Management Information Systems - Term Paper Example

Running Head: Information System Description Information System Description Name: Institution: Date of Submission: Table of Contents 1. General Description………………………………………………………………………1 2. External Description………………………………………………………………………5 3. External View……………………………………………………………………………13 4. Internal Description...........................................................................................................13 5. Internal View…………………………………………………………………………….15 6. Reference...........................................................................................................................16 1.0 General Information of Management Information Systems (MIS) A MISentails many information technology systems that provide information that needed by organizations to manage the efficiency and effectiveness of their production and operations. MISdo not just fall under computer systems but, by large extend encompass main three primary components of technology, people in terms of individuals, groups, or organizations, and data in terms of information that is necessary for utilization in making crucial decisions in organizational management. MIS are quite different and unique from other information technology systems. This is because of the simple reason thatthe design of MIS is in a way intended to analyze and facilitate strategic and operational activities in a functional organization. Typically speaking, MIS refer to the study of how individuals, organizations, groups, and institutions develop, design, implement, manage, and utilize systems with the intention of generating and processing information to improve efficiency and effectiveness of making decisions in organizations and institutions (Rainer, and Cegielski 2009, 56). MISincluding systems termed decision support systems, human resource MIS, expert systems, financial information systems, accounting information systems, manufacturing information systems, and executive information systems. 1.1 Users of MIS User 1: Human Resource MIS Human Resource MIS is another very crucial system that takes into account the use of MIS to control activities of the human resource department in an organization. The main concern of Human Resource MIS falls under all the activities related to present employees and future potential employees of the organization. Such activities include human resource planning, human resource development, selection and recruitment processes, wage and salary administration, training programs, and scheduling and job placement for employees (Rainer, and Cegielski 2009, 56). User 2: Marketing MIS This is a MIS designed by organizational strategists to take care of marketing decisions. Marketing information system strategists gather data regarding marketing, then store it, analyze, and distribute to marketing managers in a manner that take into consideration the informational needs. The marketing information as distributed to marketing managers need to meet high evaluation and analysis, should be timely, and accurate in order for marketing decision-makers to come up with effective and effective marketing decisions (Laudon & Laudon 2010, p. 78). By large extend, marketing information systems concern data that concerns marketing Supports managerial activities in product development, distribution, pricing decisions, and promotional effectiveness. This forms the basis of the crucial need and importance of marketing information systems in an organization. User 3: Financial MIS Financial MIS provides financial information to all financial managers within an organization. In this system, analysts gather and evaluate information that concern financial status and expenditure of an organization. Financial issues such as profits, losses, expenditure, and turnovers are a crucial part of an organization and thus developing an effective and efficient information system is a necessity for success of an organization (Rainer, and Cegielski 2009, 56). Company budgeting is also something that every organization takes into consideration to ensure transparency in spending organizational finances. It is also very crucial for the management to track down financial management within the organization. 1.2 Instance MIS is quite important in organizational set up, as it is applicable in various levels and departments. MIS is useful in human resource departments, finance departments, accounting management, Geographic information systems (GISs), marketing departments, educational institutions, among others (Laudon & Laudon 2010, p. 78). With this wide range of applications, MIS is a necessity for the success of any given institution or organization. 2.0 External Description of the Information System 2.0.1 Inputs User 1: Human Resource MIS Inputs a) Strategic plan or corporate policies Human Resource MIS strategists get information from the organization’s strategic plans and corporate policies. The company’s policies such as what the company strives to do, whom is it doing it for, and the plans to ensure that they achieve what they aspire to do. From such information, Human Resource Management Information strategists come up with the best decisions concerning the welfare of employees (Rainer, and Cegielski 2009, 56). The key components of corporate policies include organization’s mission, vision, values, and strategies. b) Payroll data Payroll data refers to the employee’s data on payment and compensations on salaries and wages. Payroll data is a crucial source of information for Human Resource Management Information strategists. This will enable human resource managers analyze data from the payroll in order to track down organization’s compensations and expenditure on its human resources. From such data, the management will be able to come up with justified decisions on human resource development, promotion, and motivation strategies (Laudon & Laudon 2010, p. 78). c) Personnel data Personnel data refers to individual personal data