Definition of an information system

As stated earlier, different perspectives in the research and objects where information systems are applicable for make the defining of IS challenging. Carvalho (2000, cited by

Alter 2008, p. 2) has identified four of these objects, which can be seen as information systems:

1. Organizations who provide information for their clients

2. A sub-system (for example inside an organization) that assures the communica-tion between managerial and operacommunica-tional units.

3. Processors that deal only with information and is a computer-based system (ma-chines do all the work)

4. Processors that deal only with information (people are also present alongside machines)

Alternative definitions of information system in the literature are presented in Table 1.

These definitions depend on the previously mentioned objects – what is the role of the information system in the study, i.e. which object is being researched.

Table 1. Information system definitions from the literature (adapted from Alter 2008, pp.

2-4).

Buckingham et al.

(1987, p. 18), cited by Avison & Myers (1995)

“A system which assembles, stores, processes and delivers information relevant to an organization (or to society) in such a way that the information is accessible and useful to those who wish to use it, including managers, staff, clients and cit-izens. An information system is a human activity (social) system which may or may not involve computer systems.”

UKAIS, United Kingdom Academy for Information Systems (1997)

“Information systems are the means by which organizations and people, utilizing information technologies, gather, process, store, and use and disseminate infor-mation.”

Davis (2000, p. 67) “A simple definition might be that an information system is a system in the or-ganization that delivers information and communication services needed by the organization. This can be expanded to describe the system more fully. The infor-mation system or management inforinfor-mation system of an organization consists of the information technology infrastructure, application systems, and personnel that employ information technology to deliver information and communication services for transaction processing/ operations and administration/ management of an organization. The system utilizes computer and communications hardware and software, manual procedures, and internal and external repositories of data.

The systems apply a combination of automation, human actions and user-ma-chine interaction.”

O’Brien (2003, p.

G-10)

“(1) A set of people, procedures, and resources that collects, transforms, and dis-seminates information in an organization. (2) A system that accepts data re-sources as input and processes them into information products as output.”

Gray (2006, p. 305) “An automated or manual collection of people, machines, and/or methods to gather, process, transmit, and disseminate data. Information systems are used to acquire, store, manipulate, manage, display, transmit, or receive data. It includes both hardware and software.”

Lyytinen & New-man (2006, p. 3)

“an organizational system that consists of technical, organizational and semiotic elements which are all re-organized and expanded during ISD (information sys-tem development) to serve an organizational purpose .”

Paul (2007, pp.

194-195)

“The IS is what emerges from the usage that is made of the IT delivery system by users (whose strengths are that they are human beings, not machines). This us-age will be made up of two parts: 1. First the formal processes, which are cur-rently usually assumed to be pre-determinable with respect to decisions about what IT to use. … 2. Second, the informal processes, which are what the human beings who use the IT and the formal processes create or invent in order to en-sure that useful work is done.”

Rainer et al. (2007, p. 393)

“A process that collects, processes, stores, analyzes, and disseminates infor-mation for a specific purpose; most ISs are computerized.”

Jessup & Valacich (2008, p. 567)

“Assumed to mean computer-based systems, which are combinations of hard-ware, softhard-ware, and telecommunications networks that people build and use to collect, create, and distribute useful information.”

Kroenke (2008, p.

6)

“A group of components that interact to produce information. The five compo-nents of an information system are hardware, software, data, procedures, and people.”

When constructing a synthesis of these ten definitions, a dominant understanding is that an information system is a sub-system/process/group of components, which collects, stores, processes, transmits and disseminates data in order to serve a specific purpose.

The data is transferred into useful information so that people could make use of it. The information system most likely involves a use of computers and software (nowadays par-ticularly), albeit there also exist opinions amongst the researchers that information sys-tems do not necessarily involve a use of a computer system.

Alter (2008) himself defines IS as a special case of work system. A work system is a system where people (participants) and/or machines perform a business process, in which resources (such as information and technology) are used to produce a product and/or ser-vice for internal or external customer (Alter 1999, p. 8). The roles between these concepts are clarified in a work system framework, which is introduced in Figure 4.

Figure 4. The work system framework (Alter 2002, p. 93).

The system is affected by the infrastructure (organization’s resources outside the work system), organizational environment and organization’s strategies. Alter’s (2008, p. 6) IS definition builds on this framework and is as follows:

“An information system is a work system whose processes and activities are de-voted to processing information, i.e. capturing, transmitting, storing, retrieving, manipulating, and displaying information.

Thus, an information system is a system in which human participants and/or ma-chines perform work (processes and activities) using information, technology, and other resources to produce informational products and/or services for internal or external customers.”

This definition of IS fits very well to our research environment at hand. The case company performs business processes (for example sales and delivery process), where people (par-ticipants) use technology and information. Besides the usage of information, business processes with the help of IT tools (software) create new information products for e.g.

managers to use in reporting and decision making. What we are interested in are espe-cially the new information products created in the information system. The case company has a need to form a better understanding of the information created in the business pro-cesses.