Information systems that run organisations
Databases are the heart of information systems that help organisations work. A transaction processing system records every small event as it happens, such as one sale at the school shop. A management information system takes those records and makes summaries for managers, for example sales per day. An executive information system gives top leaders a short overview of the whole organisation. A decision support system lets people try “what if” questions, such as “what happens to sales if we raise a price by one pound?”. An ERP system joins the data of all departments (sales, stock, accounts, staff) in one system, so that all of them see the same facts. Organisations also join steps of their production, which is called vertical integration. For example, an invented juice company that owns its orchard, its factory and its shops controls the steps from fruit to customer. These systems depend on the database ideas of last lesson: each fact is stored once and shared.
| System | Who uses it | Question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| transaction processing | staff at the counter | what was sold just now? |
| management information | managers | what were the sales this week? |
| executive information | top leaders | how is the whole organisation doing? |
| decision support | planners | what if we change the price? |
| ERP | all departments | do all departments see the same facts? |
Choose an organisation you know (a school, a shop, a clinic). Write one example of a transaction record it makes, one summary a manager would want, and one “what if” question that planners could ask.