Business Systems and Practices (E-Commerce Systems and Strategies)

Business Systems and Practices (E-Commerce Systems and Strategies)
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Business Systems and Practices (E-Commerce Systems and Strategies)
Over the past two decades, technology has played a significant role in the economy and the society. People, organisations and governments embrace what technology has offered while others are cautious and resistant to these offers. From a historical perspective and our own experience with technology, it is evident that small key technologies are shaping and changing our lives. The role that information communication and technology has played in shaping our private and professional lives is becoming more prominent.
Information systems have become the backbone of our lives including that of organizations. Payments could not have been processed by banks, governments could have not been collecting taxes and supermarkets could not have been in a position of stocking their shelves without the support of information systems. In every sector (government, manufacturing, education, businesses, and finance) information systems plays a crucial role in their activities. Communication, decision making, working, and gathering information largely rely on information technology. When booking travelling ticket at any travelling agency, a collection of interconnected systems is used to check on available flights and book hotel rooms as well. When making an electronic payment, an individual interacts with the bank’s information system rather than the bank staff (Stair, & Reynolds, 2013). Today, supermarkets use information systems to track their stocks. Different organizations such as tax collecting authorities, travel agencies, recruitment agencies, and banks can be considered to be IT companies based on the role information systems in their activities. Therefore, it is evident that most of the modern organizations and institutions heavily rely on information systems.
Information Systems
There is no clear definition thus many scholars have given their own interpretations of the term, but a standard definition has been given that an information system manages and processes information. However, despite this definition being a general definition, it gives room for different interpretations. This is because there is no clarity as to whether “information system” includes only the software systems or also the humans (Beynon-Davies, 2013). Considering Alter’s framework for information systems, we can get clear reasons why information systems have several definitions. According to Alter’s framework, information systems consist of six entities: customers, products and services, business processes, participants, information, and technology (Alter, 2002). According to Alter (2002), customers are the main actors who largely interact with an organization’s information system for an exchange of goods and services. The products and services that are exchanged are manufactured and prepared in business process. The business processes use information, technology and participants. Participants perform the work; information may be about the customers or...