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Traditional Information Systems
Transaction processing system (TPS)
Transaction processing was one of the first business processes to be computerized, thereby producing a system known as the TPS. The TPS serves as a foundation for the other information systems that may be present in an organisation (discussed later.) TPSs perform routine operations or transactions; e.g. customer orders, purchase orders, receipts, etc. The amount of support for decision making that TPSs directly provide managers and workers is low. These systems require a large amount of input data and produce a large amount of output without requiring sophisticated or complex processing. The TPS may be based on the functional structure of the organisation and may comprise, for example, order entry, inventory control, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, etc. The input data are the basic business transactions mentioned earlier (e.g. customer orders, purchase orders, receipts, time cards, invoices, and payroll checks.
The two basic types of TPSs based on the processing type are batch processing system whereby business transactions are kept over a period of time and prepared for processing as a single unit or batch. The essential characteristic of a batch processing system is that there is some time lag between the moment the transaction occurs and the time it is processed and the organisation’s record updated.
Available computer technology now also allows the transaction to be processed on-line in real time (OLTP, on-line transaction processing). Each transaction is processed immediately, and the system immediately updates the records affected by that single transaction.
The principal purpose of TSSs is to answer routine questions and to track the flow of transactions through the organisation.
TSSs are routinely