Question

Now that this course has taken you on a journey of introduction to the world of management information systems, it is time to reflect back on the concepts and topics presented in this course. The purpose of this activity is to give you an opportunity to present your overall understanding of how MIS solutions impact and assist businesses in their day-to-day operations, decision-making, and strategic planning. Your fellow students, while not obliged to do so, will be able to review your data and post comments in responses as in the other discussion activities.

Answer 1

The Management Information system (MIS) has a variety of definitions. However, it is basically a computerized, processing system that generates insights for the management and enables it to fulfil the information needs of an organisation as well as assist in making appropriate decisions to achieve corporate objectives. It’s used to analyse and facilitate strategic and operational activities - i.e. how individuals, groups, and organizations assess, design, implement, manage, and use their information systems to generate information, in order to improve the effectiveness & efficiency of decision making.

Hardware, Software, Data, Procedures (design, development and documentation) and People (individuals, groups, or organizations) are its five primary components. The MIS can be seen as an assembly of many subsystems (either at the functional or corporate level) that involve data collection, transaction, processing, validating, analysing and recording in multiple databases. Some commonly used systems within the MIS are Query Systems, Modelling & Decision Support Systems, Analysis Systems etc.

Points on Assistance-

• Clerical Staff
  • Assists in processing transactions
  • Answers questions on specific data
  • Provides crucial linkages and references on a variety of documents etc.
• Junior Management
  • Provides operational data for planning, scheduling and control
  • Aids decision making in chaotic, uncontrolled situations
  • Provides routine production reports that help in making structured decisions.
• Middle and Top Management
  • Aids with short and long term planning and target setting
  • Helps in plotting strategies and implementing them
  • Provides a structured knowledge base for all stakeholders
• Overall, it helps in generating information, enabling better communication and coordination and identifying, analysing and solving problems. It enables managers to disseminate information, provide liaisons between organisational levels and allocate resources effectively.

Points on Impact-

• Organisational functions, performance and productivity improve with a better understanding of the business situation
  • MIS helps in delivering correct, real-time data to decision makers.
  • Management of personnel becomes more efficient across all departments (marketing, finance, operations etc.)
  • It becomes easy to track and monitor functional goals.
  • Managers are always informed about the progress, achievements and shortfalls in team performance
  • Forecasting and long term perspective planning becomes easier.
• Enables organisations to create new products, services and business models
• Allows for Customer and Supplier Intimacy
  • Analysing and acting on information regarding customer preferences/grievances etc. allows for better customer relationship management. It fosters customer loyalty and enables repeat purchase.
  • Similarly for suppliers, the more the business engages with them, the more they can provide their vital inputs.
• Provides a Competitive Advantage
  • Achieving the above goals (viz. operational excellence, newer products, better business models, customer and supplier intimacy), leads to a competitive advantage over rivals in the marketplace. This is because, having achieved these objectives, the firm's able to do things better, cut its costs and charge lesser for superior products, accomplish greater sales and profits etc..
• Essential to Survival
  • MIS systems/solutions are the necessities of survival. Being and remaining Profitable and Competitive are the basis of survival in the marketplace. We can see from the points above, how crucial the role of the MIS is in these areas.
  • The MIS constantly interacts with the internal and external business environments to gauge changes in the needs of information and deliver corrective mechanisms to meet them effectively. In other words, it keeps transforming with the constantly changing landscape of technology, management and business processes.
    • For example, with the coming of cloud computing, Big Data, the mobile digital platform etc., Businesses now have a more flexible collection of networked computers with major business applications being delivered online (eg: Saas). Insights are being sourced from web traffic (social media content, emails etc.) that need new data management tools/skills to capture store and analyse information etc..