Management Information System: Definition

Lecture 1

Management Information System: Definition

 

MIS (management information systems) is a general term for the computer systems in an enterprise that provide information about its business operations. It's also used to refer to the people who manage these systems. Typically, in a large corporation, "MIS" or the "MIS department" refers to a central or centrally-coordinated system of computer expertise and management, often including mainframe systems but also including by extension the corporation's entire network of computer resources.

The MIS program is intended to be the first step in a life-long learning experience in the exciting and dynamic field of information technology. It provides a strong foundation for advancement and success in IT careers and ventures.

 

Basically, Management Information Systems is the study of the use of computers in business. This course shows students how Information Systems are used to support critical business operations and achieve strategic objectives. The elements or corporate technology are studied and its application to specific business situations is discussed. Students develop a small information system using Microsoft Access and use Excel as a decision support tool.

In the beginning, business computers were used for the practical business of computing the payroll and keeping track of accounts payable and receivable. As applications were developed that provided managers with information about sales, inventories, and other data that would help in managing the enterprise, the term ‘MIS’ arose to describe these kinds of applications. Today, the term is used broadly in a number of contexts and includes (but is not limited to): decision support systems, resource and people management applications, project management, and database retrieval applications.

What is Management Information System?

 

Management Information System is a general name for the academic discipline covering the application of information technology to business problems.

As an area of study it is also referred to as Information Technology Management. The study of information systems is usually a commerce and business administration discipline, and frequently involves software engineering, but also distinguishes itself by concentrating on the integration of computer systems with the aims of the organization. The area of study should not be confused with computer science which is more theoretical in nature and deals mainly with software creation, and not with computer engineering, which focuses more on the design of computer hardware. IT service management is a practitioner-focused discipline centering on the same general domain.

In business, information systems support business processes and operations, decision-making, and competitive strategies.

Purpose & Scope of Management Information System

 

The Purpose and Scope of MIS can be defined as “The combination of human and computer based resources that results in the collection, storage, retrieval, communication and use of data for the purpose of efficient management of operations and for business planning”.

 

In order to get a better grip on the activity of information processing, it is necessary to have a formal system which should take care of the following points:

v Handling of a voluminous data.

v Confirmation of the validity of data & transaction.

v Complex processing of data and multi-dimensional analysis.

v Quick search & retrieval.

v Mass Storage.

v Communication of the information system to the user on time.

v Fulfilling the changing needs of the information.

The management information system uses computers and communication technology to deal with these points of supreme importance.

Role of Management Information System

 

The role of the MIS in an organisation can be compared to the role of heart in the body. The information is the blood and MIS is the heart. In the body, the heart plays the role of supplying pure blood to all the elements of the body including the brain. The heart works faster and supplies more blood when needed. It regulates and controls the incoming pure blood, processes it and sends it to the destination in the quantity needed. It fulfills the needs of blood supply to human body in normal course and also in crisis.

The MIS plays exactly the same role in the organisation. The system ensures that an appropriate data is collected from the various sources, processed, and sent further to all the needy destinations. The system is expected to fulfill the information needs of an individual, a group of individuals, the management functionaries: the managers & the top management.

The MIS satisfies the diverse needs through a variety of systems such as Query Systems, Analysis Systems, Modelling Systems and Decision Support Systems. The MIS helps in Strategic Planning, Management Control, Operational Control and Transaction Processing.

Impact of the Management Information System

 

Since the MIS plays a very important role in the organisation, it creates an impact on the organisation’s functions, performance and productivity.

 

The impact of MIS on the functions is in its management. With a good MIS support, the management of marketing, finance, production and personnel becomes more efficient. The tracking and monitoring of the functional target becomes easy.

The MIS creates another impact in the organisation which relates to the understanding of the business itself. The MIS begins with the definition of a data entity and its attributes. It uses a dictionary of data, entity and attributes, respectively, designed for information generation in the organisation.

The MIS calls for a systemisation of the business operations for an effective system design. This leads to streamlining of the operations which complicate the system design. It improves the administration of the business by bringing a discipline in its operations as everybody is required to follow and use systems & procedures. This process brings a high degree of professionalism in the business operations.

