Management Information Systems

Session-1

Information Systems and the Competitive

Advantage
IT Doesn’t matter?????
Manojit Chattopadhyay
Ph.D. (University of Calcutta)
Associate Professor-IT & Systems
Indian Institute of Management Raipur
Chairman- Research & Publications
 Evaluation components:
1. Class participation: 10%
2. Quiz & Assignment: 20%
This includes in-class quiz, assignment including case assignment submission & presentation, Quiz (may
be two pre-midterm and two post midterm

Case assignment is a group assignment. Deliverables as mentioned in Case assignment

details. Each group will submit assignment in time and groups need to present/answer
on Q & A.
3. Mid-term examination: 20%
4. End-term examination: 30%
5. Project: 20%

• marks will not be awarded to the defaulter group or to absentee

student.
• MS Team/group formation
 Topics for evaluation:
• All cases discussed in class, assigned reading material and book chapters
will be part of evaluation.

cases discussions has to be continued with rigour, analysis, decision

making and insightful content by the assigned/lead group wrt sufficient value
addition, value addition and no value addition (they will be evaluated as part of
their case assignment). Rest of the student participation similarly evaluated
based on their class interaction component. Same/similar answer(like
yes/agree etc.) will not be evaluated. Counter and argumentation with
insightful, value addition points given more weightage only if it is in pure
context.
Text book case may be discussed. So keeping text book is mandatory during
my session.
• Class participation/discussion flow/discipline
• Communication will be on MS Team/course/teaching/learning
materials will be available/uploaded in MS Team
 Case Assignment Details:
• There will be case assignments for each group. The assigned groups must prepare a
comprehensive report in a power point slide focused on answering all pre-assigned
questions. The report should comprehensively describe the solutions and argue with
all the promises and risks posed by different available options. The assigned Lead
groups may involve their peer groups in the presentation, through debate and
discussions as and when required by the case. must be submitted (through MS
Teams/Moodle) before the next scheduled session. must address all the queries
during the case presentation/discussion. The number of questions is subject to
modification. marks will not be awarded to the defaulter group or to absentee
member of that assigned group.
Project Topics/Deliverables:
• project topic from discussions from Session 1 to 15. Details on project deliverables
will be informed in due course. Sessions 19 and 20 are devoted to project
discussion/presentation
• Group Formation:
• at most 7 students and at least 6 must be formed. There should be 10 groups.
DOES IT MATTER ?

Menti.com 56 07 306
Introduction
What N. Carr did not say in his article "IT Doesn't
Matter.”

There is no need of IT

The title of this article tried

to evoke emotion…
It tried to be controversial…
And succeeded at that!
 Carr’s argument
Strategic advantage Cost
IT has become ubiquitous

Scarcity NOT ubiquity An infrastructural technology

Transport mechanism
More effort has to be put highly replicable price
in managing the risk… deflation

Essential for competition

Inconsequential for strategy
commodity
“For most companies, just
staying in business will Separate essential investment
require Big outlays for IT” from discretionary, unnecessary
or even counter-productive
even so investments
Section B

Section A
 Introduction
1968 – Ted Hoff, Intel Engineer, discovered a way to put circuits
for computer processing on a silicon chip.

Technology has become the backbone to operational

excellence, electronically linking data internally and externally.

IT is seen as a critical resource in fact spending capital spending on

technology has risen from 5% in 1965 to over 50% in the late 1990s.

Today CEOs often talk about strategic value of IT, and have even created
the CIO senior leader position in many organizations.

However, the proliferation of IT has reduced its strategic value. A

competitive advantage is only an advantage if it is scarce.

The premise of the reading article is that IT has become a commodity that is a
business essential and management should focus on risk management in lieu of
trying to achieve scarce competitive advantages.
 Technology as a Competitive Advantage

• Proprietary Technology
Defined as a technology that can be owned actually or effectively by one
company.
Example: Pharmaceutical Company: Patent on Compound

• Infrastructural Technology
Defined as technology that can not be protected and in contrast to
proprietary technology is worth more to the economy as a whole when
shared
Example: Railroad or Electricity

“ IT is considered an infrastructural technology.”

Vanishing Advantage
The Phases Of Infrastructural Technology Buildout
•Early Phase
advantage takes the form of proprietary technology and enable new more
efficient operating methods
“physical limitations to technology, intellectual property rights, high
costs, lack of standards, etc.”

