Challenges And Strategies In Managing Information System

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

An information system collects processes ,stores , analyzes ,and disseminates information for specific purpose . Like any other system ,an information system includes inputs and outputs .it processes the inputs by using technology such as PC’s and produces outputs re sent to users or to other system via electronic networks . A feedack mechanism that controls the operation may e included . Like any other system an information system also include people .procedures and physical facilities and it operated within an environment. An information system is necessarily computerized although most of them are.

Information technology is a branch of knowledge concerned with the development, management, and use of computer-based information systems.

People have been storing, retrieving, manipulating and communicating information since the Sumerians developed writing in about 3000 BC,[1] but the term "information technology" in its modern style was appeared in a 1958 .

The article published in the Harvard Business Review; by some authers that "the new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology (IT).

It is  Based on the storage and processing technology employed, due to which it is possible to distinguish four distinct phases of IT development: pre-mechanical (3000 BC – 1450 AD), mechanical (1450–1840), electromechanical (1840–1940) and electronic.[1] This article focuses on the latter of those periods, which began in about 1940.

CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES IN MANAGING INFORMATION SYSTEM

The use of Management Information Systems (MIS) has gone from competitive advantage for few to business necessity for all.

Today there are few organizations that can afford to ignore information technology and few individuals who would prefer to be without it. As managerial tasks become more complex, so the nature of the required information systems changes from structured, routine support to ad hoc, unstructured, complex enquiries at the highest levels of management

 The challenges and strategies of MIS presents the many complex and inter-related issues associated with the management of information systems. And it can be understand by these

Subpoints.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN BUSINESS

The information technology plays an important role in business or oranisation .It provides support in many ways like in the form of operational activities , managerial activities or strategic activities.as well as managers employees,workers in an business.

OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES

The operational activities deal with the day to day operations of an oranisation , such asa assigning employes to task and recording the numer of hours thet work or placing a purchase order . Operational activivties are short term in nature. The information system that support them re mainly TPS’s and MIS’s and moile systems .Operational activities re used mostly y supervisers , opertors , and clerical employees.

MANAGERIAL ACTIVITIES

Managerial activities also called tactical activities or decision deal in general with middle management activities such as short planning .organising and control. C omputerised managerial system are frequently equated with MIS’s , because MIS’s are desined to summarized data and prepare reports .Middle managers also can get quick answers to queries from such system as the needfor answers arises using BI reporting.

STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES

Strategic activites are activities or decisions that deal with situation that my significantly change the manners in which business is done .Traditionaly athe strategic activities involed long range planning .introducing a new product line ,expanding the business y acquiring the support business.

In business managers need the support of information technology – it is very difficult to make good decision without valid and relevant information .Information is needed for each phase and activity in the decision making process. For example DSS can examine numerous alternatives very quickly can support forecasting can provide a systematic risk analysescan be integrated with communication system and data base can provide support.

RELATION BETWEEN INFORMATION STRATEGY AND BUSINESS STRATEGY

The modern organization faces a host of challenges when it comes to competing in the global economy.

In an effort to meet many of these challenges organizations have consistently chosen information technology (IT) as a central means to achieve their goals. While IT does provide the organization with some notable advantages, the reality is that without proper implementation of information technology in the organization no real gains from ITcan be achieved.

IT needs to be matched with business strategy in order for real value to be garnered from the development of information technology infrastructure.

In an effort to better understand the integral relationship between business and IT strategy in the organization, Ross (2002) says that one of the most complaint of high value executives is that information technology programs provide small business-related value for the organization.

According to him an investigation of IT systems in organizations across the global demonstrates that most companies are not identifying any true value from their IT systems. Ross asserts that in organizations that have been successful in creating business value from information technology, senior managers take an active and integral and important role in IT development.by doing this , senior managers are able to link IT to both business level strategy andmanagement in the organization. 

Other scholars have also examined the development of information technology as a business paradigm. Sawhney (2002) in his investigation of IT and business strategy specifically examines the failure of B2B exchanges.

In his examination, he says that even though the B2B exchange appeared to be a viable business model for organizational development, this model has effectives failed to show the results expected. Sawhney goes on to report that one of the most pertinent problem with the B2B model is that it did not provide an effective means for organizations to match buyers with suppliers in a cost-sensitive environment. Suppliers were needed to attract buyers and buyers were needed to attract suppliers.

What here implies is that a business strategy for B2B exchanges had been created without any real understanding of whether or not the technology needed to make this business model successful existed. Thus, the model was implemented without the technology and the business model has failed.

Despite knowing all the important concerns IT and business strategy is making or earning profits this process work.

The ability to synthesizing business strategy with information technology is critical for the organization to reap increased financial rewards, including higher market shares and sales volumes.

Although most people can see the importance of IT in this context, achieving a real life IT strategy that can be fully integrated into business strategy remains an elusive goal for most organizations.

Unfortunately, success in this area is needed such that a model for successful integration can be developed.

GLOBAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT

THE CURRENT NETWORKED READINESS DESCRIBING A HYPERCONNECTED WORLD

This presents the latest findings of the NRI, offering a comprehensive assessment of the present state of networked readiness in the world. A number of expert contributions that focus the drivers and impacts of hyper connectivity on individuals, businesses, and governments are included. These relate to

(1) The convergence of information technologies and communication technologies;

(2) Issues in a hyperconnected world, with a specific focus on the role of regulation;

(3) Network neutrality;

(4) The increasing importance of mobile broadband to giving empower individuals;

(5) The include cost of broadband;

(6) The role of in-memory technology and analytics to harness the power of big data;

(7) The role of real-time analytics to make good and effective of data;

(8) The value of digital traces for commercial strategy and public policy;

(9) The promise and perils of hyper connectivity for organizations and communities.;

(10) Maximizing the impact of digitization; and

(11) The effect of technology in education and in business.

