A Management Information System (MIS) in an organization is similar to a heart’s role in a body. The information is blood and works as the heart to supply the information to every element of the body (organisation). MIS ensures that appropriate data from various sources is collected, processed and sent to destinations in need. MIS fulfils the requirement of formation for individuals, groups, management functionaries like managers and top-level executives.

MIS is essential because:
- Several systems, like query, analysis, modelling, etc., are satisfied by MIS. MIS’s versatile nature comes handy here.
- MIS assists in strategic planning, operation control, management control and transaction processing.
- By offering data for planning, scheduling and control, MIS helps in junior management personnel. It also helps further in decision-making at the operational level.
- The MIS assists the middle management in short term planning, setting targets and offering control over business functions.
- MIS offers assistance to the top management by helping them in setting goals, planning strategies, and implementing and evolving business plans
- MIS is the key to information generation, communication, identifying problems and assist in decision-making processes.

Impact of Management information systems :

MIS creates an impact on an organisation’s functions, productivity and performance. With good MIS support, an organisation can efficiently manage its processes like marketing, finance, personnel, and production. There’s no delay between relaying information like progress, achievements, shortfalls, etc. to the functional managers. By providing essential information about various aspects of business, the managers are kept alert. This way, long-term plans are forecasted and executed to perfection. The manager’s attention is brought to situations where his intricate knowledge helps to diffuse the problem immediately. An excellent MIS system creates a structured database for all the people in the organisation. And therefore, this readily available structured data helps manager diffuse bad situations immediately, thereby saving time.

MIS helps understand a business better. It defines its data entities and its attributes which is used for generating information in the organisation. All information systems use a dictionary of data; therefore, there is a commonality between the terms and terminology in the organisation. This helps improve communication clarity and offers a better understanding of an event.

MIS offers better systematisation of business operations; contributing to an effective system design. Business administration is improved as everyone in the organisation is required to follow a set of processes and use the systems and procedures accordingly. MIS helps offer a significantly high degree of professionalism in the operations of the business.

Since MIS’s goals and objective are the products of goals and objectives, it helps a business to work towards a common direction, offering relevant information to the people in need and bringing corporate goals closer.

A great MIS system which has a significant focus on the managers can make an impact on managerial efficiency. With access to various forms of information, a manager can use several tools to improve management. A manager-focused MIS enables managers to experiment and model new exercise structures. The technology-enabled MIS helps managers make use of several tools and techniques which he won’t be able to make use of manually. Such MIS’ makes tasks simpler. It helps improve managerial ability like improved performance, decision-making and more.

In today’s world, businesses are getting overly complicated. Systems like MIS help improve managerial functions. With help from MIS, a manager can make a rational decision in a timely manner and procure reliable information before disseminating the information to others. For a business to grow in today’s time, they need an MIS that offers convenient, reliable and useful information to the managers to make quick, rational decisions.

MIS can be named as the centre of an organisation. Such systems assist decision-makers with all the essential information to make the right decision and help the organisation to achieve its targets and goals. However, when an MIS is not adequately planned, designed or maintained for an organisation may lead to developing inaccurate, irrelevant and obsolete information which can create adverse results for an organisation. Therefore, people need to be adequately trained to develop and maintain an MIS and a course in Management Information System can help significantly. Such courses help you understand the hardware and software and their place in MIS. It enables you to recognise the key features and technologies deployed in database management and processing.

Organisations need an MIS system to survive. It enables smaller organisations to more than just offset the economy and enjoy a competitive edge over larger organisations. If your organisation lacks an MIS system, this is a good right to be acquainted with the information system and get the upper hand over your competitors.

Authors Bio:

Rohit Chandiramani is the CEO of London Business Training & Consulting, specialized in providing management courses. Having completed his MBA, not only is Rohit a student of Business and Management, but through his firm has also facilitated the delivery of the subject matter to hundreds of learners over the years. A regular trekker, he likes to scale greater heights in the Himalayas, and in the world of business.