Information Systems Solution

Information Systems Solution

• Transaction Processing System (TPS)
• Cloud Computing
• Database Management Systems (DBMS)
• Electronic Records Management (ERM)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Information Systems help promote day-to-day activities within a corporation in terms of structure and organization. The integrated company is expected to yield higher returns due to the production economies of scale. Such system also assists the organization in flowing data efficiently across the globe. The enterprise goes nowhere without the information and information systems.

Transaction Processing System (TPS)

A transaction process system (TPS) is an information management system for organizational transactions involving the collection, modification and retrieval of all transaction data (What is a Transaction Process System (TPS)). The properties of a TPS are performance, reliability and consistency. There is no pause in transaction processing and the results of each transaction are available immediately, while a batch processing system here is a pause because the multiple requests are being processed and the results of each transaction are not available immediately. A TPS provides the company's performance, integrity, reliability and consistency that is crucial for large-scale businesses because it plays a very important role when accessed simultaneously by multiple users. The TPS increases the company's productivity, and increases the overall business operations efficiency. Therefore, it manages the company transactions and manipulates the data while preserving data integrity. It can also support large-scale aviation companies by producing reports that aid in decision-making as it offers comprehensive reporting, summaries and exception reports. A TPS gives business to ease of sales as it allows the benefit of implementing a transaction anywhere in the world. And from the financial side of a business, because TPS allows several transactions at once it benefits from increasing their revenues and from the financial point of view being competitive. In addition, this enables the company to make the sales process less difficult for consumers, and also provides consumers with an online alternative. This is possible because users of TPS can range from one at a time, to groups or at the same time to thousands of users (Pribanic, 2018). All in all, this helps the company to attract and win customers from all over the world. Transaction Processing System deals with the procurement and distribution of the real goods and services.

Frameworks for that program are already being developed. Its functions include cash transfers, invoice management, and payment flow. It is used by the workers at every industry's operational level. For example, point of sale reduces the expense of interacting with cluster by moving over the information to a system that can be easily conveyed via a mechanism for correspondence. SABRE was the first TPS for the American airlines produced by IBM in 1970. It worked on two IBM 7090 computers and was equipped to process 83,000 transactions per day (Pribanic 2018). The TPS maintains a secure database, which reduces the risk of user information loss in terminal or network malfunction incidence. This can also quickly recover from operating system failure and also manage system failures depending on the point when the system failure occurred in which the transaction was taking place. As stated earlier, it's flexible because it facilitates real-time use of the online payment system and increases more payment methods. As much as this system has benefits, there are many drawbacks. A TPS must be built specifically to meet the needs of the organization, so setting up and installation can be costly. The cost factor will also increase as the company would have to invest because it needs the use of qualified staff to manage a TPS. Because of the cybersecurity threats in the modern world, intrusion by third parties can occur in real time due to its online existence. Firewalls need to be continually updated or it will lead to customer loss as a result of not being safe. Many TPSs' customer focused nature provides certain companies with the ability to gain a competitive edge by offering specific systems. Some of the types of information systems that can be used for strategic purposes based on these capabilities include: management monitoring systems that keep track of the progress of a project or product under production. TPS that track materials or vehicles geographical location. TPS that track and monitor electronic financial inventory status and human resource assets (Missouri – St. Louis University, n.d). It is clear that the advantages of a transaction processing program outweigh the disadvantages, thereby improving an organization's efficiency.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the on-demand distribution of IT services with pay-as-you-go pricing over the Internet. Cloud computing allows organizations to use a computing tool as a commodity, such as a virtual machine, storage space or application, rather than constructing and maintaining in-house computing infrastructure (What is Cloud Computing, n.d.). Cloud storage enables customers and companies with specific storage capacities to store and process data in different ways, such as private cloud, where cloud computing services are used solely by a particular enterprise or entity and can be physically stored in the on-site data center of the client. Secondly, whether public or on a private party server located in a data center run by third party providers. Thirdly, hybrid clouding, which is the combination of on-site, private, and second-party public infrastructure across various networks, and exchanging data and applications between them (Raza, 2018). There are basically four cloud computing types. Service Infrastructure (IaaS), Service Platform (PaaS), Service Applications (SaaS), Service Network (Naas).

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): It is the most common cloud-service model that offers virtual resources, such as servers and data storage space for users. Under this mode, virtualization plays a major role, enabling IaaS-cloud providers to supply on-demand services and remove them from their vast pools located under data centers (Saratchandran, 2018). Platform as a Service (PaaS): Cloud providers provide services in this model to the user development community where the user can create and run in-house built applications. The resources may include an operating system, an execution environment for the programming language, databases, and web servers (Saratchandran, 2018). Software as a Service (SaaS): In this model, the platform provides the customer with access to already platform-running developer applications. Cloud clients gain access, because cloud users need not control the network in which the program resides, thus removing the need to install because run the program on their own computers. Network as a Service (Naas): The least popular model where network access services, such as VPN and on-demand bandwidth are offered to the customer (Saratchandran, 2018).

