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Marketing Information System

crespo12 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:52:14 CDT

Marketing Information System (MkIS)

a programmed system that is intended to give an organized flow of information to maintain the marketing activities of an organization.

serves collaborative, analytical and operational needs. In the collaborative mode, the MkIS enables managers to share information and work together virtually.
can enable marketers to collaborate with customers on product designs and customer requirements. The analytical function is addressed by decision support applications that enable marketers to analyze market data on customers, competitors, technology and general market conditions.
These insights are becoming the foundation for the development of marketing strategies and plans.
addresses operational needs through customer management systems that focus on the day-to-day processing of customer transactions from the initial sale through customer service.
are designed to be comprehensive and flexible in nature and to integrate with each other functionally.

Advance looking and vital to the organization’s capacity to generate competitive advantage.

The Strategic Role of the Marketing Information Systems
Historically, the role of the marketing function has been to support “make and sell” business strategies that emphasized increases in market share over the creation of long-term customer value. This view started to change after World War II with the recognition that satisfying the customer’s needs and wants should be the focus of a firm’s business activities. The emphasis on the customer elevated the importance of marketing as a core business function on a par with research and development and production. The marketing function has become the firm’s window to the world in the sense that it must monitor the marketing environment for changes in buyer behavior, competition, technology, economic conditions, and government policies. Marketing is a “strategic” function in that marketing activities enable organizations to identify and adapt to changes in the market environment. The strategic function of marketing is further emphasized as Internet-based technologies have enabled radically new approaches to selling where information technology for the first time touches customers and provides new means for collecting marketing information. In a knowledge-intensive economy, the ability to collect, analyze and act upon marketing information more rapidly than the competition is the core competency from which competitive advantage flows. Marketing information systems provide the information technology backbone for the marketing organization’s strategic operations. In a broader sense, the MkIS creates an organized and timely flow of information required by marketing decision makers. It involves the equipment, software, databases, and also the procedures, methodologies and people necessary for the system to meet its organizational objectives. MkIS encompasses a broad spectrum of activities from simple transaction processing complex marketing strategy decision making. C. The Role of the Internet Information technology has transformed how firms conduct business. For example, financial service providers such as banks, stockbrokers and insurance companies could not do business today without their client-server-based information technology. This technology has long supported marketing activities. However, it is the recent advent of the Internet, and especially the browserbased World Wide Web, which has ignited a revolution in MkISs. The term “cybermarketing” is often used to describe the Internet’s convergence of computers, information systems, telecommunications and the customer with the marketing process. Internet marketing is characterized by interactivity, graphical user interfaces, multimedia content, and one-to-one connectivity. Internet technologies are not only providing new ways to reach the customer, but also to enable the reengineering of the entire marketing process and, indeed, the entire enterprise. It is no longer acceptable to view marketing as a standalone activity with lengthy time lapses between product concept, marketing strategy and commercialization. Marketing has become interactive and real time. The rapidly growing field of marketing automation encompasses customer management functions to support e-commerce. As depicted in Figure 2, customer management applications include marketing decision support systems, customer relationship management, sales force automation, customer service and e-commerce activities. These activities are often described as “front office” customer-oriented activities. “Back office” enterprise resource planning (ERP) activities include manufacturing, finance and human resources. “Supply chain management” (SCM) activities encompass electronic procurement, inventory management, quality management and logistics systems to link an organization with its suppliers. These three elements comprise the enterprise information system. Large integrated enterprise software companies such as Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, and IBM address all three major applications and they are beginning to use Web-based technologies to redesign business processes throughout the organization. The result is leaner organizations, faster response times, and lower costs. Decisionmakers are able to integrate information from customers, suppliers, and the internal organization to obtain an enterprise-wide view of their ability to develop and execute marketing strategy. Until truly integrated browser-based systems are widely in