Management Information System

Management Information System

The Management Information System (MIS) is a system to support the decision making function in the organization. The difference lies in defining the elements of the MIS. However, in today’s world MIS a computerized business processing system generating information for the people in the organization to meet the information needs decision making to achieve the corporate objective of the organization.

In any organization, small or big, a major portion of the time goes in data collection, processing, documenting it to the people. Hence, a major portion of the overheads goes into this kind of unproductive work in the organization. Every individual in an organization is continuously looking for some information which is needed to perform his/her task. Hence, the information is people-oriented and it varies with the nature of the people in the organization.

Role of Management Information System (MIS)

The role of the MIS in an organization can be compared to the role of heart in the body. The information is the blood and MIS is the heart. In the body the heart plays the role of supplying pure blood to all the elements of the body including the brain. The heart works faster and supplies more blood when needed. It regulates and controls the incoming impure blood, processes it and sends it to the destination in the quantity needed. It fulfills the needs of blood supply to human body in normal course and also in crisis.

The MIS plays exactly the same role in the organization. The system ensures that an appropriate data is collected from the various sources, processed, and sent further to all the needy destinations. The system is expected to fulfill the information needs of an individual, a group of individuals, the management functionaries: the managers and the top management.

The MIS satisfies the diverse needs through a variety of systems such as Query Systems, Analysis Systems, Modeling Systems and Decision Support Systems the MIS helps in Strategic Planning, Management Control, Operational Control and Transaction Processing

The MIS plays the role of information generation, communication, problem identification and helps in the process of decision making. The MIS, therefore, plays a vital role in the management, administration and operations of an organization.