kebby mbozi - business information has become a core business driver in today

8/18/2019 Kebby Mbozi - Business Information Has Become a Core Business Driver in Today

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Business information has become a core business process that drives businesses in today’s

world. Almost everything in this generation involves the transmission and conversion of data

from one source or form to another. The business dictionary defines a business information

system as a methodical procedure or process that is used as a delivery mechanism for

providing specific goods or services to customers. Managers rely on this information for them

to make timely decisions which would determine their competitive platform and future. In

1!" #ew $latt the %&' of (ewlett $ackard stated that )If only ($ knew what ($ knows" it

could be three times more productive* a statement which most employees and managers of

($ misunderstood. In essence" $latt meant that ($ had a lot and enough information which

they could use for them to be competitive if only they discovered a strategy on how to use

their information in a progressive and productive manner.

To fully understand how organisations benefit from business information systems" it is very

prudent that we understand what decision making and knowledge management are. +ecision

making according to ,ikipedia" is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection

of a belief or a course of action among several alternative possibilities. (owever" for a good

decision to be made in decision making process" organisations re-uire knowledge.

nowledge despite being very useful in decision making" differs from the other resources as

it multiplies itself by using and/or sharing it 0Auer" 223435. +ue to the changing nature of

knowledge" organisations need to manage it for optimum use in decision making. +avenport

0135 defines nowledge Management 0M5 as a process of capturing" developing" sharing"

and effectively using organi6ational knowledge. Analysing his definition" knowledge

management refers to a multi7disciplinary approach to achieving organi6ational ob8ectives by

making the best use of knowledge.

9sing systems theory" it becomes easy to understand organisation processes as system theory

is based upon analytic division of the natural world into environment and systems 0#uhmann"

1:5. Therefore systems theory" divides the organisation into two disciplines namely; the

systems and machines that handle the data processing process and the social environment in

which everything e


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=ational Airports %orporation #td the company I work for" has got computerised systems that

communicate within themselves by circulating information within a department and between

departments. There are several core business processes handled by my company however" for

the sake of this assignment I will only consider Air =avigation and >round (andling

?ervices. The Air =avigation ?ervices +epartment is responsible for the entire @ambian Air

space embracing the following duties such as controlling the area" tower and approach. It also

handles the metrological services" communication facilities" navigation aids" security

facilities" aeronautical information services and the IT infrastructure and services. This

department determines when to allow a plane to leave the airport and also when to allow a

plane to land. As such" the Air =avigational ?ervices department system has information it

deals with within itself so as to coordinate its activities and also it works hand in hand with

ground handling department. The >round handling services department handles both

scheduled and charter operators. It controls passengers" ramp" load" check7in and gate

services" I$ handling and transportation" aircraft line maintenance" aircraft cleaning"

facilitating overflight and landing permits" flight clearance and other flight support services.

%onsidering the systems theory" the Air =avigation ?ervices falls under both the natural

world and systems in the sense that" most of its activities interact with nature. The systems

read the natural environment and then process the information to enable the management at

the =ational Airport determine when to take an action. The environment at =ational Airports

deals with receiving planes and letting planes leave. These planes take people away from

@ambia and also bring people into @ambia. The >round (andling ?ervices which deals with

the actual duties of the airport work" only act after getting reports from the Air =avigational

?ervices. This means that" after the Air =avigational ?ervices works out its duties as to

whether it is safe to let a plane land or leave" it then informs the >round (andling ?ervices to

take an action. Therefore" in the conte


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• 'rgani6ational and personal decisions

• Ma8or and minor decisions

• Individual and group decisions

+espite organisations making a number of decisions as indicated in the list above" under

Management Information ?ystems these decisions are categorically grouped into three. These

are operational decisions" tactical decisions and strategic decisions.

Operational Decisions

The business dictionary defines operational decisions as types of decisions that are short term

in nature and implemented in lieu of long term strategies at the time of ac-uisition of

company assets. 'perational decisions involve day7to7day operations of the company and for

that reason they need to be addresses before any grand scheme issues. These decisions are

designed to deal with well7structured problems as they happen on a daily basis at lower levels

of the organi6ation pyramid. ,ell7

structured problems are constrained problems with convergent solutions that engage the

application of a limited number of rules and principles within well7defined parameters and

are dealt by transaction processing systems.

