Components of Information Systems - Get Credit Limited - Assignment Example

Heading: Components of Information Systems Your name Course name Professors’ name Date Introduction Get Credit Limited is a micro credit lending organisation dealing with micro and small enterprises in Australia. Its core business is lending to institutions and individuals who are appraised by credit officers and found that they are credit worth. The institution was founded in 2005 by a group of small and micro enterprises business people in Australia after facing challenges in accessing credits from mainstream banking institutions especially as regards security requirements. The company uses both manual and computer based information system but aspires to fully be computerised and be one of their few paperless offices in Australia. Get credit limited as an organisation has a whole range of components that jointly enables the lender to achieve its goals ranging from the input devices, output hardware, and software, networking hardware and communication devices. Type of Information Systems used An information system constitutes both human and machine interactions that process data into information in an organization. Get Credit Limited as an organization is an information systems. Below are the various information systems used by Get credit limited: Enterprise Resource Planning Enterprise resource planning system is an organisation wide system that supports all the functional departments of an organisation. Get credit Limited uses Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for the overall management of the organisation. Though the ERP has not yet been full implemented three modules are currently operational and further two modules are yet to be implemented due to financial constraints. The operational modules support functional area of accounting, credit management and front office management while the pending modules are; human resource and payroll. The ERP software used by Get credit is Microsoft dynamics Navision. This system has the transaction processing subsystem and the Management information system module (Ralph MS, George, R 2009, pp. 30). Transactional processing system Transaction processing systems (TPS) is an information system that captures data from initial recording (Heyden, MK , and Josehin, D. et al 2004, pp. 235). This system is usually at the operational level and is involved mainly with original data capture and processing. TPS mainly deals with routine business process and for the case of Get credit limited it includes; Loan repayment system This is a system that keeps tract of loan repayments by customers. Get credit implements Microsoft Dynamics Navision enterprise resource planning software for its loan tracking and administration process. This system actual records receipts from customers and separates it into interest and principal repayments and consequently produce a customer statement which will reflect the customers’ loan balance. Customer registration system This systems deal with registration of new customers who have expressed interest in getting a loan from Get credit limited. It will collect customer details; name, contacts, physical address, commercial activity and issue a customer with the customer identification number. Payroll system Monthly payroll preparation by the accounts department of Get credit limited is usually done by the support of a payroll program called payplus. It is independent software and has not been integrated to the Finance and credit management system. Management information system The management information system in Get credit limited is usually supported by Microsoft Dynamic Navision ERP. It has the capabilities of wholly supporting the accounting and credit management reporting hence providing information the management for decision making. Financial management sub module of MIS can produce accounting reports ranging income statement, balance sheet, ratio analysis reports to cash flow statement. All the reports can be real time hence this is one of the most developed management reporting system. Credit management also are not left out in the MIS. Credit management module is able to produce loans to customers schedule, aging customers schedule, loan penalties schedule and number of expression of interest schedule. These reports inform the credit manager on the loans performance and also the credit worthiness of a customer. Office automation system Office automation system is an organisation support system which facilitates the work of different professionals in Get Credit limited. These are software’s that help in word-processing, desktop publishing, email, Spreadsheets, report presentation and database management systems, Get credit usually implements Microsoft office suite as an office automation system. This suite has word processors, desktop publisher, spreadsheet, email, and database management system software. Microsoft office suite has Microsoft word, excel, publisher, outlook and power point. All this software’s support normal office work involving word processing, Simple analysis and tabulation, report presentation and design of pamphlets and procures and communication. Hardware Hardware constitutes all the physical components of an information system. Hardware components range from input devices, output devices, network devices to computer, communication equipments (Campbell, and Brian, V 2009, pp.91). Get credit limited several hardware devices used in date capture, processing, communication and reporting. Input hardware used by Get credit limited is mainly computer data capture devices; mouse, keyboard, digital camera and scanners. The selection or acquisition of computer input devices depends much on the kind of data being captured and nature of business activity. Get credit is a lender and most of the information captured at the front office is in the form of customer details hence pure retrieval from the database involves the use of the keyboard and the mouse unlike in retail business where Point of sales terminal has to capture the product cost using optical mark reader scanners. Computing devices are also very important as regards processing of information and it has to work hand in hand with the software’s. Get credit limited has a desktop computer for every employee of the company just to facilitate efficient and faster service delivery and operational efficiency. Three servers are also in place to support file processing, application management and mail administration. Output hardware is also very critical devices for information retrieval. Unless the processed data are displayed or retrieved, no meaningful decision making can go on. Get credit has the following output devices; TFT monitors for displaying of all computer processed information, Printers for printing of reports and other documents. Ear pieces and speakers are also available but not critically used. Networking devices are also part of the computer hardware. They facilitate interconnection of computers and other peripheral devices like printers and scanners in order to exchange data and information. Get credit limited has routers and switches as network devices. Storage hardware is not usually external