Role of Management information system & Component of MIS

acebook is one of the most profitable businesses in the world, and its entire existence depends on the use of information technology and information systems.

Other successful companies such as Google, Amazon, eBay, andFinancial Institutions- most of their success is due to technology.

This tutorial will look at the roles of MIS in the organization and how an organization can take advantage of MIS to gain competitive advantage.

In this tutorial, you will learn-

• Definition of data and information and characteristics of good information
• Competitive advantage of information and MIS
• Components of MIS and their relationship
• Porter's Value chain
• Influence of IT on organizational goals

Definition of data and information and characteristics of good information

Data refers to raw basic facts i.e. price of a product, the number of products purchased, etc. that haven't yet been processed.

For example, a price of $6 and a quantity of 10 do not convey any meaning to a customer at a point of sale till. Information should be processed data that conveys meaning to the recipient.

For example, multiplying $6 by 10 gives us $60, which is the total bill that the customer should pay.

Good information should be timely and available when it is needed.

The following are the characteristics of good information.

• Accurate – information must be free from errors and mistakes. This is achieved by following strict set standards for processing data into information. For example, adding $6 + 10 would give us inaccurate information. Accurate information for our example is multiplying $6 by 10.
• Complete – all the information needed to make a good decision must be available. Nothing should be missing. If TAX is an application to the computation of the total amount that the customer should pay then, it should be included as well. Leaving it out can mislead the customer to think they should pay $60 only when in actual fact, they must pay tax as well.
• Cost Effective – the cost of obtaining information must not exceed the benefit of the information in monetary terms.
• User-focused – the information must be presented in such a way that it should address the information requirements of the target user. For example, operational managers required very detailed information, and this should be considered when presenting information to operational managers. The same information would not be appropriate for senior managers because they would have to process it again. To them, it would be data and not information.
• Relevant – the information must be relevant to the recipient. The information must be directly related to the problem that the intended recipient is facing. If the ICT department wants to buy a new server, information that talks about a 35% discount on laptops would not be relevant in such a scenario.
• Authoritative – the information must come from a reliable source. Let's say you have a bank account and you would like to transfer money to another bank account that uses a different currency from yours. Using the exchange rate from a bureau de change would not be considered authoritative compared to getting the exchange rate directly from your bank.
• Timely – information should be available when it is needed. Let's say your company wants to merge with another company. Information that evaluates the other company that you want to merge with must be provided before the merger, and you must have sufficient time to verify the information.

Competitive advantage of information and MIS

Competitive advantage is a position that makes a business more profitable than its competitors. For example, producing products at a lower cost than your competitors makes you more profitable.

Information systems have the capacity to help an organization into such a position. They do so in the following ways

Operational excellence – operational excellence seeks to improve the operations of the business. Let's take an example of a retail store. A retail store can use information systems to automatically place an order with a supplier once the inventory level reaches the re-order limit. This ensures that the retail store never runs out of inventory and customers can always count on it to find what they need.

New business models, products, and services – let's continue with the example of a retail store. The retail store can develop a web based order system or smartphone application that clients can use to buy items from the comfort of their homes or wherever they are. The order system can be linked to a delivery business and have support for online payments. This is a new business model compared to customers walking in to make purchases vs doing it from web based or smartphone apps.

Improved supplier and customer relations – historical data is used to understand the needs of the customers and suppliers. This data is then used to create services and products that address the needs. This leads to long-term relationships with customers and business which puts an organization in a more profitable position.

Improved decision making – information is critical when making decisions. Information systems if designed and operated efficiently, output information that has all the characteristic of good information described in the above section. This enables an organization to make decisions that will profit the organizations.

Components of MIS and their relationship

A management information system is made up of five major components namely people, business processes, data, hardware, and software. All of these components must work together to achieve business objects.

People – these are the users who use the information system to record the day to day business transactions. The users are usually qualified professionals such as accountants, human resource managers, etc. The ICT department usually has the support staff who ensure that the system is running properly.