• Market Changes
in addition to improving operations dramatic broad market changes occur due to
infrastructural technology.
Example: Railroads in the mid1800s

• The Trap
Executives make a mistake and assume that these advantages are
sustainable when they are brief due to the technology becoming broadly
adopted.
• IT has all the characteristics of a infrastructural
technology.
–it is a transport mechanism – carries digital information.
–it has more value when shared than when used in isolation.

• Standardization
each stage in the evolution of IT has increased the standardization and
homogenization.
“Highly replicable – the most pure commodity – bytes of data.”

• Perfect Delivery Channel

third party purchases similar to electric power by purchasing fee based
services “the grid.”

• Subject to rapid price deflation – Moore’s Law.

Are we near the end of the IT build out
phase?

• Power is outstripping business needs

• Technology is affordable and available

• Capacity has caught up with demand

• IT vendors are repositioning themselves as commodity
suppliers or utilities
• Investment bubble has burst
“When a resource becomes essential to
competition but inconsequential to
strategy, the risks it creates become
more important than the advantages it
provides”

Nicholas G. Carr
 Greatest IT Risk?
•Overspending…
–As costs fall, new capabilities rise and business increases reliance
on IT companies continue to invest resources towards large
investments from big hardware and software suppliers.

– Vast majority of business PC’s rely on a few

simple applications.
– Applications are technologically mature.
– Applications require only a fraction of computing
power.
– Corporate networks are storing invaluable
information.
 New Rules for IT Management
• SPEND LESS
– Rigorously evaluate expected returns from IT investments.
– Negotiate contracts ensuring long-term usefulness of your
investment.
– Assess data storage (eliminate waste and non-relevant
information).
• FOLLOW, DON’T LEAD
– The longer you wait to make an IT purchase, the more you’ll get for
your money.
– Wait for standards and best practices to solidify.
• FOCUS ON VULNERABILITIES, NOT OPPORTUNITIES
– Focus IT resources on preparing for disruptions and proprietary
control.
 Summary
• IT is an Infrastructural Technology (no longer proprietary)
• Vanishing Advantage for Corporate Sustainability
• IT Has Become A Commodity
– Standardization/Highly Replicable
– Delivery Channel
– Rapid Price Deflation
• Focus IT Investments on Risk more than Strategic
Advantages.
• Greatest IT Risk is Overspending.
• To Avoid Overinvesting in IT:
– Spend Less
– Focus on Risks, Not Opportunities
– Follow, Don’t Lead
 IT doesn’t matter?
ARGUMENT

“When a resource becomes essential to competition but

inconsequential to strategy, the risks it creates become
more important than the advantages it provides.”
IT matters.
IT matters.
Nicholas G. Carr
IT doesn’t matter.

IT doesn’t matter.
“The commoditization of IT and its competitive
advantage.”

Letter from John Seely Brown and John Hagel III

John Hagel III John Seely Brown

 “The jobs of CTO and CIO are and will be of
unparalleled importance in the decades ahead.”

Letter from F.Warren McFarlan and Richard L. Nolan

F.Warren McFarlan Richard L. Nolan

“IT will always matter-it will just matter
in different ways now.”

Letter from Jason Hittleman

 “IT will always matter-it will
just matter in different ways
now.” Paul A. Strassmann

“Carr will lead executives to focus only on controlling IT costs.

That is a necessary discipline, but it is not the route to real business
advantage.”

Richard Hunter
Marianne Broadbent
Mark McDonald
“Now that some of the IT mystique has been eliminated,
corporate IT has to play by the same rules as everyone else.”
Letter from Bruce Skaistis

“The implementation of these IT-based systems does not

come cheaply and requires continual retargeting, yet it
underlies the success of many firms.”
Letter from Vladimir Zwass

“IT never mattered. What matters are the people who invent
technologies and who deploy and use them.”
Letter from Mark S. Lewis

“There is no consistent correlation between IT spending

levels and financial performance.”
Letter from Tom Pisello
“IT is and will remain of strategic importance for the next ten years.”
Letter from Roy L. Pike

“The move to a common infrastructure is inevitable. But it does not

reduce opportunities for competitive advantage. It increases them.”
Letter from Vijay Gurbaxani

“IT is not the headline, it certainly matters (just like kidneys) because
the work systems cannot operate without IT.”
Letter from Steven Alter

“Hardware and software can be intricately intertwined. Sometimes a

single piece of outdated software can derail the deployment of
important new functionality with real strategic value.”
Letter from Cathy Hyatt
 “To exaggerate somewhat-but only
a little-anything is possible with
software,
if not today, then tomorrow.”

