An information system is a collection of hardware, software, data, people and procedures that are designed to generate information that

supports the day-to-day, short-range, and long-range activities of users in an organization. Information systems generally are classified into five categories: office information systems, transaction processing systems, management information systems, decision support systems, and expert systems. The following sections present each of these information systems. 1. Office Information Systems An office information system, or OIS (pronounced oh-eye-ess), is an information system that uses hardware, software and networks to enhance work flow and facilitate communications among employees. Win an office information system, also described as office automation; employees perform tasks electronically using computers and other electronic devices, instead of manually. With an office information system, for example, a registration department might post the class schedule on the Internet and e-mail students when the schedule is updated. In a manual system, the registration department would photocopy the schedule and mail it to each students house. An office information system supports a range of business office activities such as creating and distributing graphics and/or documents, sending messages, scheduling, and accounting. All levels of users from executive management to nonmanagement employees utilize and benefit from the features of an OIS. The software an office information system uses to support these activities include word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentation graphics, e-mail, Web browsers, Web page authoring, personal information management, and groupware. Office information systems use communications technology such as voice mail, facsimile (fax), videoconferencing, and electronic data interchange (EDI) for the electronic exchange of text, graphics, audio, and video. An office information system also uses a variety of hardware, including computers equipped with modems, video cameras, speakers, and microphones; scanners; and fax machines. 2. Transaction Processing Systems A transaction processing system (TPS) is an information system that captures and processes data generated during an organizations day-to-day transactions. A transaction is a business activity such as a deposit, payment, order or reservation. Clerical staff typically perform the activities associated with transaction processing, which include the following: 1. Recording a business activity such as a students registration, a customers order, an employees timecard or a clients payment. Confirming an action or triggering a response, such as printing a students schedule, sending a thank-you note to a customer, generating an employees paycheck or issuing a receipt to a client. Maintaining data, which involves adding new data, changing existing data, or removing unwanted data.

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Transaction processing systems were among the first computerized systems developed to process business data a function originally called data processing. Usually, the TPS computerized an existing manual system to allow for faster processing, reduced clerical costs and improved customer service.

The first transaction processing systems usually used batch processing. With batch processing, transaction data is collected over a period of time and all transactions are processed later, as a group. As computers became more powerful, system developers built online transaction processing systems. With online transaction processing (OLTP) the computer processes transactions as they are entered. When you register for classes, your school probably uses OLTP. The registration administrative assistant enters your desired schedule and the computer immediately prints your statement of classes. The invoices, however, often are printed using batch processing, meaning all student invoices are printed and mailed at a later date. Today, most transaction processing systems use online transaction processing. Some routine processing tasks such as calculating paychecks or printing invoices, however, are performed more effectively on a batch basis. For these activities, many organizations still use batch processing techniques. 3. Management Information Systems While computers were ideal for routine transaction processing, managers soon realized that the computers capability of performing rapid calculations and data comparisons could produce meaningful information for management. Management information systems thus evolved out of transaction processing systems. A management information system, or MIS (pronounced em-eye-ess), is an information system that generates accurate, timely and organized information so managers and other users can make decisions, solve problems, supervise activities, and track progress. Because it generates reports on a regular basis, a management information system sometimes is called a management reporting system (MRS). Management information systems often are integrated with transaction processing systems. To process a sales order, for example, the transaction processing system records the sale, updates the customers account balance, and makes a deduction from inventory. Using this information, the related management information system can produce reports that recap daily sales activities; list customers with past due account balances; graph slow or fast selling products; and highlight inventory items that need reordering. A management information system focuses on generating information that management and other users need to perform their jobs. An MIS generates three basic types of information: detailed, summary and exception. Detailed information typically confirms transaction processing activities. A Detailed Order Report is an example of a detail report. Summary information consolidates data into a format that an individual can review quickly and easily. To help synopsize information, a summary report typically contains totals, tables, or graphs. An Inventory Summary Report is an example of a summary report. Exception information filters data to report information that is outside of a normal condition. These conditions, called the exception criteria, define the range of what is considered normal activity or status. An example of anexception report is an Inventory Exception Report is an Inventory Exception Report that notifies the purchasing department of items it needs to reorder. Exception reports help managers save time because they do not have to search through a detailed report for exceptions. Instead, an exception report brings exceptions to the managers attention in an easily identifiable form. Exception reports thus help them focus on situations that require immediate decisions or actions.

