INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Information systems

Information systems

Introduction

As one of the leaders of information systems designer and provider, our company--Big-Fancy Computer Company is very proud of winning the contract with Jones' Home from the other two competitive companies. In order to return our customer the maximum of satisfaction, we need to complete a comprehensive analysis of major aspects that influence the efficiency and profitability of Jones' Home first before we make a decision on which type(s) of information system should adopted, the analysis section will include five aspects, namely, the necessity of a information system, analysis of the present system, determine an information system, costs of a information system and how to operate the maintain the information system.

Discussion

1. The necessity of a information system

1.1 What is an information system?

An information system can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support decision making, coordination and control in an organization. (Laudon, K.C. & Laudon, J.P. 2003).

According to the definition of information system, a series of managerial function can be provided by an effective information system in an organization, in a addition to supporting decision making, coordination, and control, information systems may also help managers and workers analyze problems, visualize complex subjects, and create new products. (Laudon, K.C. & Laudon, J.P. 2003). Since the multifarious and helpful functions information system can provide, it was considered as a fundamental managerial tool in modern organizations, more and more company apply information systems to update the management technology for the purpose of surviving in this increasing competitive environment.

1.2 Why Jones' Home needs an information system?

Today it is widely recognized that information systems knowledge is essential for managers because most organization need information systems to survive and prosper. With an information system, a company can extend their reach to faraway location, offer new products and services, analyze the market environment and redesign the organization structure, even more, the company could change the way they conduct business profoundly.

Jones' Home is a medium size organization which business mainly includes property rental and property sales two parts. The recent merger enhances the competitiveness of the organization in real estate industry in 3 following aspects:

? Increase the provision of information relate to the local real estate

? Grasp market demand accurately and react promptly

? Raise the goodwill and market share in market place

However, the expanded business requires a distributed network among the offices to integrate the databases for the purpose of volatilizing the advantages of the merging. Instead of patching the three original systems of each office, we plan to design an efficient information system to integrate three original systems as a whole to improve the performance of the organization.

With the integrated information system, three offices share a center database warehouse and can communicate with each other via Internet. Salespersons can use the searching engine to access the information stored in the database warehouse with less trivial procedures. For example, before we integrated the information system, when a customer comes to ...