In the world economic , in partnership with INSEAD, has undertaken a analyses to ensure that the framework continues to remain relevant and at the forefront of measuring and benchmarking the role of ICT for competitiveness and well-being for the next decade. In the global markets

The evolved framework is inspired by five underlying principles:

• Measuring the economic and social impacts of ICT is crucial.

• An enabling environment determines the capacity of an economy and society to benefit from the use of ICT.

• ICT readiness and usage remain key drivers and preconditions for obtaining any impacts.

• All factors interact and co-evolve within an ICT ecosystem.

• The framework should provide clear policy orientations and identify public-private partnership opportunities.

• the good relations among country’s market and regulatory framework in supporting high levels of ICT uptake;

• the degree of a society’s preparation to make good use of an affordable ICT infrastructure;

• the efforts of the main social agents—that is, individuals, business, and government—to increase their capacity to use ICT as well as their actual use of ICT in their day-to-day activities;

• the broad economic and social impacts accruing from ICT and the transformation of a country toward an ICT- and technology-savvy economy and society.

RELATION BETWEEN INFORMTION TECHNOLOGY AND ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN

While many theories about the relationship between information technology (IT) and organizational design have been proposed, there is little empirical evidence on the issue.

We check the influence of organizational design on the demand for IT and the productivity of IT investments, using data from different different firms.

We find greater demand for IT in firms with greater decentralization of decision rights (especially the use of self-managing teams), and greater investments in human capital, including training and leading to them . In addition, IT has a big contribution to output in firms that adopt a more decentralized and human capital-intensive work system. This relationship is robust to alternative measures of IT and of work systems, as well as alternative specifications for demand and for productivity. These findings lend support to the idea that organizational practices are important determinants of IT demand and productivity.

Technological innovation is rarely neutral in its effect on different organizational forms.

The diffusion of information technology (IT) into the modern workplace may also benefit some types of organizations more than others.

The nature of the relationship between IT and organizational design is of increasing concern to managers and numerous authors have developed theories and predictions.

For instance, Malone, and other theorist (1987) hypothesize that IT will favor more decentralized decision-making relative to centralized hierarchies. Milgrom and Roberts (1990) go against that the exogenous price decline of IT as a key driver that has favored "modern manufacturing" relative to "mass production."

While the number of theories about IT’s organizational impacts continues to grow, there is much less empirical evidence on this question. Case studies of particular companies or industries have provided valuable knowledge into particular uses of IT, but we know surprisingly little about whether there are any more general patterns that relate IT adoption and organizational design.

NEW WORK SYSTEM

A number of studies have examined the relationship between organizational practices and firm performance In particular, attention has been focused on a cluster of organizational design choices and given as "high performance work practices."

These can include the use of team-based production, the assigning of decision authority to workers, higher skill levels and training, broader job responsibilities, use of quality circles, adoption of total quality management, team-oriented incentive systems, and pre-employment screening practices Several of these studies have recently found large economic benefits from the use of clusters of these practices leading to question why they are not more widespread. Many people or theorist suggest that the need to coordinate changes in multiple practices, including IT use, may be part of the difficulty.

TRENDS IN INFORMATION SYSTEM

Driven by advances in microelectronics, the quality-adjusted price of IT hardware has dropped by 20-30% annually for the last thirty years .

This has led to over a hundredfold increase in share of computers in the real capital stock since 1970.

The availability of the personal computer in the 1980s shifted the location of computing power from large centralized "utilities" to workers’ desktops.

What can be more important is that many other employees interact directly or indirectly with computers through terminals, embedded various new technologies or by using computer-generated information and reports.

At the same time, significant growth in "coordination technologies", such as local area networks, databases, and electronic mail has reduced the costs of communication and collaboration among workers

 INFORMATION SYSTEM TECHNOLOGY

While the relationship between information and information processing capability and organization has a deep history in economic thought, there is no consensus on a theoretical model that captures all of the relevant relationships. although , there is a substantial format literature that provides different views on how IT and organizational design might be related. By considering analyses, we may be able to demonstrate which of these perspectives are more promising in modeling actual firm behavior.

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THE IMPACT OF IT WITH RESPECT TO RDIAS

The impact of information technology on every institute , college , business is very effective. But if we talk about RDIAS that is rukmini devi college of advance studies using information technology for efficient and effective work.

The student teacher dynamic has drastically changed since the introduction of technology based class structure. The instructor is no longer the king of the classroom but rather a middleman between information and student. Instead of a passive sponge soaking up knowledge, the student has now become an active informational architect, procuring, rearranging and displaying information.

Information technology has made comfortable to faculties using technology, leaving tech-savvy students in a position to assist the teacher in technology based lesson plans through this the personal development is happened harmoniously.

The most important vis "PORTAL’ which is part of IT .it is the technology7 through which students and all faculties are connected and all knowledgr , information, lectures , online test , assignments etc are quickly loaded by faculties on the portal and students directly go to portal and log in and can go through all lectures , information about the lectures test etc .so this is very fast ,effective and very helpful.

Students are understanding concepts better. Their skills are improving.More than the teacher writing on the black board this system leaves behind a better impact on children of all age groups. The students enjoy learning like this as,it is not boring like the lessons learned on black board. As all students like computers and latest technology,this way of teaching is really helpful.

 Students of all ages can connect, share, and learn on a global scale. Success at difficult technological tasks, as well as social networking such as Facebook  of RDIAS can also lead to improved self-esteem. The environmental aspects of e-mail and online drop boxes are the most compelling argument. Students in school today are constantly surrounded by technology; we live in a technological society. Utilizing these technologies is the best way to reach out to students. Many students have different types of learning styles and using different types of technology is a great way to help all kinds of learners.