Briefly describe three different levels in an organization and ...

[beccaep]

Briefly describe three different levels in an organization and the different categories of information systems that support them.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What is a distributed architecture? Why is it used so much for integrated systems such as ERP?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[lgoldst9]

Answer to Question 1

At the bottom of the organizational hierarchy are all the operating systems and database applications which the IT staff have to use in order to do their jobs. Line managers and operations staff also have to have access to Transaction Processing Systems which every organization needs to record transactions such as sales orders and purchase orders. At the highest level of the organization, executives use Executive Support Systems to get a graphical view of how the organization is performing. Other important systems include Office Automation Systems for clerical staff, Management Information Systems for mid-level managers, and Decision Support Systems which are designed for Knowledge Workers.

Answer to Question 2

The current systems being developed are based on the distributed architecture. This architecture depends on complex networks of client machines and servers linked up over a variety of networks. It combines features of both the centralized and decentralized architectures in that each user has a powerful machine and local resources, but can also access a wider variety of powerful applications and data stored on the more powerful servers on the network. This kind of architecture was crucial to the development of integrated systems such as ERP because they helped link up users in different functional areas and gave them better access to common data and applications. They were also cheaper and more scalable so more servers could be added to the system as needed.