Essentials of Business Information Systems - Research Paper Example

Abstract Business informatics is also referred as organizational informatics. This is a discipline which combines management, informatics, and organizational management principles. This discipline integrates the chief elements from disciplines such as information systems, business administration, and computer science in one field. There are many emerging issues in the field of business informatics due to, technological development, management challenges, changes in tastes and preferences among other global issues. Some of the emerging issues include knowledge discovery and engineering, information quality management, information assessment and quality metrics, business informatics curriculum development among others. Business Informatics involves construction and implementation of oriented elements. One main focus is the expansion of solutions for business related problems relatively than the investigation of the impact. Information Systems robustly focuses on the empirical explanation of real world phenomena. Frequently, information systems has been understood to have an explanation-oriented focal point in contrast to solution oriented focus which dominates business informatics. Information system researchers formulate efforts which explain phenomena of influence and acceptance information technology in the society and the organizations applying the empirical approaches. So as to achieve this, there are quantitative and qualitative analysis that should be carried out and evaluated. In relation to this, business informatics researchers primarily focus the creation of information technology solutions to solve the prevailing challenges which are observed in the business (Grabis 81). The aim of business informatics is to come up with scientific methods that will help solve business management problem. This involves developing scientific approaches that will help in planning, staffing, organizing, leading, and controlling t an organization for the purpose of achieving the organizational goals. Business informatics involves management resourcing that entails manipulation of financial resources, human resources, natural resources, and technological resources. Informatics as a discipline involves the study of information, complex systems, and computation using electrical engineering, soft wares engineering and applied mathematics. The aggregate effects business informatics is a better performance in an organization by producing superior products and services. Management systems are developed to serve the controlling, monitoring, decision making and administrative activities of managers. Some management systems developed support the non routine decision making, focusing on less structured decisions where the information requirement is not clear. This will require information which is not within organization or from normal operation. Introduction There are many emerging issues in the field of business informatics due to, technological development, management challenges, changes in tastes and preferences among other global issues. Some of the emerging issues knowledge discovery and engineering, information quality management, information assessment and quality metrics, business informatics curriculum development among others. Many of these issues are incredibly critical while others will have an irrelevant effect. Business informatics involves management resourcing that entails manipulation of financial resources, human resources, natural resources, and technological resources. Although organizational informatics covers a wide area of practice, there are some key areas that are taken into account. One of the chief issues in the field of organization informatics is a revision of the current curriculum. This will positive and negative effects that are exceptionally significant. A revision of the curriculum will provide adequate information to the students as well as the lecturers. This will help solve some of the challenges that are dominant in most organizations. Although the information in the curriculum is extremely does not capture the recent developments in the business field. Being an integrative field, the curriculum should be revised to meet the requirements of the entire field. Most significantly the information technology is dynamically changing, and this should be reflected in all the organizations. Majority of the organizations are adopting the new technologies, and if this is not captured in business informatics there will be a lot of challenges to the specialist in the field. On the contrary, the opponent of curriculum revision feel that the information in the curriculum is sufficient to cater for any emerging issue in the field, since most of the issues are modifications of current issues. Furthermore, revision of the curriculum will reduce the chance of innovation since the researchers will have a lot of information to necessitate research. They argue that most of the management issues should be handled by the management employees but not the informatics specialists. They should be coordination between the experts from the entire fields in order to manage all the emerging issues. Despite all the criticisms, it will be especially advantageous if the curriculum is revised to accommodate all the emerged developments in the entire fields. Another paramount issue is performance measurements and indicator systems. The issue of performance measurement has encountered increased interest in both managerial and academic ambits. This is mainly due to the lengthening spectrum of performances requisite by the existing competitive environment and new production archetype referred to as world class manufacturing or Lean Production. Despite the importance of performance dimension in management operations, few large scales studies apprehension models, indicators and characteristics of Performance Measurement Systems (PMSs). The results of a research conducted in large and medium manufacturing firms in Italy, indicated that majority of performance measurement systems are of the frustum model. According to the traditional cost performance, are separated from the innovative non-cost measure. Furthermore, there is the necessity to verify and support performance measurement programs such as management of total quality, Just-in-Time, and Concurrent Engineering, to guarantee that the system produces. This will be realized if there is integration and formalization of all the organizations systems. These programs are more vital due to their capability to do several activities at the same time. For instance, they can increase the quality of a product as well as lowering lead times and the cost of production. The opponents of this have claimed that it is extremely expensive to install and maintain the systems. They have also argued there will be that there will be production of low quality products. Not-with standing the challenges it is exceedingly clear that there will be a excellent performance if the performance measurement and indicator system are developed. Information quality assessment is another essential matter in business informatics. This is a management discipline which deals with thee efficiency, integrity, confidentiality, availability, effectiveness and reliability. This enables an organization to have the risk of applying programs to protect sensitive information. According to some critics, they argue that separation of software engineering, information security and infrastructure management may lead to a lot of difficulties and failures. This occurs when communication between these two sectors is not complete. Although the understanding of information quality management is increasing, most of the organizations are not able to