MGT 417

Information system

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CS, SE, IS, IT, & Customer Venn Diagram where functionality spans left and design spans right stemming from discovery.

Information System (or IS) is historically defined as a 'bridge' anchored between the business world and computer science, but this discipline is slowly evolving towards a well-defined science.^[1] In a very broad sense, the term information system is frequently used to refer to the interaction between people, algorithmic processes, data and technology. In this sense, the term is used to refer not only to the information and communication technology (ICT) an organization uses, but also to the way in which people interact with this technology in support of business processes ^[2].
Some make a clear distinction between information systems, ICT and business processes. Information systems are distinct from information technology in that an information system is typically seen as having an ICT component. Information systems are also different from business processes. Information systems help to control the performance of business processes ^[3].
Alter argues for an information system as a special type of work system. A work system is a system in which humans and/or machines perform work using resources (including ICT) to produce specific products and/or services for customers. An information system is a work system whose activities are devoted to processing (capturing, transmitting, storing, retrieving, manipulating and displaying) information ^[4].
Part of the difficulty in defining the term information system is due to vagueness in the definition of related terms such as system and information. Beynon-Davies argues for a clearer terminology based in systemics and semiotics. He defines an information system as an example of a system concerned with the manipulation of signs. An information system is a type of socio-technical system. An information system is a mediating construct between actions and technology ^[5].
As such, information systems inter-relate with data systems on the one hand and activity systems on the other. An information system is a form of communication system in which data represent and are processed as a form of social memory. An information system can also be considered a semi-formal language which supports human decision making and action.
Information systems are the primary focus of study for the information systems discipline and for organisational informatics^[6].

MGT 417

The Two-Database Approach When developing multiuser database solutions with Access, you may find it helpful to split your objects into two databases. This approach offers many advantages. These two databases are known as the front-endback-end database. database and the The front-end database has three basic characteristics: It contains non-data objects, such as saved queries, forms, reports, macros, and modules. It can also contain additional objects created by the user for personal use. It serves as an area for managing temporary objects. Most multiuser solutions perform some type of data access that is temporary in nature: creating tables with transient data, for example. You distribute a copy for each user to run from his or her workstation. The back-end database contains the tables that hold your solution's data. The tables in this database are accessed by your solution through links in the front-end database. Figure 16.1 illustrates the two-database approach. Figure 16.1 The Two-Database Approach If you know from the beginning that you intend to split your solution into two database files, you can develop it with this in mind. Or you can keep tables and objects together in the same file and split them only when you're finished with development and are ready to distribute the solution. The easiest way to split a solution after creating its objects is to use the Database Splitter Wizard. To split an Access solution after creating its objects On the Tools menu, point to Add-ins, and then click Database Splitter. Follow the instructions in the dialog boxes that appear. The Database Splitter Wizard creates a new, empty back-end database. It moves all tables in the current database to the new back-end database, preserving table relationships and properties. The current database is now the front-end database. The wizard then links each table in the back-end database to the front-end database. For information about linking tables by using ADO code, see Chapter 14, "Working with the Data Access Components of an Office Solution." The links used by linked tables in the front-end database are based on the location of the back-end database. If users move the back-end database to a different location, the links will fail. If the current links are broken, you can automate the process of linking tables for your users by prompting them for the path to the back-end database when they start your solution. Then you can refresh the links to your solution's tables. For an example of how to do this, see the RefreshLinks procedure in Chapter 14, "Working with the Data Access Components of an Office Solution" (the procedure can also be found in the CreateDatabase module in the DataAccess.mdb sample file, which is available in the ODETools\V9\Samples\OPG\Samples\CH14 subfolder on the Office 2000 Developer CD-ROM). The advantages of using the two-database approach in a multiuser environment are as follows: By storing the front-end database on the user's workstation, there is no contention for temporary objects, such as creating a temporary table, because only one user has the front-end database open. By storing application-specific objects that are typically static in nature on the user's workstation, the amount of network traffic that occurs while your solution runs is minimized.

