Management Information System: Business Intelligence depends on a series of software solutions and commercial strategies to be functional and capable of delivering the company’s expected results.
One is MIS, which helps managers visualize information and make more intelligent decisions. Check out more data about it and its impact on the use of BI below!
What Is MIS?
The Management Information System (MIS) is a resource allied to the manager in the decision-making process. In short, this tool represents how data is processed until information is generated.
It is a system of people, procedures, equipment and documents that collects, validates, accounts and budgets management processes for the most diverse organizational sectors. Information processing systems become MIS when they aim to transform data into valuable items for the company, which can be auxiliary and guide management decision-making.
Thus, management information systems use technology to unite all data from the most diverse sectors of the organization and transform them into essential information. For this process to be efficient, it is essential to process all the company’s data, decode it and understand how the system works — whether it is influenced by external actions, for example.
In short, MIS is a tool that generates information that serves as a basis for making managerial decisions resulting from an interaction between people, procedures and technologies — which help the company achieve its goals. MIS provides the correct information at the right time, to the right person, in the right way and at the ideal cost.
How Does It Work In Practice?
Information technology works in companies to bring together “loose” data and transform it into sources of essential information for them, with complete security. With the MIS, gathering everything necessary, visualizing all demands (and the progress of activities) and managing information about each client and procedure is possible.
This also makes decision-making more assertive, as the entire process is part of the management system. A complete overview is provided by bringing together all the data so the manager can understand the company’s current situation and know what to do.
The MIS has an assortment of information products, which are presented through reports — capable of assisting managers by providing data and acting as performance indicators. The reports are:
- Scheduling is the most traditional way of providing information to managers. As an example, we have weekly and daily sales reports in addition to financial statements;
- Reports and responses on request: these are reports that show information whenever it is requested. They allow immediate responses to be obtained;
- Exception: as the name suggests, these are exceptional reports cases in which the manager can obtain specific information about a particular activity or sector. A credit manager obtaining data on customers who exceed their limits is an example of this type of report.
It is worth highlighting that SIGs are fundamental to supporting all organizational functions, as they encompass planning, management, organization, control and direction activities, being essential for good organizational performance.
What Are The Benefits For The Company?
A management information system brings numerous benefits to the organization. However, for it to reach this level, it is essential that the company’s tripod — participation, productivity and quantity — are walking hand in hand.
In other words, employees must be active in all processes, increasing productivity and optimizing procedures. Furthermore, numerous other advantages are related to the implementation of this system, such as:
- immediate access to information;
- more organized projects;
- demand optimization;
- reduction of operating costs;
- greater flow of information in the organizational structure;
- Improve decision-making, as the manager has quick and immediate access to information.
And that’s not all. The use of MIS also brings a competitive advantage to the business, as it considers the organization’s macro and micro scenarios and other elements, such as analysis of external factors, strategic guidelines and analysis to identify objectives.
Therefore, management information systems are responsible for automating organizational processes, but they depend on employees to ensure that the data is always current. They encompass all current events in the company and help managers make correct decisions, resulting in effective business communication and positive results.