Management Information System - Assignment Example

Management Information System Introduction Management of information system (MIS) provides the necessary information for proper management of an organization. An optimized management information system is the one which involves choosing the best set of elements of managing an organization from the best available ones. Proper maintenance of the information system should be considered as well as regular review of goals and objectives to ensure that it is effective in the most recent needs of the organization. The different between these systems and the other regular information systems is that, their main objective is to examine other information systems used in the normal activities of an organization. MIS can be used at any level of management provided it supports the long term objectives of an organization. It also enables the organization to analyze its performance by monitoring the financial accounting system or recordkeeping hence the financial accounting system is a subtype and an active element of MIS structure. For every successful organization, there has to be some communal activities going on hence a stable system of communication among the involved individuals. The services offering organization should be much concern on the type of management information system since their product is communication based than the goods manufacturing ones (Stair et al, 2008). Application of the integrated managing information system in a service Organizations can either be service providing or goods manufacturing depending on the final products they give to the consumers. Services are the products which cannot be seen or touched although they can be felt through other sensory systems like hearing, for example, the final products of schools cannot be seen or touched but can heard. The manufactured goods are products which are physical and tangible like books and papers. All these organizations need to have a well developed information system for the creation of the strategies and proper implementation. The imager that the workers at the ground portray to the public through the consumers that they serve, represent the entire organization including the management team. This means that they should be harmed with all the necessary tools so as to give the best picture. Good communication with their leaders so as to be easily informed of what is expected of them at any given time (Ray, 2003). Management information system ensures that information is accessed across different departments of an organization hence enhances the achievement of the general goals and objectives of an organization. Most of the organizations whether service based or manufacturing based have various departments based on their area of specialization. The general management should have good information so as to be able to bring the operations of different departments together and have them work towards a common goal. Integrated management information systems make it possible to provide information across the departments concerning the entire organization. The heads of various departments will be able to pass information to the management. The system promotes the cooperation among the workers in an organization as they are attached to each other including their managers hence it is easier to discuss issues regarding the entire organization. With the advancing technology and the widely spread of computer use in the business today, all the organizations are working too hard to ensure that their information systems are well developed. The management of these organizations comes up with a business strategy whose data will be transformed to useful information for making decision through the management information system. Computers help to enable effective decision making and enhances understanding of the effects of the strategies (Hegering et al, 2000). This type of information system also function to gather into coherent the excess pool of information which might not be of use to the decision makers. This makes it easier for the decision makers to analyze the information and get the sense in them than if left to do it manually. Management information system can also use the raw data to replicate theoretical circumstances which answers questions concerning adjustment in the strategies. For example, it can predict the outcomes of changing the prices of commodities hence the decision makers will be forced to consider other decisions in case of a negative outcome. Good management information system proper processes of decision making are followed and the agreed decisions easily implemented. This is because the members of the management team at all levels are included or informed of the process going on and allowed to contribute, then the concluded resulted is easily shared to all workers without delay. The board members do not have to meet so as to discuss the decisions concerning the operations but can do it through the integrated management information system. Each individual can give his or her opinion from his office or workplace then the conclusion will be passed across all departments. Proper communication motivates all the members to contribute in decision making, this is because they will have chance of making decision and arguing it out to be considered for the running of the entire organization. Being attached to the management enhances a sense of belonging to the organization hence they will look on the positive side of developing the organization. They will come up with wise decisions regarding ways of improving the performance of the organization (Clarke, 2001). Sometimes it becomes difficult for the managers to move from office to office as they try to audit of control the operation of various departments. Management information system makes it possible for them to manage the activities of each department without having to move to them. Any necessary information can be accessed from respective individuals through the integrated management information system. The management is able to brief the mangers of various departments together with the other workers on what is expected of them and the junior staffs are able to reach their seniors for consultation. Although this information is necessary to all organizations but the service providing one is more sensitive since there has to be a contact between the workers and the consumers so there has to be a strong sense of humanity. The decisions made on general goals and objectives