Systems Analysis

DEVELOPING BUSINESS SYSTEMS


Personal businesses in the Philippines such as street stores or home retail shops can get away with one or three personnel manning the store. Transactions are localized and there is no need for a complex business structure. Too much for a sari-sari store to employ formalized accounting software or websites. But as the business grows and reaches customers beyond cities or territories it is inexpensively convenient to employ information technology like the Web. How will global companies keep expanding into new countries with all consumers sites updated in the local language without bordering on the impractical? How can companies know which information systems to spend with giving them the most return from each cent?

There is a way and it is a problem-solving process called the systems approach. When system approach is applied to the development of information systems solutions to business problems, it is called information systems development or application development. The analysis of problem involves the following interrelated activities: 1. Recognize and define a problem or opportunity using systems thinking. 2. Develop and evaluate alternative solutions 3. Select system solution that best meets the requirements. 4. Design the selected system solution. 5. Implement and evaluate the success of the designed system.

Using systems thinking to understand a problem or opportunity is one of the most important aspects of the systems approach. It is being able to see the interrelationship of the components rather than linear cause and effect. It is modeling the process of change rather than getting still “snapshots” of change whenever they occur. Systems thinking can be illustrated through the sales process of a business.

There are many approaches to systems analysis and the “life cycle” approach is the most common. There are five steps in the life cycle approach based on the stages of systems approach:
System investigation –Feasibility Study
Systems Analysis – Functional Requirement
Systems Design – System Specifications
Systems Implementation - Operational System
Systems Maintenance – Improved System

Systems analysis can be applied in business as well as in my personal life. It summarizes how problems should be systematically approached in order to devise a comprehensive solution. It lets someone be on top of the case and efficiently solve problems in non-disruptive ways as may be required. As a student, systems analysis will not only improve my academic performance but will allow me to balance it with my social and extracurricular life. By carefully analyzing, scheduling and placing control methods combined with feedback mechanism I can develop a routine realistic enough to be followed. Unlike linear routines that have to be followed strictly, system analysis can give me a dynamic approach to my schedules and activities allowing it to improve as time goes by hence making it more useful.

Social Media

Several years ago when we were about to enter college, my friend set up his first online blog site and it became an instant hit with my other batchmates. Others followed soon.
Here are just some of the many social media that my classmates started to use about then:
Networking: Facebook. Friendster
Blogs: Livejournal, Xanga, Blogger
MicroBlog: Twitter, Plurk.. and many others.
Others also use Youtube as a way of posting personal opinions with the aid of videos. They create their own Youtube accounts and narrate (monologue) their own emotions, adventures or express it in creative forms using video elements inciting opinion and action.
My friend is a prolific writer, a computer whiz and a great traveler in his own country. It was during first year that I start to notice how these online diaries created a new way of experiencing people and their ideas even though we do not see them as often anymore. Though he studied in Singapore and we never met for almost 5 years it is as if I am walking beside the person along with his adventures every time I read his blog. There he talked about his daily school encounters abroad, his passions, emotions and great experiences. He talks about movie, local politics and essays. He publicizes his stands on issues regarding our country. He keeps on posting countless photos, videos and links that become flooded with comments each day. He is one of our popular classmates and up to now he comes to our attention time and time again unlike the others who seemed to have been lost simply because they failed to keep their online diaries.
The web has now become the only feasible environ I have known to once again feel the presence of my busy acquaintances. Gone were the times where old friends meet along the way and with great enthusiasms “slap” each other’s hands in excitement. Today we meet people everyday in our cars, malls, or in the very comfort of our own homes anytime. Online blogs have virtually empowered people with virtual ubiquity.
At first I thought blogs are just another fancy tools people use to make themselves popular. But later in my college life I noticed how business establishments utilize these kinds of social networking and web based social media in order to promote their products or sell ideas. They even used their blog sites to sell products and become hubs or trade centers.
Setting aside the business perspective, there is another very important role social media played in our country for the past year. During the height of “Ondoys” wrath blogs and networking sites became indispensable in saving lives. They became good sources of timely information, cheap and considerable reliable.
Social media has its advantages from making money, informal learning and sharing opinions. It is a media designed to disseminate through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. With regards to its significance it supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. One notable example is Wikipedia. With Wikipedia’s many online technologies it is able to set up a very useful information database that is being updated very often at an impressive rate by thousands of tens of thousands of authors around the world.
Hence social media is not just another fad we would soon get over with but is a very important tool for us to share information in times of disaster and peace and even breathe life to our everyday experience allowing others to conveniently enjoy what we experience in this busy days.