ISSUES REGARDING MIS STRUCTURE

Archana K P

No:8

MCA B5

MIS-DEFINITIONA management information system is 1.An integrated user-machine system 2.For providing information 3.To support the operations,

management, analysis & decision making functions

4.In an organization

SOME ISSUES OF MIS STRUCTURE

1)Formal Vs Informal information

system.

2)Extent of Integration.

3)Extent of User-Machine

Interaction.

Formal Vs Informal information system

An organizations complete information processing system consists of,

1)Public system.

2)Private system.

Within the public and private systems we have both formal and informal information systems.

That is….

1)Public Formal.

2)Public Informal.

3)Private Formal.

4)Private Informal.

Formal

Structured

System

Informal

Unstructured

system

formal Informal

The organizational information system

Public system

Private system

Public

formal

Public

Informal

Private

formal

Private

informal

Effect of MIS on relative sizes of information system components

The public information system of an organization tends to be larger than the private system, but the latter includes a significant portion of organizational information flows.

By increasing the scope of the formal public system we can reduce the need for private, formal system and probably reduces the need for both public and private informal systems.

Increasing the scope of the public formal system also has associated costs.

These includes the cost of eliciting requirements, designing the system, programming, testing, and writing procedures for operating and using the system.

Because of the high cost of developing systems, tendency has been to only automate systems that can be justified as public systems so that the costs are shared over many users.

Increasing the scope of the formal public system we can reduce the time spent by managers in informal communication, their productivity will increase and thus benefit the organization.

Extent of Integration

Information systems tend to have a modular design with integration only where required.

Inconsistencies among the subsystems are reduced by the use of standards and the common database.

Data integration is accomplished by the use of a common database.

A common database does not necessarily eliminate the need for separate files.

Some files are significant only to one application and therefore may be designed for and maintained by that application.

Data requirements for different levels of management activity also suggest the need for more than one database rather than complete integration.

Extent of User-Machine Interaction

The information system structure does not specify online user machine interaction: it indicates only to support for various operational and management activities.

Online processing of transactions is often desirable because the transaction is completed immediately.

Inquires are generally more effective if immediate response is available.

The computer system that supports online transaction processing may not be able to support interactive models.

However, having an information system does not imply that a simple computer system must be used.

These approaches encourage managers and staff specialists to develop their own support models, rather than depending on the staff of the information processing function to provide them.