topic 1 section 1

information system

group of two or more interrelated components or subsystems that serve a common purpose

the set of formal procedures by which DATA are collected, processed into INFORMATION and distributed to users

raw facts that are collected and processed by an information system

data that have been organized and processed so that it is useful and meaningful and causes the user to take some action

information system that collects and processes data about transactions

primarily financial transactions that affect the company's assets and equities and generate reports about those transactions for interested users

employees at all levels within the company who need information, but especially employees with decisions making authority

stockholders (invest in your company) potential investors, creditors (suppliers), competitors, government agencies

involve inputting and processing transactions as they occur

instead of inputting transactions one at a time as they occur (like you would do in a real-time system), you wait until you have a batch of several transactions and then input and process them as a group

use if you don't have a lot of transactions

increased speed of the accounting process and increased accuracy of the accounting process

• -unauthorized person to come in change data, destroy it, repetitive errors
• -data redundancy
• -difficult to obtain data collected by different departments/subsystems

duplication- same data are stored in multiple different subsystems

this refers to the fact that data are collected an stored in multiple separate subsystems rather than a single centralized file shared by every department that needs the data

task that users can perform are dependent on the information that the users have access to this can be a problem when each department "owns" its own system data, and people in other departments don't have easy access to that data

each department in the company has its own information system in which data are entered and stored

all of the company's data are entered and stored in one shared database.. all departments have access to the info they need in the system

• -Data shouldn't be limited to financial data
• -Data should be stored at the most detailed, unaggregated (unsummarized) level
• -All data should be stored in a single database

• -eliminates data redundancy
• -improves access to information when needed
• -captures data about a greater variety of events tan just financial transactions

• input devices
• process and data storage devices
• output devices

the "brains" of a computer. Called a microprocessor

similar in performance to Intel processors, but have historically been less expensive

random access memory (RAM) temporary data storage- lost when power to computer is turned off

Permanent storage devices (hard drives, flash drives, magnetic tapes)

unlike RAM and Cache memory, data is returned after power to the computers is turned off

removable, portable data storage devices

80 GB up to 2 TB (1,000 GB)

used as a low cost method of backing up data. access to data o the tape is slow, since data have to be accessed sequentially

printers (produce hard-copy output)

computer screen (soft copy output)

Universal serial bus (USB)

impact type printer used to print mulit-form documents like those used in the SUA slow output

uses tiny droplets of ink to form characters on paper. print in black and while or in color. can't be used to print mulit-form documents, quality of output is a lot better than dot matrix

highest quality of output. can't be used to print multi-form documents. faster output than dot matrix or ink jet. color is available but more expensive

used to connect your computer to devices (printers, scanners)

operating system (controls the operations of the hardware CPU)

utility programs (i.e anti-virus programs)

• systems software
• application software