Introduction
An information system (IT) can be defined as an organized system that is utilized for the collection, communication, storage, and organization of information. It can also be defined as a hardware software combination as well as with business process, data and functions which can be utilized to increase and or improve management and efficiency of an organization (Kelly and Casey, 2009). The specific information system tends to support the operations, management and decision making. Many business organizations including the College of Banking and Financial Studies therefore utilizes various information systems to support their organizations management, operations, data collection, etc.
Many successful business organizations and institutions, whether large or small, normally leverage the available technologies so as to manage their business functions and activities and help in making decisions that are enhanced at ensuring better performance and protection of crucial and important data. They further utilize the information systems in collection of data and processing it in accordance with the needs of the business, or the management. In this case, the business organizations operate more efficiently using and or utilizing the various information systems available to interact with their partners and customers. They will thus costs curtail costs and start generating revenues.
College of Banking and Financial Studies is one of the institutions that utilizes the various information studies in their various departments so as improve their functions and ease execution and management within the organization. This is fostered by the college’s information technology whose role is to ensure proper functioning and implementation of all the IT systems needed by the company. This assignment, therefore, evaluates and assesses the information technology systems utilized by this institution in different functions, their role and or purpose in support of the institution’s objectives. This can be illustrated as follows:
Current Information Systems at CBFS
- Management Information System
This is an information system and or a computer-based system that enhances provision of tools to managers in an organization for organizing, evaluating and for managing various departments within an organization. For it to provide the past, present and or the prediction of information, this system incorporates software that assists in making of decisions, data resources i.e. databases, the hardware resources, people management, project management applications and or any other computerized and or technological process that enhances smooth running of the departments within the organization (Bourgeois, 2014). The organizational requirement for this IT system within an organization is well developed IT infrastructure that will enhance successful implementation of the system. The College of Banking and Financial Studies through its Information technology department has developed an information technology infrastructure that has enhanced proper implementation and adoption of the management information technology utilized by the company.
The heads of department within this college relies on this management Information system obtain the past and current data on the operational performance, for instance, performance of students. The management information system generates various reports on periodic basis which management of the college can utilize in their tactical or strategic and operational planning. This in helps the management in making periodic and timely reports that are essential to the company thus facilitating better performance which is line with the organization’s mission thus enhancing attainment of objectives.
- Transaction processing system
This refers to an information system that involves collection, modification, storage and retrieval of information of all the transactions made by an organization. For this system to be implemented successfully, an organization should have a well-developed software architecture that will ensure that the system specifications required by the organization are met. The College of banking and Financial studies, therefore, through its IT department, has an effective software architecture that describes the components of the system and how they interact with each other.
This system is utilized in the college in the processing of transactions that occur on daily basis to the company, for instance, creation of purchase orders and also paychecks at the accounting and finance department. The transaction processing system requires user interactions with it in real time so as to command and or direct the system to collect retrieve modify and also store the data. This system has certain features such as they are reliable, standardized and controlled access (Julie, 2018).
- Decision Support System
This is an information system that aids in the support of the organization in making its key decisions. It analyzes the general information of the organization and presents it to the users such as the departmental heads, managers, etc. so that they can make decisions very easily. In the case of this college, the kinds of information that can be collected and presented by this system include:
- Comparative results and performance of students between one semester and another
- Projected revenue figures of the organization based on the new student enrollment assumptions
The organization’s requirement for this system is the user interface, the knowledge base and the its model. All these requirements ensure proper functioning and implementation of the decision support. As an institution that utilizes this system, the college of banking and Financial studies has an effective user interface that provides or enhances proper interactions with the users, and the knowledge base with the necessary and adequate information utilized in the making of decisions by the management of the company.
This system can thus present the data and or the information in form of graphs incorporating other systems such as the expert systems and or the artificial intelligence. It greatly helps many user s, that is, the decision makers in compiling useful data, from a combination of documents, business models, and personal knowledge from the executives, management, employees, etc. to identify and also solve the problems facing the organization and thus make prudent decisions that are helpful to the organization. The analysis therefore obtained from the decision support system assists various institution and business organizations in identifying and solving the problems.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system
The CRM system is also another IT system that is utilized by this College in its operations and activities. The implementation and adoption of this system requires the marketing automation tools, sales force tools automation tools, contact center automation, etc. To enhance effective and successful implementation of this system, this college has incorporated the sales force, marketing automation and the contact center automation tools that enhance effective functioning of their CRM systems.
