1.1 The five parts of an information system: people, procedures, software, hardware and data

Information and Communications Technology - or technologies (ICT) is an umbrella term that includes all technologies for the manipulation and communication of information. The term is sometimes used in preference to Information Technology (IT), particularly in two communities: education and government.
Although, in the common usage it is often assumed that ICT is synonymous with IT; it encompasses:

any medium to record information (magnetic disk/tape, optical disks (CD/DVD), flash memory etc. and arguably also paper records);

technology for broadcasting information - radio, television; and

technology for communicating through voice and sound or images - microphone, camera, loudspeaker, telephone to cellular phones.

It includes the wide variety of computing hardware (PCs, servers, mainframes, networked storage), the rapidly developing personal hardware market comprising mobile phones, personal devices, MP3 players, and much more; the full gamut of application software from the smallest home-developed spreadsheet to the largest enterprise packages and online software services; and the hardware and software needed to operate networks for transmission of information, again ranging from a home network to the largest global private networks operated by major commercial enterprises and, of course, the Internet. Thus, "ICT" makes more explicit that technologies such as broadcasting and wireless mobile telecommunications are included.

1.1 The five parts of an information system: people, procedures, software, hardware and data

Information System

The term "information system" or IS has different meanings. It sometimes refers to a system of persons, data records and activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes. Computer-based information systems are the field of study for information technology, elements of which are sometimes called an "information system" as well, a usage some consider to be incorrect. In organizational informatics an information system is a system of communication between people. Information systems are systems involved in the gathering, processing, distribution and use of information and as such support human activity systems. The most common view of an information system is one of Input-Process-Output.


Components of Information System

A computer-based information system (CBIS) is an information system in which the computer plays a major role. Figure 1 describes how the components of an information system are related to each other. Such a system consists of the following elements:

1.1 The five parts of an information system: people, procedures, software, hardware and data

People

Every CBIS needs people if it is to be useful. Often the most over-looked element of the CBIS is the people: probably the components that most influence the success or failure of information system. There are many roles for people in information systems. Common ones include

Systems Analyst

Programmer

Technician

Engineer

Network Manager

MIS (Manager of Information Systems)

Data entry operator

1.1 The five parts of an information system: people, procedures, software, hardware and data

Procedures

Procedures are the policies that govern the operation of a computer system. "Procedures are to people what software is to hardware" is a common analogy that is used to illustrate the role of procedures in a CBIS. A procedure is a series of documented actions taken to achieve something. A procedure is more than a single simple task. A procedure can be quite complex and involved, such as performing a backup, shutting down a system, patching software.

1.1 The five parts of an information system: people, procedures, software, hardware and data

Hardware

When you think "equipment", immediately think "Hardware AND Software" The term hardware refers to machinery. This category includes the computer itself, which is often referred to as the central processing unit (CPU), and all of its support equipments. Among the support equipments are input and output devices, storage devices and communications devices.


Software

The term software refers to computer programs and the manuals (if any) that support them. Computer programs are machine-readable instructions that direct the circuitry within the hardware parts of the CBIS to function in ways that produce useful information from data. Programs are generally stored on some input / output medium-often a disk or tape.

1.1 The five parts of an information system: people, procedures, software, hardware and data

Data

Data are facts that are used by program to produce useful information. Like programs, data are generally stored in machine-readable from on disk or tape until the computer needs them. The raw, unorganized, discrete (separate, isolated) potentially-useful facts and figures that are later processed (manipulated) to produce information.