Business Procedures – these are agreed upon best practices that guide the users and all other components on how to work efficiently. Business procedures are developed by the people i.e. users, consultants, etc.

Data – the recorded day to day business transactions. For a bank, data is collected from activities such as deposits, withdrawals, etc.

Hardware – hardware is made up of the computers, printers, networking devices, etc. The hardware provides the computing power for processing data. It also provides networking and printing capabilities. The hardware speeds up the processing of data into information.

Software – these are programs that run on the hardware. The software is broken down into two major categories namely system software and applications software. System software refers to the operating system i.e. Windows, Mac OS, and Ubuntu, etc. Applications software refers to specialized software for accomplishing business tasks such as a payroll program, banking system, point of sale system, etc.

Porter's Value chain

Think of a company such as Apple Inc. Why are they successful? Why do customers love and buy the iPhone? It is because the iPhone adds value to their lives. This is why Apple Inc. is a successful business. Value chain refers to activities that a company performs to create value for its customers.

The concept of a value chain was developed by Michael Porter. Porter's value chain has two activities namely;

• Primary activities – these are activities that are related to the creating products/services, marketing and sales, and support. Primary activities consist of inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service.
• Support activities – these are activities that support the primary activities. Support activities consist of procurement (purchasing), human resource management, technological development and infrastructure.

The following diagram depicts the value chain

The following illustration shows the value chain for Apple Inc.

The overall goal of the value chain is to help a business gain competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is a business's position in a market that makes it to be more profitable than its direct competitors.

Influence of IT on organizational goals

Organizational goals refer to objectives and the mission of the organization, especially in the long term. Regardless of the type of business that an organization engages in, the overall goal is to create value for the customers or clients as stated in the above section.

Business Information Technology alignment is concerned with using information technology to effectively achieve business goals.

Two of the most common ways that an organization can provide value is by offering a quality product at a lower price than the competitor or at a high price but with more features that add value to the customers.

Information technology enables businesses to process and analyze large amounts of data at a cheaper cost and within the shortest possible time. This enables organizations to provide quality products at a cheaper price.

Let's take a bank example. A bank can use ATM to allow the clients to withdraw money and other automated means to deposit money. Customers with queries can be directed to a website that has frequently asked questions. Both individuals and businesses can view the statements online if they subscribe to internet banking.

The above IT business practices lead to reduced costs of doing business and creating new products and services. Reduced cost of doing business enables a bank to reduce the bank charges, therefore, offering a quality product or service at a cheaper rate.

Summary:

Business entities exist to make profits. Not for profit organizations exist to deliver quality services or products cost effectively.

Regardless of the type of organization, MIS has a major role to play in achieving the objectives.

MIS enables organizations to make sound decisions by providing decision makers with information.

What is MIS & MIS Definition

MIS is the acronym for Management Information Systems. In a nutshell, MIS is a collection of systems, hardware, procedures and people that all work together to process, store, and produce information that is useful to the organization.

In this tutorial, you will learn-

• What is MIS?
• Components of MIS
• Types of Information Systems
• Manual Information Systems VS Computerized Information Systems (MIS)
• Advantages and Dis-advantages of a manual information system
• Advantages and Disadvantages of a computerized information system (MIS)

What is MIS?

A Management Information System (MIS) is the use of information technology, people, and business processes to record, store and process data to produce information that decision makers can use to make day to day decisions.

The need for MIS

The following are some of the justifications for having an MIS system

• Decision makers need information to make effective decisions. Management Information Systems (MIS) make this possible.
• MIS systems facilitate communication within and outside the organization – employees within the organization are able to easily access the required information for the day to day operations. Facilitates such as Short Message Service (SMS) & Email make it possible to communicate with customers and suppliers from within the MIS system that an organization is using.
• Record keeping – management information systems record all business transactions of an organization and provide a reference point for the transactions.