such as age, gender, profession, marital status, religion, and level of education among others. Human resource managers utilize feed such information into a database and evaluate it to come up with the best decisions to manage human resources effectively and efficiently. Analyzing information, that concern employee level of experience, expertise, and level of education and qualifications enables human resource managers to make informed decisions on promotion and job specialization issues. d) External sources External sources of data such as labor laws, employment and recruitment regulations, laws on employee welfare and safety in workplaces, and minimum wage for employees are good sources of data utilized by human resource managers to make good decisions on employee recruitment and compensations in accordance to existing laws and regulations (Rainer, and Cegielski 2009, 56). User 2: Marketing MISInputs a) The competition Competition for markets between an organization and other organization provides a good source of information for marketing strategists to collect data, evaluate, and store data for presentation to marketing analysts to come up with the best decisions on how to approach new markets and develop effective marketing strategies. b) The market The complexity of a market itself needs research and assessment for organization to realize new and emerging markets and retain existing ones. Markets are a source of data that go beyond the control of an organization but need clear research. Data collected from the research on new markets need evaluation to up with the best marketing policies to help reach out to many customers and suppliers for more sales and hence improved productivity. User 3: Financial MIS Inputs a) Strategic plan or corporate policies Contains major financial objectives and often projects financial needs. Data collected from these financial objectives as stipulated in the organization’s financial objectives is necessary foe financial management teams to evaluate and project organizational financial needs and expenditures (Rainer, and Cegielski 2009, 56). The team will also evaluate the data collected and stored to make decisions on the best financial practices to foster organizational growth and performance. b) Transaction processing system (TPS) Financial management teams utilize a range of important financial information collected from almost every transaction processing systems such as payroll, inventory control, order processing, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and general ledger (Laudon & Laudon 2010, p. 78). This information enters into stored state, retrieved any time when need arises, evaluated, and then proper decisions made on organization’s financial decisions. c) External sources External sources of data for inputs in Financial MISarise from annual reports and financial statements of an organization’s competitors and general news items. Analysts evaluate opponent’s financial reports, identify weaknesses and strengths, and come up with the best decisions to improve their financial systems to defeat their opponents in growth and expansion. 2.0.2 Output User 1: Human Resource MIS a) Human resource planning Human managers use the information resulting from evaluations of data from Human Resource MIS to come up with human resource planning such as motivation, salary allocations, job specialization, promotions, employee relations, communication strategies, and human resource development strategies (Laudon & Laudon 2010, p. 78). The information remains very crucial since planning for human resource is an essential factor of any organization as humans contribute to the production of any organization. b) Personnel selection and recruiting Output Employee staffing entails selection and recruitment process of personnel in an organization. This responsibility falls under the department of human resource management. To come up with the best selection and recruitment strategies means that human resource managers should take into consideration information analysis of data collected through Human Resource MIS. This will enable organizations acquire the right people in its human resource to work towards the achievement of organizational goals and objectives in an effective and efficient manner (Rainer, and Cegielski 2009, 56). It also means that the recruiting staff will have the opportunity to analyze and understand external factors such as labor laws and compensation regulations. c) Training and skills inventory Training and nurturing skills and talents in an organization is an important factor to ensure that employees improve their understanding in the workplace and thus improve productivity. This activity entirely falls under human resource development, which refers to a discipline that focuses on the people who work for an organization. In essence, the discipline encompasses a set of systematic and planned activities adopted by human resource department in organizations to provide its members with the necessary skills to meet current and emerging demands in the job market. With evolutions and transformations in the job market, employee needs skills that go beyond the training classroom in order to be competent. Human resource development includes coaching, group work, and problem solving. It also needs for basic employee development that is effective and effective. Therefore, a system that gathers and store information on human resource is necessary to ensure that human resource strategists to come up with the best decisions on human resource development. d) Scheduling and job placement Scheduling of responsibilities to various individuals in the workplace and job placement for employees is a crucial task that may seem more complex without an effective Human Resource MIS in place. Therefore, human resource managers utilize information from such information systems to come up with the best decisions on job scheduling and placement. e) Wage and salary administration Wage and