Cloud computing offers many benefits for companies. Cost savings is the greatest benefit of cloud computing, because you don't need your own equipment because everything is hosted on the servers of your provider, and the company doesn't have to worry about resources, security and ongoing maintenance costs (Victories, 2018). This ensures that you can make savings on infrastructure prices, and you can also dispense with the costs of operating your own data center. To order to stay competitive, cloud service providers need to upgrade their services constantly to satisfy their customers' demands. Consequently, cloud computing offers high-performance servers with technologies such as powerful CPUs and super-fast SSD drives (Victories, 2018). With cloud computing, malware, intrusion and internal data theft will protect the organization. Cloud providers are expected to comply with a number of strict safety regulations to protect data from their customers. It involves the use of advanced firewall technologies incorporating mechanisms for intrusion prevention and in-flow protection against viruses (Victories, 2018). This would result in a restructuring of the company's IT department and the recruiting of some employees with excellent expertise in "Cloud and Distributed Computing." According to Cloud Foundry's survey, 64% of respondents acknowledged that there will be a shortage of developers in the future and 57% of respondents admitted that they found it difficult to hire staff because of the lack of expertise they possess for the requisite task in hand (Cloud Foundry, 2016). For this reason, we will have to find solutions to this issue at hand and determine if outsourcing or training developers to our necessary systems and solutions will prove to be more suitable and profitable.  This system will have to be accepted at a higher level by management and determine whether to invest in the recruitment of new workers or the training of workers already within the company who would have acquired a great deal of expertise from spending years in the sector.

There are a several disadvantages to cloud computing too. Running all or some of your business applications in the cloud is great, as long as you can maintain a consistent internet connection. If any one of your cloud-based service providers loses connectivity, or if your ISP experiences an outage, you're out of business until that Internet connection returns (Larkin, 2019). Even the best servers go down occasionally, so if you decide to use this method, it's important to implement a backup plan. It boils down to whom do you trust your data on the business? Not every company should be bringing their data into the cloud. Companies that have highly sensitive data or have to comply with strict enforcement regulations may well need their own IT department to keep data secure. When you store data in the cloud, you trust a third party to safeguard it.

A Forbes survey revealed that 64% of the respondent’s report that cloud-based collaboration tools assisted their teams to execute tasks better and faster (Avendaño, 2018). With businesses operating globally, the need for efficient collaboration is extremely important. Cloud offers an assortment of tools that enable easy working. According to another survey, 79% of the people using cloud computing reported to have saved money, increased productivity and earned improved security from the implementation cloud in their companies (Avendaño, 2018). Cloud computing delivery time is practically zero and applications that are vital to growth and performance can be online almost immediately, giving you a strategic competitive advantage over rivals who have not yet embraced cloud technology (Victories, 2018). Moreover, the above-mentioned scalability means that smaller firms, which would usually be at a disadvantage to larger companies with greater in-house capability, are now on a level playing field without the need to invest heavily in their own data centers.

Database Management Systems (DBMS)

A Database Management System is a software package designed to define, manipulate, retrieve, and manage data in a database. A DBMS generally manipulates the data itself, data format, field names, structure of records and structure of the files. It also sets out guidelines for validating and controlling these data ("Database Management System," 2019). Companies like Amazon offer goods and services rapidly with smooth user interface as can be seen. In fact, Amazon wants service providers to provide automatic access to all the data they received earlier and not to constantly ask the same questions. However, this is more than a superior user experience; when businesses get it right, they can also offer more competitive prices due to lower costs, better operational controls, and less risk (Markovitch & Willmott, 2014). Companies are constantly using updated data to empower their company in a strategic way. Many of the tasks carried out after data collection include preparing accounting records, estimating revenue figures and making invoices. This data and its observations are made accessible via computerized database to the management and the organization's employees. One of the most important things a Database Management System can offer is the role of having a centralized view of the data that can be accessed from various locations across the globe by many other employees. This function is very relevant for globally operating companies that would allow them to run their worldwide operations efficiently. Another important aspect is security, every organization has confidential data and this data must be protected at all costs, because if it is compromised, it can have negative consequences on the growth and scope of the business. These confidential data must be kept away from intrusion and physical loss; thus, only such systems must only be introduced by organizations who are willing to resolve the company's security issues in a proactive way. The DBMS provides a better framework for data privacy and security enforcement policies. More effective management means greater transparency and reduced risk of infringement of regulations (Lehr, 2018).

The relational data model enables us to map all relevant data from each entity, creating a proper abstraction of the situation and discarding any irrelevant data. For example, it is important to store the gender of customers and associates in an insurance company that they have insurance records system, to cover maternity policy and others. It would mean that a relationship between these two tables could be created and would be extremely beneficial to the hierarchy as it provides data integrity and flexibility (Soltesz, n.d.). Furthermore, it is equally important to secure a relational database because to communicate with a vast amount of data, we need a system where we can store, manage, exchange information all over the world, so DBMS is useful. A DBMS relieves users of data maintenance framing services. Fourth generation query languages, such as SQL, are used to communicate with a database alongside the DBMS package. This allows the data to be arranged continuously in a clear schematic matter which will also result in much faster query searches that are instrumental in the digital age of today. This will bring a great deal of benefit as it clearly reduces the amount of processing time spent and this would lead to greater efficiency and productivity by the staff as not a great deal of time is spent by searching for data in these vastly large databases.

