MIS Notes

What is MIS?
In order to understand the scope of MIS and nature of management, we first need to
understand what is MIS. Management Information Systems helps firms in realizing
maximum profits on their investments. The whole system is designed with the aim
of enhancing profits, exercising better control and performance planning at all
levels. Information systems are used at all the levels of a business organization in order
to collect, process or store data. However, this gathered information needs to be carried
out in an efficient manner which actually helps in business growth. So, MIS
professionals create information systems for data management. They manage the
various information systems in such a way that it is able to meet the needs of
management, staff as well as clients. MIS professionals play a critical role in areas of
information security, integration as well as exchange.

Elements of how a system is set in MIS:

 Input
 Process
 Output
 Feedback
 Environment

Nature of Management Information System

Management Information Systems (MIS) can be simply referred to as a system or
process that facilitates the smooth working of the organisation. The nature of MIS is
truly multifold because it plays a bigger role in business decisions, from costs to
employee management. Here are the major features that portray the nature of MIS:

 MIS is utilised by every level of a management.

 It clarifies and focuses on the strategic goals and objectives for the management.
 MIS provides an effective system to analyse costs and revenues and further
reviews effectively and efficiently to bring a balanced in finances and costs.
 MIS is maintained either through manual systems or automated systems or a
combination of both.
  It also plays a incremental role in identifying, locating, measuring, tackling and
limiting risks.
 It lays down a framework of rules and regulations for the management to bring a
clear and concise communication between employees.
 MIS provides an objective system of collecting, assessing and aggregating
information for a business.

Scope of MIS
After understanding what is MIS and the nature of management, we move on to the
scope of MIS. Information Systems is growing at a fast pace to become one of the most
promising career fields in today’s world. With everything happening digitally, the
demand for MIS professionals is increasing more than ever. MIS involves performing a
number of task simultaneously such as-

 Processing data
 Initiating transactions
 Responding to inquiries
 Producing reports and its summaries
 Manage the data created within the structure of a particular business

MIS acts in an organization just like a nervous system in a body by providing with the
relevant information for ease in the process of decision making.

The purpose of MIS is to work towards satisfying the information needs of everyone in
the business. It means providing the relevant information to those who need it.

Thus, MIS has a lot of potential to become one of the most promising careers for
individuals interested in the workings of a business.

The scope and purpose of MIS is better understand if each part of the
term is defined thus:
1. Management – Management is the process of directing, organising,
planning and controlling resources to achieve organisational goal.
i. Planning – Planning is a process of establishing organisational goal and to
develop strategies to achieve goal.
ii. Organising – It is a process to develop the structure of the organisation and
determine what tasks are to be done, who reports to whom and where
decisions are to be made.
iii. Leading – It is an important process of motivating and managing
employees, directing others and forming task group.
iv. Controlling – It is the process of evaluating performance of employee. It is
a way of monitoring activities to ensure that they are working as per plan.
2. Information – Information is a collection of data in a meaningful way. It
is used for informative or interference purpose, argument or basis for
forecasting or decision making.
3. System – A system is set of element journal together for a common
objective. All system are part of longer system. Different part of a system
(division, department functions unit, etc.).

Objectives of MIS
The scope of MIS also involves understanding the objectives of MIS. mentioned below
are the various objectives of MIS for your reference.

 Gathering Data– MIS professionals work on gathering data which might be

useful and relevant in the decision making process for various internal and
external sources of the organization.
 Data Processing- The gathered data needs to be processed in a systematic way
so as to be of some help to the management. The data is processed into
information which is used for planning, controlling, organizing and directing
functionalities at different levels of the organization. Data processing means
sorting data, making calculations with data etc.
 Information Storage– It means storing information in a safe manner so as to
make it available for any future use.

6 Important Objectives: Facilitates Decision-Making,

Avoid Duplication of Work, Savings of Time and a Few
Others
An effective Management Information System can achieve the following
objectives:
1. Facilitates decision-making – Management executives at all levels are
taking large number of decisions by receiving the best possible current
information. Accurate, reliable, precise and timely information facilitates the
decision-making process very easy.
2. Avoid duplication of work – Major portion of the organisational operations
are computerised and procedures are simplified. This type of system reduces
unnecessary work and eliminates the performance of duplication of work.
3. Savings of time – Efficient methods are applied in the execution of
assigned activities and proper direction is available to the employees of an
organisation. Standard time is fixed for each work separately. In this way,
there is a possibility of savings of time.
4. Establish uniform procedures – Nature of work is different from one
department to another department or one section to another section, but
standard and uniform procedure is followed in the performance of a work.
Uniform procedures ensure proper flow of data from the concerned
department of section.
5. Fixing responsibility – Data have to be supplied immediately after
execution of work. Hence, it is the responsibility of concerned executive to
provide data. In this way, MIS fixes responsibility each executive.
6. Improving service – Necessary training is to be imparted to the executives
before installing Management Information System. Hence, improved service
is rendered by the executives in an organisation.
The Management Information System should be flexible in nature to
incorporate revisions and include additional sub-systems in order to achieve
above mentioned objectives.