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Information systems are increasingly important in business, but there is sometimes the perception that they are for the information technology department, and that other managers do not need to understand much about them. This perception is fed in part by the complexity and jargon inherent in learning information systems, which alienates many who have not chosen IT as their specialty. As a result, perceptions of IS, its importance and the factors that drive IS success can be very different between IS professionals and end users (Li, 1997).

Banks (2014) outlines in basic terms the relevance and importance in information systems. First, there is the significance. Information systems are in widespread use in business, and businesses rely heavily on their ability to gather data, convert it to information and knowledge and then apply that knowledge to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace.

That the knowledge and the systems that manage it are quantitative in nature may be a sticking point for those accustomed to qualitative knowledge, but that does not make IS any less important -- in some respects it represents the most important knowledge because of the ability of information systems to gather more data and to analyze it at a much higher rate than can be done with qualitative information. Information systems thus assist with many key management functions.

Information systems gather larger sets of information together, and these are used by managers in the planning process, in modeling the effects of their decisions and to help make decisions. Where IS undermined is when management has little input into the systems, which results in the systems not delivering what management needs (Adeoti-Adekeye, 1997).

This highlights the need for management to know more about IS, not just so that management can use IS more effectively, but so that management can better communicate with IT professionals about the needs of management in the design of information systems, so that the systems legitimately support managerial decision-making. Yet, the importance of information systems has been documented for a long time. Information systems, through their ability to generate high levels of information, and more refined information, lower the cost of information gathering and processing.

Managers are well aware that information is valuable; better information systems reduce the cost of acquiring information. Those information acquisition costs allow managers to make better decisions, and with superior IS they can make better decisions that their competitors (Gurbaxani & Whang, 1991). What this course has done is to provide me with this understanding of the context of information systems. It is a good starting point to understand what IS are and what they can do from a theoretical point-of-view.

But when thinking about a career, that is applying information systems to real world situations and real world problems. So it is important to understand the context of information systems, how they solve problem and what specifically they contribute to finding competitive advantage, to making better decisions and to monitoring performance. The next step I feel is to operationalize some of this knowledge. Knowing how important information systems are is great, but one.