Building Successful Information Systems

Book excerpt: Information systems are a critical component of business success today. Unfortunately, many companies do not truly understand what an information system is; where, when, and how it should be implemented; or the effects of integrating it into the organization. As such, we continue to see implementation horror stories of projects run amuck— going over time and over budget—or information systems that never get fully implemented, requiring “work-around” by employees in order to get things done. Sound familiar? If so, you’ll want to learn just why information systems can be poorly developed, and how to fix them. Inside, you’ll learn what information systems are and how to integrate them into your business processes with real specifics. This books gives you and other decision makers details on how information systems work, and, most importantly, what constitutes a successful information system—how to make them better and to last longer. And in the conclusion, you’ll have a keen sense of how data is created, transferred, analyzed, and used within your organization. From this understanding, you’ll be able to design, build, and implement information systems that accurately reflect the flow of the business processes; adjust quickly to support critical functions; and provide efficient and effective value-added services to employees to maximize the profitability of the company