Management Information System: Definition & Objectives

 

A management information system is a set of systems and procedures that gather information from different sources, compile them, and present it in a readable format. The study involves people, technology, organizations, and their interactions. Using MIS in the workplace helps in maximizing the benefits gained from investing in personnel, equipment, and business processes.

In this blog, we will talk about the main objectives served by MIS reporting to an organization.

 

Here are the Objectives of MIS:

 

1. Data Maintenance: It is beneficial to maintain data as it allows the organization to provide updated and error-free information. Companies may improve their business operations by maintaining accurate data and monitoring data management processes. It helps in deleting redundant and useless data. It is significant to store data for future use. Furthermore, MIS allows retrieving data from the storage devices whenever any user requires any information. Users can also periodically distribute data through the organizational network to its users using management systems.

 

2. Effective & Efficient Planning: MIS allows top management to set goals, plan strategically, and evolve the business plans and their implementation. It plays a significant role in information generation, communication, and problem identification and helps in the process of decision-making. It is equally essential to provide quick and timely information to the management. This system not only deals with data processing but also manages information. Therefore, it helps the users with sound decision-making by providing accurate and up-to-date information and performing analytic functions. After making a decision, information systems allow managers to understand the potential of the decision by constantly updating raw data and predicting possible future benefits or problems.

 

3. Graphical Reporting: Generating and figuring out relevant information from large volumes of data is time-consuming and can lead to delays in decision-making. Furthermore, it can also mislead in some cases. MIS reports represent data through graphs, bars, pivot tables, and pie charts that are easy to analyze. Thus, it helps in saving time and making decisions faster. This allows management to analyze reports more quickly. Also, pictorial representation consolidates data related to revenue, profit, productivity, performance, investment, and expenditure. This also helps in accessing the weaknesses and strengths of the company and making short-term and long-term plans for business growth.

 

4. Problem Identification: Organizations maintain MIS reports for various purposes. One of the purposes is the identification of the problem. Firstly, the development team builds templates for MIS reports after considering different parameters and aspects associated with running a business. Secondly, the team of executives then begins to identify the problematic areas in various departments using specific MIS reports. This representation of information is helpful for top management and allows them to make informed and accurate inferences. With MIS reporting, various parameters are analyzed to determine positive or negative trends related to sales, production, customer service, finance, human resources, and other departments.

 

5. Standard & budgeted performance: By matching the actual performance with the standard and budgeted performance, MIS reports bring these variances to the attention of the management and resolve them by taking remedial actions. This information helps management make sound decisions based on re-production statistics. Management then studies these reports to take the necessary decisions to improve productivity and revenue growth. An MIS report provides the latest data on the business. Additionally, management then prepares reports by combining past, current, and speculative reports for better accuracy. Thus, management uses these reports to build long-term strategies.

 

To sum up,

MIS can collect and store data from various departments, allowing you to create valuable reports and presentations for your staff. In addition to collecting and processing information, MIS is evenly responsible for improving the company's performance and assisting in decision-making.