use, the principal challenge for marketers is to tie e-commerce generated data with legacy information systems in order to create a unified view of each customer. Marketers will need to understand all the various ways that customers are touching the business through existing interfaces and e-commerce. Many of the older interfaces, such as telemarketing centers, point of sale (POS) systems, and the sales force are likely to be supported by legacy client-server technology. Marketers need to consolidate data from those systems with that from the Web-based ecommerce sources into a holistic view of the customer and make it available to decisionmakers. D. Benefits of the Marketing Information System The MkIS increases the number of options available to decision-makers and supports every element of marketing strategy. MkIS affects marketing’s interfaces with customers, suppliers and other partners. The primary benefits of the MkIS impact in the areas of functional integration, market monitoring, strategy development, and strategy implementation. 1. Market Monitoring. Through the use of market research and marketing intelligence activities the MkIS can enable the identification of emerging market segments, and the monitoring of the market environment for changes in consumer behavior, competitor activities, new technologies, economic conditions and governmental policies. Market research is situational in nature and focuses on specific strategic or tactical marketing initiatives. Marketing intelligence is continuous in nature and involves monitoring and analyzing a broad range of market-based activities and information sources. There are three major sources of market information. The first is syndicated data published by market research companies and industry associations. Company-sponsored primary research is another option. It is much more focused since you ask specific questions of respondents within your markets. But, it is considerably more expensive and time consuming. Perhaps the best data available are your own customer’s behavior captured from web site viewing, point of sale (POS) transactions, and systematic feed back from the sales force. 2. Strategy Development. The MkIS provides the information necessary to develop marketing strategy. It supports strategy development for new products, product positioning, marketing communications (advertising, public relations, and sales promotion), pricing, personal selling, distribution, customer service and partnerships and alliances. The MkIS provides the foundation for the development information system-dependent e-commerce strategies. 3. Strategy Implementation. The MkIS provides support for product launches, enables the coordination of marketing strategies, and is an integral part of sales force automation (SFA), customer relationship management (CRM), and customer service systems implementations. The MkIS enables decisionmakers to more effectively manage the sales force as well as customer relationships. Some customer management software companies are extending their CRM applications to include partner relationship management (PRM) capabilities. This has become increasingly important as many marketers are choosing to outsource important marketing functions and form strategic alliances to address new markets. 4. Functional integration. The MkIS enables the coordination of activities within the marketing department and between marketing and other organizational functions such as engineering, production, product management, finance, manufacturing, logistics, and customer service. E. Marketing Information System Functional Components As shown in Figure 3, a MkIS consists of four major components: (1) user interfaces, (2) applications software, (3) databases, and (4) systems support. 1. User Interfaces. The essential element of the MkIS is the managers who will use the system and the interfaces they need to effectively analyze and use marketing information. The design of the system will depend on what type of decisions managers need to make. The interface includes the type of hardware that will be used, the way information is analyzed, formatted and displayed, and how reports are to be compiled and distributed. Issues to resolve are ease of use, security, cost, and access. 2. Applications Software. These are the programs that marketing decision makers use to collect, analyze, and manage data for the purpose of developing the information necessary for marketing decisions. Examples include the marketing decisions support software (MDSS) and customer management software for on-line sales and customer service. 3. Marketing Databases. A marketing database is a system in which marketing data files are organized d stored. Data may be collected from internal and external sources. Internal sources largely result from transactions. They provide data from e-commerce sites, sales results, shipping data, inventories, and product profitability. External sources include market research, competitor intelligence, credit bureaus, and financial institutions. Data can be organized in a flat file (Text file with one data record per line) or a relationaldatabase (Data is stored in tabular form where each row represents one entity and each column represents one characteristic of that entity). For instance, each row could represent a customer with the columns providing name, identification number, and purchase information. 4. System Support. This component consists of system managers who manage and maintain the systems assets including software and hardware network, monitor its activities and ensure compliance with organizational policies. This function may also include a help desk for system users.

