Any company which values effectiveness and aims at developing an efficient infrastructure to facilitate its operations creates its information system. The term information system refers to a set of organizational procedures which generate vital data for supporting decisions made by management (Sahid et al., 2020). Every information system relies on four key components which ensure its proper functioning, these are information technology which involves computer hardware and software, tasks, human resources, and structure.
The first component of information systems, which is particularly important for it, is hardware and software. The former refers to all types of devices and equipment which are utilized by an organization to manage information, and the latter is the programs and solutions installed on the hardware. Software and hardware function together and ultimately have the capacity to process arrays of data to produce vital information (Sahid et al., 2020). The technology component must be considered to be particularly important because it constitutes the central element of information systems. If hardware or software start malfunctioning, the entire system can collapse.
The second component of information systems is the tasks which also can be called processes which organizations have to implement on a regular basis. In other words, tasks are pre-determined steps which must be executed manually by employees in order to complete certain activities necessary for generating information (Stair & Reynolds, 2017). It is important to consider tasks and processes because it is an element which controls the actions of employees. If certain procedures are poorly formulated, it will cause confusion among workers, and it will lead to a failure to deploy or maintain an information system.
The next key component is human resources, or simply people hired by an organization and interacting with an information system in their work. All people who participate in the activity related to the system, including superiors as well as ordinary workers, belong to the component in question (Sahid et al., 2020). When designing an information system, organizations should carefully consider all skills and biases of the people who will interact with it. Training is an essential part in the case of human resources management since an unprofessional staff team can negatively affect the system.
The structure is the final component of an information system which is interrelated with human resources since it refers to the relationship among people in the organization. The success of the adoption of any information system depends on the heretical layout of the company. Thus, to ensure that the system functions properly, the management must always design a structure which incentivizes employees to use the system.
Information systems play a major role in the success of companies, and all organizations must consider four main components when designing them. Namely, they have to build proper software and hardware infrastructure which are responsible for powering modern information systems. Additionally, they have to design clear tasks and procedures for executing activities related to the system. Finally, they must choose staff carefully and create a structure encouraging employees to utilize the system.
References
Sahid, A., Maleh, Y., & Belaissaoui, M. (2020). Strategic information system agility: From theory to practices. Emerald Group Publishing.
Stair, R., & Reynolds, G. (2017). Fundamentals of information systems. Cengage Learning.