Management information systems

In addition to supporting business operation, information systems also support the management. Management involves making decisions and some information systems support management decision making. Information systems that support management decision making can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of business operations. A decision is a choice between 2 actions. Decisions involve uncertainty, because decision makers don’t know the outcome of their decisions ahead of time. Information can reduce uncertainty, and the more information available to the decision maker, the better the decision is likely to be. Information systems improve decision making by supplying information to decision makers. These systems take raw data, analyze it according to the desires of the user, and present it in informative ways.

Information systems support management in all business functions and at all levels. Accounting information systems provide accounting information for decision making at operational, tactical, and strategic levels. Marketing, finance, manufacturing, and other information systems also provide relevant information at various levels of the organization.

The users of management information system are managers at each of the three levels of decision making. Users request information from the system and information is returned in the form of reports and query responses. The MIS database contains data that is processed to provide information to manager. The MIS software consists of application software to manipulate the data in the database. The software accepts requests, accesses data, processes the data, and produces output. The software also updates the database as needed.

Data in the database comes from both inside and outside the organization. Some internal data may be entered by managers, but most comes directly from the stored data of transaction processing systems. Data from outside the organization comes from many sources. Periodicals, government publications, and research company reports often contain useful data. The data can be accessed by personal computers with the use of data communications, or purchased in the form of databases on tape or disk or CD.