Group for Service Information Systems Engineering

WKWI and GI FB WI¹

The following statements formulate the profile of business informatics in the German-speaking world as defined by the scientific community, the members of the Scientific Commission for Business Informatics (WKWI) in the Association of University Teachers of Business Administration (VHB). (VHB) as well as the department of business informatics in the Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), is unanimously ² represented.

¹ Basis: Result of the working group „Profil der Wirtschaftsinformatik“ (2009-2011) – Schoder, D. (Sprecher); Bichler, M.; Buhl, U.; Hess, Th.; Krcmar, H.; Sinz, E.

² Unanimous resolution of the joint meeting of the Scientific Commission on Information Systems (WKWI) in the Association of University Teachers of Business Administration (Verband der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft e.V.) and the Department of Information Systems (FB WI) in the German Informatics Society (Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.). (GI) of February 18, 2011, Zurich.

The subject of business informatics are information systems (IS) in business, administration and the private sector. IS are socio-technical systems that comprise human and machine components (subsystems). They support the collection, structuring, processing, provision, communication and use of data, information and knowledge as well as their transformation. IS contribute to the decision-making, coordination, management and control of value-added processes as well as their automation, integration and virtualization under economic criteria in particular. IS can bring about product, process and business model innovations.

The goals of the scientific discipline of business informatics are:

1. the (further) development of theories, methods, and tools for obtaining intersubjectively verifiable knowledge about IS,
2. the design-oriented construction of IS as well as the necessary (further) development of concepts, procedures, models, methods, tools and (modeling) languages,
3. the achievement of a real scientific understanding of the use, acceptance, management and controllability of IS as well as of their respective system elements, for example with regard to the behavior of people in and with these systems as task bearers or users,
4. the evaluation of risk, benefit and economic efficiency dimensions in the design and use of IS, the value creation processes they change and the associated strategic and organizational effects on individuals, groups, companies, industries and economic areas, primarily based on economic science, and
5. forecasting technical and non-technical developments and effects of the use of IS.

Business informatics is an independent, interdisciplinary science. It has its roots in computer science and economics, especially business administration. Business informatics can be classified as a real science, since phenomena of reality are investigated. In particular, it bears the characteristics of an engineering science, since the design of information systems requires a construction system. Likewise, business informatics has references to the behavioral sciences, since these provide theories and methods for analyzing social reality. Information systems also contains elements of a formal science, since the analysis and design of information systems require the development and application of formal description procedures. Information Systems is not dominated by any single theory, method, or perspective. A close integration with practice for the purpose of gaining and validating knowledge is both desirable and necessary.

Information systems play an indispensable role in almost every conceivable economic, political and social context. In view of the increasing ubiquity of IT and the associated computerization of our living and working environments as well as the increasing networking of people, services and things, the range of tasks of business informatics is expanding and its importance for innovative contributions to solutions for further economic and social development is growing. The examination of the appropriate design and use of information systems in economically and socially important contexts such as resource management, energy, security, health and supply, transport, environment, production, finance, education, media, communication infrastructures, networking - defines the relevance and claim of business informatics research and teaching as well as the transfer into practice.