What is the strategic role of an information system in business?

Answer 1

The strategic role of an information system is to provide support for:

• The business process and operations: An 'Information System' helps managers to conduct daily activities and functions properly. For example in a bank different activities, which involve but are not limited to: account creation, the withdrawal of money, statement generation among others, the Information System helps mangers to conduct such activities accurately and in a timely manner with the help of different software.

• Decision making in terms of employees and managers: An Information System can simply be defined as: "input -> process -> information". An Information System will take data as an input and process it thus generating information. Managers can then use this information for to better their organisation. As an example, an Information System can analyse existing historical data about customers in a bank and generate information such as which customers were 'good', which were 'bad' as well as other attributes, Managers could then use this information while deciding to provide a loan for new customers, whether it be the restrictions thereof, the amount the loan is for or even whether a loan can be given at all support in making strategic decision for competitive advantages. IS can give information like which items to launch in which location by analysing data collected from different sources such that company can have advantage by using these information over their competitors. IS also can help business houses in conducting their business process differently than their competitors.