Tactical Decisions

Tactical decisions relate to the implementation of strategic decisions. The managers at these

level deal with decision problems coming from e


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systems and decisions take place at the higher level of management as shown in the pyramid

below.

Cigure 1.14 $yramid showing Three #evels of +ecision making in organisations

?ource4http4//www.chris7kimble.com/%ourses/,orldDMedDMBA/Types7of7Information7

?ystem.html

The creation and implementation of these decisions create knowledge for the organisation.

The types of knowledge created include tacit knowledge" e


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?ystem.html

The knowledge created by these levels of management is so vital for organisation

development and future problem resolution. Cor this reason" nowledge Management

becomes so vital such that should similar problems occur in future it would be easy to resolve

them using information managed in the nowledge Management systems. The traditional

approach of nowledge Management was to focus on improving the eround (andling ?ervices business process at

=ational Airport #imited would show a diagram like one in Cigure 1.F.

Cigure 1.F The +IA model


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?ystem.html.

The +IA and AI+ models e


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Quality features expected in information systems

GInformation -ualityG is a measure of the value which the information provides to the user of

that information. GHualityG is often perceived as sub8ective and the -uality of information can

then vary among users and among uses of the information.

Business Information ?ystems should produce -uality information. These systems should

produce information that contain the following features4

1. Intrinsic Information Huality4

Intrinsic Information Huality considers factors such as accuracy" ob8ectivity" believability and

reputability. Accurate systems are re-uired so that they do not produce information full of

errors. The information systems should produce ob8ective information without any

sub8ectivity at all. This helps management come up with decisions without any form of

biasness. The information produced should also be reputable and believable. This means that

the information must have some relation to some known facts so that information users will

not have inference in accepting the contained detail. +ata that lacks accuracy" ob8ectivity"

believability and reputation can causes serious loss of customers as data with errors will make

them loss confidence in the organisation.

. %onceptual Information Huality4

%onte


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information in formats easily understood by the recipients and also in compatible version.

The recipients should be able to easily understand the information contained. +ata that lacks

coherence and compatibility is difficulty to understand. As such systems unable to produce

kinds of data that is interpretable and compatible should be discareded.

3. Accessibility Information Huality4

Accessibility Information Huality deals with how accessible and access security data may be.

+ata must be accessible to intended users all the time they need it in organisations. Business

information systems should have enough security to identify legitimate users of data so as to

prevent unauthorised access. Business information systems that lacks such features are likely

to suffer from attacks.

Conclusions

Business information processing is so cardinal to the operations of every organisation. +ata is

always captured at lower levels of organi6ations and used by middle management to come

with weekly and monthly forecasts. These middle managers report the information to senior

managers who come up with long term organisation policies that affect the operation of the

organi6ation. To ensure -uality in the data processing life cycle" the +IA and AI+

models of business information systems are used. These models e


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References

A9&" T. 223. nowledge management4 vogue word or mandatory for sustainability

?ustainability &conomic ?ociety of ?wit6erland. : p.

http4//www.hrmauer.ch/downloads/,I7=#De.pdf +ate of access4 1: March. 21J.

+avenport" Thomas (. 0135. G?aving ITKs ?oul4 (uman %entered Information

ManagementG. Harvard Business Review E 054 11L1F1.

(elie" ?ebastien; ?un" on 02125. GIncubation" Insight" and %reative $roblem ?olving4 A

9nified Theory and a %onnectionist ModelG. Psychological Review 117 0F54 3L123.

http4//webcache.googleusercontent.com/search

-cache4http4//iveybusiness8ournal.com/publication/knowledge7management7as7a7sustained7

competitive7advantage. +ate of access4 1: March. 21J.

http4//www.chris7kimble.com/%ourses/,orldDMedDMBA/Types7of7Information7

?ystem.html. +ate of access4 1: March. 21J.

http4//www.businessdictionary.com/definition/business7system.htmlNi

kebby mbozi - business information has become a core business driver in today

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