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What Are The Components Of A Computer-based Information System?

A computer-based information system (CBIS) is an information system in which the computer
plays a major role. Such a system consists of the following elements:
Hardware: The term hardware refers to machinery. This category includes the computer
itself, which is often referred to as the central processing unit (CPU), and all of its
support equipments. Among the support equipments are input and output devices, storage
devices and communications devices.
Software: The term software refers to computer programs and the manuals (if any) that
support them. Computer programs are machine-readable instructions that direct the circuitry
within the hardware parts of the CBIS to function in ways that produce useful information from
data. Programs are generally stored on some input / outputmedium-often a disk or tape.
Data: Data are facts that are used by program to produce useful information. Like programs,
data are generally stored in machine-readable from on disk or tape until the computer needs
them.
Procedures: procedures are the policies that govern the operation of a computer system.
"Procedures are to people what software is to hardware" is a commonanalogy that is used to
illustrate the role of procedures in a CBIS.
People: Every CBIS needs people if it is to be useful. Often the most over-lookedelement of
the CBIS is the people: probably the components that most influence the success or failure of
information system.
The 5 Biggest Challenges When Implementing Information System for the First Time


IT packages have become widely used in businesses of all sizes and types. From my
understanding, small and family businesses or companies are the only ones yet to join the
mainstream trend of implementing ERP software, although the vast majority of medium and
lower-medium-sized companies have already performed an implementation at least once
(some of them twice or even more often). But I thought it might be interesting anyway to see
how my personal experience and the conclusions I have drawn for myself correlate to
implementation issues and business practices in different regions and sizes of businesses. I
placed the 5 categories of problems in ascending order based on the degree of entanglement.

1. The selection problem. Say a company has decided for many reasons to launch a managerial
information system implementation project. The very first question that managers will face is
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what type, size, and scope of the future system they actually require and how to choose the
most suitable solution among the hundreds offered on the market. There is no single answer on
how to find what you need; and the whole consulting and research industry is there to serve
these needs. Our company tries to deliver the best value, as well presenting its core
eBestMatch decision support engine and a long list of other supplementary services. Eventually,
this selection problem arises for all businesses without exception and should be considered as
seriously as possible for the reason that ERP system choice predefines a companys strategy for
at least the following 6 to 10 years and, no doubt, has a telling impact on the future success of
the entire business.
2. Technical issues. How to successfully select a software package is important but not the last
problem that will appear on the thorny path toward getting all of the system of software and
hardware working together and bringing any value back to the company. Another set of
implementation issues is related to the technical part of the project, and covers the servers and
workstations to be revised and probablythe new and modern ones to be ordered,
purchased, and replaced. The internal network also has to be analyzed and modernized if
required; the speed and bandwidth of the existing Internet access should be taken into
consideration, along with possible technical concerns about the mobile devices being used. If
these questions are underestimated, they can dramatically impact the overall result of the
project and easily delay the happy hour, or poison the first few weeks (or even months) of
using a new system with slow performance, resulting in a slackening of the existing pace of
business. However, I must note that the situation has been changed during the last few years,
and plenty of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications that have shown up on the market now
allow the cost and headache of hardware problems to be minimized.
3. Data quality issues. This issue is particularly symptomatic of companies that are
implementing ERP for the first time and transferring their legacy data into the new system from
Excel spreadsheets, manual records, or old disparate applications. Basically, the question is that
old data that have been used and stored for years can for many reasons appear approximate or
even incorrect in the new ERP reality. For example, in my experience (an ERP implementation
project for a midsize metal manufacturer): in the middle of the project, we converted existing
bills of materials (BOMs), BOM routings, and hour tariffs into the new system and realized that
the products new lead times exceeded real ones twice or more. Thanks to adequate project
planning, we had some time to fix the data immediately by dedicating engineers and analysts
full-time for a few months and accordingly modifying the implementation plan; but even in this
case, the project was delayed for two months. So, be careful with your old information, as it can
be far from reality, and always make pilot tests of new system outputs using legacy data.
4. Business philosophy changes. ERP implementation brings significant changes into a
companys conventional business model and the day-to day practices it has been using for years
or even decades. With the new system, information that a user enters in one screen becomes
immediately available to another user; an employees level of responsibility is dramatically
increased as it is more difficult (sometimes impossible) to fix erroneous data or typing errors;
new approaches to data reporting and mining and, thus, new managerial principles and
practices have to be established; and finally, real business models and business processes might
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require massive changes because of new real-time opportunities and data availabilitythese
are only a few examples of how serious and meaningful business transformation can be, post-
implementation. Using wise and forward-looking ideas and conceptions when implementing
ERP, it is definitely possible to return something much more appreciable than simply screen
replacement. This is a real challenge, but at the same time it is a great opportunity to refresh
the business and bring new ideas and lay a strategic foundation for future breakthrough.
5. Psychological issues. This is the most difficult type of issue to resolve. These are the
questions and issues that originate from the aspect of human nature that never accepts any
change without seeing the visible advantages of it. This is an ERP project managers favorite
variety of problem, arising from users habits and their understanding of whats good for the
business in general and for the user in particular. Its been always like this before you came
in, I dont think it will be ever working, Its not working on my PC, I will be talking with the
CEO about this system, or You dont understand how it should workthese comments
sound familiar to anyone whos ever tried to implement a new system or change users
requirements. It is really difficult to describe or classify the possible troubles in this topic;
actually, any question can appear. I would recommend trying to predict such problems at the
planning stage of the project in order to reduce the potential negative impact of users possible
contra-collaboration activities. The best way here is to interest different groups and categories
of system users ahead of the project; inform them of any news and project milestones;
establish reliable feedback communication channels; stimulate people to generate new ideas
and provide suggestions; organize interesting and promising training sessions; celebrate the
best users achievements; and so on. In other words, ERP project leaders must become
respectful allies; otherwise, ignoring the users experience and concerns puts in doubt the
entire project and can kill any excellent undertakings.

Organizational units
A particularly useful type of directory object contained within domains is the organizational
unit. Organizational units are Active Directory containers into which you can place users,
groups, computers, and other organizational units. An organizational unit cannot contain
objects from other domains.
An organizational unit is the smallest scope or unit to which you can assign Group Policy
settings or delegate administrative authority. Using organizational units, you can create
containers within a domain that represent the hierarchical, logical structures within your
organization. You can then manage the configuration and use of accounts and resources based
on your organizational model. For more information about Group Policy settings,
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As shown in the figure, organizational units can contain other organizational units. A hierarchy
of containers can be extended as necessary to model your organization's hierarchy within a
domain. Using organizational units will help you minimize the number of domains required for
your network.
You can use organizational units to create an administrative model that can be scaled to any
size. A user can have administrative authority for all organizational units in a domain or for a
single organizational unit. An administrator of an organizational unit does not need to have
administrative authority for any other organizational units in the domain. For more information
about delegating administrative authority, see Delegating administration.