Components of MIS

The major components of a typical management information system are;

• People – people who use the information system
• Data – the data that the information system records
• Business Procedures – procedures put in place on how to record, store and analyze data
• Hardware – these include servers, workstations, networking equipment, printers, etc.
• Software – these are programs used to handle the data. These include programs such as spreadsheet programs, database software, etc.

Types of Information Systems

The type of information system that a user uses depends on their level in an organization. The following diagram shows the three major levels of users in an organization and the type of information system that they use.

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

This type of information system is used to record the day to day transactions of a business. An example of a Transaction Processing System is a Point of Sale (POS) system. A POS system is used to record the daily sales.

Management Information Systems (MIS)

Management Information Systems are used to guide tactic managers to make semi-structured decisions. The output from the transaction processing system is used as input to the MIS system.

Decision Support Systems (DSS)

Decision support systems are used by top level managers to make semi-structured decisions. The output from the Management Information System is used as input to the decision support system.DSS systems also get data input from external sources such as current market forces, competition, etc.

Manual Information Systems VS Computerized Information Systems (MIS)

Data is the bloodstream of any business entity. Everyone in an organization needs information to make decisions. An information system is an organized way of recording, storing data, and retrieving information.

In this section, we will look at manual information systems vs. computerized information systems.

Manual Information System

A manual information system does not use any computerized devices. The recording, storing and retrieving of data is done manually by the people, who are responsible for the information system.

The following are the major components of a manual information system

• People –people are the recipients of information system
• Business Procedures –these are measures put in place that define the rules for processing data, storing it, analyzing it and producing information
• Data –these are the recorded day to day transactions
• Filing system – this is an organized way of storing information
• Reports –the reports are generated after manually analyzing the data from the filing system and compiling it.

The following diagram illustrates how a typical manual information system works

Advantages and Dis-advantages of a manual information system

Advantages:

The following are the advantages of manual information systems

• Cost effective – it is cheaper compared to a computerized system because there is no need to purchase expensive equipment such as servers, workstations, printers, etc.
• Flexible –evolving business requirements can easily be implemented into the business procedures and implemented immediately

Disadvantages:

The following are some of the disadvantages of a manual information system.

• Time consuming –all data entries need to be verified before filing, this is a time consuming task when done by humans. Retrieving data from the filing system also takes a considerable amount of time
• Prone to error – the accuracy of the data when verified and validated by human beings is more prone to errors compared to verification and validation done by computerized systems.
• Lack of security – the security of manual systems is implemented by restricting access to the file room. Experience shows unauthorized people can easily gain access to the filing room
• Duplication of data –most departments in an organization need to have access to the same data. In a manual system, it is common to duplicate this data to make it easy to accessible to all authorized users. The challenge comes in when the same data needs to be updated
• Data inconsistency – due to the duplication of data, it is very common to update data in one file and not update the other files. This leads to data inconsistency
• Lack of backups – if the file get lost or mishandled, the chances of recovering the data are almost zero.

Computerized information system

Computerized systems were developed to address the challenges of manual information systems. The major difference between a manual and computerized information system is a computerized system uses a combination of software and hardware to record, store, analyze and retrieve information.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a computerized information system (MIS)

The following are some of the disadvantages of a computerized information system.

Advantages:

The following are the advantages of computerized information systems

• Fast data processing and information retrieval – this is one of the biggest advantages of a computerized information system. It processes data and retrieves information at a faster rate. This leads to improved client/customer service
• Improved data accuracy – easy to implement data validation and verification checks in a computerized system compared to a manual system.
• Improved security – in addition to restricting access to the database server, the computerized information system can implement other security controls such as user’s authentication, biometric authentication systems, access rights control, etc.
• Reduced data duplication – database systems are designed in such a way that minimized duplication of data. This means updating data in one department automatically makes it available to the other departments
• Improved backup systems – with modern day technology, backups can be stored in the cloud which makes it easy to recover the data if something happened to the hardware and software used to store the data
• Easy access to information – most business executives need to travel and still be able to make a decision based on the information. The web and mobile technologies make accessing data from anywhere possible.