source

Types of management information system

gorgeousnicole — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 08:02:00 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Interfaces & Interrelations

tina0711 — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:35:37 CST

Interface It is a point of interaction: the place, situation, or way in which two things or people act together or affect each other, or the point of connection between things.
Interrelations

A relationship in which one aspect depends or is affected by the other.

Types of Information Management Systems

nicoletres — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:18:37 CST

Compensation Information System

I. Senior Management Information System

The Senior Management Information System (SLIS) provides a view of compensation information for Senior Leadership Employees. The system is a single repository for senior management compensation data, and is intended to facilitate analysis and reporting. The system is also designed as a mechanism for handling and tracking requests and answering questions quickly and consistently.

II. Workers Compensation Information System

Compensation information system (CIS) uses electronic data interchange (EDI) to collect comprehensive information from claims administrators to help the Department of Industrial Relations oversee the state's workers' compensation system. This information helps facilitate evaluation of the system and measure adequacy of benefits for injured workers and their dependents, and also provides statistical data for research.

References:
http://www.ucop.edu/payroll/pps_layouts/old/Senior%20Leadership%20Compensation%20Syste1.pdf

Transaction Processing System

t0nee — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:02:51 CST

A Transaction Processing System (TPS) is a type of information system. TPSs collect, store, modify, and retrieve the transactions of an organization. A transaction is an event that generates or modifies data that is eventually stored in an information system. To be considered a transaction processing system the computer must pass the ACID test.
From a technical perspective, a Transaction Processing System (or Transaction Processing Monitor) monitors transaction programs, a special kind of programs. The essence of a transaction program is that it manages data that must be left in a consistent state. E.g. if an electronic payment is made, the amount must be either both withdrawn from one account and added to the other, or none at all. In case of a failure preventing transaction completion, the partially executed transaction must be 'rolled back' by the TPS. While this type of integrity must be provided also for batch transaction processing, it is particularly important for online processing: if e.g. an airline seat reservation system is accessed by multiple operators, after an empty seat enquiry, the seat reservation data must be locked until the reservation is made, otherwise another user may get the impression a seat is still free while it is actually being booked at the time. Without proper transaction monitoring, double bookings may occur. Other transaction monitor functions include deadlock detection and resolution (deadlocks may be inevitable in certain cases of cross-dependence on data), and transaction logging (in 'journals') for 'forward recovery' in case of massive failures.
Transaction Processing is not limited to application programs. The 'journaled file system' provided with IBMs AIX Unix operating system employs similar techniques to maintain file system integrity, including a journal.
Features of Transaction Processing Systems

Rapid Response

Fast performance with a rapid response time is critical. Businesses cannot afford to have customers waiting for a TPS to respond, the turnaround time from the input of the transaction to the production for the output must be a few seconds or less.

Reliability

Many organisations rely heavily on their TPS; a breakdown will disrupt operations or even stop the business. For a TPS to be effective its failure rate must be very low. If a TPS does fail, then quick and accurate recovery must be possible. This makes well–designed backup and recovery procedures essential.

Inflexibility

A TPS wants every transaction to be processed in the same way regardless of the user, the customer or the time for day. If a TPS were flexible, there would be too many opportunities for non-standard operations, for example, a commercial airline needs to consistently accept airline reservations from a range of travel agents, accepting different transactions data from different travel agents would be a problem.

Controlled processing

The processing in a TPS must support an organisation's operations. For example if an organisation allocates roles and responsibilities to particular employees, then the TPS should enforce and maintain this requirement.

Storing and Retrieving Storing and retrieving information from a TPS must be efficient and effective. The data are stored in warehouses or other databases, the system must be well designed for its backup and recovery procedures.

Databases and files

The storage and retrieval of data must be accurate as it is used many times throughout the day. A database is a collection of data neatly organized, which stores the accounting and operational records in the database. Databases are always protective of their delicate data, so they usually have a restricted view of certain data. Databases are designed using hierarchical, network or relational structures; each structure is effective in its own sense.

Hierarchical structure: organises data in a series of levels, hence why it is called hierarchal. Its top to bottom like structure consists of nodes and branches; each child node has branches and is only linked to one higher level parent node.
Network structure: Similar to hierarchical, network structures also organizes data using nodes and branches. But, unlike hierarchical, each child node can be linked to multiple, higher parent nodes.
Relational structure: Unlike network and hierarchical, a relational database organises its data in a series of related tables. This gives flexibility as relationships between the tables are built.

The following features are included in real time transaction processing systems:

Good Data Placement: The database should be designed to access patterns of data from many simultaneous users.
Short transactions: Short transactions enables quick processing. This avoids concurrency and paces the systems.
Real-time backup: Backup should be scheduled between low times of activity to prevent lag of the server.
High normalisation: This lowers redundant information to increase the speed and improve concurrency, this also improves backups.
Archiving of historical data: Uncommonly used data are moved into other databases or backed up tables. This keeps tables small and also improves backup times.
Good hardware configuration: Hardware must be able to handle many users and provide quick response times.

In a TPS, there are 5 different types of files, the TPS uses the files to store and organise its transaction data:

Master file: Contains information about an organisation’s business situation. Most transactions and databases are stored in the master file.
Transaction file: It is the collection of transaction records. It helps to update the master file and also serves as audit trails and transaction history.
Report file: Contains data that has been formatted for presentation to a user.
Work file: temporary files in the system used during the processing.
Program file: Contains the instructions for the processing of data.

strategic information system

t0nee — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:38:56 CST

A Strategic Information System (SIS) is a type of Information System that is aligned with business strategy and structure. The alignment increases the capability to respond faster to environmental changes and thus creates a competitive advantage. An early example was the favorable position afforded American and United Airlines by their reservation systems, Sabre and Apollo. For many years these two systems ensured that the two carriers' flights appeared on the first screens observed by travel agents, thus increasing their bookings relative to competitors. A major source of controversy surrounding SIS is their sustainability.
Strategic Information System (SIS) [1]is a system to manage information and assist in strategic decision making. A strategic information system has been defined as, "The information system to support or change enterprise's strategy." by Charles Wiseman (Strategy and Computers 1985).
Resume: Model of 3-era information system by Galliers & Somogyi

