Information System Management System Description

Information System Management

System description statement and brief introduction of the system in, How the system inputs data, How is system processes data, what is the systems output, is the system and enterprise or functional?

For purposes of this analysis, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system will be used. As an ERP system acts as a central coordination point in any enterprise, in addition to synchronizing inbound supply chain systems with the demands from customers, this system makes an ideal one to use to illustrate the points in this paper. A typical ERP system has inputs coming from suppliers in the form of pricing, availability of products, and forecasts of when products will be available. Additional inputs include sales forecasts from distribution channel partners and from the direct sales force as well. All of these inputs also must be coordinated with inputs from accounting, which seeks to ensure the entire financial reporting and analysis is in compliance to both internal and also government-required standards (Walker, 2008). An ERP system processes data through a series of order management, pricing, manufacturing execution systems, and manufacturing planning operations. When an ERP system is planned and launched, the main focus is on how to gain more efficiency and speed in managing supplier relationships, planning production based on customer demand, and tracking all transactions to report them accurately (Chou, Chang, 2008). By definition, an ERP system encompasses an entire organization and is therefore considered enterprise-wide. Each of the functional areas of a company however is managed through the use of specific applications in the ERP system. The role of the ERP system is to coordinate many different functional systems to ensure the company's goals are met.

Section 2 - Detail the system and the resources used in making the system, People, Hardware, Software, Data, Network

The people required to make an ERP system operate include several different groups. First, there are the Information Systems professionals and managers who must keep the actual hardware, software, networks, and data inputs working correctly. The actual users of the system must also be taken into account, and these include the purchasing, procurement, accounting, finance, sales and service organizations. All of these people who are responsible for supporting the system and keeping it running, and those that actually need the system to do their jobs all are coordinated through business process management (BPM) based workflows (Walker, 2008). In terms of the hardware, the majority of ERP systems run on multiprocessor-based servers that are capable of managing tens of millions of transactions a second. The hardware also must support a variety of fault-tolerant functions as well to ensure the ERP system continues functioning correctly. In terms of software, ERP systems often have an underlying architectural structure that allows for integration with 3rd party and legacy systems throughout a company (Chou, Chang, 2008). ERP systems are designed to provide this level of integration to enable process-centric workflows throughout companies (Kamhawi, 2008). In terms of data, ERP systems deal with a multitude of different types, from supplier- and product-specific data to pricing and customer-based data in terms of orders and the status of shipments to customers. The most fundamental aspect of an ERP system is its contribution in streamlining the distributed order management process (Walker, 2008). In terms of the network, ERP systems often sit in the middle of company-wide internal networks that seek to integrate all legacy and 3rd party systems together and create a single system of record (Walker, 2008) for the company. The network topology is often in the form of a series of smaller clusters or "islands" of data and systems that the ERP system is meant to integrate to and unify.