Information Systems Usage in Business and Management

Introduction

Today, more and more businesses condact their businesses over the intenet and are using information technology and information systems to gain competitive adventages. Many experts have said that we are entering the information age because of information technology and information systems usage. Furthermore, there are few aspects of life nowadays which are unaffected by information technology¹. Information technology tools are know so pervasive in business environment and it's hard to imagine how organisations would operate without them (Haag & Cummnings, 2006). Information technology not only comprise the hardware and software, but also incorporate the nework and communication structures, data structures and information and is used in many areas of business to carry out transactions, to try and improve efficiency, reduce costs, record data, provide information, improve customes satisfaction, make decisions and perform an increasing range of tasks (Lucey, 2005).

It is interesting to note that most authors (Lucey, 2005; Wilkinson, 1982; Hicks, 1997) would agree that information systems are playing an increasingly important role in organisations of all types, regardless of their size. Translating the real concept of the information systems into reality is technically an infeasible propositon unless computers are used. In addition to more traditional systems which assist in the day-to-day business operations information system is increasingly providing a competitive adventage for the organisation (Thompson & Bee, 2000). While there are studies that show us different approaches and reported diverse findings regarding computers and information systems usage as means of producing information and communicating it (Gordon & Olson, 1985; Hicks, 1997; Lucey, 2005), there have been only a few existing

studies that have dealt and examine computer based information systems usage for business and management purposes. To place this study in context, we turn to the papers by Lucey et al. (2005) and Haag and Cummings (2006). They noted that information systems technology support business processes and vary among managerial levells and information systems usage for decision making falls into one of two general categories systems that help users to analyze a situation and leave the decision up to him/her and systems that actually make some sort of recommendation concerning what action to take (Lucey, 2005; Haag & Cummings, 2006).

Along this lines our study objective concentrates on the usage of information systems for business and managmenent purposes. In this paper we draw two streams of the literature, namely usage of information systems for business purposses, and usage of information systems technology in management. The focus is to show how organisations can use information systems technology to gain competitive adventages over their competition. Thus, this study provide managers and researchers with a framework of effective use of information systems in business and management and offers an alternative approach to investigate the impact of information systems technology in business and management of organisation.

This research is one of the few academic studies that investigate the usage of information systems technology in business and management. Therefore, this study extends the body of knowledge on this research topic and intends to provide a better understanding of influence of information systems technology in business and management of organisation. Our study is also important to managers since it helps managers to understand how information technologies support major components of business activities and management functions. It is especially important to managers at the lower or operational level since it appears that they receive the most aid, since computers and information systems are best able to deal with well-structured problems for which these managers are responsible (Wilkinson, 1982; Gordon & Olson, 1985; Lucey, 2005).