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2. Almost isolated from the broader discussion among the interna-
tional IS community, a growing number of universities in continental
Europe, foremost
in German-speaking countries, offer and discuss
study programs in business informatics. In 2006 a panel at the 14th Eu-
ropean Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 06) discussed grand
challenges in common across Europe concerning education and re-
search in business informatics. The discussion was focused on the im-
portance of core subjects, teaching mode, and research topics within the
discipline from a management, information systems,
and informatics
perspective. The discussion showed that education in information sys-
tems is very diverse, with different streams in information systems; on
the one hand a technology-, engineering- and method-orientated per-
spective and on the other hand a business- and management-orientated
focus. At the 16th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS
08) a meeting with academics from various countries was held discuss-
ing aspects of business informatics. The discussion emphasized the en-
gineering characteristics of business informatics in contrast to the man-
agerial oriented stream of information systems.
3. Within the business informatics community, broad agreement
exists that business informatics shows numerous similarities to the dis-
cipline
of information systems; however, there are some particular
characteristics that make business informatics a discipline in its own
right. First emerging in the 1970s as a technology-oriented course in
business, over the last decade it became an accepted field of research
and study. As a
stream of information systems, business informatics
focuses on business information systems as socio-technical systems
comprising both machines and humans.
4. However, business informatics combines and complements ex-
plicitly the domains of informatics and business studies. Informatics is
primarily concerned with the technology of information and communi-
cation systems, while business studies focuses on management func-
tions. Business informatics aims to support
business functions by ap-
plying informatics principles and technologies.
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5. Business informatics is concerned with the concept, develop-
ment, implementation, maintenance and utilization of business infor-
mation systems. Business informatics also includes the management of
information systems while it emphasizes the relationship between hu-
mans, business functions, information and communication systems, and
technology. Defined
as a science discipline, business informatics is
generally categorized as
•
applied science that studies real world phenomena,
•
formal science that creates and applies formal description meth-
ods and models,
•
engineering discipline that systematically designs and constructs
information and communication systems. Therefore business informat-
ics is an interdisciplinary subject .It can
be summarized as a socio-
technological and business-oriented subject with
engineering penetra-
tion.
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