implement the management standards. This is because it expensive or they do not have the proper experts. It is also time consuming due to in-service support and procurement. On the other hand, effective information quality management is incredibly sufficient to achieve successful knowledge management and information management. This ensures that the data or raw materials that an organization utilizes for knowledge and information are complete and accurate. Information management ensures that the organization’s staff, creditors, debtors, and all the parties to the organization have access to information at all times. The organization systems help in ensuring that all communication avenues in the institution are functioning at all times. Information quality management is exceedingly chief since it helps in checking data practices so as to avoid embedded meaning especially in codified data (Laudon 88). The application of information management has led to automation of many organizations by use of electronic medium of communication. By adoptions of information quality management, many organizations will increase their efficiency and achieve their objectives. On a negative note, automation of many organizations led to access of organization information by many parties. This has exposed organizations to its competitors. The leading organization strengths have been copied by competitors, and this has led to loss of market share. Some organization negative information such as poor performance can ruin the reputation of the organization. This can lead to loss of market share (Helfert 49). Another chief issue in organization informatics is the cost benefit analysis. This is the chronological process used to calculate and compare costs and benefits of a project. This is mostly applied in justifying an investment decision. It involves comparing the total cost against the total benefit to determine if benefits are greater than the costs. One main advantage is that it can be used to estimate potential profit or loss of an investment. If it predicts profit, the investment will be implemented, and if it’s a loss, it will be withheld. Critics of the analysis argue that it is extremely difficult to determine the result of an investment unless the investment is done. They argue this way because the rate of investment can not be constant due to the change in the economy. They further argue that it is difficult to ascertain consumer taste and preferences. However, since cost-benefit analysis uses the prevailing economic statistics, it helps avoid investing in unprofitable investments thus reducing potential losses. Cost benefit analysis is only applicable theoretically but it is not sufficient in the practical investment (Laudon 69). Knowledge engineering and discovery is a foremost field in informatics. It describes the process of searching data patterns which can be considered as knowledge. It is usually categorized by the nature of the data and the form of result. Engineering of the knowledge discovered creates abstractions of input data. The knowledge developed through his process become additional data that is applied for further discovery and usage. Knowledge engineering is also applied in software modernization which engrosses understanding soft wares’ artifacts. This has enormous business advantages for discovery of new soft wares. This will help come up with soft wares that will help meet the demands of changing consumer tastes and preferences. Technology is developing exceedingly fast and most organizations have to meet the requirement of their partners. There should be regular re-engineering and discovery in the organizations to meet the expectations of all the parties. On the contrary, it is time consuming and extremely expensive to discover or develop software to meet all the organizational demands. The experts have to gather round a lot of information to make a slim development that is not cost effective (Helfert 47) Another imperative issue is process simulation model. This is a representation of model based software of physical, chemical, biological, technical processes, and unit operations. The basic requirements are a comprehensive knowledge of physical and chemical properties of components, reactions, mixtures and mathematical models that will enable calculation of computer processes. Soft wares of process simulation present the processes in flow diagrams where operations are connected and positioned by educts or product streams. The soft wares have to unravel energy and mass balance to novelty a constant operating balance. The main advantage in this process is to get the optimal conditions for empirical process (Kudyba 08). This will reduce wastage of raw materials and maintain high quality production. On the contrary, it is exceedingly expensive and dreadfully difficult to improve the quality of products. The soft wares are designed to deal with specific limits and are dreadfully rigid to accommodate changes. When soft wares halts the process cannot continue. Process simulations use a lot of assumptions and approximations and allow wide range of pressure and temperatures which mostly is not covered by the real data. The advantage of the process is that it allows extrapolation within some limits to accommodate search for conditions freestanding the range of the well-known properties. A more recent issue in business informatics is information quality assessment and metrics. In most organizations, the metrics which back up performance indicators are relatively straightforward. Each of the metrics is represented by specific visual cues that provide warning signs when performance indicators reach critical level. The main problem is that the analogy breaks down if there is disconnect between what is measurable and what the measurement implies. It is not clear how the values affect the business, but if stringent measures are not put into consideration, massive losses may be incurred (Grabis 54). Conclusion Business Informatics involves construction and implementation of oriented elements. One main focus is the expansion of solutions for business related problems relatively than the investigation of the impact. The aim of business informatics is to come up with scientific methods that will help solve business management problem. This involves developing scientific approaches that will help in planning, staffing, organizing, leading, and controlling the organization for the purpose of achieving the organizational goals. There are many emerging issues in the field of business informatics due to, technological development, management challenges, changes in tastes and preferences among other global issues. Some of the emerging issues knowledge discovery and engineering, information quality management, information assessment and quality metrics, business informatics curriculum development among others. In a nutshell, business informatics is a fundamental field in all the formal organizations. There are many emerging issues in business informatics and this should be taken into consideration. Works Cited Grabis, Janis. Perspectives in business informatics research: proceedings. Berlin: Springer, 2011. Print. Helfert, Markus. Cases and projects in business informatics: international business informatics challenge 2006. Berlin: Logos-Verl., 2007. Print. Kudyba, Stephan. Healthcare informatics: improving efficiency and productivity. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2010. Print. Laudon, Kenneth and Jane, Price Laudon. Management information systems: managing the digital firm. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002. Print. Laudon, Kenneth and Jane, Price Laudon. Essentials of business information systems. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. Print. Read More