficiency of the existing business processes and help an organization to develop complementing business processes that can increase the efficiency of the existing business processes in the computer repair and purchase shop (Laudon & Laudon, 2011).

Computer repair and purchase competitive strategy

Information sales improve an organization competitive strategy by providing an organization with efficiency through better decision making. The computer repair and purchase shop major competitive advantage for using an information system are improved efficiency and better decision making that will improve customer satisfaction and also increase the ability of the organization to promote the internal organization and improve decision making. The ability of the information to resolve tradeoffs has a significant role in improving the organization value system. The value systems include the suppliers who provide inputs which are used in the computer repair and purchase shop. An information system enables the organization to make on-time requests for products in anticipation of future market trends which can easily be predicted using information from previous operating periods of the organization. The information management system will provide the business with the competitive advantage by providing the organization with avenues of outperforming the competitors through improved operations efficiency as well as reduced costs through the creation of tradeoffs which enables to offer competitive prices to consumers. Another important value activity that the information system facilitates is the organization marketing activities. Marketing of the computer products sold in the computer repair and purchase shop increases the total revenues and the number of sales by promoting better approaches of marketing which reduces wastages and excessive costs that can increase the cost of the shop operation.

Expansion to other cities and states

Business expansion to other cities requires the organization to have a good communication program that will promote the communication between the city and state offices with the main control office. Good computer hardware, software and networking decision can help the computer repair and purchase shop to streamline the organization communication which is vital to decision making and information sharing.

Computer hardware

HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2

The HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2 is a good business and office laptop that the computer repair and purchase shop can use in its various offices to help link the offices with the main organization information system. The HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2 is fitted for the role due to its flexibility, affordability and also portability. The laptop has 16 hours and 30 minutes battery life which is very efficient in office operations in addition to its high speed coming with the option of a Core i5 and i7 processor.

Software

The software installed in a computer varies with the needs of an individual or an organization. The HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2 will be fitted with a windows ten operating system which is versatile and high performing to handle the information system that the organization will use. The success of an organization is evidenced in the event of opening satellite offices in different cities and states. In this case, establishing a software that consolidates all the organization operations is very important to the success of the organization.

Networking

Regarding networking, the computer repair and purchase shop is still a small business which is on the verge of expansion. The networking approach to be used should be cost-effective which will improve the sustainability of the organization activities and at the same time reduce the cost of satellite offices operations. The Computer repair and purchase shop will use Virtual Private Networking which is a reliable approach to connecting remote locations over the public internet. The site to site connection using the VPN approach is cost effective and also very secure. In addition to a VPN, the organization should invest in cloud data storage which will allow centralized data access by all the satellite offices of the organization (Lund et al., 2008).

Database backend

A database backend is used for information storage and communication which includes a server, application, and a database. The back end can be used to store the information of the user, the order and their personal details which can improve organization decision making. The organization should use an enterprise resource planning which can integrate important organization information and make it available for the different satellite offices. The ERP system can store information such as product plans, marketing information, orders, payment information and inventory management which are important managerial information for every organization. Outsourcing is more cost efficient for the expanding organization, in this case, SAP ERP is a good backend database that the organization can outsource at a considerable annual price instead of creating a database (Hyvonen, 2003).

Social Media and Mobile Computing

Social media is increasingly becoming an important avenue to market organization products. Many people are using social media networking networks which pose as a significant market for the organization to market its products. In this case, it is important for the organization to hire an experienced social media manager who will manage the organization information in social media to make sure the information reflects the organization ambitions. On the other hand, the organization can use mobile computing which allows the transmission of data, video, and audio through wireless-enabled devices without the physical connection. In this case, many consumers use smartphones which is an important approach to communicate and also make a point of sale through mobile applications. Mobile computing is more convenience to consumers and third parties who would like to make an order with the organization (Gikas & Grant, 2013).

Security Methods

Security is a major threat to the storage of private information due to the growing cyber-attacks and negligence by organization employees who can expose the organization systems to security threats. Leakage of important information can jeopardize the organization processes and activities hence, the need to install a good security system to guard against cyber-attacks (Lund et al., 2008).

Tunneling and encryption

Computer repairs and purchase shop should use tunneling and encryption because of multi-location access. Tunneling is the process that involves encapsulating one protocol in another protocol to offer security in communication through the insecure medium such as the internet. The organization will use SSL VPN which is a secure socket layer protocol using cryptography which allows authentification privacy and communication security (Lund et al., 2008).

Information System Project Plan outline

Preliminary study of the proposed information system

System investigation through a feasibility study to assess the economic feasibility of the project - Technical feasibility of the project to assess the reliability and capability of the system about the organization needs

System analysis to assess the user information needs

User interface design

System designing which includes acquisition of hardware, software, and services as well as running a pilot study

System implementation which includes end-user training and pilot conversion into a fully run...