Since the goals and objectives of the MIS are the products of business goals & objectives, it helps indirectly to pull the entire organisation in one direction towards the corporate goals and objectives by providing the relevant information to the people in the organisation.

Learning Objectives of MIS

 

v Identify the changes taking place in the form and use of decision support in E-business enterprises.

v Identify the role and reporting alternatives of management information systems.

v Describe how online analytical processing can meet key information needs of managers.

v Explain the decision support system concept and how it differs from traditional management information systems.

v Explain how executive information systems can support the information needs of executives and managers.

v Identify how neural networks, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms, virtual reality, and intelligent agents can be used in business.

Give examples of several ways expert systems can be used in business decision-making situations.

Historical Development

The role of business information systems has changed and expanded over the last four decades.

In the incipient decade (1950s and '60s), “elecsystems” could be afforded by only the largest organizations. They were used to record and store bookkeeping data such as journal entries, specialized journals, and ledems” were used to generate a limited range of predefined reports, including income statements (they were called P & L’s back then), balance sheets and sales reports. They were trying to perform a decision making support role, but they were not up to the task.

 

By the 1970s “decision support systems” were introduced. They were interactive in the sense that they allowed the user to choose between numerous options and configurations. Not only was the user allowed customizing outputs, they also could configure the programs to their specific needs. There was a cost though. As part of your mainframe leasing agreement, you typically had to pay to have an IBM system developer permanently on site.

The main development in the 1980s was the introduction of decentralized computing. Instead of having one large mainframe computer for the entire enterprise, numerous PC’s were spread around the organization. This meant that instead of submitting a job to the computer department for batch processing and waiting for the experts to perform the procedure, each user had their own computer that they could customize for their own purposes. Many poor souls fought with the vagaries of DOS protocols, BIOS functions, and DOS batch programming.

As people became comfortable with their new skills, they discovered all the things their system was capable of. Computers, instead of creating a paperless society, as was expected, produced mountains of paper, most of it valueless. Mounds of reports were generated just because it was possible to do so. This information overload was mitigated somewhat in the 1980s with the introduction of “executive information systems”. They streamlined the process, giving the executive exactly what they wanted, and only what they wanted.

The 1980s also saw the first commercial application of artificial intelligence techniques in the form of “expert systems ”. These programs could give advice within a very limited subject area. The promise of decision making support, first attempted in management information systems back in the 1960s, had step-by-step, come to fruition.

The 1990s saw the introduction of the Strategic information system. These systems used information technology to enable the concepts of business strategy developed by scholars like M. Porter, T Peters, J. Reise, C. Markides, and J. Barney in the 1980s. The sustainability of these applications has since been called into question by N. Carr, which Piccoli and Ives, among others, have countered.

The role of business information systems had now expanded to include strategic support. The latest step was the commercialization of the Internet, and the growth of intranets and extranets at the turn of the century.

 

 

Lecture 1

Management Information System: Definition

 

MIS (management information systems) is a general term for the computer systems in an enterprise that provide information about its business operations. It's also used to refer to the people who manage these systems. Typically, in a large corporation, "MIS" or the "MIS department" refers to a central or centrally-coordinated system of computer expertise and management, often including mainframe systems but also including by extension the corporation's entire network of computer resources.

The MIS program is intended to be the first step in a life-long learning experience in the exciting and dynamic field of information technology. It provides a strong foundation for advancement and success in IT careers and ventures.

 

Basically, Management Information Systems is the study of the use of computers in business. This course shows students how Information Systems are used to support critical business operations and achieve strategic objectives. The elements or corporate technology are studied and its application to specific business situations is discussed. Students develop a small information system using Microsoft Access and use Excel as a decision support tool.

In the beginning, business computers were used for the practical business of computing the payroll and keeping track of accounts payable and receivable. As applications were developed that provided managers with information about sales, inventories, and other data that would help in managing the enterprise, the term ‘MIS’ arose to describe these kinds of applications. Today, the term is used broadly in a number of contexts and includes (but is not limited to): decision support systems, resource and people management applications, project management, and database retrieval applications.