The Database Management System - Essay Example

The internet is the central source of data among external sources. The inputs of an MIS include scheduled reports produced periodically such as weekly or monthly, demand reports, produced, to provide certain information upon request. There are several characteristics of an MIS. One characteristic is that it provides reports with fixed and standard form as well as produces both soft and hard copies of the reports.

It also uses internal data stored in a computer system to allow users to develop customs reports. The MIS requires user requests for reports developed by systems personnel (Stair and Reynolds 303).MIS can be divided along functional lines. Financial management information systems provide financial information to executives. Some financial MIS subsystems and outputs include profit/loss and costs systems, auditing and management of funds. Manufacturing MIS subsystems and outputs include monitoring and controlling the flow of materials, design and engineering, inventory control, process control and quality control.

Marketing MIS supports product development, pricing and distribution. Marketing functions are increasingly being performed on the internet. The subsystems involved include marketing research, product development, product pricing, sales analysis and advertising. The human resource MIS is concerned with issues related to previous, current and potential employees. Its subsystems include human resource planning, personnel selection, training and skills inventory, scheduling and job placement as well as salary administration (Stair and Reynolds 305).

Decision support systems (DCCs) are used when the problem is unstructured. These systems’ performance is a function of decision quality and problem complexity. The problem complexity depends on how hard the problem is to solve. The DCC provides rapid access to information and can handle large amounts of data from different sources. It also provides report and presentation flexibility while offering both textual and graphical presentations. The DCC perform sophisticated analysis and comparisons using advanced software.

It can also forecast a future problem or opportunity. The DCC has several capabilities. It can support various problem structures; highly structured problems and semi-structured or unstructured problems. It has three components; the model base, the database and the user interface (Stair and Reynolds 306). The database management system allows managers to perform qualitative analysis on data stored in the company’s database. It can also be used to connect to an external database. The model base allows managers to perform quantitative analysis on both internal and external data.

The user interface allows users to interact with the DCC. It assists with all aspects of communications between the user and the hardware. The group support systems consist of most elements in a DCC. It also contains software to provide support in group decision making. The DCC has some properties which enhance decision making. This includes special design, ease of use and flexibility. The GSS hardware includes computers, laptops, computer tablets and smartphones. The software packages include Lotus note, office communicator, Sharepoint, WebOffice and BaseCamp.

There are some alternatives to GSS. One such alternative is teleconferencing. The disadvantage with it is that its decision frequency is low. Another alternative is the wide-area decision network. The decision frequency in it is high which makes it more suitable than teleconferencing. An executive support system is a unique type of DCC that provides structured information about aspects of the organization that it considers requiring more explanation.