Evolution of information systems

Certainly, information system has over the last few decades been used and

adopted by various businesses. Across the globe use of computers in business, accounting,

learning among other areas has necessitated the need for the information systems to change with

time, Again, data used in the business and in different life quadrants has evolved. Hence,

demanding changes in the manner through which information is handled and managed.

The concept of information system in the businesses resulted when the technology

advancement started setting in to the field of business. Notably, drastic changes were realized in

the 1960’s following its introduction in the accounting management sector. It is worth noting that

accoubnting is one of the most sectors that are globally structured and guided by law institutions

as a result it was easy to incorporate the concept of the information system in accounting than it

could be done in other sectors.

Upon the establishment of the accounting software, a new demand was created to

facilitate in the management of the administration area this would be used in management of

invoices, collecting and making payment amongst other tasks. Through such methods, data was

kept in the information system which would be visited in future for furthering of services or

helping in study. Further, integrating of the financial and accounting system with the

administrative area information system, facilitated in improving of productivity, guaranteed safe

working environment and reducing the costs associated with the operation and also limiting the

chances and the number of mistake. After the development of this software, companies focused

all the efforts towards research and growing of stock management sector, this was done as

inventory control system (ICS). Such a system kept all the relevant data about the product
in the warehouse, compares the consumption in various times and the worth of the commodities

in the store. It is worth noting that integration facilitated in optimization of the process.

In the last portion of the 60’s and the early part of 70’s, there was the introduction of the

material requirement planning (MRP). It can clearly be shown that the BRM is an evolution of

ICS – this uses the bill of materials (BOM). The main features of the MRP systems, is that they

use a hierarchical means to manage the inventory facilitating establishment of the material plant

based on the following basic functions: productivity master plant (PMP), BOM-Bill of materials

and the inventory database (IDB).

MRP allows in acquiring distinct results that could be utilized in reduction of both the

process and inventory and also increasing the efficiency of the supply. However, for this to be

attained, there has to a lot of precision on PMP. The main challenge with MRP is the fact that it

puts a lot of emphasis on the capacity constraints .

MRP II are the perfect evolution of the MRP systems, it was introduced to the industry in

the 80’s, in the new system, the materials planning, management necessities, resources required,

the capacity of manufacturing and the planning of the materials have all been taken into account.

It is worth noting that, even if the two systems appears to be the same they are totally different.

MRP deals exclusively with the management of `materials. In the MRP II has integrated some

new functionalities so as to facilitate in the management of new areas in the business such as in

engineering, logistics, human management, managing of projects and many more areas. The

previous behavior established a new concept – enterprise resources planning ERP this clearly

defines the integrated information system (møller, 2005). Since there are two MRP systems there

are also two ERP systems now the confusion occurs when making selection. There is the
‘traditional’ ERP in this one, ERP systems are considered as a result of the evolution and the

addition in the value of the inventory management system that has been in existence over the last

50 years. Bond et al indicates that ERP evolved to ERP II. The main features of ERP II

concerning the traditional ERP are the conflict of the process that the two systems involve and

their quality (Mcgaughey and Gunasekaran, 2009).

Evolution history from EDP to MIS

The main changes started in the 60’s at this time information systems were mainly used

for the processing of the electronic data. The main activities included; accounting, record

keeping and processing of transaction. In the same decade, a new role was added that is

processing of information into helpful informative reports. It is at this time that the concept of

MIS- management information system was born. MIS give information in the form of a report to

facilitate the management in the decision making processes. In the 70’s, there was a lot criticism

of the predefined management reports as it was argued that the reports were not sufficient to

service the huge demands in the decision making (IGI global, 1992). To address the gap in the

system, decision support system was introduced. The main aim was to provide ad hoc decision

making support to the managers.

Following the introduction of the microcomputer in the 1980’s the information system

sector also received a major boost accordingly the executive information systems was introduced

it was proposed to allow for critical information from DSS, MIS and other sources customized to

the information demands of the executives. In the same period, artificial intelligence was

introduced in the information systems. Other concepts associated with the era include; expert

systems these are systems based on knowledge that would provide expert advice to the users.

And the knowledge management system, these are system based in knowledge that would
facilitate creation, organization and spreading of the business knowledge. Between mid to late

90’s, the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems emerged (Gilaninia, 2012). The system

focused on every function of the organization the system has the advantage of tight integration.

Evolution from MIS to e-commerce

In the 1990’s drastic changes were witnessed in the information systems due to use of

extranet, internet, intranet and other globally interconnected networks. A high level of

integration is important so as to have the full functionality of the information system. Use of

internet and related technologies has affected operations of business and the influenced how

individuals work. The increased use of internet in the business processes has resulted in the to

the E-commerce era. Companies depend on the e-commerce to boost enterprise collaboration

between business teams, applying the electronic commerce systems and in re-engineering their

internal processes.

MØLLER, C., 2005. ERP II: a conceptual framework for next-generation

enterprise.

systems? Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 18(4), 483-497

MCGAUGHEY, R.E. & GUNASEKARAN, A., 2009. Selected Readings

on Strategic Information Systems. Chapter XXIII Enterprise Resource Planning

(ERP):

Past, Present and Future, Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).

Berch, J& Grad nitzki J, (1992) information systems in Theory and Practice, translated by Gheibi, State

Management Training Center Tehran.

Gilaninia, S.(2012) .Vision of information technology, Kadoos publisher, Rasht.