Disadvantages:

• It is expensive to set up and configure – the organization has to buy hardware and the required software to run the information system. In addition to that, business procedures will need to be revised, and the staff will need to be trained on how to use the computerized information system.
• Heavy reliance on technology – if something happens to the hardware or software that makes it stop functioning, then the information cannot be accessed until the required hardware or software has been replaced.
• Risk of fraud – if proper controls and checks are not in place, an intruder can post unauthorized transactions such as an invoice for goods that were never delivered, etc.

Summary

• MIS is the acronym for Management Information System. It is a collection of people, procedures, data, and information technology that aids managers to make informed decisions.
• Computerized information systems are more efficient compared to manual information systems. Manual information systems are cheaper compared to computerized information systems.
• Transaction processing systems (TPS) are by operational staff to record day to day business transactions, and they are used to make structured decisions
• Management Information Systems (MIS) are used by middle-level managers to make semi-structured decisions
• Decision Support Systems are used by top level managers, and they help top level managers to make unstructured decisions.

Ethical and Social issue in Information system security

Information systems have made many businesses successful today. Some companies such as Google, Facebook, EBay, etc. would not exist without information technology. However, improper use of information technology can create problems for the organization and employees.

Criminals gaining access to credit card information can lead to financial loss to the owners of the cards or financial institute. Using organization information systems i.e. posting inappropriate content on Facebook or Twitter using a company account can lead to lawsuits and loss of business.

This tutorial will address such challenges that are posed by information systems and what can be done to minimize or eliminate the risks.

In this tutorial, you will learn –

• Cyber-crime
• Information system Security
• Information system Ethics
• Information Communication Technology (ICT) policy

Cyber-crime

Cyber-crime refers to the use of information technology to commit crimes. Cyber-crimes can range from simply annoying computer users to huge financial losses and even the loss of human life. The growth of smartphones and other high-end mobile devices that have access to the internet have also contributed to the growth of cyber-crime.

Types of cyber-crime

Identity theft

Identity theft occurs when a cyber-criminal impersonates someone else identity to practice malfunction. This is usually done by accessing personal details of someone else. The details used in such crimes include social security numbers, date of birth, credit and debit card numbers, passport numbers, etc.

Once the information has been acquired by the cyber-criminal, it can be used to make purchases online while impersonating himself to be someone else. One of the ways that cyber-criminals use to obtain such personal details is phishing. Phishing involves creating fake websites that look like legitimate business websites or emails.

For example, an email that appears to come from YAHOO may ask the user to confirm their personal details including contact numbers and email password. If the user falls for the trick and updates the details and provides the password, the attacker will have access to personal details and the email of the victim.

If the victim uses services such as PayPal, then the attacker can use the account to make purchases online or transfer funds.

Other phishing techniques involve the use of fake Wi-Fi hotspots that look like legitimate ones. This is common in public places such as restaurants and airports. If an unsuspecting user logons into the network, then cyber-crimes may try to gain access to sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, etc.

According to the US Department of Justice, a former state department employee used email phishing to gain access to email and social media accounts of hundreds of women and accessed explicit photos. He was able to use the photos to extort the women and threatened to make the photos public if they did not give in to his demands.

Copyright infringement

Piracy is one of the biggest problems with digital products. Websites such as the pirate bay are used to distribute copyrighted materials such as audio, video, software, etc. Copyright infringement refers to the unauthorized use of copyrighted materials.

Fast internet access and reducing costs of storage have also contributed to the growth of copyright infringement crimes.

Click fraud

Advertising companies such as Google AdSense offer pay per click advertising services. Click fraud occurs when a person clicks such a link with no intention of knowing more about the click but to make more money. This can also be accomplished by using automated software that makes the clicks.

Advance Fee Fraud

An email is sent to the target victim that promises them a lot of money in favor of helping them to claim their inheritance money.

In such cases, the criminal usually pretends to be a close relative of a very rich well-known person who died. He/she claims to have inherited the wealth of the late rich person and needs help to claim the inheritance. He/she will ask for financial assistance and promise to reward later. If the victim sends the money to the scammer, the scammer vanishes and the victim loses the money.

