1 Management Information Systems Definitions of Management Information Systems

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Management Information Systems

Definitions of Management Information Systems

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I. Definitions

• A. Management: What is management?

• B. Information: What is information?

• C. Systems: What are systems?

• D. What is an Organization

• E. Information Systems: What are Information Systems?

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I. Definitions (continued)

• F. Information Processing Systems:

• G. Management Systems

• H. Management Information Systems: What are They?

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II Management Information Systems

• I. MIS as an evolving concept

• J. Levels of management:

• K. What do information systems do?

• L. MIS and Organizational Fit

• M. MIS as a Discipline

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• A. Management: What is management?– Planning– Organizing– Leading– Controlling

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Management: What is management?

• 1. Planning– Goal setting

– Environmental scanning

– Forecasting

– Data collection

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• 2. Organizing– Staffing

– Coordinating

– Delegating

– Understanding

– Procedures/ Policies

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• 3. Leading– Authority

– Motivating

– Directing: Delegation of responsibilities

– Supervising

– Negotiation

– Persuading

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• 4. Controlling: Resources- Money (capital), manpower (people), materials, machines, movement (Distribution, flow), and Information

– Measuring

– Evaluating

– Reporting

– corrective action

– feedback

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• 5. Communicating: Goals/Objectives and standards of desirability

– Informing

– Persuading

– Negotiation

– Corrective action

– Listening

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• B. Information: What is information?– 1. Data (raw material)– Alpha-numeric – Symbolic

• Stored facts

• inactive (they exist)

• technology based

• gathered from various places

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Information: What is information?

– 2. Processed data• meaningful• perceived value• motivating action• HAS SURPRISE VALUE• HAS NEWS VALUE• Presented facts• active (it enables doing)• business based (Domain based)• transformed from data

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– 3. Model• entity

• attribute

• relationship

– 4. Reduces Uncertainty?– 5. Reduces Equivocality?

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– 6. Knowledge/Power– 7. Send/Receive Messages– 8. A definition: Information is data that has

been processed into a form that is meaningful to the recipient (USER) and is of real or perceived value in current or prospective actions or decisions.

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Transforming Data Into InformationTransforming Data Into Information

Data InputsData Inputs Information OutputsInformation Outputs

Capture

Manipulation

Storage

Provision of Accessat User Location

ExternalData

InternalData

Information System

Query Response

Decision Outcome

Expert-System Advice

Transaction Document

Report

OrganizationEnvironment

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• C. Systems Concepts:

• 1. What are systems?• a. input-process-output, an orderly

arrangement of interdependent ideas or constructs (ABSTRACT SYSTEM)

• b. a set of elements which operate together to accomplish an objective (PHYSICAL SYSTEM)

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Systems Concepts

• c. Network: An Integrated environment for a specific set of tasks

– A definition of a system: A physical system is a set of components (subsystems or elementary parts) that operate together to achieve a common objective (or multiple objectives).

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Systems Concepts

• d. General Model of a System: Input, process and output.

– The features which define and delineate a system from its boundary. The system is inside the boundary and the environment is outside the boundary.

– a system is composed of subsystems

– Examples: stereo system, PC, automobile.

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Systems Concepts

– The interconnections and interactions between the subsystems are the INTERFACES.

– Example of a system: An information system:

– subsystems: PC Monitor, PC software, PC hard disk, User.

– What is the boundary between the software and the User?

– Figure Z 10.1 & Z 10.2

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System

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A System: A Black Box or General ViewA System: A Black Box or General View

System

EnvironmentEnvironment

Inputs Outputs

Constraints

Objectives

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

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A System and its SubsystemsA System and its Subsystems

EnvironmentSystem

Interconnection

Subsystems(components)

Constraints

Inputs Outputs Objectives

System Boundary

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SYSTEM INTERDEPENDENCE

BUSINESSBUSINESS

StrategyStrategy

RulesRules

ProceduresProcedures

ORGANIZATION ORGANIZATION INFORMATION SYSTEMINFORMATION SYSTEM

INTERDEPENDENCEINTERDEPENDENCE

SOFTWARESOFTWARE

HARDWAREHARDWARE

DATABASEDATABASE

TELE-TELE-COMMUNICATIONSCOMMUNICATIONS

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• Information Systems– What are Information Systems?

• 1. Information (another definition): an increment in knowledge.

– Information relies on the context of the question– .general knowledge of the recipient.

• 2. Informal information: interpersonal networking– Note: Informal information and other information may not lend

itself to computerization, yet!

• 3. Formal information: Organized information with a specific purpose following rules and procedures (highly structured)

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Information Systems

– Zwass, f1.2, p14

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• Information Processing Systems:– 1. An information system in many respects is a

closed system, it is simply the code.– 2. An information processing function

frequently needs data collected and processed in a prior period.

– 3. The data/information storage is added.

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• G. Management Systems– 1. Primary function(s) mediate between the

organization and the immediate task environment.

• customers

• suppliers

• processes

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Management Systems

– 2. What do managers do?• assume responsibility

• must balance competing goals

• be a conceptual thinker

• work with and through other people

• be a mediator

• must be a politician

• must be a diplomat

• makes difficult decisions

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Management Systems

– 3. Management is the work involved in combining and directing the use of resources to achieve

• particular purposes

• Leading

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Management Systems– 4. What distinguishes mgmt from other work is

that it focuses on maintaining the organization so that it can accomplish its task

• POSDCORB

• Planning

• Organizing

• Staffing

• Directing

• Coordinating

• Reporting

• Budgeting

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• Management Information Systems– What are They?– 1. Definition: A Management Information

system is:• an integrated user-machine system

• for providing information

• to support the operations, management,

analysis, and decision making functions

in an organization

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• The system utilizes

a) Computer hardware & software

b) Manual procedures

c) Models of analysis, planning, control,

decision making and

d) a database.

