Types of Information Systems in a Business Organization

An information management system enables an organization to perpetually store and receive data. These kinds of systems are used throughout a business to store, for example, customer information or product information. Some of these systems, because of the size of the business, are large and hierarchical, while some are simple and exist just to make life easier for the business. The following are a few of the typical management information systems.

Many businesses will want to keep track of their customers. They might want to store email addresses, phone numbers and mailing addresses because, for example, they want to tell customers about a new product or send them the annual catalog. A business may want to keep track of how much the customer has spent with the company or how many orders the customer has placed. Some companies may just work on an order-by-order basis, or have such few clients that a customer database is unnecessary.

A business also may want to have a product system in place to store and receive product information. With product information, a business can keep track of the name of the item, its size, its weight and its price. A business may also want to keep track of items by using a product code or product number. Other information may be available for each product, such as whether it gets free shipping or has a discount during a certain sale. Information from the product database is sometimes used directly on the website or in the catalogs.

Businesses will want to keep track of their employees names, addresses and phone numbers for general contact information. They also need to keep track of employee wages and the amount of hours employees have worked. For tax purposes they need to keep track of exemptions claimed.