An information system is defined as a socio-technical system comprised of two sub-systems: a technical sub-system and a social sub-system. The technical sub-system encompasses the technology and process components, while the social sub-system encompasses the people and structure components. The critical insight from the examples introduced earlier is that for an information system to perform and achieve its objectives, all four components have to be present and working together. We now define and describe the four components of a modern information system (see Exhibit 2).


Exhibit 2: The socio-technical system