MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM 

The subject of management information system (MIS) has different meaning for different people. The concept of MIS has evolved over a period of last two decades or so. The initial management information systems were built to process transactional data of an organization and to produce regular reports. The reports were not targeted and individuals picked the required data from the report. The information systems evolved further and produced different reports according to requirements. Instead of user looking through the report for required data, the system generated a report in a suitable format that created an impact on its user and provoked an action, a decision or an investigation. Today, an information system has evolved to the stage where they handle databases and facilitate decision-making. 

Accordingly, definition of MIS has also evolved. There are many closely related definitions in use. The terms MIS is synonymously used with terms the Information System (IS), the Information and Decision System and the Computer based Information System. 

The MIS is defined as an integrated system of man and machine for providing the information to support the operations, the management, and the decision-making function in the organization. 

The above definition emphasizes an association between MIS and decision-making. An application software that processes data, which is not used for decision-making, cannot be called an MIS. For instance, acomputer-aided design system is not an MIS. 

An MIS deals with information that is systematically and routinely collected in accordance with a well-defined set of rules. In other words, data collection is a planned activity for which resources are allocated and rules are defined. 

The information provided by an MIS assists managers in planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating, directing and controlling the operations of an organization. The management experts have viewed these steps as Management Control system. The following figure shows relationship between operations, planning and control. 

Figure-I : Management Control System

In any organization that has planned activities leading to the achievement of the stated goals, there is always a control process in place that measures progress towards these goals and enables the manager to deduct the deviations from the original plan in time. It is the responsibility of the management to take corrective actions before it is too late. The deviations may be due to environmental changes or due to the mistakes made by people. An MIS is concerned with planning and control. 

An MIS has large amount of data as its integral part that is stored and managed by a data base management system. 

An MIS must have the following features:

1) It must be capable of handling voluminous data. The data as well as transactions must be validated.

2) It must be able to perform operations on the data irrespective of the complexity of the operations. Often multi-dimensional analysis is required.

3) An MIS should facilitate quick search and retrieval of information. An MIS must support mass storage of data and information.

4) The information must be communicated to the recipient in time. Moreover, the communicated information must be relevant.