Monday, June 22, 2009

Management Information Systems

MIS
MIS short for Management Information System is one of our courses that must be completed and passed this school year, 2009-2010. On the 18th of June 2009, this was introduced by our facilitator, Dr. Randy S. Gamboa who happened to be our facilitator in the college previous years specifically in the courses Analytic Geometry and Probability & Statistics respectively. Upon realizing that he is our facilitator, I was thankful because I already have an idea on what he really is in school. So, I don’t have to really adjust in his strategy. However, he told us some changes in our class. He said that we don’t have to have quizzes, lon quizzes and exams. We only have to post a blg throughout the semester.

As an overview, Dr. Gamboa taught that the word “management” implies that someone has to be managed and it has the following components which are the panning, directing, organizing and controlling. Also, he discussed the main equation of Information System which goes like this: IS=HW+SW+PW, where IS stands for Information System, HW for Hardware, SW for software and PW for Peopleware, respectively. In the flow of our first class, he also gave our first blog assignment which comprises this reflection in MIS, IS Leadership Roles according to Computer Science Corporation and the Managerial Roles according to Henry Metzberg.

Upon reflecting about MIS, I came with this blog entry. From the words Management Information System (MIS), I can simply understand it as system for the information needed in a management. When I searched in the internet, I found these following definitions. In Wikipedia, An 'MIS' is a planned system of the collecting, processing, storing and disseminating data in the form of information needed to carry out the functions of management. Another meaning states that MIS is an information system, typically computer based that is used within an organization. According to Philip Kotler “A marketing information system consists of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely and accurate information to marketing decision makers.” Another says MIS is a computer system, usually based on a {mainframe} or {minicomputer}, designed to provide management personnel with up-to-date information on an organization's performance, e.g. inventory and sales. These systems output information in a form that is useable by managers at all levels of the organisation: strategic, tactical, and operational. A good example of an MIS report is an annual report for a stockholder ( scheduled report). [Que's Computer User's Dictionary Second Edition, 1992]. (2001-04-01). Professor Allen S. Lee states that "...research in the information systems field examines more than the technological system, or just the social system, or even the two side by side; in addition, it investigates the phenomena that emerge when the two interact." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_information_systems)

Upon examining the term MIS, I observed many important things. One of these is that you should not rearrange the letters in the acronym MIS nor rearrange the words in Management Information System such as “Information Management System” for surely it affects its meaning. When you say Information Management System, it means the IBM's premier transaction & hierarchical database management system. The term system in MIS implies order, arrangement and purpose. In a common sense, these really have different senses. Another is that you should not use data in place of the word information because these two are also different in a restricted manner. Data merely means symbols or unprocessed instructions while information is the processed data in order to be useful. The information can be used for various purposes: strategic planning, delivering increased, productivity, reducing service cycles, reducing product development cycles, reducing marketing life cycles, increasing the understanding of customers' needs, facilitating business and process re-engineering. Also, you should not confuse the terms MIS and IS or information system for the latter includes system that aren’t intended for decision making which the former doesn’t. In addition, MIS is sometimes referred to as Information Technology Management which is again, shouldn’t be confused with Computer Science because IT and CS distinguishes each other.

Going deeper with MIS, you could learn its application, benefits, core competencies and others. The development and management of information technology tools assists executives and the general workforce in performing any tasks related to the processing of information. As mentioned, MIS is especially useful in the collation of business data and the production of reports to be used as tools for decision making. Some of the important applications of MIS are in the fields of strategy support and data processing. MIS systems can be used to transform data into information useful for decision making, provide a valuable function in that they can collate into coherent reports unmanageable volumes of data that would otherwise be broadly useless to decision makers and can also use these raw data to run simulations – hypothetical scenarios that answer a range of ‘what if’ questions regarding alterations in strategy. Not only do MIS systems allow for the collation of vast amounts of business data, but they also provide a valuable time saving benefit to the workforce. The field of MIS can deliver a great many benefits to enterprises in every industry. Expert organizations such as the Institute of MIS along with peer reviewed journals such as MIS Quarterly continue to find and report new ways to use MIS to achieve business objectives. Every market leading enterprise will have at least one core competency. MIS systems provide the tools necessary to gain a better understanding of the market as well as a better understanding of the enterprise itself. Within companies and large organizations, the department responsible for computer systems is sometimes called the MIS department.


MIS can also be used across the organization as an information utility to support policy making, meet regulatory and legislative requirements, support research and development, support consistent and rapid decision making, enable effective and efficient utilization of resources, provide evidence of business transactions, identify and manage risks, and evaluate and document quality, performance and achievements.

References:
(http://en.allexperts.com/q/Managing-Business-1088/management-information-system.htm)
(http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/management-information-system.htm)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_information_systems)

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