Management Information Systems & You

What is MIS?

Information systems you may or may not know what they are, even though they are integrated into your world.

Management Information Systems (MIS) can help businesses professionals easily achieve goals or objectives through development and usage.

Often MIS are computerized databases of financial information.

When implementing MIS a business should ask themselves questions like:

• How is the system your using constructed and what is the creators role?
• Do I have a strategy to improve the security of the system and backing up data?
• What are a projects costs and benefits, and does it meet a business goal or objective?

Moore’s Law

Moore’s Law in 1965 stated by the Intel Corporation co-founder, where the # of transactions per square inch on an integrated chip doubles every year since invention, because of manufacturing and technological improvements.

Lowering the cost of data communication and storage. You may be familiar with such free services as YouTube, Facebook and Skype, of which are made free social media platforms.

New opportunities for information systems will continue to arise and you must be able to adapt quickly.

Social Media Cost-Effective for Business?

Self-promotion is a great tool to attract new graduate recruits.

The next generation of social media presence is here, and you must be literate to navigate discussion boards and profile marketing.

Social media profile creation is a form of job security to be able to market and employ a skill, such as:

• Abstract Reasoning
• Systems Thinking
• Collaboration
• Experimentation

(Kroenke, Bunker, & Wilson, 2014, p.7)

Not only must we be literate in using technology but we must also be able to apply management theory to social media in order to access problems or target audiences.

MIS Non-Routine Skills

“Abstract reasoning is the ability to make and manipulate models.” (Kroenke, Bunker, & Wilson, 2014, p.8)

-To asses, create, and process new information systems or models, in order to find the scope they impact upon business performance.

Systems thinking “[requires] you to model components of the system and to connect the inputs and outputs among those components into a sensible whole-one that explains the phenomenon observed.” (Kroenke, Bunker, & Wilson, 2014, p.8)

-You will compare different aspects, situations and systems to compare alternatives to arrive at the best solutions.

“Collaboration is the activity of two or more people working together to achieve a common goal, result or work product.” (Kroenke, Bunker, & Wilson, 2014, p.8)

-Often this can be receiving critical feedback from the team.

“[Experimentation means] making a careful and reasoned analysis of an opportunity, envisioning potential products or solutions or applications of technology, and then developing those ideas that seem to have the most promise, consistent with the resources available.” (Kroenke, Bunker, & Wilson, 2014, p.9)

-DON’T let fear of failure impact upon your ideas or use of new systems.

What is an Information System?

Where a system would be a group of interacting components for a purpose, an information system is a group of interacting components to produce information.

The five components of an information system are: hardware, software, data, procedures, and people. (Kroenke, Bunker, & Wilson, 2014, p.10)

These components are common among the assembly of smallest to the largest projects.

Here, we consider it to be a computer-based information system.

How does IS differ from IT?

IT stands for information technology, whereas IS stands for information system.

Information technology uses “[…] methods, inventions, standards and products.” (Kroenke, Bunker, & Wilson, 2014, p.13)

Where, IT concerns the hardware, software and data, while IS concerns these plus procedures and people.

IS Security

IS does carry its own risk as well as value for your business.

Therefore, your business must ensure data security for customers or users.

As not to suffer financial or liability losses.

STRONG PASSWORDS are a must! (Include 7+ characters of numbers, letters, upper and lower case, special characters. Don’t use names or previous passwords, however remember not to forget your password too)

Password etiquette is as important as creating a strong password, never write it down,  share it, or ask others for theirs, even though these are obvious no-nos. 

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Reference List

Kroenke, D., Bunker, D., & Wilson, D. (2014). Experiencing MIS, (3rd ed.). Pearson.

Featured image supplied free from Pixabay.