of the entire organization together with the activities involved to achieve them should be the most effective and those which will help to promote a rapport with the consumers. The management will be able to monitor the operations of all the staff members by the information acquired through the integrated management information system. To avoid making mistakes which might be difficult to rectify, the workers can easily consult the seniors (Kolbin, 2000). The sales persons of any of the organizations have a contact with the consumers hence they will be able to get the feedbacks concerning the products of the organization. This information will help on the decisions made to improve the quality of the products for the benefit of the consumers or to fully satisfy their needs. Just like all the decisions made are aimed to improve the performance of an organization, the ultimate goal of any integrated management information system should be optimization or improvement of the performance of an organization. Its main functions: provision of information to different departments, facilitation of decision making at various tiers of management and management of business processes are the most essential elements in the management of an organization. Consideration and utilization of the three tiers determines the acceptability of a product offered by an organization as compared to the others, this helps to improve the performance of the entire organization and the quality of the product offered. The first tier is “good”; the prices are affordable with acceptable quality. The second tier is better and represents the store banner or ensures that the product has some national brand equivalent. Best or premium brand is the third tier which ensures that the product has some sense of uniqueness from the others; they can easily be identified from the rest. Any product which is of the best quality should consider the three tiers and have them implemented (Laudon & Laudon, 2009). Some circumstances may need quick and wise decisions to be made. Any decision concerning the operations of the entire organization requires the opinion of different personnel. Integrated management information system enhances the process of decision making among these individuals by making it faster and efficient. It is a computer based system whose aim is to provide essential information for decision making or planning the activities of the organization. A cost effective software together with a hardware for input and output of data should be invented, which acts as a connection between various managers and can be used to communicate as well as analyzing and storage of data. There care many factors of management information system which provides various managers in the complex organizations with a great pool of information to be considered when making decisions on complex tasks. The stiff competition in the market today is affecting the lifespan of most of the commodities produce, this means that the organizations should keep on reviewing their operations so as to improve the qualities of the services they offer so as to fit in the competition. This involves even the improvement of the resources which are involved in the manufacturer of the final produce like human resources and the procedures followed so as to get the best out of it. Integrated management information system unlike the manual system may have reduced possibilities of making mistakes unless it is made while inputting. This means that the decision made is most likely to bear the intended results while all the information passed across different departments is cannot be easily distorted or the receiver makes mistake while decoding it especially if he does it manually but if he is carefully he is likely to receive the original form. Management information system also helps in provision of a valuable benefit of time saving to the resources. Initially the business information was manually processed by analyzing, recording and filing, the integrated system is doing it faster and efficiently on computers using data processors. This helps to improve the process of decision making since the personnel can easily accessed the information necessary for decision making or analyze it and quickly pass it to the others through the same system (Tan, 2001). This system can also give information concerning ways of implementing these decisions or be considered to manage objectives. The managers and their staff will agree on some objectives which they will work toward achieving within some specified period of time. The system can help to set them through the SMART ratio: Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic and Time-specific. This can act as a guide to the workers on how, where and when to carry on relevant activities. The objectives can help to provide indicators through which the managers can monitor or control the performance of the workers or the resources they use. They only need to check on the analyzed informed concerning all the activities which have taken place and their outcome compared to the initial expectations to determine the performance of the firm. Management information system ensures that all objectives and decisions made on behave of the entire organization are based on SMART ratio. The management is able to monitor the operations of the organization since the integrated management information system keeps a track of its performance statistics and can review it on daily, weekly, monthly or annually records. They will be able to tell how their performed at any given time by looking at the records. This helps them to know what factors to consider so as to either improve the performance or maintained it if it is to the expectation. They will also be able to identify the abilities and inabilities of the workers hence know how to schedule them depending on their strengths and weaknesses (Bagad, 2009). The organization is able to keep a record of the information regarding their clients or donors so as to regularly review them and consider them when manufacturing their products. They will be able to determine the best decision to consider for the benefit of catering for the needs of their partners who may be countable for the existence of the organization. The system will provide information to the clients regarding sensitive issues like how to give their donations or become more involved. Involving various departments in the process of making decision eases the process of implementation since everyone will be