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– 2. Computer based means that the designers of a MIS must have knowledge of computers and of their use in information processing.

– 3. The USER-MACHINE means that the systems designer should understand the capabilities of humans as system components (as information processors) and the behavior of humans as users of information.

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– 4. Integration: A plan. Should eliminate: redundancy, incompatible hardware & software. Achieved through standards, guidelines and procedures.

– 5. Database: A order system for storing. retrieving and selecting information.

– 6. Models: A mathematical representation of an actual system, containing independent variables that influence the value of a dependent variable (text book). Models may be thought of as containing only the essentials of the real system.

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Management Information Systems• I. MIS as an evolving concept

– 1. MIS: Many companies are now using their computers to provide information for decision making; that is, they are using a management information system.

– 2. MIS can provide managers with information in a usable form.

• A MIS is a Formal Information network using computers to provide management information for decision making

• The goal of MIS is to provide the correct information to the appropriate manager at the right time in a useful from.

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MIS as an evolving concept

Successful MIS must provide information that can be applied:

• MIS should known who the users are

• MIS should provide the information the user needs

• MIS should provide the information in the format the user can understand.

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NEW OPTIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN

• FLATTENING ORGANIZATIONS• SEPARATING WORK FROM LOCATION• INCREASING FLEXIBILITY• REFINING ORGANIZATIONAL

BOUNDARIES• ELECTRONIC COMMERCE• REORGANIZING WORK FLOWS

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• Levels of management: In order to understand who the users of an MIS are and what information they need, one must first understand the levels of management and the types of decisions that are made at each level.

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Levels of management

– 1. Lower level management makes decisions that affect day to day operations.

• Programmed decisions that are predetermined by rules and procedures. They lead to a desired result.

• The information needs of lower-level managers can be met by administrative data processing activities.

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– 2. Middle-level managers plan working capital, schedule production, formulate budgets, and make short-term forecasts.

• Mid-level managers make tactical decisions that usually involve time periods of up to two years.

• Many Mid-level management decisions are non-programmed decisions. No specific predetermined steps can be followed to each solution.

• The information needs of Mid-level managers must be specific.

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– 3. Top-level managers provide direction for the company by planning for the next five years +.

• Top-level managers make strategic decisions that involve a great deal of uncertainty.

• Top-level management decisions are non-programmed decisions.

– 4. Today ( ) Strategic and Management levels are combined. Why?

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Management Information Systems• What do information systems do?

– 1. Transaction processing: Operational data processing

• Examples: Manufacturing systems, order processing, accounts receivable, payroll

– 2. Management Reporting Systems: Produce reports for specific time periods; designed for managers responsible for specific functions in a firm.

• Examples: Departmental expense reports, performance reports

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What do information systems do

– 3. Decision Support Systems (DSS): Designed to support individual and collective decision making.

– 4. Executive Information Systems (EIS): Support the work of senior executives (via themselves or an analyst) with access to company data and general information on the industry and economy.

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What do information systems do

– 5. Office Information Systems (OIS): Support and coordinate knowledge work in an office environment by handling documents and messages in a variety of forms- text, image, voice, multimedia, video, fax, etc

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• L. MIS and Organizational Fit

- There has to be a logical fit between the MIS used in an organisation and the organisational goals.

531.101.10

INPUT OUTPUTPROCESS

FEEDBACK

INFORMATION SYSTEMINFORMATION SYSTEM

FUNCTIONS OF AN INFORMATION SYSTEMFUNCTIONS OF AN INFORMATION SYSTEMFUNCTIONS OF AN INFORMATION SYSTEMFUNCTIONS OF AN INFORMATION SYSTEM

ORGANIZATIONORGANIZATION

ENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENT

Customers Suppliers Customers Suppliers

Regulatory Regulatory Stockholders CompetitorsStockholders CompetitorsAgenciesAgencies

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Structure of a Virtual Organization - Network Organization

Structure of a Virtual Organization - Network Organization

Virtual Organization

Customers

Core FirmCore FirmManagementMktg & SalesRes. & Dev.

Info.Systems

Manu-facturing

Manu-facturing

Manu-facturing

After-SaleService

Logistics

Firms Acting asCorporate Partners

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• M. MIS as a Discipline– Zwass, fig 1.6, p23 (Zwass, 1992)– Zwass, fig 1.7, p24 (Zwass, 1992)

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VIRTUAL ORGANIZATION

1.161.16

CORECORE

COMPANYCOMPANY

LOGISTICSLOGISTICS

COMPANYCOMPANY

DESIGNDESIGN

COMPANYCOMPANY

MANUFACTURINGMANUFACTURING

COMPANYCOMPANY

FINANCE COMPANYFINANCE COMPANY

SALES & MARKETINGSALES & MARKETING

COMPANY COMPANY

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CHALLENGE OF INFO SYSTEMS

• STRATEGIC: COMPETITIVE & EFFECTIVE• GLOBALIZATION: MULTINATIONAL INFO• INFO ARCHITECTURE: SUPPORT GOALS• INVESTMENT: VALUE OF INFORMATION• RESPONSIBILITY & CONTROL: ETHICS

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WHAT YOU CAN DO ON THE INTERNET

• COMMUNICATE & COLLABORATE

• ACCESS INFORMATION

• DISCUSSIONS

• OBTAIN INFORMATION

• ENTERTAINMENT

• BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS

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CONCLUSION

MIS is vital to decision making in any and every business organisation.

Documents

1 Management Information Systems Definitions of Management Information Systems