MIS basics

Management information Systems (MIS), sometimes referred to as Information Management and Systems, is the discipline covering the application of people, technologies, and procedures — collectively called information systems — to solving business problems. Management Information Systems are distinct from regular information systems in that they are used to analyze other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization. Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information management methods tied to the automation or support of human decision making. There are many elements to Management Information Systems (MIS). These the basic fundamentals:

*Data - The data input to the system must be as accurate as it can be, subject to its costs and timescales for capture. It should then be stored in the most logical way. This often differs from how the data is input. The data then needs to be summarised to create information in a way that best meets the needs of the systems users - this may not necessarily be the most logical way or the easiest or cheapest for the IT team.

*People - People are involved both in capturing the data and in exploiting the information. It is important to motivate those who capture the data by highlighting the value that the exploited data brings to the organisation.

*Hardware - In a small organisation, the MIS may run on just the sales or finance director’s PC. In larger businesses, it usually runs on a server, shared or dedicated, with Internet or intranet access for those who need it. It is unusual to require specialised software.

*Software - the simplest MIS can be built using standard software. However, most MIS use specialised software, which has the most common features of an MIS already built in. The developer configures this by describing the database and its structure, where the data comes from, how to summarise the data and what standard queries will be required. The cost of this software varies widely. The cheapest offers limited functions for one PC. The most expensive is highly functional, providing high performance and many features for hundreds or thousands of users and vast amounts of data.

Without these things effective MIS system would be forfeit to many problems, including Information flaws, which if exploited and proved to be wrong could bring about harsh fines from publishing false information (fraud).

References

*http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/management-information-system.htm