The management of the College of Banking and Financial Studies utilizes this system so as to synchronize various activities in the institution, for instance, admissions and marketing of the institution’s courses. In this case, the customers of the college are its students. The systems collects, accumulates and track the student activities such as the class attendance trends, student inquiries and complaints (Julie, 2018). The capability of the customer relationship management system permits the college students to interact with the college for service feedback and also resolutions of problems encountered as a student. The institution can further utilize this system internally as their component for collaboration strategies so as to ensure better performance of the institution. As a result, the customer relation management system thus permits the partners of the institution to interact with each other effectively as they develop ideas and methodologies that are essential in enhancing proper provision of academic services within the institution.
- Business Intelligence Systems
This system tend to be complex within the organization as they enhance identification, extraction analysis of data for various operational needs for the company, particularly for purposes of making decisions. This information also provides analyses that facilitates prediction of the future admission patterns for students, summarizes the current costs incurred by the institution, and forecast patterns in student admission, program expansion, etc. These systems further collects data from various sources within the institution or the data warehouse of the college and provides the college management with the proper analyses as per each department, lines of business and or any breakdown desired by the management.
This system requires various tools such as the data visualization tools, analytic tools, integration of the organization systems, etc. all these requirements are met by the College of Banking and Financial Studies thus facilitating its effective adoption and or implementation.
Roles of the above IT systems in Support of the College of Banking and Financial Studies Objectives
Roles of Management Information System
The management information system helps in decision making within the college. This system plays a significant role in this institution in the decision making process. This is due to the fact that decisions made in this institution are made on the basis of the relevant and available information which can only be retrieved and or obtained from the management information system. This makes it easier for the management of the college in making decisions that are aimed at improving performance and facilitating effective change (Management Study Online, 2018). Effective decision making enables the company to attain its short term and long term goals.
It helps in coordination of the various departments of the college. The College of Banking and Financial Studies has various departments such as the Human resources, accounting and finance, information technology, etc. that execute different functions within the institution. These departments need to work hand in hand with each other so that the mission and goals of the college can be realized. The management information system in this case helps in the establishment and or creation of a sound relationship between these departments through proper exchange of information that is helpful to the organization as whole. This helps in creation of the good working relationship among departments hence success.
It also helps in provision of solutions to the institution’s problems. This is due the fact the organization’s management system provides essential and the relevant information on each and every aspect of the institution’s activities. Therefore, if any case a mistake is made by the college’s management, the management information system thus helps in finding out solutions to these problems since they contain all the information within the company. This facilitates better romance which is essential in enhancing attainment of the college’s objectives.
Moreover, this system enhances comparison of the institution’s performance. This is because the management information system contains the past information and data of the institution in its database. This is thus the reason as to why this system is essential in the comparison of the company’s performance. This college can therefore analyze its performance with the help of the management system and hence be able to compare its performance with the past years to determine its growth and development.
Roles of the Business Intelligence System
One of the purposes of the business intelligence system in College of Banking and Financial Studies is that it enables the management team to make better and more informed decisions regarding the institution. This is because these systems have the necessary capacity to ensure that there is constant and smooth flow of information. It thus ensures that proper decisions within the organization have been made since the decisions are based on the information available in the business systems (James, 2017).
The business systems also helps organizations such as the College of Banking and Financial Studies in reducing distribution costs spent on the information and also the handling time. This is as a result of its aspect of ensuring that proper strategies aimed minimization of costs are implemented by the company by providing the necessary information regarding adoption of the cost leadership strategies that reduces costs incurred by the institution.
It enhances and or provide analysis of various aspects of the institution’s activities, for instance, it provides the management with the proper analysis of the organization’s growth, profitability and performance that can predict the future of the organization. Furthermore, the business intelligence tools also access various data and analyze them and later present findings in form of reports, charts, summaries, maps, graphs, etc. to provide its users with the detailed and the appropriate intelligence about the state of the institution in form of its financial position, growth and development, profitability, etc.
Roles of Transaction processing system
The transaction processing system plays critical role in the daily business transactions of this great institution (CBFC). From its mission of developing and offering recognized programs perceived as intentional and capacity building in order to meet evolving needs of banking and finance in the region, the institution has adopted this system to serve various functions of the institution for example enrolment of students in courses, issuing of paychecks for faculty, as well as billing students for tuition. This system is associated with significant amount of pension funds which is important for the institutions’ stockbrokers in executing many orders and with transaction accounting (Ackoff, 2013).
