How Information Systems Hardware, Software, and Data Work Together to Improve Efficiency

Information, in a broad sense, is structured, processed and organized information designed for a specific purpose. It gives meaning to data and allows decision making on its use. For instance, a single customer’s sale in a restaurant is statistical data that becomes information when the company is able to identify which dish is least popular or most popular. The decision can be made regarding the best menu item to feature on the night, or the right mix of drink combination to benefit the customer.

Information may also be used to improve management system efficiency. By adding and removing erroneous, out of date or irrelevant information from the database, the number of error and out of date data increases drastically. Therefore, the number of calls made to the store to obtain additional or in-stock items must be decreased while the number of in-stock items that are actually in stock decreases. This is a prime example of how information may improve decision making and consequently efficiency.

As previously stated, information systems hardware, software and data all play a role in determining a company’s success. It is therefore important that a good combination of hardware, application software, and data is achieved for the system to work efficiently. Choosing the right application software and hardware solutions that work together will ensure that the application software and the hardware devices that are necessary for the information systems hardware, software, and data work together to deliver the maximum benefits to the organization. In this way, information systems hardware, software, and data system can work together to improve a company’s bottom line.