4. Decision Support Systems Transaction processing and management information systems provide information on a regular basis. Frequently, however, users need information not provided in these reports to help them make decisions. A sales manager, for example, might need to determine how high to set yearly sales quotas based on increased sales and lowered product costs. Decision support systems help provide information to support such decisions. A decision support system (DSS) is an information system designed to help users reach a decision when a decision-making situation arises. A variety of DSSs exist to help with a range of decisions. A decision support system uses data from internal and/or external sources. Internal sources of data might include sales, manufacturing, inventory, or financial data from an organizations database. Data from external sources could include interest rates, population trends, and costs of new housing construction or raw material pricing. Users of a DSS, often managers, can manipulate the data used in the DSS to help with decisions. Some decision support systems include query language, statistical analysis capabilities, spreadsheets, and graphics that help you extract data and evaluate the results. Some decision support systems also include capabilities that allow you to create a model of the factors affecting a decision. A simple model for determining the best product price, for example, would include factors for the expected sales volume at each price level. With the model, you can ask what-if questions by changing one or more of the factors and viewing the projected results. Many people use application software packages to perform DSS functions. Using spreadsheet software, for example, you can complete simple modeling tasks or what-if scenarios. A special type of DSS, called an executive information system (EIS), is designed to support the information needs of executive management. Information in an EIS is presented in charts and tables that show trends, ratios, and other managerial statistics. Because executives usually focus on strategic issues, EISs rely on external data sources such as the Dow Jones News/Retrieval service or the Internet. These external data sources can provide current information on interest rates, commodity prices, and other leading economic indicators. To store all the necessary decision-making data, DSSs or EISs often use extremely large databases, called data warehouses. A data warehouse stores and manages the data required to analyze historical and current business circumstances. 5. Expert Systems An expert system is an information system that captures and stores the knowledge of human experts and then imitates human reasoning and decision-making processes for those who have less expertise. Expert systems are composed of two main components: a knowledge base and inference rules. A knowledge base is the combined subject knowledge and experiences of the human experts. The inference rules are a set of logical judgments applied to the knowledge base each time a user describes a situation to the expert system. Although expert systems can help decision-making at any level in an organization, nonmanagement employees are the primary users who utilize them to help with job-related decisions. Expert systems also successfully have resolved such diverse problems as diagnosing illnesses, searching for oil and making soup.

Expert systems are one part of an exciting branch of computer science called artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the application of human intelligence to computers. AI technology can sense your actions and, based on logical assumptions and prior experience, will take the appropriate action to complete the task. AI has a variety of capabilities, including speech recognition, logical reasoning, and creative responses. Experts predict that AI eventually will be incorporated into most computer systems and many individual software applications. Many word processing programs already include speech recognition. Integrated Information Systems With todays sophisticated hardware, software and communications technologies, it often is difficult to classify a system as belonging uniquely to one of the five information system types discussed. Much of todays application software supports transaction processing and generates management information. Other applications provide transaction processing, management information, and decision support. Although expert systems still operate primarily as separate systems, organizations increasingly are consolidating their information needs into a single, integrated information system.

Analytical Information
Analytical information is information that can be quantitative or qualitative and is used for decision making specifically decisions and tasks of managers. Analytical information includes all the information an organization can use comprehensively and then applies it so that it can aid managers in their analysis tasks and decision making. Analytical information's uses are many being able to identify and explain problems, uncover opportunities and ventures that the company may want to undertake, forecast growth and equity, or to identify a potential problem that the company can now avoid. Analytical information contains numerous different types of information, including transactional information, information from the market, and information from the industry the business is in. Analytical information is helpful to managers when making important ad hoc decisions such as whether the organization should take on a new venture (like a new building, investment, a new type of product that the organizatin may not be known for) or if the organization needs additional or less personnel in a certain area of the organization.

In an organization there is typically a hierarchal level of activities. Generally, transactional activitites where people perform daily tasks are around the lower level of this hierarchy. These transactional activities can be aided through the use of Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) and Transactional Processing System (TPS). On the higher end of the hierarchy is where analytical information can be and is used. This is where managers take the analytical information to help make important decisions for the organization. Managers here can also use Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) as a tool to create business intelligence and help aid the decision making process.

Examples of Analytical Information

Analytical information can take on many different forms. Examples of analytical information are: Trends (information about where the particular market is heading and if the organzation should follow the trend) Sales (information about if the organization needs to pick up sales in a particular area or if it should cut back on inventory of specific products) Rroduct statistics (information about what products may be selling the best and worst to possibly drop a product) Future growth projections (information about whether or not the company looks like it will grow, usually if it is taking on a new venture)

Examples of Analytical Information Uses

Analytical information is an integral part of decision making. It puts together all the information readily available to an organization so that it can help higher level managers and executives to make important decisions. The raw data is manipulated through analysis so that it is useful for the managers in a specific way. Analytical information can be the first step to becoming one of the many analyzing tools that managers and executives use to make decisions. Some of these analyzing tools that use analytical information are:

Cluster Analysis: This type of analysis is typically used in marketing. It takes the information, such as about customers, and analyzes it so that it can divide up and group together the ones that are similar and keeps them as close as possible. Conversely, it keeps the ones that are different as far apart as possible. Market Basket Analysis: This analyzes information from websites and checkouts and manipulates it so that it can be used to figure out customers buying trends and behavior so that it can try and predict what future behavior may be. This can be useful because it may be used to forecast how much inventory the organization may or may not need. Personalization: This can be a little similar to Market Basket Analysis however it mainly deals online and uses the information obtained form a customer online to find out what the customer likes and further offer similar products to possibly cross-sell or up-sell more of the company or organization's products. This can be useful because it obviously creates more revenue for the company or organization if it can sell more products.