Also, transaction processing system is critical in this institution because it helps the school to execute its role smoothly through the automation of the processing of the voluminous amounts of paper work done by the organization on the daily basis. These include recording of accurate transactions. This is also important in controlling procedures which are applied while adopting the institutions documents e.g. the student schedules, tuition bills, payment reminders invoices, paychecks and statements of the customers (Mahar, 2012). This transactional processing system is far reaching for and extending completely in and out of an organization, looking together the entire financial system.
Roles of Decision support system
This is an interactive computer based system which uses decision makers in applying data and models in order to have a durable and long lasting solution while solving structured, unstructured or semi-structured problems. DSS is flexible in nature; it is an interactive approach in a computer adopted by the administration of this institution while making its decisions. Also, DSS is important because it has the capability of providing direct, personal support for some issues particularly the complex and managerial decisions. DSS is also important in achieving the institutions success in every field (Mahar, 2012).
There have been reports that this institution experiences high pressure on the lecturers in dealing with internal and external competitive demands which are related to assessments of the students for instance assignments and quizzes. In the institution, just like any other institution in Oman is saved in the databases from where assessment can be carried out. Database is an integral part of the decision support system used by this college in analyzing the students’ performance and teachers hired by the administration. In this institution, the starting point of data support system is data availability. This data is gathered, and then saved in the data store. The lecturers or the instructors working for this institution will use this data which is driven by this system to support the future decisions of the student and lecturer performances (Efraim, Janet and Steve, 2014).
Roles of Customer Relationship Management Systems
This plays a critical role in the institution. It focuses on the right recruitment activities and communication structure with the institutions’ prospective as well as its admitted students. Through this system, the institution has qualified to reach out to the target prospects, right audience who possess personalized content and invite interested students to the events which suits them. Basically, the CRM helps this institution improve on its recruitment and admission processes for students. Also, the CRM ensure that managing and exactly targeting significant number of leads and prospective students receive every day to this institution and the academies. The regular reporting in the institution helps this institution to identify trends, in adapting to the workflows of the institution, analyzing its marketing campaigns as well as well as planning for effective campaigns for the future. In addition, CRM is used in this institution to keep record of the new, current and old students of the school. The information for all the people in this institution such as the teachers and other critical information is also saved using CRM in such a way that it was easy to access. The software adopted for the CRM has been simplified so that any student can easily use it.
Conclusion
College of Banking and Financial Studies utilizes various information systems so as to ensure proper decision making, effective performance and timely generation of generations. The types of the information utilized by this institution include: the transaction processing system, decision support system, customer relationship management system and the business information systems. They are utilized in various ways to ensure the effective management and also efficiency in execution of duties. These systems performs various functions within the organization, for instance, the management information system helps in decision making within the college. This system plays a significant role in this institution in the decision making process. This is due to the fact that decisions made in this institution are made on the basis of the relevant and available information which can only be retrieved and or obtained from the management information system. This makes it easier for the management of the college in making decisions that are aimed at improving performance and facilitating effective change.
The decision support system plays also a key within the institution, for example, uses decision makers in applying data and models in order to have a durable and long lasting solution while solving structured, unstructured or semi-structured problems. All these systems are essential to the organization so as to meet its goals and objectives.
References
Ackoff, E (2013). Management Information Systems.14th Ed. Journal of Management Science, Pp. 147-156
Arnot, D. (2011). Eight Key Issues for the Decision Support Systems discipline. Decision Support System, Vol. 44, n.2, Pp 67-87
Bourgeois, D.T. (2014). Information Systems for Business and Beyond. 2nd Ed. Saylor Academy, P.5
Efraim, T, Janet, C., and Steve, A. (2014). Decision Support System in Academic Administration, Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 26 issue: Pp. 97-113
Kelly, R. and Case, G. (2009). The Introductions to the Information Technology,3rd Ed. John Wiley & Sons
Mahar, F. (2012). The Information Technology for Management (ITM) and Decision support.2nd Ed. Inform. Technology., pp. 58-60
Websites
James, T. (2017). The Role and Or Purpose of the Business Intelligence. (online). Available from: https://www.baass.com/blog/the-role-of-business-intelligence. [Accessed on 13th November, 2018]
Julie, D. (2018). Types of Information Systems Used in an Organization. (Online). Available from: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/types-information-systems-organization-43097.html. [Accessed on 13th November, 2018]
Management Study Online, (2018). The Role of Management Information Systems. (Online). Available from: http://managementstudyonline.blogspot.com/2014/03/role-of-management-information-system.html. [Accessed on 13th November, 2018]