Accurate

Management information systems are accurate and provide up-to-date and correct information based on factual data. They capture only the most relevant data, process it, store it and provide access to it if and when required. Important organizational decisions are based on the information provided by a management information system, due to which their accuracy is essential. All processed information derived from an accurate and correct management information system is typically free of flaws, consistent and complete. Integrated

Organizations are involved in various functions and sub-functions, such as manufacturing, finance, human resources, marketing and other specialized areas. A management information system is an integrated collection of information systems, each designed to support a unique functional area. For instance, manufacturing is supported by an individual management information system, finance by another management information system, and so on. All these individual modules, or units, are connected and form part of the larger, organizational management information system. Coordination and integration are central functions of a well organized information system, with each individual component designed to provide essential support to other components. Flexible

A management information system is flexible and is designed to allow the integration of additional components. It automatically updates key processes and software components to include the latest trends, practices, technologies and information. Management information systems are flexible in terms of data analysis and evaluation, and are programmed to study and

analyze data from various different angles. They are also capable of supporting a wide range of knowledge and skills. Provides Organizational Support

MIS provides support at various levels of management. It is designed to support classic managerial functions of planning, organizing, decision making, coordinating and controlling at various levels of an organization (strategic, tactical and operational). A management information system defines goals, policies and the aims and objectives of the organization for the strategic level. It provides information on resources, acquisition tactics, new products, plant locations and budgets for tactical planning and basic management control. It defines how best to use existing resources and facilities to carry out all organizational activities within the stipulated budget. A management information system allows managers to effectively accomplish tasks by establishing streamlined interpersonal communication channels. Characteristics of information needed by different managerial levels

*It starts with lower management needing fairly specific information (how are the finances in my department doing) to upper management wanting very broad (how many widgets did we product last quarter).

Upper management may also need to take the micro view sometimes (how are the fiances in the XYZ department doing).

The middle managers may need a combination of both.* Managers and Their Information Needs

Information is needed for decision making at all levels of management. Managers at different organizational levels make different types of decisions, control different types of processes, and have different information needs. Three classical levels of management include: strategic tactical (middle) operational. Titles have different values in different organizations. For example, a vice president at a financial organization may not even be a middle manager. Strategic managers operate in a highly unstructured environment and use EISs, and DSSs. Historically, the most common (organizational structure) was a generic pyramid shaped hierarchy with a few leaders at the top and an increasing number of workers at each subsequent lower managerial and operational level. The pyramid is getting flatter. In 1993 in the U.S. alone, some 450,000 middle managers lost their jobs. Some small, knowledge-intensive companies have adopted a matrix pattern as their organizational structure, with no one leader and leadership distributed among many more people, varying by project, product, or discipline. Matrix management includes having multiple bosses.

Technology aside, the politics of information within an organization can undermine optimal business decision making if it is not taken into account when developing systems, and deciding how people will support these systems. Sub-optimization -- the optimization of an individual or a department at the expense of the larger organization. In many organizations, clerical and shop floor workers make up the largest group of workers. Operational managers are responsible for daily operations. They make decisions concerning a narrow time span about the deployment of small groups of clerical and/or shop floor workers. Middle, or tatical, managers receive strategic decisions from above as general directives. Using those directives as guidelines, they develop tatics to meet those strategic directives. That is, they make decisions concerning how and when specific resources will be utilized. Usually, a middle manager will be responsible for several operational managers. Responsible for finding the best operational measures to accomplish their superiors' strategic decisions. While a tactical decision concentrates on how to do something, a strategic decision focuses on what to do. Strategic managers, and directors, that make decisions that affect the entire organization, or large parts of it, and leave an impact in the long run. People in different management levels have different information needs. Most of the information that managers require is used to make decisions.

The decision making process of middle managers and above is less structured than that of operational managers; In general, strategic decisions have no proven methods for selecting a course of action that guarantees a predicted outcome. Data Characteristics determine where and how the data will be used. Data range refers to the amount of data from which information is extracted& Time span refers to how long a period of time the data covers. Level of detail is the degree to which the information generated is specific. Internally or externally sourced. Structured data are numbers and facts that can be conveniently stored and retrieved in an orderly manner. Unstructured data are drawn from meeting discussions, private conversations, textual documents, graphics, graphical representations, and other non uniform sources. The higher the manager, the less structured the decisions that a manager faces. The Web: The Great Equalizer Managers plan and control. Planning' s main ingredients include: scheduling budgeting resource allocation.

Budget is the most important part of business planning. The plan is the basis for operations. Control is the activities that ensure operations according to the plan. Both planning and control involve decision making. A decision is a commitment to act. Most of a manager's day is devoted to meetings that produce decisions. Managers control actual activities by comparing actual results to expected results. When discrepancies between the planned and actual performance are found, managers determine the reason for the variance. Management by exception is where a manager only reviews those areas that have deviated from the expected. Characteristics of Effective Information Certain types of information can be grasped more quickly when presented graphically. Many applications allow the user to select how the data will be selected. Three dimensional graphics are an option now as well. Dynamic representation usually includes moving images that represent either the speed or direction of what is happening in real time. Type of Information Systems POS and other TPS . Clerical and Shop Floor Workers

TPSs are interfaced with applications that provide clerical workers and operational managers with upt to date information. They are also used by operational managers to generate ad hoc reports.

Transaction Processing Systems --- Operational Decision Support and Expert Systems . Middle Managers Executive Information Systems (EIS) . Provide managers with timely and concise information about the performance of their organization. Online analytical processing (OLAP) applications are designed to let a user view a cube of tables showing relationships among several related variables. Politics is the decision to act in the interest of the individual decision maker rather than in the interest of the organization as a whole Political tactics include the insistence on adding features that will afford the manager more control, trying to derail the development effort by not cooperating with the developers, and promotion of alternatives to the system. Enterprise wide systems are shared by many business units and managerial levels.