INTRODUCTION TO MIS…

 WHAT IS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY?

 Information technology refers to the variety of

items and abilities that are used in

 the creation,
 storage, and
 dispersal of information.
INTRODUCTION TO MIS…
 Information technology is divided into three
primary components:

 computers,
 communications networks and
 know-how
INTRODUCTION TO MIS…
 Computers:
 An electronic system that can be instructed to
 accept,
 process,
 store and
 present data and information.
 Computers come in four different sizes:
 Microcomputers/pc,
 midrange/minicomputers,
 mainframes, and
 supercomputers.
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 Communication Networks:

 A communication network is the interconnection

of stations at different locations through a medium
that enables people to send and receive data and
information.
 Telephone wires and cables are common
communications media.
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 Know How:
 It means to do something well.
 Know how includes:
 Familiarity with the tools of IT;
 The skills needed to use these tools;
 Understanding when to use IT to solve a problem or
capitalize on an opportunity.
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 THE PRINCIPLES OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
 The most important principle of information technology describes
the purpose of IT.
 The purpose of information technology is to
 solve problems,
 to unlock creativity and
 to make people more effective than they would be if they did not
involve IT in their activities.
 An equally important principle of information technology, states
that
 the more you rely on advanced technology, like information
technology, the more important it is to consider the “high-touch”
aspects of the matter --- that is, “the people side.”
 A related principle stresses that:
 we should always fit information technology to people, rather than
ask people to adjust to information technology.
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 THE FUNCTIONS OF INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY
 What exactly can IT do?
 IT performs six information handling functions:
 capture,
 processing,
 generation,
 storage,
 retrieval, and
 transmission.
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 THE BENEFITS OF INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY
 Computers and communication systems
collectively offer four benefits to users:
 speed,
 consistency,
 precision, and
 reliability
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 ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN OUR LIVES
 Assignment: How are the following affected by IT?
 The home
 Shipping
 Paperwork
 Money and Investments
 Agriculture
 Taxation and Accounting
 Education
 Training
 Travel
 Health and Medicine
 Manufacturing
 Journalism
 Energy
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 THE CAREER SIDE OF INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY

 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AS A CAREER

 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AS AN AID TO
YOUR CAREER
BASIC CONCEPTS IN MIS

 MIS is a concept that combine

 Management,
 Information and
 System
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1. Management
 For the purpose of this course, management may be defined as
the processes or activities that describe what managers do in
the operation of their organization with regards to planning,
organizing, initiating, and controlling these operations.

 They plan by setting strategies and goals, and selecting the best
course of action to achieve the plan.
 They organize the tasks necessary for the operational plan,
 Set these tasks up into homogeneous groups, and assign authority
delegation.
 They control the performance of the work by setting performance
standards and avoiding deviations from standard.
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 Informed decision making plays a vital role in
each of these activities. And hence the need for
MIS.

 The job of MIS is to facilitate decisions necessary

for
 Planning
 Organizing and
 Controlling the work and functions of the business
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 To understand the role played by MIS, it helps to
understand the process of decision making in an
organization.

 Classification of decision making by organizational level

provides:-
 Strategic decision making
 Determines the objectives, resources, and policies of the
organization
 Management control decision making
 Primarily concerned with how efficiently and effectively resources
are used and how well operational units are performing.
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 Operational control decision making
 Determines how to carry out the specific tasks set forth by
strategic and middle management decision makers.

 Knowledge-level decision making

 Deals with new ideas for products and services, ways to
communicate new knowledge, and ways to distribute
information through out the organization.
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 Each of the above types of decision making can further be
classified into:-
 Structured decision
 Unstructured decision

 Structured decision are repetitive and routine and involve a

definite procedure for handling them so that they do not have to
be treated each time as if they were new.

 Unstructured decisions are those in which the decision maker

must provide judgment, evaluation, and insights into the problem
definition. There is no well-understood or agreed upon procedure
for making these decisions.

 There are information systems which are developed to support

each of these types of decisions.
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Four stages in decision making (Simon 1960)
 Intelligence
 consists of identifying and understanding the problems occurring
in the organization
 Design
 the decision maker designs alternative solutions to the problems
 Choice
 choosing among alternative solutions
 Implementation
 Putting the decision into effect

 How does MIS support each of these stages in decision

making?
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 Decision making models
 Individual models for decision making
 Based on the assumption that human beings are in some
sense rational

 Organizational models for decision making

 Takes into account the structural and political
characteristics of the organization
 Bureaucratic, political, garbage can models are used to
describe how decision is reached in organizations.
 Assignment
 Describe each of the models
 Bureaucratic,
 Political and,
 garbage can
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 To satisfy the requirements of decision making at the various levels,
information systems should have the following characteristics:-

 Be flexible and provide many options for handling data and evaluating
information.

 Be capable of supporting a variety of styles, skills and knowledge.

 Be powerful in the sense of having multiple analytical and intuitive models for
the evaluation of data and the ability to keep track of many alternatives and
consequences.

 Reflect understanding of group and organizational processes of decision

making.

 Be sensitive to the bureaucratic and political requirements of systems

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2. Data, information, knowledge, and wisdom

DATA
Data is raw material for information. Data may be available in the following
types.

Text
Graphic
Image
Animation
Audio
Video

The availability of data in these various types have led to the notion of
multimedia, multimedia database, and multimedia information systems.

Information is processed data that is used for decision making.

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 INFORMATION
 Information may refer to any of the following as used in our day to day
conversation:-
 Information as a commodity
 This refers to an item in a book, in someone’s head, in a corporate file, or a statistic
 When information is regarded as a commodity, it often assumes economic value
 “information (or knowledge) is power” refers to this usage of information
 Information as energy
 It is regarded as a quantifiable physical entity whose presence or absence can be
verified experimentally
 Example: The information provided by sound waves emitted by a school bell
 Information as communication
 To be informed is the result of communication, or information transfer
 Information as facts
 How many weeks is it since the start of classes? How many weeks are there before
the mid-semester exams? How many students are there is his class?
 When the term information is used in this way, it does not necessarily mean that
there is any implied or actual use of the fact
 Information as data
 The symbols OF-27-13-1 are data. They could mean anything or nothing. In the
context of an item registration form, they become an identification number- a fact
 Information as knowledge
 Information is often used interchangeably with knowledge
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 The late scholar Fritz Machlup (1983) carefully assessed the
different meanings associated with information.

 Something one did not know before.

 A clue.
 Something that affects what one already knows
 How data are interpreted.
 Something useful in some way to the person receiving it.
 Something used in decision making.
 Something that reduce uncertainty.
 The meaning of words in sentences.
 Something that provides more than what is stated.
 Something that changes what a person who receives it believes or
expect.
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 KNOWLEDGE
 Knowledge includes the capability of evaluating information
in some meaningful or powerful way.
 It is a cognitive state beyond awareness.
 It is deduced, not simply sensed.
 WISDOM
 Wisdom implies the application of knowledge as contained
in human judgment centered around certain criteria or
values that are generally accepted by the culture or society.
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 Some comparisons between information and knowledge.
(Machlup, 1983 in Tague-Sutcliffe, 1995)

 Information is piecemeal, fragmented, particular, whereas

knowledge is structured, coherent, and often universal.

 Information is timely, transitory, whereas knowledge is of

enduring significance.

 information is flow of messages, whereas knowledge Is a stock.

 Information is acquired by being informed, whereas knowledge

can be acquired by thinking.
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 Assignment
 Start from a given set of data and show how this
may be transformed to become.
 Information
 Knowledge
 Wisdom