Week 2 Prg/211

Business information systems or just Information System deal with the concepts, development, introduction, maintenance and utilization of systems for computer-assisted information processing within companies and enterprise-wide networks. A long-term goal for information systems is to automate anywhere in the enterprise and in the economy where a task may be executed by a computer systems at least as well as by a person. Major types of Information systems include structural databases and information management software.

Information systems basically consist of three components. They are the human being (in other words, the user of the information system), the task and the application system. In this context, the term information system is defined in terms of the three levels of semiotics. 

It is easier to process data automatically with the help of an application system which corresponds to the syntax level. The syntax level is defined as the first level of semiotics in terms of which an information system is defined. In the context of an individual user of an information system who interprets the data, they become information which corresponds to the semantic level. The semantic level is defined as the second level of semiotics in terms of which an information system is defined. 

Information turns to knowledge when an individual knows or understands and evaluates the information (for instance, the information for a specific task). This corresponds to the pragmatic level. The pragmatic level is defined as the third level of semiotics in terms of which an information system is defined.