salary administration and management is an important part of any human resource department and forms a crucial part and agenda of any decision-making process. Therefore, to have a clear and transparent administration of employee wages and salaries, human resource management needs to have an analyzed data collected and stored in an information system that is effective and efficient. This information becomes useful in making decisions on the best methods and strategies to manage and track down employee wages and salaries (Laudon & Laudon 2010, p. 78). User 2: Marketing MIS Output a) Marketing research From the information acquired through information systems and analysis, marketing strategists discuss on the best marketing techniques depending on the levels of demand of certain products in some areas researched. This will then call for more research on potential markets. b) Product development Product development results from proper evaluation of data stored in effective information systems within the market departments. This is because, after conducting a consumer survey, it is possible to come up with a list of what consumers expect from the organizations and hence a comprehensive strategies for product development result. c) Promotion and advertising It goes without saying that understanding various markets and the available medium of advertisement that can reach many people; it is possible for marketing managers to decide on the best advertising channels and promotional exercises (Rainer, and Cegielski 2009, 56). d) Product pricing Data stored and analyzed in information systems will help marketing management to understand consumer’s level of income and prices of their competitors in the market. This will then put the management in a better position to harmonize their product prices. User 3: Financial MIS a) Profit, loss and cost systems Financial MIS will help financial officers access and analyze data on organization’s profit, loss, and cost systems. This will offer officers with an opportunity to come up with the best methods of financial activities that will foster profitability and decrease losses. b) Auditing Auditing is an accounting practice that seeks to examine an organization’s use of financial resources. With information system tracking the use of finances, it is possible for auditors to access information easily and evaluate a company’s expenditure. Therefore, information system helps both internal and external auditing (Laudon & Laudon 2010, p. 78). 2.1 Information Processing The information system uses the parallel-decentralized information processing approach. In this case, the central connectionist principle is that the description of data is by interconnected networks of simple and often uniform units. The form of the connections and the units can vary from model to model (Rainer, and Cegielski 2009, 56). The approach has various patterns such as set of processing units, set activation, output function, pattern of connectivity, propagation rule, activation rule, and an environment that provide the system with experience. 2.2 Information Stored Store 1: File System A file system is an abstraction to store, retrieve, and update a set of files. Information system experts access files stored in byte formats. Such information stored includes payroll data and recruitment and training programs. 2.3 System Boundary Internal components: controlled interfaces proxies, gateways, routers and switches, firewalls, encrypted tunnels, and concentrators External components: communication 3.0 External View of the Information System 4.0 Internal Description of Information System 4.1 Information Processors Processor 1: CPU A processor executes programs including the operating system itself and user applications all of which perform useful work. From the processor’s point of view, a program is simply a group of low-level instructions that the processor executes more or less in sequence as it receives them. Processor 2: Integrated Circuit An IC or monolithic integrated circuit also referred to as, chip, or microchip is an electronic circuit on one small plate ("chip") of semiconductor material, normally silicon. Such a circuit can be made very compact, having up to several billion transistors and other electronic components (Rainer, and Cegielski 2009, 56). 4.2 Information Stores Sore 1: Relational Database A relational database is a collection of data items with a set of clearly described tables from for data storage and access. It takes into consideration the use software called a relational database management system (RDBMS). Information stored here is data that include employee information, financial issues, and market share. Store 2: Network Model The network model is a database model conceived as a flexible way of representing objects and their relationships. Its distinguishing feature is that the schema, viewed as a graph in which object types are nodes and relationship types are arcs, is not restricted to being a hierarchy or lattice (Laudon & Laudon 2010, p. 78). The storage of information in this case is the form of an object that represents data. 4.3 Communication Networks Bus interfaces These pathways connect the processor to memory and other components. For example, modern processors connect to the chipset Northbridge via a dedicated bus called the front side bus (FSB) or host bus. Local Area Network LAN supplies networking capability to a group of computers in close proximity to each other such as in an office building, a school, or a home. A LAN is useful for sharing resources like files, printers, games or other applications in an information system. 5.0 Internal View of Information System Reference Laudon, K. & Laudon, J. Management information systems: Managing the digital firm. (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2010. Rainer, Kelly. and Cegielski, Case. Introduction to Information Systems: Enabling and Transforming Business, 3rd Edn, Prentice Hall/CourseSmart, 2009. Read More