Data Processing (DP) [efficiency] — Improved efficiency by means of automating back office data processing functions.
Management Information Systems (MIS) [effectiveness] — Improved information flows and transfers.
Strategic Information System (SIS) [competitiveness] — Enhance competitiveness of the organization through the application of IT to business processes. Davenport’s point of view is that "Information is power and people are unlikely to give it away"

Strategic information system is different from other systems as: -

they change the way the firm competes.
they have an external (outward looking) focus.
they are associated with higher project risk.
they are innovative (and not easily copied).

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_information_system"

Information Technology Management

gorgeousnicole — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 06:40:14 CST

Information technology management (or IT management) is a combination of two branches of study, information technology and management. Strictly speaking, there are two incarnations to this definition. One implies the management of a collection of systems, infrastructure, and information that resides on them. Another implies the management of information technologies as a business function. The first definition stems from the practice of IT Portfolio Management and is the subject of technical manuals and publications of various information technologies providers; while the second definition stems from the discussion and formation of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). The ITIL has been in practice throughout regions of the world mainly conducted by IT service providers consulting companies. The relative paucity in the use of the best practice set can be attributed to a lack of awareness among IT practitioners. However the lack of ready-to-use tools also presents a significant barrier. Some organizations that value such practices tend to engage consultants to introduce the practice. Such implementations can conflict with the home-grown culture due to a lack of internal buy-in. Other organizations implement the practices by spending resources to develop in-house tools. Most in-house developed tools tend to focus on one or a few specific areas where the orgnizations feel the most pains. To reap the full advantages, tools will need to be integrated with the organization's IT data in the center.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology_management

Week 8: Sorting out the fine lines between/among some MIS Elements

maxine_alaba — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:55:14 CST

Boundary is something that marks or fixes a limit. A border that encloses a space or an abstract concept. smaller portion of constraints that describes the external entities and interactions. example is in a work place, a company doesn't have enough systems or software to make the work easier. Constraints are limits to the range of planned responses. it is a condition that a solution to an optimization problem must satisfy. It can be bound by the laws of nature. It can en-forced by outside agents or can be assumed to be undesirable, prohibited or impossible.
The main purpose of a constraint is to alter the default behavior of a data type and to clearly set the accepted limits. The meta-data that's provided through constraints can be used elsewhere to gather more information about how to correctly integrate the indicated data limits. example is, with the connection to the above problem which regards to the boundary, constraints will exist if there are no computers to run for the business. Interface is an abstraction of a software component. An abstract type which is used to specify an interface that classes must implement. A boundary across which two independent systems meet and act on or communicate with each other. In computer technology, there are several types of interfaces.
user interface - the keyboard, mouse, menus of a computer system. The user interface allows the user to communicate with the operating system. Also see GUI.
software interface - the languages and codes that the applications use to communicate with each other and with the hardware.
hardware interface - the wires, plugs and sockets that hardware devices use to communicate with each other.
Interrelationship is to bring into or have a mutual relationship. it is a relationship of variables in which each depend on or is affected by the other. It also helps a group analyze the natural links between different aspects of a complex situation.

business system

sheenaxclusive — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:29:02 CST

By: Sheena Sayson

Business System 12, or simply BS12, was one of the first fully relational database management systems, designed and implemented by IBM's Bureau Service subsidiary at the company's international development centre in Uithoorn, The Netherlands.

Here is a list of interesting features in BS12:

No anonymous columns.

No "correlation names", and no qualified column references.

Query language relationally complete (relational expressions of arbitrary complexity always permitted as operands of relational operator invocations).

Client-server architecture.

Analogues of SQL/CLI and SQL/PSM in the very first release!

Outer join (a null-free variety) available in the very first release, and updatable-through.

Temporary tables (and views) in the very first release.

History

> Programming started in 1978 and the first version was delivered in 1982. It was never widely used and essentially disappeared soon after the division was shut down in 1985, possibly because IBM and other companies settled on SQL as the standards. BS12's lasting contribution to history was the use of a new query language based on ISBL, created at IBM's UK Scientific Centre.

