Page 26 - Information Management 3rd Edition

Information Management
2.3 What is a system?
A system is a series of subsystems consisting of interrelated methods, procedures and routines that help achieve a well-defined goal or perform a specific task. It is an organised structure consisting of people, components, entities, etc. which influence and affect one another.
While procedures are fixed, repetitive and sequential activities that are performed to correctly perform or accomplish a specific task, a method is the manner or way in which each step of a procedure is performed. A system could also be seen as a procedure, process, method or course of action designed to achieve a specific result. All the components and interrelated steps work together for the good of the whole.
Subsystems are functioning components or sections of a larger system. A subsystem can also be regarded as a system, depending on how it is viewed.
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Figure 2.1 shows an illustration of a basic system (the administrative function) with all its components.
Figure 2.1
Administrative subsystem The administrative function as a system
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You can also look on the Internet at many different diagrams and examples of not only office systems, but all types of systems. Let us use the business as an example. The business as a whole can be seen as a system. The subsystems of this system (the business) would be the different functional areas of information, human resource, finance, operations, etc. Within each of these functions or subsystems you will find procedures according to which specific task must be done. You could also find methods within or as part of the procedures, explaining the manner or way in which each step of a procedure is performed. Taking this concept even further, each function could also be seen as a system on its own with the different subsystems. Let us take the information management function as a system which could have data processing, systems analysis, programming, facilities, network operations, user assistance and research as its subsystems. It could even be the
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Methods within each procedure subsystem Procedures within each section’s subsystem
Sections within the administrative subsystem
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