Letter from Chris Schlueter Langdon

“Just because we continue to

see new innovations in IT does
not mean that it pays to be a
pioneer.”

Reply from Nicholas G. Carr

 IT doesn’t matter?
Our DEBATE

IT matters.
• What is the role of IT?
• What are IT strategies?
• What should CEO/CIO focus on?
• etc.
 Your Mandate
In The Coming Days as Being Manager
You will not debate but definitely will put
your mandate on:

IT matters a Lot
IT doesn’t matter
 The Five Digital Forces
• The past provides valuable insights about how to
adapt to the present wave of disruptive technologies
and inventive business models.
• While history can be a valuable guide, digital forces
are at work reshaping the industry in new ways.
• The convergence of information goods, powerful
computing devices, and inexpensive digital
communication is changing business and society
through five digital forces:
• globalization, Millenialization, prosumerization,
business virtualization, and platformization
Globalization
• reshapes the nature of supply and demand.
• As artificial barriers disappear, consumers
enjoy a new world of choice no longer
limited by geographic borders.
• benefit from larger markets and global
sourcing, while concurrently protecting
challenges from foreign competitors.
Prosumerization
brought about by shrinking costs and the
increasing quality of the tools needed to create
saleable information products, has lowered the
break-even point for producers and given birth
to low-overhead startups that can compete
directly with capital-intensive (and sometimes
debt-burdened) incumbents.
Millennialization of consumers
the resulting digitally-centric lifestyle, has
turned consumers into producers,
empowered individuals to share their voices
and influence others, and transformed the
way people evaluate and consume products
and services – whether digital or physical.
Business virtualization
• empowers firms to focus on their core
strengths by partnering with outside firms
that can better execute other business
processes.
• virtualization can reduce costs, increase
agility, and boost quality by moving some
process steps to companies that excel in
those specific functions.

Digital platforms
• the systems of engagement through which critical pieces of the value chain are delivered.
• technology-mediated networks provide the interface that brings together suppliers,
customers, and third parties into a mutually-reinforcing synergy.
• replacing traditional middlemen and can often serve to level the playing field by granting
small players and new entrants access to formerly closed markets.
• Managers need a set of stable strategic tools for
navigating through the tempestuous changes
caused by the confluence of globalization,
Millennialization, prosumerization, virtualization,
and the rise of digital platforms.

E-Choupal ..\1A. e-Choupal - ITC Ltd. -

YouTube.mp4
Business Value and IT
 Metrics for business value from IT
Business Standardized Optimized Business
Silos Technology Core Modularity

• Time to • Time to deliver • Total delivered cost The list

deliver new systems (Campbell) keeps
new and benefits • Inventory turns (7- growing…..
system • Reliability Eleven Japan)
and metrics • Concept to store
benefits • Percentage of (JCPenney)
• Business systems on time • Sales from new
case/ROI and on budget products and services
of specific • IT unit costs • Customer
Initiative • Cost to run profitability and
systems and Retention
related services
 What we know about how IT supports business
innovation and business value
• At its best, the value of IT cannot be separated from the value of the
business processes it supports.
• Effective IT units maintain a balanced scorecard of metrics like
reliability, on-time and on-budget delivery, customer satisfaction, unit
cost management. This is critical to the professionalism of the IT unit
and its ability to provide a base platform for doing business.
• Every project should have a business case and every business case
should be checked against measurable outcomes. If a project has no
expected measurable outcomes, it's a bad idea.
• There may not be a satisfactory answer to the question: "What is the
value of IT to our business?"
Generating Business Value From Information
Technology (Ref: Jeanne W. Ross Director & Principal Research Scientist
Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) MIT Sloan School of Management)

• Four Principles for Driving Business

Value from IT
– Establish clear IT investment priorities.
– Doggedly track costs and benefits with explicit metrics.
– Use IT to empower people.
– Specify accountabilities.
 Generating Business Value From
Information Technology
#1: Establish clear investment priorities
– Define your operating model
– Specify core processes
– Specify critical data
– Debate what to do first
– Make sure each deliverable has benefits
– But design each deliverable with longer term objectives in mind

