Information technology systems are used by organizations to perform various tasks. Some use IT to provide for the basic processing of transactions, while others enable customers, distributors and suppliers to interact with the organization through various communication technology systems such as the internet.
The term ‘’information technology systems in an organization ‘’ is composed of four distinct parts which include: an organization, information in an organization, and information technology and information technology systems in an organization. Below I have listed some of the impacts of information technology in an organization.
- Flow of Information: Information is a key resource for all organizations. What information describes might be internal, external, objective or subjective. External information describes the environment surrounding the organization. Objective information describes something that is known. Subjective information describes something that is currently unknown. With information technology the flow of all these three types of information is made simple buy use of centralized data centers where all this data can be retrieved. Information in an organization can flow in four direction and these include upward flow of information, downward flow of information, outward flow of information and horizontal flow of information.
- Transaction processing: Information technology simplifies the transaction process of an organization. A transaction process system (TPS) is a system that processes transactions that occur within an organization. At the heart of every organization are IT systems whose main role is to capture transaction information, create new information based on the transaction information. TPS will update any transaction process and store that information in a database, so any concerned party in the organization can access that information via a centralized information storage network of internet.
- Decision support: A decision support system (DSS) is a highly flexible and interactive IT system that is designed to support decision making when the problem is not structured. A DSS works together with an artificial intelligence system to help the worker create information through (OLAP) online analytical process to facilitate decision making tasks that require significant effort and analysis.
- Workgroup support: Since information technology facilitates in the creating an information sharing environment, workers can easily consult each other across different department without any interruption. They can use emails, text chatting services to inquire some thing related to a given task at work. With work group support systems, group decision making becomes easier.
- Executive support: An executive information system (EIS) is an interactive management information system (MIS) combined with decision support systems and artificial intelligence for helping managers identify and address problems and opportunities. An EIS allows managers to view information from different angles. Yet it also provides managers with the flexibility to easily create more views to better understand the problem or opportunity at hand.
- Data Management: With the help of database software, an organization stores all its relevant data on a database. This infrastructure can be designed when it is internal or external. An internal centralized system can only be accessed with in the organization while an external centralized system allows data to be accessed out side the organization using a remote (IP) internet protocol Address or a domain name. In this case, employees or managers can use a company website to access relevant company data by use of passwords. This data is not exposed to the public and search engines.
- Communication: Information technology accounts in the development of communication technology. Services like electronic mail make communication within and outside the organization easy and first. Now days email communication is a default communication technology used by every organization. Communication is a great tool in business develops, with advanced communication tools, employees and managers can easily make beneficial decisions in the organization.
