Vikrant Kshirsagar 278 div C Assignment 5

MIS is the use of information technology, people, and business processes to

record, store and process data to produce information that decision makers can
use to make day to day decisions. The full form of MIS is Management
Information Systems. The purpose of MIS is to extract data from varied sources
and derive insights that drive business growth.

The need for MIS

The following are some of the justifications for having an MIS system

 Decision makers need information to make effective

decisions. Management Information Systems (MIS) make this possible.
 MIS systems facilitate communication within and outside the
organization – employees within the organization are able to easily access
the required information for the day to day operations. Facilitates such as
Short Message Service (SMS) & Email make it possible to communicate
with customers and suppliers from within the MIS system that an
organization is using.
 Record keeping – management information systems record all business
transactions of an organization and provide a reference point for the
transactions.

Components of MIS
The major components of a typical MIS long-form (Management Information
System) are:

 People – people who use the information system

 Data – the data that the information system records
 Business Procedures – procedures put in place on how to record, store and
analyze data
 Hardware – these include servers, workstations, networking equipment,
printers, etc.
  Software – these are programs used to handle the data. These include
programs such as spreadsheet programs, database software, etc.

Development of Management Information Systems

If you are attempting to develop your own MIS from scratch, you may want to start with a
pen and paper or a whiteboard to begin the process of collecting information for your
database. You should list all of the departments that are within your company. Make sure
to include departments that you may develop in the future.

For example, if you are currently not a large enough company to have an HR department,
you should still include human resources in your management information system. Once
the information is in your MIS’s language, it can process reports for your human resources
team once your company is large enough to require one. You want to include everything
that you can think of when you are pulling departments. Do you have administrators for
divisions or departments?

Determining Access Clearance and Reviewing

Once you have every department outlined to the best of your abilities, then you can begin
to work on access clearance. The best MIS allows employees of various levels to generate
reports that can assist them in their day-to-day operations. You want to ensure that the
data provided to lower-level managers can help them succeed without confusing them.
Regular check-ins with your staff will be invaluable during your MIS development.

Additionally, one of the most important steps in designing management information

systems is to review your work with a group of people that also have a stake in your
company. The people who review information from the MIS could be anyone from
stakeholders to your regular line employees. You want the people who are looking at this
information to provide you with insight. The reviewers should help you find out what data
is missing for them, as well as suggest redundant or unnecessary information.

Finalizing Your Operational Plan

After a complete review, you will finalize your operational plan. The plan outlines what
data will be collected, how that data is collected and how often it is pulled. Your
operational plan should explain how data will be processed and how to preserve sensitive
data. The MIS employees who will have critical roles in accessing and maintaining your
database should also be listed.

 Proper Planning — Your system must have research behind it, so it can take a long time to
ensure that your MIS planning is complete. 
 Management of Information — Remember that your management information system will
need to manage your inputs, codify and store data in specific places and generate reports.

 Support — Any good MIS provides support for management in regards to planning and
critical decision-making data. 

System Design and Outsourcing

Unless you are comfortable with your data basing skills, you will need to hire a developer
or software designer to set up your MIS. The system designer will take strategic actions
based on the information that you’ve collected for them. The next step in the process is
your development strategy.

Your system designer will select an approach to developing your MIS. When we discuss
the “approach", what we mean is how the system will understand your queries and how
to store data. You can think of it in terms of operations over function or analytics over
accounting, depending on what is important to you.

The designer also needs to know what resources they have available to them to assist in
the build of your management information system. Do you have in-house programmers,
or will you need to have contractors brought on-site? Once the language and resources
are understood, the developer can then begin programming in data priority rankings.

Information System Requirements

There are numerous ways to go about developing an MIS for your company. The ways to
determine what your requirements are for improving your management information
system are also called methodologies. While you are also able to develop your processes,
there are several common ways to plan systems you might choose to follow.

