Management Information Systems

Management
A function, a process or a class of people. A process of achieving an organizations goals and objectives by making the fullest use of available resources like men, materials, machines, money, methods etc.

Functions of Management
Planning Organizing Controlling Directing

Planning

Process of deciding in advance the courses of action to be followed, when and also how to undertake these actions.

Organizing

It refers to the grouping of people and activities in order to facilitate the achievement of the organizational objective.

Controlling

Control is the mode of checking the progress of plans and also, correcting any deviations that may occur along the way.

Directing
It is the process of achieving the plans, structure and group efforts in the desired direction. It is needed for implementation of plans by providing the desired leadership, motivation and proper communication.

Levels of Management

Management can be grouped into 3 hierarchical levels:

Top/ Strategic Management Middle/ Tactical Management Junior/ Operational Management

MIS

MIS can be defined as a system that:

provides information to support managerial functions like planning, organizing, directing and controlling. Collects information in a systematic and a routine manner in accordance with a well defined set of rules. Includes H/W, S/W and operational research models of processing, storing, retrieving and transmitting information to the users.

Objectives of MIS

Facilitate the decision-making process by providing information in the proper time frame. Provide requisite information at each level of management to carry out their functions. Highlighting the critical factors to be closely monitored for successful functioning of the organization. Provide a system of people, procedures, query facilities for collecting, storing, retrieving and transmitting information.

Impact of MIS

Provides a disciplined information reporting system which helps in creating a structured database and a knowledge base for all the people in the organization. Improves the administration of the business by bringing a discipline in its operations, as everybody is required to follow and use systems and procedures. The use of computers enables the organization to use the tools and techniques, which improves the decision making ability considerably.

Steps for Designing MIS

Identifying information needs at all levels of management. Listing objectives of MIS and its benefits. Identifying system constraints. Determining information needs and resources. Developing alternative conceptual design and selecting one. Preparing the conceptual design report.

Implementation of MIS

Preparing organizational plans Planning of work flow Training of personnel Development of software Acquiring computer H/w Designing the format for data collection. Construction of data files Operation of old and new systems in parallel Phasing out the old and inducing the new system Evaluation, maintenance and control of the new system.

Limitations of MIS
MIS is an effective tool for managers in decision making and problem solving. It cannot replace managerial judgements in decision making. The quality of O/P of MIS is directly proportion to the quality of input and processes. MIS is less effective in organizations where information is not being shared with others.

Information

Information can be defined as the data, which can be organized and presented so that the decision maker may take the necessary action. The conversion processes of data into decision is as shown:
Data Process Information Decision Action

Information Resource Management

IRM is defined as a study of managing information and its allied components. IRM refers to policies, principles and procedures that effectively manage all components of an organization that collect, store, process, retrieve and disseminate information. IRM involves planning, budgeting, organizing, directing, training and controlling of information systems and its associated elements.

Objectives of IRM

Utilization of Information resources effectively to achieve the overall goals and mission of the organization. Monitoring inventory, document and other resources that create, process, store and disseminate information. Develop a model of the enterprise from an information viewpoint in order to improve communications, both within and outside the organization. Aims to eliminate redundancy of information and increase the reusability of information already present within the organization.

Components of IRM
Data Processing Telecommunications Office Automation

Types of Information Systems

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS) Management Information Systems (MIS) Intelligent Support Systems (ISS) Office Automation Systems (OAS)

Transaction Processing System

It records, processes, validates and stores transactions that take place in various functional areas of business. Transactions can be internal or external. Internal Transaction: When a department orders office supplies from the purchasing dept., an external transaction occurs. External Transaction: When a customer places an order for a product, an external transaction occurs.

Steps in Processing a Transaction

Data Entry Data Validation Processing & Revalidation Storage Output Generation Query Support

Management Information Systems

MIS are designed for providing information to important personnel in the organization. These systems make use of the output of TPS and generate information reports after processing data. Examples: Marketing Information Systems, Sales Information Systems

Intelligent Support Systems

Systems which facilitates decisions requiring the use of knowledge, intuition, experience, expertise are called intelligent support systems. There are 3 types of Intelligent Support Systems:

Decision Support Systems Executive Support Systems Artificial Intelligence Expert Systems

Office Automation Systems

OAS refers to the use of mechanical, electrical and electronic devices to enhance communication in the workplace and increase the efficiency and productivity of knowledge workers and clerical workers.