Hacking

Hacking is used to by-pass security controls to gain unauthorized access to a system. Once the attacker has gained access to the system, they can do whatever they want. Some of the common activities done when system is hacked are;

• Install programs that allow the attackers to spy on the user or control their system remotely
• Deface websites
• Steal sensitive information. This can be done using techniques such as SQL Injection, exploiting vulnerabilities in the database software to gain access, social engineering techniques that trick users into submitting ids and passwords, etc.

Computer virus

Viruses are unauthorized programs that can annoy users, steal sensitive data or be used to control equipment that is controlled by computers.

Information system Security

MIS security refers to measures put in place to protect information system resources from unauthorized access or being compromised. Security vulnerabilities are weaknesses in a computer system, software, or hardware that can be exploited by the attacker to gain unauthorized access or compromise a system.

People as part of the information system components can also be exploited using social engineering techniques. The goal of social engineering is to gain the trust of the users of the system.

Let's now look at some of the threats that information system face and what can be done to eliminate or minimize the damage if the threat were to materialize.

Computer viruses – these are malicious programs as described in the above section. The threats posed by viruses can be eliminated or the impact minimized by using Anti-Virus software and following laid down security best practices of an organization.

Unauthorized access – the standard convention is to use a combination of a username and a password. Hackers have learnt how to circumvent these controls if the user does not follow security best practices. Most organizations have added the use of mobile devices such as phones to provide an extra layer of security.

Let's take Gmail as an example, if Google is suspicious of the login on an account, they will ask the person about to login to confirm their identity using their android powered mobile devices or send an SMS with a PIN number which should supplement the username and password.

If the company does not have enough resources to implement extra security like Google, they can use other techniques. These techniques can include asking questions to users during signup such as what town they grew up in, the name of their first pet, etc. If the person provides accurate answers to these question, access is granted into the system.

Data loss – if the data center caught fire or was flooded, the hardware with the data can be damaged, and the data on it will be lost. As a standard security best practice, most organizations keep backups of the data at remote places. The backups are made periodically and are usually put in more than one remote area.

Biometric Identification – this is now becoming very common especially with mobile devices such as smartphones. The phone can record the user fingerprint and use it for authentication purposes. This makes it harder for attackers to gain unauthorized access to the mobile device. Such technology can also be used to stop unauthorized people from getting access to your devices.

Information system Ethics

Ethics refers to rules of right and wrong that people use to make choices to guide their behaviors. Ethics in MIS seek to protect and safeguard individuals and society by using information systems responsibly. Most professions usually have defined a code of ethics or code of conduct guidelines that all professionals affiliated with the profession must adhere to.

In a nutshell, a code of ethics makes individuals acting on their free will responsible and accountable for their actions. An example of a Code of Ethics for MIS professionals can be found on the British Computer Society (BCS) website.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) policy

An ICT policy is a set of guidelines that defines how an organization should use information technology and information systems responsibly. ICT policies usually include guidelines on;

• Purchase and usage of hardware equipment and how to safely dispose them
• Use of licensed software only and ensuring that all software is up to date with latest patches for security reasons
• Rules on how to create passwords (complexity enforcement), changing passwords, etc.
• Acceptable use of information technology and information systems
• Training of all users involved in using ICT and MIS

Summary:

With great power comes great responsibility. Information systems bring new opportunities and advantages to how we do business but they also introduce issues that can negatively affect society (cybercrime). An organization needs to address these issues and come up with a framework (MIS security, ICT policy, etc.) that addresses them.

