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.
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.
Management information systems help managers to plan, organise and make decisions.
These systems can provide managers with a variety of information or support, such as
easy to- understand tables, responses to direct queries, graphical output, output resulting from the
input of a ‘what if’ scenario or even a warning signal as a result of data exceeding a set limit.
Typical systems could include:
- A comprehensive database holding all the different types of information processed by the
organisation that regularly provides managers with ready-made reports
- The analysis and comparison of data in the database over a period of time to provide
information in graphical form about items such as sales, purchases, wages or stock levels
- Warning signals to indicate that decisions are required, such as low stock levels,
expenditure exceeding income, numbers of faulty products exceeding expectations
- Daily calculation of productivity levels by analysis of costs and output
- Monthly graphs of price comparison with competitor goods or services resulting from
regular market research
- Audio and visual warnings when incoming orders exceed production capacity
- A model of the organisation that enables ‘what if’ queries to be input to forecast the
effects of issues such as policy decisions, market conditions, production rates, VAT or
tax changes
You will need to be able to study organisations to determine:
- What information it relies on
- How it processes that information
- Whether a management information system would be useful
- What specific purpose it could serve
- The information necessary to enable it to operate
- How the ICT system could best provide the management information
required