MGT 417

The Story So Far

By Frank Hayes

April 15, 2002 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - Fifty years ago, data management was simple. Data processing meant running millions of punched cards through banks of sorting, collating and tabulating machines, with the results being printed on paper or punched onto still more cards. And data management meant physically storing and hauling around all those punched cards.

That began to change in 1951, when Remington Rand Inc.'s Univac I computer offered a magnetic tape drive that could input hundreds of records per second. In 1956, IBM rolled out the first disk drive, the Model 305 RAMAC. The drive had 50 platters, each 2 ft. in diameter, that could hold a total of 5MB of data. With disks, data could be accessed at random, not just sequentially, as with cards and tape.

But for decades, most firms had only used data in batch runs for accounting, and it took time for an idea like navigating through data to catch on.

Data Management Is Born

In 1961, Charles Bachman at General Electric Co. developed the first successful database management system. Bachman's integrated data store (IDS) featured data schemas and logging. But it ran only on GE mainframes, could use only a single file for the database, and all generation of data tables had to be hand-coded.

One customer, BF Goodrich Chemical Co., eventually had to rewrite the entire system to make it usable, calling the result integrated data management system (IDMS).

In 1968, IBM rolled out IMS, a hierarchical database for its mainframes. In 1973, Cullinane Corp. (later called Cullinet Software Inc.) began selling a much-enhanced version of Goodrich's IDMS and was on its way to becoming the largest software company in the world at that time.

Meanwhile, IBM researcher Edgar F. "Ted" Codd was looking for a better way to organize databases. In 1969, Codd came up with the idea of a relational database, organized entirely in flat tables. IBM put more people to work on the project, code-named System/R, in its San Jose labs. However, IBM's commitment to IMS kept System/R from becoming a product until 1980.

But at the University of California, Berkeley in 1973, Michael Stonebraker and Eugene Wong used published information on System/R to begin work on their own relational database. Their Ingres project would eventually be commercialized by Oracle Corp., Ingres Corp. and other Silicon Valley vendors. And in 1976, Honeywell Inc. shipped Multics Relational Data Store, the first commercial relational database.

By the late 1960s, a new kind of database software was being developed: decision support systems (DSS), designed to let managers put data to better use in their decision-making. The first commercial online analytical processing tool, Express, became available in 1970. Other DSS systems followed, many developed inside corporate IT departments.

In 1985, the first "business intelligence" system was developed for Procter & Gamble Co. by Metaphor Computer Systems Inc. to link sales information and retail scanner data. That same year, Pilot Software Inc. began selling Command Center, the first commercial client/server executive information system.

Also that year, back at Berkeley, the Ingres project had mutated into Postgres, with a goal of developing an object-oriented database. The next year, Graphael Inc. shipped Gbase, the first commercial object database.

In 1988, IBM researchers Barry Devlin and Paul Murphy coined the term information warehouse, and IT shops began building experimental data warehouses. In 1991, W.H. "Bill" Inmon made data warehouses practical when he published a how-to guide, Building the Data Warehouse (John Wiley & Sons).

With the widespread adoption of PC-based client/server computing and packaged enterprise software in the 1990s, the transformation of data management was complete. It was no longer just storing and maintaining data, but slicing, dicing and serving it up in whatever ways users demanded.

And now, on with the story. . . .

1951: The Univac uses magnetic tape as well as punched cards for data storage. 1956: IBM introduces first magnetic hard disk drive in its Model 305 RAMAC. 1961: Charles Bachman at GE develops the first database management system, IDS. 1968: IBM offers the IMS hierarchical database for System/360 mainframes. 1951: Univac uses magnetic tape as well as punched cards for data storage. 1969: Edgar F. "Ted" Codd invents the relational database. 1969: Edgar F. “Ted” Codd invents the relational database. 1973: Cullinane, led by John J. Cullinane, ships IDMS, a network-model database for IBM mainframes. 1976: Honeywell ships Multics Relational Data Store, the first commercial relational database. 1979: Oracle introduces the first commercial SQL relational database management system. 1983: IBM introduces DB2. 1985: The first business intelligence system is designed for Procter & Gamble. 1991: W.H. “Bill” Inmon publishes Building the Data Warehouse. 1991: W.H. "Bill" Inmon publishes Building the Data Warehouse.