Office automation refers to the varied computer machinery and software used to digitally create, collect, store, manipulate, and relay office information needed for accomplishing basic tasks and goals. Raw data storage, electronic transfer, and the management of electronic business information comprise the basic activities of an office automation system. Office Automation helps in optimize or automate existing office procedures. Such systems can increase the productivity of managerial end users and other professional and staff personnel by significantly reducing the time and effort needed to produce, access and receive business communications. The backbone of office automation is a LAN, which allows users to transmit data, mail and even voice across the network. All office functions, including dictation, typing, filing, copying, fax, telex, microfilm and records management, telephone and telephone switchboard operations, fall into this category. Office automation was a popular term in the 1970s and 1980s as the desktop computer exploded Continue reading
Systems Management
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is defined as an Integrated Computer based planning technique used in Organizations and Enterprises for management and resource planning. Resources here mean both internal and external resources of an organization. Various resources of an organization can include financial resource, tangible resource, human resource and also various material requirements. ERP can also be defined as an application and software architecture that facilitates Information flows between various business functions inside and outside of an organization. It consolidates business environment into a uniform system environment. Basically what ERP systems do is that it integrates and automates processes within an entire organization regardless of the organization’s behavior. A traditional definition of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) as given by APICS — The Educational Society for Resource Management is given as, ERP is a method for effective planning and control of all resources needed to take, make, ship and account for customer Continue reading
Strategic Information Systems
A Strategic Information System (SIS) is a system to manage information and assist in strategic decision making. A strategic information system has been defined as, “The information system to support or change enterprise’s strategy.” Simply says, a Strategic Information System is a type of Information System that is aligned with business strategy and structure. The alignment increases the capability to respond faster to environmental changes and thus creates a competitive advantage. An early example was the favorable position afforded American and United Airlines by their reservation systems, Sabre and Apollo. (American Airlines worked with IBM to develop an improved booking/reservation system, and the Airline Reservation Systems (ARS) and the Semi-Automatic Business Research System (SABRE) launched thereafter in 1960. The network completed set-up in 1964, and it was recognized as the largest data processing system in existence. United Airlines developed the Apollo Reservation System, and shortly after allowed travel agents access. Continue reading
Cost-Benefit Analysis in Information Systems Development
Since cost plays quite an important role in deciding the new system, it must be identified and estimated properly. Costs vary by type and consist of various distinct elements. Benefits are also of different type and can be grouped on the basis of advantages they provide to the management. The benefits of a project include four types: Cost-savings benefits Cost-avoidance benefits Improved-service-level benefits Improved-information benefits Cost-savings benefits lead to reduction in administrative and operational costs. A reduction in the size of the clerical staff used in the support of an administrative activity is an example of a cost-saving benefit. Cost-avoidance benefits are those, which eliminate future administrating and operational costs. No need to hire additional staff in future to handle an administrative activity is an example of a cost-avoidance benefit. Improved-service-level benefits are those where the performance of a system is improved by a new computer-based method. Improved-information-benefit is where Continue reading
Data Mining – Meaning, Steps and Business Applications
Data mining or knowledge discovery is the process of analyzing data from different perspectives & summarizing it into useful information. This information can be used to increase revenue & cut cost or both. We know that data mining software is one of a number of analytical tools for analyzing data. It allows users to analyze data from many angels & categories it. It also summarizes the relationship identified. Technically speaking data mining is the process of correlations among dozens of fields in large relational database. In other words it is the process of sorting through large amount of data & picking out important information. It is often use by business intelligence organizations & financial analysts. It is also used in the sciences to extract information from the data set generated by modern experiment & observational methods. Data mining in relation to Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP) is the statistical & logical Continue reading
Types of Information Used in Business
Information used in business can be either systematic or non-systematic. Our discussion is generally limited to information that flows through a formal system, but it is important to keep in mind the fact that a great deal of information reaches the manager from sources outside the formal system. Newspaper and other news media, conversations, and even a manager’s perception of a colleague’s facial expressions are important sources of information. Many managers give more-attention to such sources than to the formal reports. Information can be external or Internal. Much information that is relevant to the manager flows into the organization form the outside environment. This information can be systematic regular reports from trade associations, government agencies, and so for, or it can be unsystematic. Information from and about the environment that s rounds the organization is important, but we do not discuss it extensively in this book because of its wide Continue reading