21 Developing MIS Systems

Ms.Vinodini Kapoor

epgp books

 

 

 

1.  Learning Outcome:

 

After completing this module the students will be able to:

  • Understand the concept of development of MIS.
  • Understand the role played by MIS.
  • Understand the different steps involved in the MIS development process.
  • List various considerations in developing MIS.
  • List various challenges in MIS development.

2.  Introduction

 

An information system stands analogous to the human heart that pumps blood to all organs via a network of arteries and veins. Its existence is inevitable to carry complex process of the human body. It ensures the right organ receives blood supply adequately. Similarly, the information system is responsible for integrating distinct components of any organizational systems for better operations and scalability. It brings together a central focal point where different integration interfaces could be programmed. As seen in exhibit 1, the basic components of MIS such as hardware, software and people combine together to perform specific processes. The data which is captured from multiple sources is analyzed and processed. This forms the basis for an information system (IS). Organizations accumulate operational data that is further processed to yield tactical information. It is the business acumen of the organizational and technical experts who implement information systems how best they utilize this platform to their competitive advantage. Information systems in organizations, thus, provide information support for decision making at various hierarchical levels in the organization. Words by David Olson state the following,

 

“Management information system (MIS) is an integrated user machine system for providing information to support operations, management and decision making functions in an organization. The system utilizes computers, manual procedures, models for analysis, planning, control and decision making and a database.”

 

 

The information system ecosystem comprises of a hierarchical setup of transaction processing system, management information system, decision support systems and expert systems. While each of them carries distinct functions, their existence is required to cater to different aspects of a business problem. Prior to developing an IS, it is important for any organization to articulate why does it need an IS. It is essential to analyze, where it is and what it intends to achieve. Generally, an information system is needed to resolve issues the organization is focusing on. The concept to system development encompasses the gamut of activities that together create an IS. A step wise representation is depicted in exhibit 2.

 

While developing information system setup it is important to consider the corporate goals of the organization. A firm needs to clearly highlight what it wants to achieve after the incorporation of the IS with its internal processes. To drive the development process, the support and commitment of the management is essential. A broad overview of the development process is highlighted in exhibit 3.

 

  1. Role of Management Information Systems in Organizations.

 

Management information systems bring together the basic entities and that are inevitable to develop a system and carry out processes. Majority of these integration points are highlighted in exhibit 4. MIS captures data from the internal as well as external environment of the organization. This is processed for business purposes.

 

 

The role played by MIS is multifaceted as discussed below:

  • The MIS facilitates processes across different functional departments of the organization by enabling data based queries, modeling, informational retrieval, documentation and decision support.
  • The MIS supports activities and decision making at different levels of the management structure. It helps to control activities at top strategic level as well as transactional data, operational activities, planning and control.
  • The information systems serve the needs of engineers and other field staff at the operational and mid management level for routine activities.
  • The applications and usage of IS is not limited to any one department but helpful across the organization. Ranging from human resource information systems to marketing and sales force automation systems, procurement to production and diagnostics, accounting to quality control and audit.
  • It plays a vital role in assessing project development and monitoring progress, shortfalls or managing delays.
  • Since majority of the time in any organization is spent on administrative and clerical processes, these time consuming activities are minimized by the MIS as updated information is available across all access points in real time. This speeds up communication.
  1. The MIS System Development Process

The ever increasing complexities and changing business dynamics, require a properly planned, analyzed, designed and maintained MIS which fulfils its ultimate goal of timely, reliable and useful information to enable the management to take prompt and rational decisions.

 

An MIS should be adaptable to meet changing business needs, scalable to match growing business requirements and interoperable to work across technology platforms. Various factors that influence the development of MIS are showcased in Exhibit 5. The development process requires brainstorming, consultation and planning to ensure the right information is fed into the system. Organizations cannot operate and grow without properly planned, developed and maintained MIS. The benefits of MIS are not limited to larger organizations. Even smaller companies can leverage on the benefits of information systems and streamline their processes.

