Role of information systems in business decision making

Access to information

Information systems offer access to information that is needed for decision making. Businesses collect a lot of information about their environment, customers, and competitors among others. This information is meant to guide the decision making process of the business. Information systems will organize this data in order to simplify and provide for quick access to this information.

Collection of Data

Information systems offer an opportunity to collect, store and process information important in decision making.

Interpretation of information

Information systems offer decision an opportunity to recognize trends and patterns. This information helps to guide them in making the right decisions.

Coordination and collaboration

Information systems enable members in the decision making process to collaborate in the process by providing them with access to information from different locations. This fosters team work which is essential in effective decision making.

Information dissemination and presentation

An information system helps in better presentation of information to decision makers and this enables them to make the appropriate given the interpretation of the information. For example bar graphs and pie charts created by Microsoft excel

Before decisions are made information needs to be shared within the process of decision making and it is through information systems that this can be achieved efficiently and effectively

·         Difference between structured, semi-structured and unstructured decisions

Structured decisions

Can be described as a decision whereby all sections of a decision (data, process and evaluation) are determined. This requires that this type of decision be routine, repetitive making the process of dealing with it defined and specific. They are decisions made in clear circumstances.

Unstructured decisions

Although similar to the structured decisions in terms of sections of the decision used there is less agreement on which data and process to be used. The evaluation aspect of the decision is also left to qualified individuals within the organization. This type of decision leaves no room for premeditation of the procedures to be followed and thus they are made in situations which are unclear and one-shot.

Semi structured decisions

The main difference with the other types of decisions is that this types leaves room for human judgment in the decision making process. This type of decision also maintains some level of agreement between the 3 sections of decision making (data, process and evaluation)

Causes of slow intranet and impact on business

Reasons for slow intranet 

• Users could be wasting the bandwidth through running heavy downloads or opening a variety of tasking websites like social media platforms. This reduces the amount of bandwidth available thus slowing down the system. This is because such websites and downloads use a lot of bandwidth when running.
• The other reason could be that the number of users has increased and thus running of tasking websites has also probably increased. This would result to slowing down the entire system of the intranet and thus connectivity would be hindered.
• A router could also be used in the intranet connection and if that is the case users accessing the intranet remotely would encounter slow speeds if the router is unable to encrypt VPN (Virtual Private Network) fast enough.
• Network interface card, computers with bad network adapters can slow down the entire network. Faulty NICs are known to broadcast junk (useless) packets of data. This increases traffic on the network and eventually slowing down all users.

Solutions

Below are solutions to the above issues in respective order.

• There are several softwares that can monitor the protocols that are putting pressure on the bandwidth. These softwares also have the ability to kill some of the protocols and stop certain websites from loading and other operations such as downloads.
• Another solution would be to increase the amount of bandwidth in direct promotion to the amount of use in the organization. This will ensure everyone is allocated enough to continue with fast speeds on the network.
• The router can be replaced by use of a pfSense box (open source firewall/ router) as replacement or used with the router to improve its VPN encryption speed in order to keep up with connectivity. This would be best for people accessing the intranet remotely. This is because data being sent via VPN needs to be encrypted and if this is not done fast enough then the resultant effect would be slow response for the user.
• Network interface cards that are faulty should be replaced to ensure the speeds on the network improve.