Developers of the famous System R underway in the US at the same time were also consulted on certain matters concerning the engine, but the BS12 team rejected SQL unequivocally, being convinced that this apparently unsound and difficult-to-use language (which at that time was also relationally incomplete) would never catch on. BS12 included a number of interesting features that still have yet to appear on SQL-based systems, some a consequence of following the ISBL precedent, others due to deliberate design. For instance, a view could be parameterised and parameters could be of type TABLE. Thus, a view could in effect be a new relational operator defined in terms of the existing operators. Codd's DIVIDE operator was in fact implemented that way. Another feature that could have easily been included in SQL systems was the support for update operations on the catalog tables (system tables describing the structure of the database, as in SQL). A new table could be created by inserting a row into the TABLES catalog, and then columns added to it by inserting into COLUMNS. In addition, BS12 was way ahead of SQL in supporting user-defined functions and procedures using a computationally complete sublanguage, triggers, and a simple "call" interface for use by application programs, all in its very first release in 1982.

constraints, boundary, interfaces and interrelations

angelaangeles — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 02:52:47 CST

CONSTRAINTS
-The threat or use of force to prevent, restrict, or dictate the action or thought of others.

-The state of being restricted or confined within prescribed bounds

-One that restricts, limits, or regulates

BOUNDARY

-something that indicates bounds or limits; a limiting or bounding line.

-the greatest possible degree of something

INTERFACES

-A surface forming a common boundary between adjacent regions, bodies, substances, or phases.
-A point at which independent systems or diverse groups interact

INTERRELATIONS

-mutual or reciprocal relation or relatedness

week 8 differences

t0nee — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:43:06 CST

BOUNDARY -is the border of an area or the limit -something that indicates or fixes a limit or extent
CONSTRAIN -is a restriction or limitation
-to hold back by
-To keep within close bounds INTERFACE - is the place at which independent and often unrelated systems meet and act on or communicate with each other -The point of interaction or communication between a computer and any other entity, such as a printer or human operator. -The word was applied to other interactions as well—between departments in an organization, for example, or between fields of study. Shortly thereafter interface developed a use as a verb, but it never really caught on outside its niche in the computer world, where it still thrives. -a surface forming a common boundary of two bodies -the place at which independent and often unrelated systems meet and act on or communicate with each other INTERRELATIONSHIP -is to bring into mutual relation or to have mutual relationship -mutual or reciprocal relation or relatedness; "interrelationships of animal structure and function" -the greatest possible degree of something; "what he did was beyond the bounds of acceptable behavior"; "to the limit of his ability" ** they are different depending on their uses, or how it is applied.

Different Types of Management Info Systems

reniaayson — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:00:18 CST

Management information systems are those systems that allow managers to make decisions for the successful operation of businesses. Management information systems consist of computer resources, people, and procedures used in the modern business enterprise. The term MIS stands for management information systems. MIS also refers to the organization that develops and maintains most or all of the computer systems in the enterprise so that managers can make decisions. The goal of the MIS organization is to deliver information systems to the various levels of corporate managers. MIS professionals create and support the computer system throughout the company. Trained and educated to work with corporate computer systems, these professionals are responsible in some way for nearly all of the computers, from the largest mainframe to the desktop and portable PCs.

Management information systems can be used as a support to managers to provide a competitive advantage. The system must support the goals of the organization. Most organizations are structured along functional lines, and the typical systems are identified as follows:

Accounting management information systems: All accounting reports are shared by all levels of accounting managers.

Financial management information systems: The financial management information system provides financial information to all financial managers within an organization including the chief financial officer. The chief financial officer analyzes historical and current financial activity, projects future financial needs, and monitors and controls the use of funds over time using the information developed by the MIS department.

Manufacturing management information systems: More than any functional area, operations have been impacted by great advances in technology. As a result, manufacturing operations have changed. For instance, inventories are provided just in time so that great amounts of money are not spent for warehousing huge inventories. In some instances, raw materials are even processed on railroad cars waiting to be sent directly to the factory. Thus there is no need for warehousing.
Marketing management information systems: A marketing management information system supports managerial activity in the area of product development, distribution, pricing decisions, promotional effectiveness, and sales forecasting. More than any other functional area, marketing systems rely on external sources of data. These sources include competition and customers, for example.

Human resources management information systems: Human resources management information systems are concerned with activities related to workers, managers, and other individuals employed by the organization. Because the personnel function relates to all other areas in business, the human resources management information system plays a valuable role in ensuring organizational success. Activities performed by the human resources management information systems include, work-force analysis and planning, hiring, training, and job assignments.

