Lecture1: An introduction to

Management Information
Systems (MIS)
[email protected]
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Study questions
Q1 Why is Introduction to MIS the most
important class in the business school?
Q2 What is MIS?
Q3 How can you use the five-component
model?
Q4 What is information? What makes
some information better than other
information?
Q5 How will IS affect business careers?
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Q1 Why is Introduction to MIS

the most important class in
the business school?
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IS- What is it about?

u Business Information Systems is the

application of technology to solve business
problems.

u An IS professional applies technology to

integrate and support business activities
such as Accounting, Finance, Marketing,
HR, Management and so on.

u INFO students learn to analyze, design,

develop, and manage Information Systems.
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What’s Different About IS?
IS Computer Science
Focus: Business Software
Objective: More efficient or effective business Reliable computer program

Core skill: Problem solving Logic/Engineering

Core task: Determine business requirements Deliver information
for information systems systems to meet defined
requirements

Starting title: Business Systems Analyst Application Programmer

Career goals: Senior organizational manager Programming manager
Faculty: Business Engineering Science
Why does it matter? 6

Suppose you have two transport companies.

How can one get a competitive advantage over
the other?

What do businesses compete with?

Why does it matter? 7

Suppose you have two transport companies.

How can one get a competitive advantage over
the other?
They both use the same roads, pay the same for fuel, obey
the same speed limits, have same rules, pay their drivers
much the same... If one buys a better lorry, the other one
can buy exactly the same....
How can you as a manager make a difference?
By using information. Most companies actually compete
with information. It is managing and leveraging the
information resources that makes the difference in
business.
The future is all about information management.

What do businesses compete with?

Why does it matter? 8

Because business is changing….

In 2013, Wal-Mart sold nearly 10% of the total retail sales

in the U.S.
Its RetailLink computer system connects its suppliers to
every one of Wal-Mart’s 5289 stores worldwide. As
soon as a customer purchases any item, the supplier
monitoring the item knows to ship a replacement to the
shelf.

The management of Information is the future of

business.
Why does it matter? 9

Because business is changing….

Every time a shirt is sold at a JCPenny store in the U.S.,

details appear in a computer in Hong Kong at its supplier,
TAL Apparel Ltd., a large contract manufacturer that
produces one in eight dress shirts sold in the U.S.
TAL’s computers then decide how many replacement shirts
to make, and in what styles, colors, and sizes, and then
sends the shirts to each JCPenny store. JCPenny’s shirt
inventory is near zero, as is the cost of storing it.

The management of Information is the future of

business.
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Why does it matter?
• Online news, social networks
• Internet advertising continues
significantly.
• New laws require businesses to store
more data for longer periods.
• Changes in business result in changes
in jobs and careers.
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Why does it matter?
What’s New in MIS?
New technologies Organizations
• Cloud computing •Web 2.0 applications widely
• Software as a service (SaaS) adopted
• Mobile digital platforms • Telework gains momentum
People and behavior changes • Co-creation of value,
• Managers use social networks, collaboration across firms
collaboration.
• Employees have access to
powerful decision aids.
• Virtual meetings are accepted
and used.
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Q2 What is MIS?
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What Is MIS?
u Key elements
1. Management and use.
2. Information systems.
3. Strategies.
uGoal of MIS
Ø Managing IS to achieve business
strategies.
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What Is MIS
Management
u The key is to develop, maintain, and
adapt.
u To create an information system that
meets your needs, take an active role
in the system’s development. Why?
u Business professionals understand business
needs and requirements.
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What Is MIS
u Development and Use of Information
Systems: Business professionals need
to:
u Take active role to ensure systems meet
their needs.
u Understand how IS is constructed.
u Consider users’ needs during
development.
u Learn how to use the IS.
u Ancillary (security, backups).
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What Is MIS
uAchieving Strategies: Information
systems exist to help people in a
business achieve the business'
strategies.
u “What is the purpose of our Facebook page?”
u “What is it going to do for us?”
u “What is our policy for employees’
contributions?”
u “What should we do about critical customer
reviews?”
u “Are the costs of maintaining the page
sufficiently offset by the benefits?”
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Q3 How can you use the

five-component model?
Components of an Information 18
System?

