A Management Information System is an information system that is used to generate accurate, timely and organized Information for decision-making.
Today the need for updated information has become inevitable to arrive at an effective decision in all walks of life. Whether it is industry, commerce, defense, education, banking, economics and politics, information is needed everywhere.
The Management Information System (MIS) is an integrated man-machine system that provides information to support the planning and control functions of managers in an organisation.
MIS plays more important role in today's environment because a manager has to take decisions under two main challenges:
i). Due to liberation and globalisation , an organisation has to compete not only locally but globally also. Therefore, a manager has to take quick decision, otherwise, his business will taken away by his competitors.
ii). In this information age wherein information is doubling up every one to two years, a manager has to process a large voluminous data; failing which he may end up taking a wrong decision that may prove to be very costly to the organisation.
Hence, today MIS is considered to be of paramount importance. MIS helps decision makers by provide information at various stages of decision-making and thus greatly help the organisations, to achieve their pre-determined goals and objectives.
The Information can be used by manager and other users to decision making and problem solving.
Definitions are
According to Schwartz
MIS is system of people, document, equipment, procedure and communication that collects, validates, operates on transformer, stores, retrieves, and present data for use in planning, budgeting, accounting, controlling and other management process.
According to Thomas R. Prince
MIS is a computer based network, containing one or more OS(Operating Systems), provides relevant data to management for decision making and also contains the necessary mechanism for implement changes of response made by management in the decision-making.
Components of MIS
Management Information System(MIS) is an acronym of three words, viz. Management, Information and System. The cope and purpose of MIS is better understood if each part of the term MIS explained in detail separately.
Management
Management is a process of achieving an organisation's goals and objectives by judiciously making use of resources of men, material, machines, money, methods, messages and moments (the last two in the context of information being a vital resource to the manager/ decision-makers).
Various functions of managements are:
1. Planning: Planning is making of a decision on what has to be done and when, by whom and how it has to be done.
Planning is a process of foreseeing the future in advance. It bridges a gap between where we are and where we want to be.
2. Organizing: Organizing is the process of dividing work into convenience tasks or duties of grouping such duties in the form of posts of delegating authority to each so the work is carried out as planned. Organizing function involves the process of
i). determining and defining specific activities that are necessary to accomplish the planned goals;
ii). grouping the activities in a logical pattern or structure;
iii). assigning the activities to specific positions or the people;
iv). delegating authority to these positions or people.
3. Staffing: Staffing is the process of putting the right person at the right job. This function involves activities like defining the requirements with regard to the people for the job to be done, selecting suitable persons for these positions and training and developing them to accomplish their tasks as effectively as possible.
4. Directing: After plannig, organising and staffing, the manager has to tell the subordinates as how they have to perform the functions. The subordinates should know organisational policies, objectives organisation structure, various individuals in the organisation authority and responsiblility structure, various which is helpful in performing the activities.
5. Controlling: Controlling involves the process of visualising whether the activities have been or are being performed in same way as envisaged in the plans because any deviation will result inefficiency in the organisation.
i) fixing appropriate standard for measuring work performance;
ii) comparing actual and planned work;
iii) finding variances between the two and reasons for the variance;
iv) taking corrective actions.
Control keeps a check on other functions for ensuring successful functioning of management.
Information
Information is well-organized data which we get after processing of data, numeric data and it helps in decision making. It is processed data that is organized, meaningful, and useful.
Thus, information in its unprocessed form is called data, which is generated as a by-product of transactions taking place in the organization. Information, on the other hand, is processed data and has an element of surprise, Information reduces uncertainty and triggers action.
System
A system is an array of components that work together to achieve a common goal, or multiple goals, by accepting input, process it, and producing output in an organized manner. Basically there are there major components in every system are : input, processing and output.
