Functions of Information Systems

Functions of Information Systems
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Information Systems forms the central nervous system for all the organizations. This is because it’s from here that all the operations, activities and programs of the organization are run. Information systems is a combination of hardware, software and telecommunication networking that is utilized to collect, analyze and store data for various institutions or organizations (Avison & Fitzgerald, 2003).
1. Data capture and communication
Information collected by various stakeholders in an organization is availed to others immediately and it’s put in the system. When research is carried out the findings are also stored in the systems to help in decision making and determining the future development plan for the organization. The information systems also help the managers in passing information across different units of an organization. Employees from various points can access the information from a common database, therefore, aiding communication within the organization.
2. Data storage and retrieval
Information systems are used as vehicles that carry data and information from the database. The retrieved information is filtered in a way that the interested parties can consume the data. For example, the managers of an organization can retrieve the performance progress of employees. Data stored in the archives also utilizes the information systems knowledge, the data is a combination of research reports, factual statistics and many more this data can later be retrieved and used in designing new products or improving the already existing products (Walsham, 1993).

3. Data manipulation and reporting
Information systems and the people working in those departments should utilize the abilities of the systems to perform their roles. Data manipulation feature helps in transforming data, classifying the data to enable the stakeholders to do the statistics. Various features of the information systems also help in deriving and filtering the required information at a given time. This helps the relevant bodies save time instead of going through all the database which could be tiresome, making it impossible to trace some information (Walsham, 1993).

References
Avison, D., & Fitzgerald, G. (2003). Information systems development: methodologies, techniques, and tools. McGraw Hill.
Walsham, G. (1993). Interpreting information systems in organizations. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.