part of the making and implementation process. The system also helps the organization to plan on the new services and how to strategize the implementation process by providing some useful information as guidance. They are able to review all aspects of the processes involved in the organization (Oz E, 2008). Recommendations It is recommended that for any organization to be successful it should have a well designed management information system which is a communication network containing all the channels used in an organization. The system should be able to input, process and store data in the simplest form which can easily be output in useful form such as management reports. The system should have up to date information concerning the performance and management of organization which can be useful to make the most effective decision and help to implement them. The form used to encode the information in the system should be suitable for the managers at all levels to decode without losing the content and can easily be decoded to save time and energy required. It is recommended to have all the staff members trained or oriented on the ways of using the system to avoid occurrence of human error or for proper usage. Since it involves all channels of communication at any managerial level, then all personnel officers should be able to use it or access the information in it. The information put in the system should be relevant to all the staff members since all will access it. The inputs of the system should be regularly reviewed to ensure that the most recent information is available for the operations to be valid in the present market (Bagad, 2009). The managers of all departments should be allowed to access the system and input all their operations for the purpose of analyzing the general operations or performance of the entire organization. When formulating the system, the four step optimization process should be considered: software identification, the information technology specialists should be hired to help the management identify the best software depending on the nature of the data that the organization is dealing with. The general goals and objectives of the entire organization should match the packages of the selected software. Everyone should be involved in the process of making decision on the suitable software. The other step is of evaluating the software selected. The software should be evaluated for everyone to understand its operations; each package will be analyzed on issues such as functionality, hardware and other infrastructures used to run it or its reliability. The other necessary step is the evaluation of the hardware required; the organization should consider its financial status to ensure that it can afford the facilities. The sustainability of the chosen hardware should also be considered compared to the services that they are expected to offer. The final step is the implementation of the software to function the intended services. The software should be regularly maintained to avoid losing important data incase it fails or crushes (Kolbin, 2000). The curve of the performance of the organization should be regularly checked to determine whether the chosen management information system is effective or not so as to plan on the best decision to consider regarding its maintenance or changes; this should be considered depending on the outcome and the intended. The other members of the organization should be given a chance to give their views concerning the information considered. This will help to come up with an effective decision on the system considering the opinions from different sources especially from the users and the IT professionals. It is advisable for the managers to keep an eye on the highly changing technology so as to keep their system up to date. They should ensure that their software is the most recent in the market for their services to survive the stiff competition or be relevant to the needs and expectations of the consumers. This means that the managerial policies should be flexible to the changes taking place although special care should be taken before considering new decisions and consider involving managers at various departments (Hegering et al, 2000). . Conclusion Management information system is essential to the operation of any organization, whether a service providing or based on manufacturing of goods. This is because it concerns the most sensitive element of communication which determines the type of relationship that the leaders will have with their juniors or subordinate staff. This system helps the mangers of the organization to communicate important information to the managers of various departments for achievement of the general goals and objectives. It also facilitates the decision making of different individuals at all levels and helping the management to analyze the performance of the entire organization. The management of the organization especially those which specialize on offering services should be keen on the operations of the organization; this entails considering good management information which is suitable for the use of any staff towards achieving the objectives of the organization. This should fit in the highly competing market since things are changing with the advancing technology hence the need for regularly reviewing it so as to survive in the competition. A software which is suitable for anyone to use should be considered and regularly maintained to avoid the risk of losing important data. Reference Stair, M., Reynolds, G. & Reynolds, W. (2008), Principles of Information Systems, Mexico: Cengage Learning. Ray, P. (2003), Integrated management from e-business perspective: concepts, architectures, and methodologies, New York: Springer. Hegering, H., Abeck, S. & Neumair, B. (2000). Integrated management of networked systems: concepts, architectures, and their operational application, New York: Morgan Kaufmann. Clarke, S. (2001). Information systems strategic management: an integrated approach, London: Routledge. Kolbin V. (2000). Systems Optimization Methodology, Jersey: World Scientific. Laudon, C. & Laudon J. (2009) Management Information Systems, Iowa: Pearson. Tan K., (2001), Health management information systems: methods and practical applications Mexico: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Bagad V., (2009), Management Information Systems, White Rose: Technical Publications. Oz E. (2008), Management Information Systems, Mexico: Cengage Learning. Read More