 

Fig 1 highlights the various steps involved in developing the MIS system which are explained below:

  1. Defining and analyzing various types of decisions – The MIS experts and consultants analyze the current decision making style of the organization. They require an understanding of the management hierarchy that is responsible for such decisions. Decisions at each level may have a risk component attached which needs to be assessed. The purpose of this study is to ensure that right data sources are associated with the right target audience responsible for analyzing the data and making decisions.
  2. Cost and benefit analysis – The information system has to be utilized in such a way that it serves as a good value proposition for the organization. The applications and uses of the system and the benefits derived should eventually outweigh the cost of incorporating it in the system. Depending upon the size of the organization and scale of operation, alternative means of providing information for managerial decision making should be studied and evaluated in terms of their costs and benefits. An effective MIS not only evaluates information for presentation but also eliminates unnecessary data. It makes information usable for future analysis.
  3. Pre testing and training – A test run of the MIS is essential before the system goes live. This helps in debugging the system for errors and tackle problems that are likely to arise. If not corrected beforehand, this can lead to wrong data analysis and incorrect processing. Preplanned training is essential to the managers to understand the system so that they can make proper use of the system.
  4. Proper planning for information storage– Proper arrangement should be made for storage of information. All information should be stored in separate files well integrated in to the database. New entries and data fields can be added to existing ones as per business needs and information update. There could be different departments with similar information. The access to them should be granted in a way that the data does not get duplicated and occupy too much space.
  5. Mechanism for gathering and processing data – This step is concerned with data acquisition, collecting, storing, evaluating, transmitting and retrieving information. A control mechanism is equally necessary to identify and correct any flaws that might occur in the system.
  6. Dissemination of information – Mere storage of information is not sufficient. It is equally essential that the right people can retrieve the right information as per business needs. Any delay in this regard can only be a hindrance to business critical decisions. It is essential to segregate who is liable to access what kind of information in an organization. Proper templates should be designed by marketing communication department for the dissemination of information to various decision makers with regard to their information needs.
  7. Review at periodical intervals – MIS needs maintenance and system up gradation from time to time. This enables smooth functioning of a system that can provide information real time. Scalability and robustness are essential factors to be considered while designing hardware and software requirements. As business grows, existing capacity should be upgraded on the current system avoiding investment from scratch.

 

Case: Development of online hospital management information system.

 

The aim of a hospital management system is to establish an automated system and synchronize the information needs of the hospital. When either a new or old patient visits the hospital, the designated staff creates or updates information into the user profile. Each visitor has a unique profile integrated to the database regarding the department, doctor, symptoms, diagnosis etc using master forms (refer to Fig 2). Information pertaining to the duty hours, visiting time of doctors, availability of operation theater, surgery dates etc are also available and can be retrieved as per need basis . Eventually, every piece of information about the patients’ registration, transfer and discharge can be utilized. A patient needs to carry his card in hardcopy or a plastic smartcard. His profile is retrieved from the database by entering his mobile number or unique card id. This online card provides them very quick access. The hospital facilities can access the medical history by entering the unique card number even in absence of a patient if there is an emergency. He is exempted from the hassle of undergoing all the tests again and can have immediate treatment. Online access to the software allows the doctors to view reports and visit details of patients even by sitting at home. Thus the E-card system and a database system are beneficial for both the patients and doctors. The system provides required access only to authorized users and the database is protected and cannot be tampered with.

 

Computerization and automation renders the information to be available at a mouse click. The system is interactive with a user friendly graphic interface. Another useful application is the provision for getting appointment from the doctor through internet. The doctor could view the requests from several patients and accordingly give the appointment if possible. Further, mobile application can be implemented to allow the patients to view their previous visit details and get appointment from doctors through mobiles. Posting of employees from one hospital to another can also be managed. Further, doctors can be given the provision to post their articles on the website of hospital.

 

Source:http://www.academia.edu/3311586/Design_and_Development_of_Online_Hospital_Management_Information_Sys tem, International Journal of Computer Science Engineering and Information Technology Research (IJCSEITR).

  1. Key considerations in developing successful MIS Systems.

Management information system is a powerful software integration that facilitates decision making and data analysis. The following are essential points to be kept in mind while developing a management information system.

  1. System Goals – This step involves analysis of the current systems. Prima facie, the organizational needs are to be determined to know what information is relevant to aid the decision making process. These may include data internal to the organization as well as from external sources.
  2. Maintenance – Determining who uses each component of the information system is essential. Surveying the employees to find out who uses the MIS and what types of information they need to have access to. The right MIS of a company can use this data in either its current form or import it from a standard format. In this way, the data in the system is always the same data as the company working level is using and generating.
  3. Usage – A management information systems should be designed in such a way so as to ensure maximum usability. The user interface should be easy to understand even by a non domain expert. The reporting engine has to be easy to understand and generate reports as per business needs.

 

  1. Changes – Establishing an information system setup in not sufficient. It is essential for the system to keep updating as per changing business needs, changes in organizational structures, product specifications etc . The method to incorporate the change request should not be time consuming and hassled. The system at the same time should promise faster restoration and service levels with maximum uptime. The change management and maintenance is an activity carried either by hired system experts or those internal to the organization.

 

Case: Leased vs. Buy? What is the optimum business decision?

