Management Information Systems, Assessment Example

The field of management information systems (MIS), being almost entirely computer-based, is always evolving at the direction of ever-faster technology and the economics that govern the production costs of that technology. What only the largest enterprises could afford is soon available to the smallest, where expectations will still exceed realities (Ericson, J. (2010).

Theoretically there can be a different kind of information system for each specialized activity within an organization, and in the largest enterprises there are. Consider five categories within a single system with three classic inputs: 1) marketing information management leading to 2) sales data-streams linked to 3) warehousing or inventory updated in real time by 4) supply chain management technology with its own demands and needs, all overseen by 5) executive systems following a hierarchy of decision-making within each of those departments. These systems will often have either intentionally shared responsibilities or inadvertently overlapping ones. The three common inputs are variables + events + decisions: changing marketing data + met sales-, expense-, and profit-goals ₊meetings = the ongoing existence of the enterprise.

Which system is the most important to an organization will depend primarily on its size and mission, but in general, the more people there are, the more systems will be needed. The first, core purchase is probably going to a transaction processing system (TPS), which, although debatably outside the field of MIS, might be modified to act on variables and help make decisions, somewhat in the way that a spreadsheet can also be used as a database, and a database programmed to decide Yes or No following guidelines set advance by the owner. Prices are set, purchases recorded at point of sale, inventory updated at the end of the day, personnel productivity is monitored by sight, commissions calculated and paychecks sent biweekly, bills paid monthly and taxes paid quarterly. An MIS investment would follow success of this model.

References

Ericson, J. (2010). Net Expectations. Retrieved from http://www.information-management.com/issues/20_1/net-expectations-10016922-1.html