Office Automation Systems

OAS include:
Word Processing Electronic Mail Voice Mail Electronic Calendering Audio/ Video Conferencing Facsimile Transmission Desktop Publishing Videotex Imaging Multimedia Systems

Data Processing

The data can be processed in the following modes:

Online Transaction Processing Batch Processing

Online Transaction Processing

In OTP, the term online means that data input device is directly linked to the TPS and the data is processed as soon as it enters into the system. The I/P device may be at a remote location and be linked to the system by N/W or by Telecommunication systems. Examples: ATM transactions, Railway Reservation Systems

Batch Processing
Transactions are accumulated over time and processed periodically (daily, weekly or monthly). Processing in batches results in time lag between data creation and data processing Examples: Quality Control is sometimes easier in Batch processing. The errors detected at the end of batch can be rectified before the next batch is processed.

DataBase Management System

A database is a collection of logically related data that are organized in such a way, so as to facilitate easy accessing and processing of data. DBMS are support programs that work in conjunction with the OS to create, store, process, retrieve, control and manage the data. DBMS acts as an interface between the application program and the data in the database.

Objectives of a Database

Provide room for mass storage of relevant data Make access to the data easy for the user Provide prompt response to the user requests for data Make the latest modifications to the database immediately Eliminate redundant data Allow multiple users to be active at one time Allow for growth in the database system Protect the data from physical harm and unauthorized access

Components of DBMS

DBMS has 3 main components:

Data Dictionary System (DDS) Data Definition Language (DDL) Data Manipulation Language (DML)

DDS
It describes the data and its characteristics such as location, size and data type. It also identifies the ownership, methods of data access and data security. When it exists in a file, special software is necessary to create it, maintain it and make it available for use. A good DDS would ensure consistent definitions of data across different databases.

DDL
It is used to create the data, describe the data and define the schema in the DBMS. It serves as an interface for application programs that use the data. Once the data dictionary has been created, its definitions must be entered into the DBMS.

DML
A DML is a language that processes and manipulates the data in the database. It also allows the user to query the database and receive summary reports / customized reports. DML enables the user to access, update, replace, delete and protect database records from unauthorized access.

Advantages of DBMS

Fast response to information requests Multiple access Flexibility Less storage space Data integrity Better data management Data security Control redundancy

Disadvantage of DBMS
Database software are expensive Failure in one part of the system can make the entire system inactive.

Database Models
It is a method of organizing data and represents the logical relationships among data elements in the database. The most popular database models are:

Hierarchical Model Network Model Relational Model

Relational Model
Data is represented using 2-D tables called relations, which are made up of rows and columns. Each column represents a field / attribute. Each row represents a record / tuple. Relational database are a popular way of organizing data for business needs because of their flexibility.

Relational Model

Relational databases use 3 fundamental operations:

Select (only selected rows are included in query results) Project (A subset of columns is designed to meet the information needs of the user) Join (Joins or links two or more tables, if the information requested by the user is not found in one table)

Relationships within a Data Model

Entity : A place, person, thing or event etc. about which the information is recorded. Attributes : It characterizes the entity or describe the entity meaningfully. Values : Each attribute of an entity has a value and is known as a data value. The data value could be quantitative or descriptive, depending upon the attributes.

Relationships within a Data Model

Key Attributes : Those attributes of an entity using which we can find the values of other attributes. Record : The record is a collection of the attributes of an entity.

Relationship between entities

There are 3 types of relationships b/w entities. They can be shown with the help of entity-relation (E-R) diagram.
One-to-one One-to-many Many-to-many

Other Developments in Databases

Distributed Databases Client-Server Architecture Object Oriented Databases Multi media Databases

Distributed Databases

A database distributed over single or multi vendor computer hardware located in different geographic areas.

Client Server Architecture

Object Oriented Databases

OOP views programming as a sereis of interaction among objects rather than merely a collection of procedures.

Multimedia Databases

The traditional databases were limited to a few data types like numeric ( integer and real) and character string. However the increasing complexity of database applications calls for handling more complex data objects like scanned images ( maps, pictures, photographs etc. ), audio and video. D