Components interact to produce

information

Source: textbook [1], pg. 8

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How Can You Use the Five-
Component Model?

Source: textbook [1], pg. 10

Characteristics of the Five 20
Components
The most Important Component
Ø YOU!
u Quality of your thinking, your ability to
conceive information from data,
determined by your cognitive skills.
u Information is value you add to information
systems.
Ø All Components Must Work.
Characteristics of the Five 21
Components
u High-Tech Versus Low-Tech Information
Systems: differ in the amount of work that
is moved from the human side à computer
side
u Understanding the Scope of New
Information Systems.
u Components Ordered by Difficulty and
Disruption.
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Q4 What is information?
What makes some
information better than other
information?
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What Is Information?

Definitions vary
1. Knowledge derived from data, where data
represents recorded facts or figures.
2. Data presented in a meaningful context.
3. Processed data, or data processed by
summing, ordering, averaging, grouping,
comparing, or other similar operations.
4. A difference that makes a difference.
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Where Is Information?
• Graph is not, in itself, complete
information.
• Graph is the data you and others
perceive, use to conceive information.
• Ability to conceive information from data
determined by cognitive skills.
• People perceive different information
from same data.
One user’s information is another 25
user’s data

Source: textbook [1], pg. 16

What makes some information 26
better than other information

Source: textbook [1], pg. 16

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Q5 How IS will affect

Business Careers
Information Systems and Your Career 28

Accounting:
• Accountants increasingly rely on IS to
summarize transactions, create financial
records, organize data, and perform financial
analysis.
• Skills:
• IT, software used in auditing, accounting functions
• System and network security issues
• Enterprise systems for financial reporting
Information Systems and Your Career 29

Finance:
• Relationship between IS and financial
management and services is so strong that
many advise finance majors to co-major in
IS.
• Skills:
• IT, software used by financial managers and
financial service firms
• New technologies for financial transactions,
trading
• Enterprise systems for financial reporting
Information Systems and Your Career 30

Marketing:
• No field has undergone more technology-
driven change in the past five years than
marketing and advertising.
• Skills:
• Internet, marketing database systems, and
impact on marketing activities (brand
development, promotion, sales)
• Enterprise systems for product management,
sales force management, customer
relationship management
Information Systems and Your Career 31

Operations management in services and

manufacturing:
• Industrial production managers, administrative
service managers, and operations analysts
• Skills:
• Hardware and software platforms for operations
management
• How enterprise systems for production
management, supplier management, sales force
management, customer relationship management
are used to achieve efficient operations and meet
other goals
Information Systems and Your Career 32

Management:
• The job of management has been transformed
by information systems
• Skills:
• Hardware and software to improve
management, enhance leadership and
coordination, improve achievement of
overall corporate objectives
• How enterprise systems are used to achieve
efficient operations and help make better
decisions for improving firm performance
Information Systems and Your Career 33

Information systems:
• Fast changing and dynamic profession because
information technologies are among most
important tools for achieving business firms’ key
objectives
• Domestic and offshore outsourcing

• Skills:
• Uses of new and emerging hardware and
software to achieve business objectives

• An ability to take a leadership role in the design

and implementation of new information systems
Information Systems and Your Career 34

Common requirements
• How IT helps achieve business objectives
• Central role of databases
• Information analysis, impact of
environment
• Working with specialists and systems
designers
• Ethical, social, legal environment and
issues
• Use of IT to meet legal requirements
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Summary
Q1 Why is Introduction to MIS the most
important class in the business school?
Q2 What is MIS?
Q3 How can you use the five-component
model?
Q4 What is information? What makes
some information better than other
information?
Q5 How will IS affect business careers
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Additional resources
u S.M.A.C (Social Mobile Analytics Cloud)
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