MIS - Organization

Management Information Systems (MIS) should be designed, viewing the organization as

discussed earlier. MIS design should give due weight age to the human side of the
organization and its culture. The task and technology are the physical aspects of the
organization which can be ascertained very easily. But culture and people are very
difficult to assess from the design point of view. The structure of the five sub-systems
should be considered while designing the MIS. MIS design should give reports in line
with the organization structure. This means that the main decision makers and the power
centers must be recognized in the MIS.

If the organization works on a standardized system where rules, policies, systems and
procedures have been laid down, then these become part of the MIS. The processing
routines in the MIS incorporate these features as an integral part. This is safe as it has
already been approved by the management of the organization. Along with the
information, if the decision making responsibilities are also clearly defined and allocated,
then the MIS can produce information reports by processing the data and summarizing
the results in line with the decision maker’s position in the structure.

If the basic model of the organization is modified as a product or a project organization

system, then the MIS should focus on the management of product or project where the
concerned manager has a composite responsibility of planning and control of the multiple
functions. Besides these functions, he has to know the status of the other support
functions.

The information should be such that it highlights the trouble spots and shows the
interconnection with the other functions. It must summarize all information relating to the
span of control of product or project manager. The MIS should be able to cater to the
view of the product or the project manager and also of the top management.

If the organization culture provides sufficient incentive for efficiency and results, the
MIS should support this culture by providing such information which will aid the
promotion of efficiency. If the culture encourages delegation of power and authority, then
the MIS should incorporate the decision making rules in the system.
The organization system is an open system and MIS should be so designed that it
highlights the critical business, operational, technological and environmental changes to
the concerned level in the organization, so that the action can be taken to correct the
situation. The principle of the feed forward control should be extensively used as a
design feature to provide a prior warning to the decision maker.

The design of the MIS, in isolation from organizational factors, is destined to fail as it
just does not fit into the structure. Since organization systems in the business differ for
various reasons such as the leadership style, the management style, culture and group of
people as a body and so on, it is difficult to evolve a standard model of the MIS for a
business and / or an industry.

MIS plays a very important role in creating organization behavior which in turn sets the
goals for achievement. Technology and people decide the organization structure and style
of the management.
Management information systems (MIS) are used to help companies review business
information and make decisions. An MIS exists outside the regular technological system
because the MIS combines many parts of business information to aid managers. Internal
and external information is gathered through the MIS for management to use when
reviewing business operations.

Definition
1. A Management Information System (MIS) is the method a company uses to
obtain reliable information regarding their business operations. The MIS should
not be concerned with can the information be retrieved but how and what should
be retrieved so management can make effective decisions. Once information is
provided through the MIS, decisions can be made regarding the effectiveness of
business operations. Proper MIS reporting utilizes the best technology and
enhances information flow from each department in the company.

Technology
2. Many MIS systems contain a technological piece that helps management gather
information quickly and accurately regarding each division in the company.
Internal information is gathered using the current information technology used in
the company; external information is gathered using the MIS, which uses
technology to obtain external information relevant to company operations. Both
sources of information will be used to review company operations and make
company decisions.

Project Management
3. Some companies will create special project management positions to aid in
developing their MIS for decision making. Project managers will learn how
information can best be gathered and reported in the company for management.
Information is only relevant if it can be gathered in a timely manner and contains
information that management will find useful in decision making. Project
managers will review all aspects of a company for how to best gather information
for the MIS.

System Administration
4. Once the project managers have completed their research, the MIS will be
implemented into the decision making system. System administrators are
responsible for maintaining the integrity of the system and ensuring that the
information continues to flow through the MIS. Administrators will also review
the MIS and discover if any new information should be included in the MIS flow.
 Administrators will also help communicate decisions from management to each
department in the company that needs to improve or expand operations.

Decision System
5. A decision system is the process company management uses upon reviewing the
information gathered by the MIS. Making decisions is critical to a company's
success and future growth opportunities. Decision systems are designed according
to the management style of the company and how many managers will participate
in the decision process. Allowing more managers to participate in the decision
helps create a strong consensus from the reported information, ensuring a greater
success from each decision.

Increase Productivity
6. Outside of increasing the effectiveness of management decisions, an MIS is built
to increase the overall productivity of the company. Better information allows for
companies to change inefficient operations and improve production methods and
service functions. Increasing productivity helps companies

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Suppose you are the Chief Manager in a distribution firm, how will you implement MIS
in the organization?

If I will the Chief Manager in a distribution firm, I will implement MIS in the
organization through many ways.

Implementation of MIS

The choice of the system or the sub-system depends on its position in the total MIS plan,
the size of the system, the user understands of the system and the complexity and its
interface with other systems. The designer first develops systems independently and starts
integrating them with other systems, enlarging the system scope and meeting the varying
information needs.