quantum theory

Reprints Quantum theory is the theoretical basis of modern physics that explains the nature and behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level. In 1900, physicist Max Planck presented his quantum theory to the German Physical Society. Planck had sought to discover the reason that radiation from a glowing body changes in color from red, to orange, and, finally, to blue as its temperature rises. He found that by making the assumption that energy existed in individual units in the same way that matter does, rather than just as a constant electromagnetic wave - as had been formerly assumed - and was thereforequantifiable, he could find the answer to his question. The existence of these units became the first assumption of quantum theory. Planck wrote a mathematical equation involving a figure to represent these individual units of energy, which he called quanta. The equation explained the phenomenon very well; Planck found that at certain discrete temperature levels (exact multiples of a basic minimum value), energy from a glowing body will occupy different areas of the color spectrum. Planck assumed there was a theory yet to emerge from the discovery of quanta, but, in fact, their very existence implied a completely new and fundamental understanding of the laws of nature. Planck won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his theory in 1918, but developments by various scientists over a thirty-year period all contributed to the modern understanding of quantum theory.

The Development of Quantum Theory

In 1900, Planck made the assumption that energy was made of individual units, or quanta. In 1905, Albert Einstein theorized that not just the energy, but the radiation itself wasquantized in the same manner. In 1924, Louis de Broglie proposed that there is no fundamental difference in the makeup and behavior of energy and matter; on the atomic and subatomic level either may behave as if made of either particles or waves. This theory became known as the principle of waveparticle duality: elementary particles of both energy and matter behave, depending on the conditions, like either particles or waves. In 1927, Werner Heisenberg proposed that precise, simultaneous measurement of two complementary values - such as the position and momentum of a subatomic particle - is impossible. Contrary to the principles of classical physics, their simultaneous measurement is inescapably flawed; the more precisely one value is measured, the more flawed will be the measurement of the other value. This theory became known as the uncertainty principle, which prompted Albert Einstein's famous comment, "God does not play dice."

The Copenhagen Interpretation and the Many-Worlds Theory

The two major interpretations of quantum theory's implications for the nature of reality are the Copenhagen interpretation and the many-worlds theory. Niels Bohr proposed the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory, which asserts that a particle is whatever it is measured to be (for example, a wave or a particle), but that it cannot be assumed to have specific properties, or even to exist, until it is measured. In short, Bohr was saying that objective reality does not exist. This translates to a principle called superposition that claims that while we do not know what the state of any object is, it is actually in all possible states simultaneously, as long as we don't look to check. To illustrate this theory, we can use the famous and somewhat cruel analogy of Schrodingers. First, we have a living cat and place it in a thick lead box. At this stage, there is no question that the cat is alive. We then throw in a vial of cyanide and seal the box. We do not know if the cat is alive or if it has broken the cyanide capsule and died. Since we do not know, the cat is both dead and alive, according to quantum law - in a superposition of states. It is only when we break open the box and see what condition the cat is that the superposition is lost, and the cat must be either alive or dead. The second interpretation of quantum theory is the many-worlds (or multiverse theory. It holds that as soon as a potential exists for any object to be in any state, the universe of that object transmutes into a series of parallel universes equal to the number of possible states in which that the object can exist, with each universe containing a unique single possible state of that object. Furthermore, there is a mechanism for interaction between these universes that somehow permits all states to be accessible in some way and for all possible states to be affected in some manner. Stephen Hawking and the late Richard Feynman are among the scientists who have expressed a preference for the many-worlds theory.

Quantum Theory's Influence

Although scientists throughout the past century have balked at the implications of quantum theory - Planck and Einstein among them - the theory's principles have repeatedly been supported by experimentation, even when the scientists were trying to disprove them. Quantum theory and Einstein's theory of relativity form the basis for modern physics. The principles of quantum physics are being applied in an increasing number of areas, including quantum optics, quantum chemistry, quantum computing, and quantum cryptography.

What is enterprise application?

Answer: An enterprise application is any application that applies to an entire enterprise (accross a copy). Examples would be email solutions (such as outlook) to pay and hr systems such as Peoplesoft and SAP. An enterprise application provides the organisation a flexibilty to work with the business logic and can be handled by any type of protocal like wap,http unlike a webapplication which can be handled by a http request only. The real time enterprise applications range from online shopping, automated billing mechanisms. Every software application is not designated as an enterprise application. The software applications, which are the DNA of organizations and imbibe the business functionalities of the enterprises to catalyze their growth, are termed as enterprise applications. They not only enhance the efficiency and productivity of the organization but also help in ensuring business continuity. The software application, which imbibes complex business logic, expected to be high on performance, fortified from vulnerabilities and attack vectors, is expected to handle large volumes of data and concurrent users and scalable on need basis, easily maintainable and extendable and able to orchestrate with the overall enterprise application landscape of the organization is typically designated as an enterprise application. For more information on enterprise applications, refer to the book "Raising Enterprise Applications" (ISBN: 978-81-265-1946-0). It is going to be published in March 2010 by Wiley. Refer http://www.wileyindia.com/ and http://wileyindiablog.blogspot.com/ for more information on this book. You can also join the linkedin group http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2755209 for relevant discussions on building enterprise applications.