Information Systems and Technologies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Information Systems and Technologies - Essay Example Information systems are usually confused by management information systems. However, MIS strictly refers to the management of information systems whereas information systems include systems that include decision making as well. In today's every growing fast paced world, information is termed valuable more then any other tangible asset. The reason is that information systems have slowly and gradually taken over the decision making responsibilities from human beings. In this 'Information Age', these systems have become the basis of conducting efficient business. In today's world, the environment changes every other day. With the changes taking place everyday, it is a requirement for the companies to continuously collect and manage information so that they may be better informed then their competitors. This will lead to the development of a viable advantage that will help organizations in better decision making. Gaining competitive advantage over competitors and rival companies is one of the major strategies that can help companies excel in the long run. The question arises that if the application of IT really provides a competitive edge to organizations. Answers to this question have been discussed and explored over many decades and it will be explored for the many years to come due to the ever-changing and evolving economic conditions of the world and transformation of industries. Due to these explorations, we have found out that usage of information technology effectively in organizations can create legendary results. Examples include the American Airlines Sabre System for traveling reservations, the FedEx's suite of tracking shipments and packages and Amazon.com's approach to internet based retailing. All the above mentioned examples have put forward the idea that information technology can help serve as a competitive advantage if it is used to leverage operational and organizational activities and support the collection of critical data at the right time. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS Information Technology soft wares and systems are tremendously used in today's health care organizations to manage the extensive amount of data and analyzing it critically to help benefit the patients, staff, doctors and the overall organization. The basic idea is not applying the system; however, competitive advantage is gained depending on three factors. These factors are how the system is implemented, whether the implementation done was cheaper or not then the competitors and the strengths of the organization's technical and IT staff. Effective implementation of IT in an organization can make the programs used in the organization faster, less prone to error and convenient. For example, accounts receivable applications have made the collection A/R processes faster, economical and less expensive. To improve organizational performance the right kind of information system must be implemented. The leverage of the processes is the most effective when the process on which the technology is applied are core processes that customers usually use to gauge the performance of an organization. For