 

A small scale industrial manufacturer, Mettalic Power Inc, emerged as a new startup of fuel – cell development. They began the testing of a design-sharing application which was purchased from another firm called Bom.com Inc.

 

Metallic was determined to avoid mistakes like the one it committed before. The company had missed a deadline because the updated design drawing of the zinc-air fuel-cell frame went unnoticed. Metallic was in the development stage and sent a part built on the wrong specifications.

 

The California based manufacturer was designing the zinc-air fuel cell for power backup. The intention was to replace conventional engine batteries in electric vehicles “If we didn’t determine a milestone, then investors would not look so highly at us,” said the Metallic design engineer Bret. The negligence would have costed the company a fortune, had they been closer to the deadline for shipping its first zinc-air fuel-cell product.

 

Metallic started using Bom’s shared application, which allowed companies to lease bill-of-material management software. This contained the end to end list of components offered to suppliers for biding. The application allowed various manufacturers to share product development information with suppliers and vendors who could respond to the information online.

 

Metallic could upload its designs of plastic or metal parts for its backup systems to Bom. Users could send an e-mail that delivered their supplier a link to Bom’s Web page. The change management procedure was also online and the customer could be alerted of the change. This service was rendered at a monthly cost of about $100 monthly or $1,000 per seat (computer) annually for the service. The users only needed a web browser to upload and view files, hence, there were no installation charges.

 

Source: https://books.google.co.in/books?isbn=8126509686

  1. Challenges in developing MIS systems.

If an online shopping portal like Amazon or a ticketing company like the Indian railways has a system failure or website down due to maintenance, the fault in the software can make the company lose thousands of dollars in revenue. Authorized accessibility and system uptime of near 99 percent is equally important to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability. The major challenges associated with information systems are technical and operational challenges. These are elaborated below:

 

Operational Challenges

  • Bad communication – This refers to the lack of planning and project requirement understanding from point of view of various stakeholders i.e., customer, organizational needs for the project. It can lead to duplication of work and redundancies leading to rework.
  • Unclear requirements – When requirements are not clearly identified, this will lead to change of requirements during middle of the project which will increase project delivery schedules.
  • Prior requirement planning – It is necessary else it will lead to added labor and project cost. Thus, making the project less profitable and takes away interest from stakeholders.
  • Delayed Project Delivery – Project management is key to timely task completion and closures else project milestones would be pushed back and potential software with less functionality than what agreed upon in the beginning agreement with the client. Exhibit 11 highlights multiple reasons that lead to delay in project delivery.
  • Market Pressure – Business needs are never static and continuously need to be understood, catered to and incorporated. It is very essential for research and product development departments to understand market requirements from sales.

Technical Challenges

 

Technical challenges require optimal functionality, accuracy and availability. Information systems developmental challenges can be listed as follows.

  • Knowing the technical needs – This requires knowledge of programming. An understanding of the frameworks, the systems and the algorithms needed for a particular information system to be successful. An important factor today is accessibility and interoperability. This implies the system to be logged on to from all browsers and devices.
  • Right design patterns – This implies the design structure and framework of the information system software. Writing the specification requirement and establishing an actual design review and quality criteria should not be neglected.
  • Quality Control – Quality standards and compliance as per industry benchmarks helps to maintain credibility and serve a large customer base globally.
  • Security – Security is inevitable in today’s cyber space to maintain confidentiality and integrity. A secure support system can implement business critical use cases.
  • Always debugging – It is necessary to keep fixing logical errors, debugging the infinite loops or dividing by zero bugs in the code.
  1. Summary

 

The information systems ensure critical information is available to the target audience within the right time frame. This enhances the interaction between the organization’s people and processes. In addition, MIS enables information and data sharing between departments instantly, enabling remote access and communication, thus, increasing the responsiveness of the organization. It provides information as per business needs. The communication is prompt, accurate, monitored and validated with authorized users. Planning and developing a large information repository is a demanding task and needs intervention of system experts. Needs of every organization are different and so are their corporate goals to be achieved. Information systems tend to grow in complexity as they grow in size. Systems development is the entire set of activities needed to construct an information systems solution centric to a business problem or opportunity. The plan of MIS should be concurrent to the business plan of the organization. The information needs for the implementation of the business plan should find place in the MIS. The information needs are traced to the source data and the systems in the organization which generate such a data. The development methodology is liked with the steps of the implementation in a business development plan. The system of information generation is so planned that strategic information is provided for the strategic planning, control information is provided for a short term planning and execution.

you can view video on Developing MIS Systems

Web Resources

  • www.european-science.com
  • www.boisecascade.com
  • www.londoninternational.ac.uk