The Importance Of Operational Information Systems For Organizations

The key components of a charity can be categorised as fundraising money, whether by collecting donations, selling charitable products and distributing aid in all forms and locations. Sense and respond involves determining problems and developing systems to solve such problems (Stair, et al., 2015), which can be extremely useful. The types of system which are beneficial for organisations are operational information systems, management information systems, decision support systems and knowledge support systems. By implementing these systems with data, charities can be more productive and therefore optimise their decision making.
Operational information systems (OIS) refer to the interconnected databases and applications implemented for the ongoing,

For example, AidMatrix, a non-profit organisation in the United States, owns several disaster response warehouses which were effective in providing relief for Hurricane Katrina (Shifrin, 2005). The ability to utilise resources quickly and transfer them to the required area is something a DSS can support charities with. The 1984 Ethiopian draught which led to the famine which killed over 200,000 people (Milner, 2000) saw some Western countries donate large quantities of dry food which were useless without water, which was in scare supply after the draught. Information systems such a DSS could provide donating charities with key information in the wake of a disaster to make a decision on the optimal aid to provide. For example, in the case of the famine in Ethiopia, western charities providing clothing when food is scarce is not the optimal solution. Furthermore, a DSS could support a decision on where the aid is best sourced from in relation to the disaster, once again in the case of Ethiopia the majority was either flown or shipped from the west, as opposed to buying the required aid from a neighbouring African