IBM’s Business Systems Planning

Also known by the acronym BSP, this methodology has been developed by IBM and
focuses on the identification of the “IS” priorities of your organization. Using IBM’s
system, you will be focusing on data architecture and establishing relationships between
like sets of data.

MIT’s Critical Success Factor

Otherwise known as CSF, this methodology was developed by John Rockart. Instead of
focusing on the “IS” part of your business, CSF focuses on key business goals and develops
strategies for each manager’s level. To tell if the Critical Success Factor is working, the
system should be able to suggest courses of action that you have deemed to be successful.

University of Minnesota’s End/Means (E/M) Analysis

Developed by Davis and Wetherbe, this methodology determines the effectiveness of
output criteria. E/M also determines the efficiency criteria for output generation. E/M
works by first figuring out the outputs provided by the business processes.

After it understands the information, the system will describe how to make these outputs
useful for its end-user. After that, it will inform you what information it needs to evaluate
the output’s effectiveness.

System Testing and Operation

Before you roll your management information system out for employee use, you must test
it. As with most databases, unless you are extremely comfortable testing the system, don’t
attempt it. A data basing professional will be able to check the language and ensure that
your system performs the way that you need. Once the system is operational and tested,
you should run a final check of essential issues, including data security, backup and
recovery, systems controls and documentation.

Data Security, Backup and Recovery

The more information that you collect on your customers, the more secure you need your
system to be. You should also prepare for any catastrophic failures in your system. To
prepare for faults, you need a robust backup and recovery protocol.

Some companies backup their systems annually, others backup by the minute. It depends
upon the size of your company and your chosen industry.

Systems Controls for MIS

To test the systems controls of your MIS, you need to run all available levels of reports to
ensure that they work. The hardware and software should be able to meet processing
requirements. Your system should have a response time that will be maintained by the
database professionals.

Documentation in Your MIS

Documentation is an essential aspect of allowing your employees to access the database
that took time and money to develop. Documentation typically comes in the form of user
guides, reference materials for commands and a system manual that explains the
architecture of your database.

Once you have a fully operational management information system, you need to have it
consistently monitored. Maintaining best practices for your industry may mean that you
update your database on a set schedule. You should also be agile enough to keep up with
projected changes in technology such as Windows updates or bug patches.
Rapid Access to Information
Managers need rapid access to information to make decisions about strategic, financial, marketing and
operational issues. Companies collect vast amounts of information, including customer records, sales
data, market research, financial records, manufacturing and inventory data and human resource
records. However, much of that information is held in separate departmental databases, making it
difficult for decision-makers to access data quickly.

A management information system simplifies and speeds up information retrieval by storing data in a
central location that is accessible via a network. The result is decisions that are quicker and more
accurate.

Decisions Based on Latest Information

Management information systems bring together data from inside and outside the organization. By
setting up a network that links a central database to retail outlets, distributors and members of a
supply chain, companies can collect sales and production data daily, or more frequently, and make
decisions based on the latest information.

Teams Can Collaborate

In situations where decision-making involves groups, as well as individuals, management information
systems make it easy for teams to make collaborative decisions. In a project team, for example,
management information systems enable all members to access the same essential data, even if they
are working in different locations.

Interpret Results Efficiently

Management information systems help decision-makers understand the implications of their decisions.
The systems collate raw data into reports in a format that enables decision-makers to quickly identify
patterns and trends that would not have been obvious in the raw data.

Decision-makers can also use management information systems to understand the potential effect of
change. A sales manager, for example, can make predictions about the effect of a price change on sales
by running simulations within the system and asking a number of “what if the price was” questions.

Ease of Presentation
The reporting tools within management information systems enable decision-makers to tailor reports
to the information needs of other parties. If a decision requires approval by a senior executive, the
decision-maker can create a brief executive summary for review. If managers want to share the
detailed findings of a report with colleagues, they can create full reports and provide different levels of
supplementary data.