While there are many advantages the DBMS can also have some slight disadvantages. Hardware and software costs would be high because to run the DBMS program a processor with high data processing speed and large-size memory is required. This means that the hardware used for the file-based device will be modified. Additionally, enforcement costs of training, licensing, and legislation are still unheeded while using database systems (Hamzavi Solutions, 2017). According to the vendors, DBMS systems are becoming effective every day, but the changes some time include a change to the underlying hardware. This cost a lot of money to the organizations and the improvements needed to train the staff, designers and also raise the costs (Hamzavi Solutions, 2017). Also, DBMS is designed to make the management of databases simpler, but when it comes to smaller organizations, the slower speed of DBMS becomes a visible problem and other applications can slow down due to data unavailability.

Electronic Records Management (ERM)

Electronic Records Management (ERM) is the management of electronic records and documentation as information. Focus is the key difference between both ERM and traditional management. As part of an automated business phase ERM collects information. By doing do, you retain the original digital documents and not paper copies, which pile up on physical spaces. This helps you to build efficiencies by enhancing the efficiency of your business processes, ensuring accurate auditing and consistent execution of your record schedules (Garland, 2019). As most organizations are turning into digital businesses, documents can be maintained electronically so that you can automatically capture document metadata which can be used by your ERM to classify documents, categorize them and promote their recovery (Garland, 2019). Furthermore, removing duplicate copies allows it a simpler job and managers of records may put tighter controls on files.

ERM systems have been around since the late 1990s, and as electronic documents grew, file plans, automated record disposal, and integration with archiving tools became common features of document management solutions. Modern ERM systems also need to be able to handle and ingest records automatically, because these systems already recognize that files may not be generated in the same exact place. Such documents will finally be made accessible regardless of their business background. So, searching for a specific document or group of files is significantly faster using a digital management system. Before you introduce this program in an organization, it is necessary to know 4 main factors. First, it is important to develop a robust information governance plan that helps workers to function as effectively and efficiently as possible and specifies which user groups have access to certain record types as protection is of utmost importance when managing sensitive data. Secondly, it is essential to assess accredited ERM's in particular by the Department of Defense (DoD) 5015.2, as this standard specifies standards for the management of sensitive documents and provides provisions to support the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Privacy Act and Interoperability (Laserfiche, 2020). Third, ensuring that the electronic document can be legally presented as the official record is important, as it is often important that the ERM software is compatible with a wide range of hardware components, such as optical storage, tape storage, and so on. Therefore, a trusted system must use both hardware and media storage methodologies to prevent unauthorized addition, modification or deletion of stored information, and must be verifiable through independent audit processes to ensure that there is no plausible way to modify, alter or delete electronically stored information (Laserfiche, 2020). And write at least one copy of the electronic document or record in electronic media that does not require unauthorized additions, deletions or revisions to the original document to be stored and preserved in a protected and separate location. Finally, the ERM program will monitor any action taken on and document during its life cycle, including what information was added and removed, to create a full record of organization-wide operation. Not only should such reports monitor each event, but also when and by whom it was carried out and this process can also be automated and reports can be submitted to the correct staff on a schedule (Laserfiche, 2020).

As can be seen, such records were physically stored in paper format in the past, but management of electronic records has taken over today, however there may be some disadvantages to using ERM. Bugs in software and malfunction of equipment may cause significant disruptions to the functioning of a paperless office. This will require extra costs for employing a repair technician to routinely service the hardware (Blank, 2017). When a company goes paperless, bits of data need to be scanned and inserted into the database for digital storage. The hardware and software required for this exercise has cost considerable money. Hardware may therefore need a change in as little as 18 months, while software changes every 2-3 years (S, 2017). The security issue may arise with the increased data sharing that an electronic record management system allows. Additionally, record management may become a problem when the system is clogged with unwanted documents, such as copies (S, 2017).

Electronic records management is vitally relevant in today's day and age and is another game-changing program to introduce. This information system is not commonly applicable to all sectors. But it can gain an edge over its competitors for those who have implemented it, by gaining better efficiency and profitability within the company. In addition, ERM will bring about increases in staff efficiency as this will help to separate a company from its rival competitors.

Conclusion

• Provide information about routine operations (TPS).
• Batch or real time processing available.
• Reduction in processing time leading to increased productivity in the company.
• More manpower is needed to oversee therefore higher costs which can reduce profitability.
• Cloud hosting provides many benefits, such as cost effective and highly reliable with high performance and security.
• Businesses can truly more out data by analyzing and executing on real time investments on cloud marketing.
• Data consistency and security in DBMS
• Competitive advantage when retrieving data, however, can cost up a lot.
• ERM is paperless with the implementation of digital
• It is very quick and efficient and search for digital files and entering data compared to paper
• System can be clogged and can causing security issues too.

References

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