Analysis: Interfaces;Interrelationships, Boundary;Constraints

kathyprado — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:40:27 CST

contributed by: Katherin May M. Prado

INTERFACES
-An interface defines the communication boundary between two entities, such as a piece of software, a hardware device, or a user. It generally refers to an abstraction that an entity provides of itself to the outside

INTERRELATIONSHIP
-An interrelationship is to bring into mutual relation;mutual or reciprocal relation or relatedness.
The difference of the two is interface bounds between two entities only while interrelationship is association between two or more things.

BOUNDARY
-The boundary indicates or fixes a limit or extent, or marks a bound, as of a territory; a bounding or separating line; a real or imaginary limit.

CONSTRAINTS
-constraits is the act of constraing, or the state of being restricted.
Constraint is part of the boundary.

Management Info. System by Maxine

maxinealaba — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:49:17 CST

Management Information System is an information system that integrates data from all the departments it serves and provides operations and management with the information they require.
Types of Systems
Management information systems can be used as a support to managers to provide a competitive advantage. The system must support the goals of the organization. Most organizations are structured along functional lines, and the typical systems are identified as follows:

Accounting management information systems: All accounting reports are shared by all levels of accounting managers.

Financial management information systems: The financial management information system provides financial information to all financial managers within an organization including the chief financial officer. The chief financial officer analyzes historical and current financial activity, projects future financial needs, and monitors and controls the use of funds over time using the information developed by the MIS department.

Manufacturing management information systems: More than any functional area, operations have been impacted by great advances in technology. As a result, manufacturing operations have changed. For instance, inventories are provided just in time so that great amounts of money are not spent for warehousing huge inventories. In some instances, raw materials are even processed on railroad cars waiting to be sent directly to the factory. Thus there is no need for warehousing.

Marketing management information systems: A marketing management information system supports managerial activity in the area of product development, distribution, pricing decisions, promotional effectiveness, and sales forecasting. More than any other functional area, marketing systems rely on external sources of data. These sources include competition and customers, for example.

Human resources management information systems: Human resources management information systems are concerned with activities related to workers, managers, and other individuals employed by the organization. Because the personnel function relates to all other areas in business, the human resources management information system plays a valuable role in ensuring organizational success. Activities performed by the human resources management information systems include, work-force analysis and planning, hiring, training, and job assignments.

Management Info System in Business

emmojica — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:02:10 CST

Before one can explain management information systems, the terms systems, information, and management must briefly be defined. A system is a combination or arrangement of parts to form an integrated whole. A system includes an orderly arrangement according to some common principles or rules. A system is a plan or method of doing something.

The study of systems is not new. The Egyptian architects who built the pyramids relied on a system of measurements for construction of the pyramids. Phoenician astronomers studied the system of the stars and predicted future star positions. The development of a set of standards and procedures, or even a theory of the universe, is as old as history itself. People have always sought to find relationships for what is seen or heard or thought about.

A system is a scientific method of inquiry, that is, observation, the formulation of an idea, the testing of that idea, and the application of the results. The scientific method of problem solving is systems analysis in its broadest sense. Data are facts and figures. However, data have no value until they are compiled into a system and can provide information for decision making.

Information is what is used in the act of informing or the state of being informed. Information includes knowledge acquired by some means. In the 1960s and 70s, it became necessary to formalize an educational approach to systems for business so that individuals and work groups and businesses who crossed boundaries in the various operations of business could have appropriate information. Technical developments in computers and data processing and new theories of systems analysis made it possible to computerize systems. Much of this computerization of systems was an out growth of basic research by the federal government.

Management is usually defined as planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the business operation. This definition, which evolved from the work of Henri Fayol in the early 1900s, defines what a manager does, but it is probably more appropriate to define what management is rather than what management does. Management is the process of allocating an organization's inputs, including human and economic resources, by planning, organizing, directing, and controlling for the purpose of producing goods or services desired by customers so that organizational objectives are accomplished. If management has knowledge of the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of the business, its decisions can be made on the basis of facts, and decisions are more accurate and timely as a result.

Management information systems are those systems that allow managers to make decisions for the successful operation of businesses. Management information systems consist of computer resources, people, and procedures used in the modern business enterprise. The term MIS stands for management information systems. MIS also refers to the organization that develops and maintains most or all of the computer systems in the enterprise so that managers can make decisions. The goal of the MIS organization is to deliver information systems to the various levels of corporate managers. MIS professionals create and support the computer system throughout the company. Trained and educated to work with corporate computer systems, these professionals are responsible in some way for nearly all of the computers, from the largest mainframe to the desktop and portable PCs.

what is MIS?

t0nee — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:42:19 CST

What is MIS?
The concepts of MIS have been around since the computer era started. The idea of better living and work was initiated by the advancement of computer technology over the years. 3 schools of thoughts started the idea of automation and computerization; engineering school, computer science and business school. Each had different approaches and understandings to the word "management" and "information system". The word "management" makes it difficult for people to grasp what to be done and what should be learnt to deal with the issue. Presently, 4 ideas of MIS are system management = system design and set up, what is the best system design
- information management = information delivery to people who need it, what is the system which delivers information effectively
- information system = the system that holds and distributes useful information, what is the system which delivers information
- management of technology = managing the information system cost-effectively, what is the system which is worth the investment.