#2: Doggedly track costs and benefits with explicit metrics

– Understand IT costs
– On average, 71% of IT spending goes to running existing systems.
– That 71% should run like a factory delivering multiple products with associated
costs/prices.
– Know what you're getting for your money.
– Provide explicit metrics for every project
– The debate about metrics clarifies objectives
– Metrics need not be financial
– Persistent follow-up drives additional value
 Generating Business Value From
Information Technology
• #3: Use IT to empower people
– To be of value, new systems must involve organizational change. Plan the
change.
– Data does not empower people, but it is a prerequisite to empowerment.
– The goal is to empower people on very specific decision criteria.
• #4: Specify accountabilities
– Cherish organizational tensions.
– Accountable people are responsible for fixing what's broken.
 Rethinking IT Investments as IT Portfolio

• Based on proven and familiar principles of financial portfolio management

• Four management objectives for investing in IT
• Creates an IT portfolio with four asset classes
• Each asset class has different risk return profiles
• The role of senior management is to align the IT portfolio to strategy and
balance for risk and return
• IT Savvy enterprises can get up to 40% more bottom-line value per IT
dollar*
*IT Savvy = enterprise’s ability to gain above industry average returns
from IT by better management.
 Why We Need IT Portfolio Management “Times they are changin’ ...”

• Relentless cost reduction—reweighting to 25% of IT Portfolio

• Pressure on value demonstration—firms with above average
• IT spending and IT Savvy had net margins 20% above industry median
• Profitability via sharing—firms with above average percentage of shared
applications and IT Savvy have ROA 30% above industry median
• Time to market—firms with above average IT infrastructure spend and IT
Savvy grew at three percentage points higher than their industry average
• Integrating strategy and IT
• – Not fragmented, uncoordinated investments
 What’s In the IT Portfolio ?

Firms who spend more of their total IT spend on new initiatives (dashed box) had statistically
significantly higher industry adjusted growth and margins – MIT CISR study, July 2008 (95 firms).
 Firms Have an IT Portfolio with Four Asset Classes
• Transactional IT: automates processes, cuts costs or increases the
volume of business a firm can conduct per unit cost, e.g., order
processing, bank cash withdrawal, billing, accounting and other
repetitive transaction processing functions
• Informational IT: provides information for managing, accounting,
reporting and communicating internally and with customers,
suppliers and regulators, e.g., decision support, accounting,
planning, control, sales analysis, customer relationship and Cyber
security (IT Act 2000)/Sarbanes-Oxley reporting systems
• Strategic IT: supports entry into a new market, development of new
products or capabilities, and innovative implementations of IT.
Example: Expert systems/AI based systems/ATMs
• Infrastructure IT: provides the foundation of shared IT services
(both technical and human) used by multiple applications, e.g.,
servers, networks, laptops, shared customer databases, help desk,
application development
• A project may be any combination of all four.
Rethinking IT as an Investment Portfolio — Four
Different Asset Classes
 Tracking the Impact of Information
Technology Investments

Source: P. Weill & M. Broadbent, Leveraging the New Infrastructure: How market leaders capitalize on IT, Harvard
Business School Press, June 1998.
The Four IT Asset Classes Have Different
Risk Return Profiles
 How IT creates value –understanding through
Enterprise Architecture – Maturity Stages
• Enterprise Architecture is no static, one-time issue. As a company’s
business undergoes changes, an enterprise architecture needs to get adapted
as well.
• The journey starts with the business silo architecture.
• Therein companies primarily make IT investments to meet local business
needs.
• Passing through the two other stages, which are often called “standardized
technology” and “optimized core”, the journey ultimately leads to the
business modularity stage (enterprise SOA).
• It is quite obvious that this evolution of the enterprise architecture
implicates changes within the organization, especially of the role of the
enterprise architect.

