,

Hence, information systems can be viewed as having six major components: hardware, software
network communications, data, people, and processes.

: Components of Information Systems.

Each has a specific role, and all roles must work together to have a working information system.
In this book, we group the first four components as Technology. People and Processes are the
two components that deliver value to organizations in how they use the collection of
technologies to meet specific organizations’ goals.
Technology

Technology can be thought of as the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.
From the invention of the wheel to the harnessing of electricity for artificial lighting, technology
is a part of our lives in so many ways that we tend to take it for granted. As discussed before, the
first four components of information systems – hardware, software, network communication, and
data, are all technologies that must integrate well together. Each of these will get its own chapter
and a much lengthier discussion, but we will take a moment to introduce them to give you a big
picture of what each component is and how they work together.

Hardware

Hardware represents the physical components of an information system. Some can be seen or
touched easily, while others reside inside a device that can only be seen by opening up the
device's case. Keyboards, mice, pens, disk drives, iPads, printers, and flash drives are all visible
examples. Computer chips, motherboards, and internal memory chips are the hardware that
resides inside a computer case and not usually visible from the outside. Chapter 2 will go into
more details to discuss how they function and work together. For example, users use a keyboard
to enter data or use a pen to draw a picture.

Software

Software is a set of instructions that tell the hardware what to do. Software is not tangible – it
cannot be touched. Programmers create software programs by following a specific process to
enter a list of instructions that tell the hardware what to do. There are several categories of
software, with the two main categories being operating-system and application software.

Data

The third component is data. You can think of data as a collection of non-disputable raw
facts. For example, your first name, driver's license number, the city you live in, a picture of your
pet, a clip of your voice, and your phone number are all pieces of raw data. You can see or hear
your data, but by themselves, they don’t give you any additional meanings beyond the data itself.
For example, you can read a driver's license number of a person, you may recognize it as a
driver's license number, but you know nothing else about this person. They are typically what IS
would need to collect from you or other sources. However, once these raw data are aggregated,
indexed, and organized together into a logical fashion using software such as a spreadsheet, or a
database, the collection of these organized data will present new information and insights that a
single raw fact can’t convey. The example of collecting all expenses (i.e., raw data) to create an
expense tracker (new information derived) discussed earlier is also a good example. In fact, all of
the definitions presented at the beginning of this chapter focused on how information systems
manage data. Organizations collect all kinds of data, processed and organized them in some
fashion, and use it to make decisions. These decisions can then be analyzed as to their
effectiveness, and the organization can be improved. Chapter 4 will focus on data and databases
and their uses in organizations.

Networking Communication

The components of hardware, software, and data have long been considered the core technology
of information systems. However, networking communication is another component of an IS that
some believe should be in its own category. An information system can exist without the ability
to communicate. For instance, the first personal computers were stand-alone machines that did
not have access to the Internet. Information Systems, however, have evolved since they were
developed. For example, we used to have only desktop operating system software or hardware.
However, in today’s environment, the operating system software now includes mobile OS, and
hardware now includes other hardware devices besides desktops. It is extremely rare for a
computer device that does not connect to another device or a network. Chapter 5 will go into this
topic in greater detail.

People

People built computers for people to use. This means that there are many different categories in
the development and management of information systems to help organizations to create value
and improve productivity, such as:

• Users: these are the people who actually use an IS to perform a job function or task.
Examples include: a student uses a spreadsheet or a word processing software program.
• Technical Developers: these are the people who actually create the technologies used to
build an information system. Examples include a computer chip engineer, a software
programmer, and an application programmer.
• Business Professionals: these are the CEOs, owners, managers, entrepreneurs, employees
who use IS to start or expand their business to perform their job functions such as
accounting, marketing, sales, human resources, support customers, among others.
Examples include famous CEOs such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Steve Jobs of Apple, Bill
Gates of Microsoft, and Marc Benioff of Salesforce.
• IT Support: These specialized professionals are trained to keep the information systems
running smoothly to support the business and keep it safe from illegal attacks. Examples
include network analysts, data center support, help-desk support.

These are just some of the key people; more details will be covered in Chapters 9 and 10.

Process

The last component of information systems is Process. A business process is a series of steps
undertaken to achieve a desired outcome or goal. Businesses have to continually innovate to
either create more revenues through new products and services that fulfill customers’ needs or to
find cost-saving opportunities in the ways they run their companies. Simply automating activities
using technology is not enough. Information systems are becoming more and more integrated
with organizational processes to deliver value in revenue-generating and cost-saving activities
that can give companies competitive advantages over their competitors. Specialized standards or
processes such as “business process reengineering,” “business process management,” “enterprise
resource planning,” and “customer relationship management” all have to do with the continued
improvement of these business procedures and the integration of technology with them to
improve internal efficiencies and to gain a deeper understanding of customers’ needs. Businesses
hoping to gain an advantage over their competitors are highly focused on this component of
information systems. We will discuss processes in Chapter 8.

Reference

, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2011). Management information systems. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.

This page titled 1.2: Identifying the Components of Information Systems is shared under a CC
BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Ly-Huong T. Pham, Tejal
Desai-Naik, Laurie Hammond, & Wael Abdeljabbar (ASCCC Open Educational Resources
Initiative (OERI)) .

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o 1.1: Introduction

o 1.3: The Role of Information Systems

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