All aspects are important to the organization and, obviously, all knowledge is complementary to each other in order to achieve effective and efficient system and get the most out of the money spent.
All of these perspectives are essential in their own ways. As the technology changes, the complexity of management grows. In the 60s, computer required an expert to operate and to set up and the cost of applying computer technology was quite substantial. The following 70s, computer seemed to be more corporate friendly with relatively high-cost and maintenance. Personal computer started to play major role in the 80s. Since then, the computer have been integrated into all aspects of life especially, in business.
The changes occurred in technology and world economy affecting each other in creating inevitable modern ways to do business. Information systems is an essential part of business because the technology has been integrated into the business infrastructure and processes. Rapid computing, communication, database and applications created by technology (multimedia, barcode, video conference etc.) stimulate the competition and new standards of business.

Expert System

mhela_loteyro — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:15:01 CST

An expert system is a software system that incorporates concepts derived from experts in a field and uses their knowledge to provide problem analysis to users of the software. The most common form of expert system is a computer program, with a set of rules, that analyzes information (usually supplied by the user of the system) about a specific class of problems, and recommends one or more courses of user action. The expert system may also provide mathematical analysis of the problem(s). The expert system utilizes what appears to be reasoning capabilities to reach conclusions.
A related term is wizard. A wizard is an interactive computer program that helps a user solve a problem. Originally the term wizard was used for programs that construct a database search query based on criteria supplied by the user. However, some rule-based expert systems are also called wizards. Other "Wizards" are a sequence of online forms that guide users through a series of choices, such as the ones which manage the installation of new software on computers, and these are not expert systems.

Application of expert systems

Expert systems are designed and created to facilitate tasks in the fields of accounting, medicine, process control, financial service, production, human resources etc. Indeed, the foundation of a successful expert system depends on a series of technical procedures and development that may be designed by certain technicians and related experts. A good example of application of expert systems in banking area is expert systems for mortgages. Loan departments are interested in expert systems for mortgages because of the growing cost of labour which makes the handling and acceptance of relatively small loans less profitable. They also see in the application of expert systems a possibility for standardised, efficient handling of mortgage loan, and appreciate that for the acceptance of mortgages there are hard and fast rules which do not always exist with other types of loans. While expert systems have distinguished themselves in AI research in finding practical application, their application has been limited. Expert systems are notoriously narrow in their domain of knowledge—as an amusing example, a researcher used the "skin disease" expert system to diagnose his rustbucket car as likely to have developed measles—and the systems were thus prone to making errors that humans would easily spot. Additionally, once some of the mystique had worn off, most programmers realized that simple expert systems were essentially just slightly more elaborate versions of the decision logic they had already been using. Therefore, some of the techniques of expert systems can now be found in most complex programs without any fuss about them. An example, and a good demonstration of the limitations of, an expert system used by many people is the Microsoft Windows operating system troubleshooting taskbar menu. Obtaining expert / technical operating system support is often difficult for individuals not closely involved with the development of the operating system. Microsoft has designed their expert system to provide solutions, advice, and suggestions to common errors encountered throughout using the operating systems. software located in the "help" section in the Another 1970s and 1980s application of expert systems — which we today would simply call AI — was in computer games. For example, the computer baseball Earl Weaver Baseball and Tony La Russa Baseball each had highly detailed simulations of the game strategies of those two baseball managers. When a human played the game against the computer, the computer queried the Earl Weaver or Tony La Russa Expert System for a decision on what strategy to follow. Even those choices where some randomness was part of the natural system (such as when to throw a surprise pitch-out to try to trick a runner trying to steal a base) were decided based on probabilities supplied by Weaver or La Russa. Today we would simply say that "the game's AI provided the opposing manager's strategy." games

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages:

Provides consistent answers for repetitive decisions, processes and tasks
Holds and maintains significant levels of information
Encourages organizations to clarify the logic of their decision-making
Never "forgets" to ask a question, as a human might

Disadvantages:

Lacks common sense needed in some decision making
Cannot make creative responses as human expert would in unusual circumstances
Domain experts not always able to explain their logic and reasoning
Errors may occur in the knowledge base, and lead to wrong decisions
Cannot adapt to changing environments, unless knowledge base is changed

Types of problems solved by expert systems

Expert systems are most valuable to organizations that have a high-level of know-how experience and expertise that cannot be easily transferred to other members. They are designed to carry the intelligence and information found in the intellect of experts and provide this knowledge to other members of the organization for problem-solving purposes. Typically, the problems to be solved are of the sort that would normally be tackled by a medical or other professional. Real experts in the problem domain (which will typically be very narrow, for instance "diagnosing skin conditions in human teenagers") are asked to provide "rules of thumb" on how they evaluate the problems, either explicitly with the aid of experienced systems developers, or sometimes implicitly, by getting such experts to evaluate test cases and using computer programs to examine the test data and (in a strictly limited manner) derive rules from that. Generally, expert systems are used for problems for which there is no single "correct" solution which can be encoded in a conventional algorithm — one would not write an expert system to find shortest paths through graphs, or sort data, as there are simply easier ways to do these tasks. Simple systems use simple true/false logic to evaluate data. more sophisticated systems are capable of performing at least some evaluation, taking into account real-world uncertainties, using such methods as fuzzy logic. Such sophistication is difficult to develop and still highly imperfect.

Analysis on some MIS Elements

blue_comet16 — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 07:27:44 CST

Definition:
Constraints is a condition that a solution to an optimization problem must satisfy.
Boundary is smaller portion of constraints that describes the external entities and interactions.
Examples:
In constraints for example, in a workplace they don't have enough sufficient skills needed in service firms.
In relation to these in boudary, the problems in workplaces are communication, problem solving, and computer skills.
Meaning in constraints it is the whole problem while in boundary it is the types/kinds related to it.
Definition:
Interrelationship is the relationship of variables in which each depend on or is affected by the other. It also helps a group analyze the natural links between different aspects of a complex situation.
Interfaces is the point of interaction or communication between a computer and any other entity, such as printer or human operator. It may be useful to define variables as part of the interface.
Examples:
In conceptual methods examines interrelationships among variables. For example, speakers at the 1990 II conference presented a system model of motor control.
For interfaces, you can implement this in a variety of ways. For example, for formats such as tab delimited ASCI, XML and a database.

Office Automation Systems

gracious21 — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:25:48 CST

Contributed by: Mary Grace Mendoza.

• An Office Automation System is a multi-function, integrated computer-based system that allows many office activities to be performed in an electronic mode.

• Office Automation Systems are among the newest and most rapidly expanding computer based information systems.

• They are being used in most of the organisations with the expectations that they will increase the efficiency and productivity of office workers-typist, PAs, administrative assistants, office managers and the like.

• Many organisations have taken lead towards automating their offices. The first step taken by them in this direction is installation of word-processing system to facilitate the typing work, storing, editing and printing of textual matters.

• Another common development is a computer-based communication system such as electronic mail, which allows people to communicate in an electronic mode through computer terminals. Most of the financial organisations such as banking, insurance companies, stock exchanges, etc. are making use of this facility in a large way.

• Inputs: Most of OAS have inputs as appointments, documents, addresses, etc.

• Process: Processing would be scheduling word processor, data storage and retrieval.

• Output: Outputs generated by would be schedules, memoranda, bulk mail and different types of administrative reports.

Management Information System

louiseizay — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:05:36 CST

Information system is an integrated set of components for collecting, storing, processing, and communicating information. Business firms, other organizations, and individuals in contemporary society rely on information systems to manage their operations, compete in the marketplace, supply services, and augment personal lives. For instance, modern corporations rely on computer. Information Systems (IS) is a unique and innovative interdisciplinary program.IMS is a joint hierarchical database and information management system with extensive transaction processing capability.
IBM designed IMS with Rockwell and Caterpillar starting in 1966 for the Apollo program. IMS's challenge was to inventory the very large Bill of Materials for the Saturn V moon rocket and Apollo space vehicle.
The first "IMS READY" message appeared on an IBM 2740 terminal in Downey, California, on 14 August 1968. IMS is still running strong nearly 40 years later and, over time, has seen some interesting developments as IBM System/360 technology evolved into the current z/OS and System z9 technologies. For example, IMS supports the Java programming language, JDBC, XML, and, in late 2005, Web services.
Vern Watts is IMS's chief architect. Watts joined IBM in the late 1950s and, as of this writing in mid-2005, still works (at least "unofficially") at IBM's Silicon Valley development labs. He has continuously worked on IMS since the 1960s.