INFS2001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: General Ledger, Complex Analysis, Operations Management
3 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
INFS2001 WEEK1
The Info Environment
Info = business resource (good quality info reflects current status of buss
important decisions)
Operations management: uses info to make decisions about day-to-day operations
Middle management: short-term planning and coordinating activities (necessary to
have good quality info)
Top management: longer-term planning and setting org obj.
External users: trading partners and stakeholders (e.g. shareholders)
Graphical representation of information environment (pyramid)
*day-to-day operations involves customers and suppliers (essential to have foundation
of info)
Goal
Support day to day operations
Management decision making
Stewardship (supervising) function of management
IS framework
IS
Transaction (trans)
Financial trans: economic event that affect the A and E of the org, reflected in its
accounts and is measured in monetary terms. E.g. sales of product, purchase of
materials
Nonfinancial trans: e.g. managing and monitoring staff, designing a product etc
Graphical representation of IS framework
*IS as the generic concept of all at the top
*breaks down into AIS and MIS
Financial/nonfinancial info IS INFO user decisions
AIS
: processes fin and some nonfan trans.
3 Subsections
1. Trans processing sys (TPS): reports daily buss operations
Conversion of eco events into fin trans
Records fin trans in the acc records
Distributes fin info to support operations
*support other buss operations
2. General ledger/fin reporting sys (GL/FRS): produces reports for all levels in the
org (daily senior management); set strategy and understand the directions
of the buss
Updates general ledger control acc (tracking the current buss state)
Nondiscretionary (mandatory) reporting requirements
3. Management reporting sys (MRS): decision making (top, middle/tactical, day
to day operations)
Internal info needed (specification of the sys is guided by the managers
themselves), discretionary reporting
MIS processes nonfin trans not processed by the AIS.
General model for AIS
*Data collection: from both external (e.g. info about customers) and internal sources
of data (e.g. payment made by customers, relationship w/ suppliers)
*external end users: e.g. customer, suppliers
End users
External users: creditors, stockholders, gov agencies, suppliers, customers
Internal users: management and operations personnel
*Distributes essential fin info to support operations
Data
: may/may not be processed and no direct effect on a user’s actions
e.g. details about customers (name, address, contact details)
Info
: causes a user to take an action that would otherwise not have been taken
e.g. fact that the customer has not yet paid the invoice ( send reminder to the
customer; action)
Data sources
: fin trans (produces data) that enter the IS form internal/external sources
Stages of General model for AIS
1. Data collection: first operational stage
Obj: info accuracy and validity. E.g. customer’s purchase; should be able to
gather all the info needed
Only relevant data should be captured
Efficient collection procedures (only capture once, changes recorded only)
2. Data processing: simple complex
Simply recording the trans understanding/using trans data to make
complex analysis
Document Summary
Info = business resource (good quality info reflects current status of buss important decisions) Operations management: uses info to make decisions about day-to-day operations. Middle management: short-term planning and coordinating activities (necessary to have good quality info) Top management: longer-term planning and setting org obj. External users: trading partners and stakeholders (e. g. shareholders) *day-to-day operations involves customers and suppliers (essential to have foundation of info) Financial trans: economic event that affect the a and e of the org, reflected in its accounts and is measured in monetary terms. Nonfinancial trans: e. g. managing and monitoring staff, designing a product etc. *is as the generic concept of all at the top. Financial/nonfinancial info is info user decisions. 3 subsections: trans processing sys (tps): reports daily buss operations. *support other buss operations: general ledger/fin reporting sys (gl/frs): produces reports for all levels in the org (daily senior management); set strategy and understand the directions of the buss.