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PHP Array Functions 

array_diff (arr1, arr2 …)

array_filter (arr, function)

array_flip (arr)

array_intersect (arr1, arr2 …)

array_merge (arr1, arr2 …)

array_pop (arr)

array_push (arr, var1, var2 …)

array_reverse (arr)

array_search (needle, arr)

array_walk (arr, function)

count (count)

in_array (needle, haystack)

PHP String Functions

crypt (str, salt)

explode (sep, str)

implode (glue, arr)

nl2br (str)

sprintf (frmt, args)

strip_tags (str, allowed_tags)

str_replace (search, replace, str)

strpos (str, needle)

strrev (str)

strstr (str, needle)

strtolower (str)

strtoupper (str)

substr (string, start, len)

PHP Filesystem Functions

clearstatcache ()

copy (source, dest)

fclose (handle)

fgets (handle, len)

file (file)

filemtime (file)

filesize (file)

file_exist (file)

fopen (file, mode)

fread (handle, len)

fwrite (handle, str)

readfile (file)

PHP Date and Time Fucntions

checkdate (month, day, year)

date (format, timestamp)

getdate (timestamp)

mktime (hr, min, sec, month, day, yr)

strftime (formatstring, timestamp)

strtotime (str)

time ()

PHP Regular Expressions Functions

ereg (pattern, str)

split (pattern, str)

ereg_replace (pattern, replace, str)

preg_grep (patter, arr)

preg_match (pattern, str)

preg_match_all (pattern, str, srr)

preg_replace (patter, replace, str)

preg_split (patter, str)

Regular Expressions Syntax 

^	Start of string
$	End of string
.	Any single character
(a|b)	a or b
(…)	Group section
[abc]	In range (a, b or c)
[^abc]	Not in range
\s	White space
a?	Zero or one of a
a*	Zero or more of a
a*?	Zero or more, ungreedy
a+	One or more of a
a+?	One or more, ungreedy
a{3}	Exactly 3 of a
a{3,}	3 or more of a
a{,6}	Up to 6 of a
a{3,6}	3 to 6 of a
a{3,6}?	3 to 6 of a, ungreedy
\	Escape character
[:punct:]	Any punctu­ation symbol
[:space:]	Any space character
[:blank:]	Space or tab

Pattern Modifiers

g	Global match
i *	Case-i­nse­nsitive
m *	Multiple lines
s *	Treat string as single line
x *	Allow comments and whitespace in pattern
e *	Evaluate replac­ement
U *	Ungreedy pattern

* PCRE modifier

PHP fopen() modes

r	Read
r+	Read and write, prepend
w	Write, truncate
w+	Read and write, truncate
a	Write, append
a+	Read and write, append

PHP Date Formating

Y	4 digit year (2008)
y	2 digit year (08)
F	Long month (January)
M	Short month (Jan)
m	Month ⁴ (01 to 12)
n	Month (1 to 12)
D	Short day name (Mon)
l	Long day name (Monday) (lowercase L)
d	Day ⁴ (01 to 31)
j	Day (1 to 31)
h	12 Hour ⁴ (01 to 12)
g	12 Hour (1 to 12)
H	24 Hour ⁴ (00 to 23)
G	24 Hour (0 to 23)
i	Minutes ⁴ (00 to 59)
s	Seconds ⁴ (00 to 59)
w	Day of week ¹ (0 to 6)
z	Day of year (0 to 365)
W	Week of year ² (1 to 53)
t	Days in month (28 to 31)
a	am or pm
A	AM or PM
B	Swatch Internet Time (000 to 999)
S	Ordinal Suffix (st, nd, rd, th)
T	Timezone of machine (GMT)
Z	Timezone offset (seconds)
O	GMT offset (hours) (+0200)
I	Daylight saving (1 or 0)
L	Leap year (1 or 0)
U	Seconds since Epoch ³
c	ISO 8601 (PHP 5) (2008-­07-­31T­18:­30:­13+­01:00)
r	RFC 2822 (Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:30:13 +0100)

---

¹ 0 is Sunday, 6 is Saturday.
² Week that overlaps two years belongs to year that contains most days of that week. Hence week number for 1st January of a given year can be 53 if week belongs to previous year. date(“W­”, mktime(0, 0, 0, 12, 8, $year)) always gives correct number of weeks in $year.
³ The Epoch is the 1st January 1970.
⁴ With leading zeroes

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