Management Information

Systems (MIS)
Definition and Examples

 Information system at the management level of an organization that serve

functions of planning, controlling and decision making by providing summary
and exception reports.
 Some examples of MIS:
 Sales management systems
 Inventory control systems
 Budgeting systems
 Management Reporting Systems
 Personnel (HRM) systems
Role of MIS

 Based on internal information flows.

 Support relatively structured decisions.
 Inflexible and have little analytical capacity. Used by lower and middle
managerial levels.
 Deals with the past and present rather than the future.
 Difference between TPS and MIS
TPS
TPS, on the other hand, performs routine operations for
supervisory executives which include storing, retrieving,
possessing creating and formatting data. The users of TPS
come on the lowermost level in the management hierarchy
while the users of MIS are the mid-level managers.
The activities performed by TPS are different from that of MIS.
The input activity involves data entry, transaction processing,
TPS file and database processing, and TPS documents and
report generation.
The input activity involves data entry, transaction processing,
TPS file and database processing, and TPS documents and
report generation.
TPS deals with raw data.
MIS
MIS provides information about internal operations to
managers for decision making, planning, and analysis. The
system helps to compare this data to facilitate decision-
making and answer questions.
TPS, on the other hand, performs routine operations for
supervisory executives which include storing, retrieving,
possessing creating and formatting data. The users of TPS
come on the lowermost level in the management hierarchy
while the users of MIS are the mid-level managers.
The activities performed by MIS are taking high volume
transaction level data as an input and then processing this
input based on simple models. The outputs of MIS are the
summary reports that are used by the middle managers.
MIS uses compressed and summarized data provided by the
TPS
Management Problems

 Most management problems, involving decisions have three elements –

objectives, decision variables and constraints.
 Objective:
 Provide earliest entry into market.
 Maximize profit
 Minimize employee discomfort / turnover.
 Decision variables:
 Determine what price to use.
 Determine length of time tests should be run on a new product/service.
 Determine the responsibilities to assign to each worker.
Management Problems

 Constraints:
 Can't charge below cost.
 Test enough to meet minimum safety regulations.
 Ensure responsibilities are at most shared by two workers.
Types of decisions
 Structured Decision:

 Structured decisions are those which are made according to specified procedures of rules or structured
decisions are those that are easily made from a given set of inputs.

 Deciding to send a reminder notice to a customer for an overdue balance is considered to be structured
decision.

 Semi-structured Decision:

 Semi-structured decisions are those for which information obtained from a computer system or information
system is only a portion of the total knowledge needed to make decision.

 Advertise a new product or how much spend on MIS.

 Unstructured decisions are novel.

 There is no cut and dried method for handling the problem because it hasn't arisen before or because it's
precise nature and structure are mysterious or complex, or because it so important that it deserves a
custom tailored treatment.

 They may require a lot of creativity and intuitions from the decision maker to tell what factors will come into
play in an unstructured play.

 Deciding whether to use an integrated or intensive strategy for a product that is the star quadrant of the
BCG matrix.

 How successful to improving market size was the recent marketing campaign.
Decision Support Systems

 Information system at the management level of an organization that

combines data and sophisticated analytical models or data analysis tools
to support semi structured and unstructured decision making. E.g. sales
region analysis [OLAP system]
 Characteristics of Decision-Support Systems:
 DSS offer users flexibility, adaptability and a quick response.
 DSS provide support for decisions and problems whose solutions cannot be
specified in advance.
 DSS use sophisticated data analysis and modelling tools.
 Decision support system (DSS) tends to be used in planning, modelling, analysing
alternatives and decision making by using small, simple models which can easily
be understood and used by the manager.