Characteristics Of Management Information System

Caracteristics

Characteristic Of Management

It should be apparent that managemen information system is not an easy concept with which to deal. it can be viewed and analyzed from many sides. Management Information System has been both used and abused. The first step in understanding its potential impact on busness operation is to break through the various sematic barries that exist, This section will summarize the pertinent characteristics of Management Information System, among others ;

Managemen Information System

1. Management Oriented
   
   This is the most significant characteristic of Managemen Information System. The system is arranged from the top down. The " top down " approach does not imply that the system will be geared to providing information directly to top management; rather, the system development stars from an appraisal of mangement needs and overal business objectives. it is possible that middle management or operating management is the focus of the system, such that their needs are the cornerstone on which the system is built. To ilustrate the point, a payroll system designed to process employee time cards and produce pay checks, deducation registers, payroll registers, and supporting material needed for government purposes it nota management-oriented system. It only satisfies administrative ends. but a payroll system that supplies foremen with daily and wekly labor-cost variance reports and production management with monthly labor summaries showing the amount of overtime, idletime, labor variances, and labor cost trends is management oriented. It is geared to satisfying management needs, which, in this case, are to optimize the use of the labor force.
   
2. Management Directed
   Because of management orientation of Management Information System, it is imperative that mangement actively direct the system development efforts. Involvement is not enough. In the preceding examples, mangement must determine what labor standards should be established and what information is necessary to improve its control of labor costs. It is rare ti find a Managemen Information System whwre the manger himself, or a high-levelrepretentative of his departmen, is not spending a good deal of time in system design. It is not one-time involvement, for continued review and partisipation are necessary to ensure that the implemented system meets the specifications of the system that was designed . Threfore, management is responsible for setting system specifikations, and it must play a major role in the subsequent trade off decision that inecitable accur in system development. An important element of effective system planning is the process for determining the priority of application development. Management must control this process if a management information system is to be objective. A company without a formal application approval cycle and a managemnt steeringcommittee to determine priorities will never develop a Managemen Information System.
   
3. Integrated
   As mentioned earlier, although not synonymous with, the integrated concept is a necessary characteristic of management information system. integration is significant because of the ability to produce more meaningful mangement information. e.g., in order to develop an  effective production scheduling system it is necessary to balance such factor as
   
   1. set up cost
   2. work force
   3. over time rates
   4. production capacity
   5. inventory levels
   6. capital requirements, and
   7. customer service
   A system that ignores one of these elements inventory level, for example-is not providing management with an optimal schedule. The cost of carrying excess inventory may more than offset the other benefits of the system. Integration, inthe sense intended here, mean taking a comprehensive view or a complete picture look at the interlocking subsystem that operate within a company, one can start a Management Information System by attacking a spesific subsystem, but unless its place in the total system is realized and properly reflected, serious shortcomings may result. Thus an integrated system that blends information from several operational areas is a necessary element of Management Information System.
    
4. Comon Data Flows,
   Because of the integration concept of Management Information System, there is an opportunity to avoid duplication and redundancy in data gathering, storage adn dissemination. System designer are aware that a few key source documents for much of the information flow and affech many functional areas. for example, customer orders are the basis for billing the customer for the goods ordered, setting up the accounts receivable initiating production activity, sales analysis, sales forecasting, and so on. it is prudent to capture this data closest to the source where the event occurs adn use it throughout the functional areas it is also prudent to capture it once and thus avoid the duplicate entry of source data in to several system. This concept also holds in building and using master files and in providing reports. The comon data flow concept supports several of the basic tenets of system analysis-avoiding duplication, combining similar function, and simplifying operations whereever posible. the development of common data flows is an economically sound adn logical concept, but it must be vieved in a pratical and pragmatic light. Because of a company's method of operation and its internal procedures, it may be better to live with a little duplication in order to make the system acceptable and workable. management Information System and integration are more important for their ability do blend the relationship of several functional areas of a business and to produce meaningful management information, rather than for producing that information more economically.
   
   Given the tract record and experience to date, one should look closely at the degree of integration of common data flows. Although benefits exist, the degree of difficulty is high and many would-be implementers have failed because they underempnasized the complexity and amount of time or did not possess the necessary system design skills. What is being questioned is not the desirability of building the concept of common data flows into the systems; rather it is the degree to which the concept is used. Building a system that cannot operate unless all data springs from a common data path is usually an unwise design concept as many companies have discovered to their detriment.
   
5. Haeavy Planning Element
   
   Management Information System do not occur ovenigh; they take from 3 to 5 years and longer to get estabilished firmly a company. Therefore a heavy planning element must be present in Management Information System development. Just a civil engineer does not design a highway to handle to day'straffic but to handle the traffic 5 to 10 year from now, so the firmly in mind. The designer must have future objectives and needs of the companysolescence bofore the system gets into operation. needless to say, sound system planning is an essential ingredinet to successful Management Information System.
   
6. Subsystem Concept,
   In rakling a project as broad and complex in scope as management information system, one must avoid losing sight of both the forest and the trees. Even though the system is viewed as a single entity, it must be broken down into digestible subsystems that can be implemented one at a time. A phasing plan must be developed, the breakdown of mangement information system into meaningful subsystems sets the stage for this phasing plan. Although the functional areas of sales-order processing, material control, adn so on as illustrated in figure 1.10, have been referred to as systems, in reality they are subsystems that, in turn, can be broken down into additional subsystems. This subsystem analysisi is essential for applying boundaries to the problem, thus enabling the designer to focus on manageable entities that can be assigned and computerized by selected systems and programming teams.
   
   
7. Central Data Base,
   As ecplained earlier, the data base is the mortar that holds the functional systems together. Each system requires acces to a master file of data covering inventory, personnel, vendors, customers, general ledger, work in process, and so on. If the data is stored efficiently and with common usage in mind, one master file can provide the data needed by any of the functional systems. it seems logical gather data once, properly validate it, and place it ona central storage medium that can be accessed by any system. However, it is not unusual to find a company with several data files, one serving one functional system and another serving an-other system. This is obviously not the most efficient way to operate. Thorough discussion of the central data base will take place in subsequent chapters. Although it is possible to achieve the basic objectives of Management Information System without a central data base, thus paying the price of duplicate storage and duplicate file updating, more often than not the central data base is a definite characteristic of management information system.
   
8. Computerized
   
In it is possible to have a Management Information System without being powered by a computer, but most people would agree that the computer is the sine qwa  non of medium-and largescale informations systems. The need for system throughput to handle a wide variety of applications and the quick response required by system users often make itmandatory for the data to be in electronic media and for the processing to be accomplished by a high-speed computer. Other necessary attributes of the computer to Management Information System are accuracy and stability in processing data and the reduction of demand on the clerical staff. These needs in management information systems make the computer a prime requirement.

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