Determining the position of the system in the MIS is easy. The real problem in the degree
of structure, and formalization in the system and procedures which determine the timing
and duration of development of the system. Higher the degree of structured ness and
formalization, greater is the stabilization of the rules, the procedures, decision making
and the understanding of the overall business activity. Here, it is observed that the user’s
and the designer interaction are smooth, and each other’s need are clearly understood and
respected mutually. The development becomes a methodical approach with certainty in
input-process and outputs.

MIS is generally used by medium and larger scale organizations. However, small
organizations are yet to understand its application. There is dire need to build up
computer culture by properly disseminating information about computer applications and
its benefits.

Implementation of MIS can be achieved by using any of the methods such as direct,
parallel, modular or phase in.

• Direct Approach

Direct installation of the new system with immediate discontinuance of the old existing
system is reffered as “cold turnkey” approach. This approach becomes useful when these
factors are considered.

1. The new system does no replace the existing system.

2. Old system is regarded absolutely of no value
3. New system is compact and simple.
4. The design of the new system is inexpensive with more advantages and less risk
involved.

• Parallel Approach

The selected new system is installed and operated with current system. This method is
expensive because of duplicating facilities and personal to maintain both the systems. In
this approach a target date must be fixed when the operations of old system cease and
new one will operate on its own.

• Modular Approach

This is generally recognized as “Pilot approach”, means the implementation of a system

in the Organization on a piece-meal basis.

This has few advantages / merits

1. The risk of systems failure is localized

2. The major problem can be easily identified and corrected before further
implementation.
3. Operating personal can be trained before system is installed in a location.

• Phase-in-Implementation

This approach is similar to modular method but it differs because of segmentation of

system, however, not the organization. It has advantages that the rate of changes in a
given Organization can be totally minimized and the data processing resource can be
acquired gradually over a period of time. System exhibits certain disadvantages such as
limited applicability, more costs incurred to develop interface with old system and a
feeling in the Organization that system is never completed.

Implementation Procedures

• Planning the Implementation

After designing the MIS it is essential that the organization should plan carefully for
implementation. The planning stage should invariably include the following:

1. Identification of tasks of Implementation

Planning the implementation activities, acquisition of facilities, procedures development,

generating files and forms, testing the system and evaluating and maintenance of the
system.
2. Relationship establishment among the activity

Network diagram must be prepared to correlate concurrent and sequential activities.

3. Establishing of MIS

For monitoring the progress of implementation and for proper control of activities,
efficient information system should be developed.

4. Acquisition of Facilities

For installation of new system or to replace current system the manager should prepare a
proposal for approval from the management by considering space requirement movement
of personal and location for utility outlets and controls.

5. Procedure Development

This is an important stop for implementation of the system including various activities
such as evaluation selection of hardware, purchase or development of software, testing
and implementation strategies.

6. Generating Files and Forms

The MIS manager should generate files and formats for storing actual date. This requires
checklist data, format date storage forms and other remarks in data base.

7. Testing of the System

Test should be performed in accordance with the specifications at the implementation

stage consisting of component test sub system test and total system test.
• Evaluation and maintenance of system

The performance should e evaluated in order to find out cost effectiveness and efficacy of
the system with minimum errors due to designs environmental changes or services.

Software Maintenances

The proper maintenance is the enigma of the system development and it holds software
industry captive lying up programming resources. There are some problems in
maintenance such as regarding it as non rewarding non availability of technicians and
tools no cognizance of users about maintenance problem and cost lack of standard
procedures and guidelines. Most programmers feel maintenance as low level drudgery. If
proper attentions is paid over a period of time eventually less maintenance is required.
Types of Maintenance

The maintenance of system are classified into corrective/adaptive/perfective. Corrective

maintenance means repairing process or performance failures. Adaptive maintenance
means changing the programming function whereas perfective maintenance deals with
enhancing the performance or modifying the program.

Primary Activities of a Maintenance Procedure

Documentation is major part of maintenance in system development. Maintenance staff

receives requests from the authorized user. Programming library should be maintained.

Reduction in Maintenance Costs

Several organizations having MIS generally go in for reducing maintenance costs and it
consists of three major phases.

1. Maintenance management audit through questionnaires and interviews.

2. Software system audit.
3. Software modification.

Evaluation Methods

Evaluation of the MIS in an organization is integral part of the control processes. There
are several evaluation approaches such as quality assurance review compliance of audits
budget performance review computer personal productivity assessment computer
performance evaluation service level monitoring user audit survey post installation
review and cost benefit analysis.

Evaluation performance measurement can be classified into two classes as effectiveness

and efficiency. The relationship between effectiveness and efficiency is that the format is
a measure of goodness of out put and the latter is a measure of the resources required to
achieve the output.