Information Systems Assessment

Overview

In this assignment you will examine how information systems are used support a business activity or process you are familiar with (e.g. making flight reservation, auditing the inventory in a grocery store, coordinating events for a campus organization). You will consider how the activity is performed, what technology is needed to support it, how that technology is managed, and what happens when those systems fail.

Selecting a Business Activity or Process

You will need to choose a business activity and describe how it is performed in a
particular
organization. The activity you select should be both significant to the organization and specific enough that you can describe it. Avoid choosing business activities that are too vague to analyze or have no real impact on the business. The best choice for this type of analysis is an activity that involves a limited set of people, takes place over a particular time period, and relates to a particular product or service that is directly related to the purpose of the organization.

Some examples include:

• Purchasing a book at a Barnes and Nobles bookstore


• Tracking and replenishing supplies at Starbucks


• Managing carpooling in campuses


• Managing employee records and payroll at a store

If you have any questions or concerns about the activity you have chosen, please contact me right away.

Questions

After you have selected a business activity to work with, you will answer the following questions to ensure you have an understanding of the business and processes you will be analyzing.

1.
Briefly describe the
specific
organization that performs the activity:

1. Which organization is it? What does it do?

2.
Describe the business activity:

1. What is the specific business activity?


2. What steps are involved in performing the activity?


3. Who are the people involved in the activity? What do they do?

3.
How does the activity contribute to the success or survival of the organization?

a. What is the result of the successful completion of the activity? Why is this useful?

4.
What information systems are used in this activity?

1. What specific systems (e.g. software, special hardware systems, websites etc.) are used?


2. What general infrastructure technologies used for this activity (e-mail, networks, etc)?


3. What data is used? Where does it come from?

5.
Does the current technology support this activity/work effectively/efficiently? Why or why not?

Instructions

Your assignment write-up should follow this outline exactly. Include each question followed by your answer. The entire write-up should be about 2 pages long (12 point Times New Roman font, single spaced). The report should include enough details that enables a rich understanding of the business activity in question and focus on enabling good decision-making by the management.