It is surprising facts that there are many more companies still do not use the Internet. It is even more surprising that some of them are still using their twenty-year-old computer information system. Company information system is a set of interrelated component that collect, process, store, and disseminate information to support companies’ managerial team in decision making, coordinating, controlling, and analyzing.
Upgrading the computer information system is not an option in this technology-driven era; it is a requirement. Companies that use an up-to-date information system to gather, assimilate, and evaluate internal as well as external information are gaining competitive advantage over other firms. Management is quicker to cater to customer’s needs and complaints. With the growth of communication networks, there are almost no barriers between the firm’s management, employees, customers and suppliers. Networked computing systems have made new modes of work possible.
A sophisticated computer information system enables companies to monitor employees, to keep managers and employees informed, to coordinate activities among divisions, or even to sell their products to customers via the internet. Moreover, in the era of information technology like this, information has become valuable organizational asset just like human resources and inventories.
Furthermore, a good information system can facilitate direct communication between firm and suppliers, manufacturers, dealers, and marketers. Together, they can create a value chain as though they were in one organization.
In the meantime, the widespread use of information freeway is inviting unwelcome threats. Today, companies are plagued by hackers; competitors, thieves, spies, hired agents, or even from disgruntled employees. Therefore, firms have taken measures to safeguard their system such as installing complex computer firewalls to detect hackers or purchasing expensive and advance encryption software.
More and more people are working from their homes nowadays. Information technology has become so sophisticated it allows people to choose to work from home. Teleconferencing and video conferencing enable employees to beam in whenever needed. In addition to that, information technology can allow a firm to reduce costs. Taking Ernst &Young for example, the company has successfully reduced its office space by 2 million square feet by allowing their employees to work from home.
In conclusion, information system enables companies to react, respond, cater, store, retrieve, disseminate, and control their new valuable asset that is information. In the years to come, a good information system within a company will be no longer an option; it will become a compulsory in determining success.