devices but usually inside the computing device. Get Credit limited has extern hard disk mainly for information backup purposes and internal hard disk is also used within the computing system. Storage devices can be primary storage devices and secondary or auxiliary. These hardware devices are used for information storage which is a very important role of an information system. Software Information systems include procedures which are set of instruction usually used for information processing. Software is a set of instructions that tells the computer how to process data. Software is a very critical component in the information system since it enhances input, proceeding, output storage and control of activities. Get credit has several software’s that are used in their information system and they include operating system and application software Operation system is the main software that controls the operations of the computer. It manages the resources of the computer and this includes; input/ output devices management, memory management, files management and user interactions management. Get connected uses Microsoft server 2003 operating system in their servers but uses Microsoft XP professional in their desktops. Application software’s are varied in nature but all do facilitate the computer to meet the needs of the end users. They are instruction on how to perform certain tasks usually requested by the users. They can be off shelf or custom designed application software’s and Get credit limited uses both of them. Off shelf application software’s are those that have been designed to serve a wide range of users. They include office automation software’s earlier discussed and some common programs for payroll, accounting and human resource management systems. Custom or tailor made software software’s are actually designed to meet particular users’ needs and are usually unique. They are usually developed within an organization. Databases Databases are set of interrelated information. Get credit limited has database of loan customers, service and product suppliers. The database management system used is Sql server by Microsoft. Internal data communications Internal data communications is usually done via local area network and intranet. This is a connection of computers within the organization. All the flow of information is usually facilitated by network operating system. Most application programs do share information using intranets. Also access of files and internal emails are usually done in the intranet of Get credit limited. External data communications External data communications are usually done using internet connection via an internet service provider. Get credit limited has internet connection mainly for the exchange of emails and facilitating online banking transactions. Get connected has not engaged in e commerce facility but has in its future plans. Managerial considerations Get connected being a young institution has its information technology unit under the Finance and administration department with on one officer. The institution outsourcers’ its technical support from the vendor of their accounting and credit management system. Security considerations Information security is a very important there physical and logical security should be put in place. Physical security has been used in Get credit limited as regard access to the office room where all visitors do sign in and undergo security check. Also inside the Get credit Limited office, access to the server room has been limited only to the information technology officer and his authorized support engineers. Physical security inside the server room has also been enhanced by use of server cabinets that restrict access to the server unless one has the key to its lock. Logical security as regards information has been put in place through the operating system and also in various application programs via access controls (Lander, G 2004, pp.236). Access controls provides restrictions and access rights to different individuals for different processes and data. In Get credit access rights to all staff was limited to their area of work jurisdiction but the Information technology officer is the only one with full access to the system. Other staff members do have read only access rights hence cannot alter anything in the system. The Get credit limited has an antivirus system that prevents from virus attacks. The system also cleans the infected files incase of attack. The antivirus used is Kaspersky and has a network monitoring modules that scans all incoming downloads from the internet. The company has forbidden use of any foreign disks in its premises. The company has no written down security policy but in the finance and accounting manual organization information security has recognized as critical, and it has been stated that it is the duty of the finance and administration manager via the Information technology officer to enhance security of organization data and information. Also noted with Get credit limited is the fact that they do have business continuity and back up manual which has given the IT officer the responsibility of ensuring that daily back ups are taken in all organization servers and kept in an external fire proof storage location. This business continuity document also indicates the steps to be taken incase a files server goes down. Ethical considerations An information system is a social-technical system consequently ethical considerations do come in. Electronic communication technologies have entered into all spheres of human lives hence it is necessary that it does infringe on ethical domains. Ethics are accepted standards of interactions in a community. Moral standards are also part of ethics and therefore it is important for information systems to conform to ethics in the society. Ethical considerations when it comes to information systems includes, right to privacy, data access and information and users monitoring Privacy and information systems have had rivalry due to the fact that information systems have a lot of private individuals’ information to almost every online user in the world. Electronic surveillance by use of closed circuit television in almost every office is a threat to privacy. The premises of Get credit Limited are under the CCTV surveillance and this is because of the nature of transaction it is involved in. Though no employee has complained the pictures taken at various hours of the day are an affront to their privacy. Get credit limited is a morally upright institution as regards respect to the owners of property rights in the software’s. Get credit limited has in its procurement manual a policy of not purchasing any counterfeit or pirated products. Conclusion Get credit Limited is a growing financial services company and it is in the right step as regards the acquisition and development of its information system since it has acquired an enterprise resource planning software. With proper planning Get credit limited will achieved it goal of full automation. The organisation will achieve these since has recognised that the use of computer based information system is one are where competitive advantage can be achieved through. Read More