Operating a successful business calls for effective management of financial and organisational data and statistics with quality information systems. Nearly every business has experienced a drastically slowed workflow due to data issues related to accuracy and reliability (Bocij, Greasley, and Hickie 2015, p. 42). This promoted the development of systems that can be used to make information easily accessible, readily available, and accurate. With an effective information system, a business can realise better results, enhanced planning, and improved decision-making. This study aims to discuss the significance of information systems in business including the main issues to consider when planning a database. Further, this paper describes Big Data benefits, challenges, and best practices.
A business information system refers to “a group of interrelated components that work collectively” to perform control actions, storage, output, processing, and input with the aim of converting data into a form that is comprehensible (Bocij, Greasley and Hickie 2015, p. 35). These transformed data can be used to support operational activities, decision making, communication systems and record-keeping in an organisation. Information systems (IS) can enhance operational activities by enabling workers to communicate efficiently. For example, managers can store and share useful information in folders that can be easily accessed by employees who need the information.
Operational activities within an organisation depend on the type of information available. IS can provide more recent and more complete information; hence, enabling managers to operate their organisations more efficiently. IS can also be used to differentiate a business through providing better customer service or to gain cost advantage over business rivals. Moreover, sales data can be used to offer insights into what consumers are purchasing and enable a business to produce or stock items that are selling accordingly.
In terms of decision-making, IS can help managers to make informed judgements by delivering relevant information. When the management is equipped with accurate and recent information, it can make a choice with confidence. If several choices seem appealing IS can run various scenarios; for every possible case, the application can compute essential indicators (e.g., profits, costs, and sales), to help determine which option provides the best outcome. Lastly, firms need records of its tasks for regulatory and financial purposes and also for finding the causes of issues affecting the business.
Main Issues to Consider When Planning a Database
Database planning is a complex, but necessary process. The strategy involves developing a functional database system that is capable of managing all of an organisation’s information in one place. When planning a database, there are several issues to consider during the process. These issues are assessment of the quality of data; user needs and business processes; and correlation to present information systems. Important factors to include are as follows: accuracy of data when new data is introduced; creating an effective data model; finding out the most important data and projecting the conceivable uses of the data; current business practices for data handling and input along with contract management. Also, establishing how end clients will utilise the data and synchronising the data definitions with other useful databases is equally essential (Bocij, Greasley, and Hickie (2008, p. 1150).
The first stage of the database planning process entails the need for feasibility of creating a new system. This involves preliminary judgments concerning the proposal’s economic and technological feasibility (Romney and Steinbert 2015, p. 503). It also includes identifying the needs of the user, defining the scope of the new database system, and utilising information about the anticipated number of transaction and user volumes to make preliminary judgments about software and hardware requirements. Romney and Steinbert (2015, p. 503) assert that when planning a database design, the specialist should consider the firm's plan for growth coupled with its current needs of digital storage. While it is crucial for the database system to support the business everyday activities, it is equally important to take into account how it will be able to support the business operations in the future. As such, management should work with a database designer to make sure that the goal of the application is completely understood.
Along with comprehending the business’ plan for growth, another issue to consider is the flexibility of the database. Bocij, Greasley, and Hickie (2008, p. 1149) note that as new technology is introduced, database systems should be able to implement upgrades easily. By investing in a reputable database consulting services, an organisation shall have taken care of database that can handle updates that are required urgently. Another critical factor to consider when planning a database is how frequent the database will be used. Based on an organisation’s needs, a database might only be used for altering a few entries daily while other systems might need constant modifications. This is an important issue to factor in since the more frequent the database is used, the greater the likelihood is of data becoming faulty or corrupted. If a firm's database is subjected to heavy use, the specialist should find a way of locating and fixing corrupted data.
Lastly, during planning, the management should consider the person tasked with the responsibility of maintaining the database. Common options include a third-party vendor, a person at the organisation’s hosting service, or an employee. Regardless of the chosen party, the enterprise should ensure that whoever is responsible is a professional and can assist the business with all the database needs.
Big Data Benefits and Best Practices
The evolving mobile digital landscape makes individuals increasingly interconnected, leading to enormous amount of data generated from mobile consumers (Krairojananan and Anuvareepong 2016, p. 210). Also, business organisations progressively focus on learning and comprehending data patterns as a strategic critical asset. Big data can be described as a large velocity, huge volume, and multiple forms of information resources which need cost-effective, ground-breaking technology for data processing (Krairojananan and Anuvareepong 2016, p. 210). The aim of big data is to offer insight for supporting better-decision-making. In the current economy, huge data can be used by companies to assist them attain business values of the large amounts of data present in their data banks to create strategic business goals.
Aloysius, Hoehle, and Venkatesh (2016, p. 480) carried out a study to investigate how organisations can leverage mobile applications to gather consumer data and offer efficient service to the prospects concurrently in the retail context. The study findings indicated that the use of big data by mobile applications such as mobile checkouts at retail stores can integrate product recommendations and promotion in real time. In another study conducted by IBM, mobile applications are increasingly infiltrating the business landscape hence becoming one of the leading drivers of electronic business (“IBM Case Study” n.d). As such, IBM aims to build current e-business applications that exploit big data to provide improved consumer relationship management and also enhanced scrutiny of customer preferences or needs.` Another company that benefits from big data is SkyDigital, an organisation that offers television programs internationally. Based on big data analytics tools, SkyDigital has established choice and quality values by using programming types or genres ( sport, news, documentaries, and movies), to make consumer choice relevant (“A Sky Case Study n.d).
Also, as business people implement emerging technologies for data collection purposes, the retailers also aim to integrate insights from big data to satisfy consumer demands. Krairojananan and Anuvareepong (2016, p. 210) believe that evolving technologies can fulfil the aforementioned functions as a means of business intelligence and data collection if consumers use and them. Canon, a multinational company known to provide revolutionary integrated and office solutions, as well as modern imaging systems and photography, acknowledge that effective information managing system is a necessary component of business success. Given that present-day business face challenges such as mass documentation, emails, and other paper works, technologies that control this huge information overload can enable businesses to achieve their goals. For instance, Canon has used its systems integration proficiencies and technology to assist in improving its business activities, helping the company to become more profitable, productive, and efficient.
Big Data Challenges
Many businesses currently possess vast amounts of archived data but they lack the systems that can process these data, therefore volume is a significant issue to the average information infrastructure. This is because information systems require scalability on storage of data as well as distributed data querying techniques. Additionally, Krairojananan and Anuvareepong (2016, p. 2010) project that by 2020, shifting towards the Internet of Things, billions of devices will be connected, leading to increased massive data for data analysis. In effect, business organisations will be faced with another challenge when it comes to choosing alternatives for the planning and design of big data infrastructure.
Data has a variety characteristic since it exists in various forms (structured, unstructured, and non-structured). A data analyst or scientist is faced with these varied options when processing the raw data to produce a meaningful form of information. Moreover, there is improbability of big data (such as data abnormality, noises, and biases). This presents a huge challenge for data scientists from eliminating “dirty data” that can accumulate in the system. Keeping data clean helps in processing useful information to creating strategic competitive advantages for businesses.
Conclusion
This study has discussed the significance of information systems in business. The implicit message is that as the contemporary society becomes increasingly information-driven, the maturity and capacity of a business to manage information quality can bring about either success or failure. Also, since the quality of information is becoming the competitive advantage for many organizations, big data can assist firms to attain business values, hence creating strategic business goals and objectives. The challenges highlighted in the study regarding big data can be controlled by best practices that entail integrating information n systems that can handle these enormous data effectively and efficiently.
References
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