Ref: Enterprise Architecture – Maturity Stages, https://archive.sap.com/kmuuid2/70edb7ce-5fd8-2910-

1583-db2b2cd98298/Enterprise%20Architecture%20-%20Maturity%20Stages.pdf
 The following table characterizes enterprise architecture
maturity levels by defining their value creation impacts on the
company, its IT organization and business units value chain
contributions. These impacts are specified below.
Maturity Company IT organization Business units
Stages
1. Business Deliver Implement specific, local Design individual
Silo solutions for business processes. The business
Architecture local problems architecture does not processes and
and impose any constraints on specify required
opportunities. business units’ activities. IT functionality.
2.Standardiz Shift from Provide cost-effective and Accept
ed local reliable systems based on standardization
Technology application to standard technologies. For and systems
shared the first time IT shapes consolidation.
infrastructure. business solutions.
Maturity Company IT organization Business units
Stages
3.Optimized From local Reuse data in several Optimize core
Core view of data processes and create enterprise
and business process processes and
applications to platforms. articulate the
an enterprise company’s
view. operating model.
4. Business Extends Enable a seamless linkage Use modules for
Modularity optimized core between (plug-and-play) designing and
architecture business process adapting front-
through modules. Provide a end processes.
reusable platform for innovation.
modules.

Ref: Ross, Jeanne W.; Weill, Peter; Robertson, David C.: Enterprise Architecture as a Strategy. Havard Business
School Press. August 1, 2006
Information Systems and the
Competitive Advantage
Session 1-2

Dr. Manojit Chattopadhyay

Associate Professor-
IT & Systems
 Outline
• How are information systems transforming business?
and why are they so essential for running and managing a business
today? – Recap

• What is an information system? How

does it work? What are dimensions of IS?
– Emergence of digital firm
• Strategic business objective of IS
• Information value chain
• Why are complementary assets essential for ensuring that
information systems provide genuine value for
organizations?
How Information Systems Are Transforming
Business
– Mobile digital platform
– Systems used to improve customer experience, respond to
customer demand, reduce inventories, and more
– Growing online newspaper readership
– Expanding e-commerce and Internet advertising
– New cyber security and accounting laws
Figure 1.1: Information Technology Capital
Investment
Role of MIS in Business

Connectivity through twitter and

Facebook

Customer
An increasingly service
Networked through
Social Media
World

Online Conferencing and talk

 What’s New In Management Information Systems (1 of 2)

• Technology
– Cloud computing
– Big data and the Internet of Things (IoT)
– Mobile digital platform
• Management
– Online collaboration and social networking software
– Business intelligence
– Virtual meetings
 What’s New In Management Information Systems (2 of 2)

• Organizations
– Social business
– Telework/now work from home/online learning
– Co-creation of business value
Globalization Challenges and Opportunities: A Flattened World

• Internet has drastically reduced costs of

operating on global scale
• Increases in foreign trade, outsourcing
• Presents both challenges and opportunities
 The Emerging Digital Firm

• In a fully digital firm:

– Significant business relationships are digitally
enabled and mediated
– Core business processes are accomplished
through digital networks
– Key corporate assets are managed digitally
• Digital firms offer greater flexibility in
organization and management
– Time shifting, space shifting
 Strategic Business Objectives of Information
Systems (1 of 2)
• Growing interdependence between:
– Ability to use information technology and
– Ability to implement corporate strategies and
achieve corporate goals
Figure 1.2: The Interdependence Between Organizations and
Information Systems
 MIS-Business value Relationship
Strategic Business Objectives of Information Systems

Operational
excellence

New products,
Survival services, and
business models
MIS and
Business
Customer and
Competitive supplier
advantage intimacy
Improved
decision making
 Strategic Business Objectives of Information
Systems
• Firms invest heavily in information systems to
achieve six strategic business objectives:
1. Operational excellence
2. New products, services, and business models
3. Customer and supplier intimacy
4. Improved decision making
5. Competitive advantage
6. Survival
 Operational Excellence

• Improvement of efficiency to attain higher

profitability
• Information systems, technology an important
tool in achieving greater efficiency and
productivity
• Walmart’s Retail Link system links suppliers to
stores for superior replenishment system
 New Products, Services, and Business Models

• Business model: describes how company

produces, delivers, and sells product or service
to create wealth
• Information systems and technology a major
enabling tool for new products, services,
business models
– Examples: Apple’s iPad, Google’s Android OS, and
Netflix
 Customer and Supplier Intimacy

• Serving customers well leads them to return,

increasing revenue and profits
– Example: High-end hotels that use computers to
track customer preferences and then monitor and
customize the environment
• Intimacy with suppliers allows them to
provide vital inputs, which lowers costs
– Example: JCPenney’s information system which
links sales records to contract manufacturer
 Improved Decision Making

• Without accurate information:

– Managers must use forecasts, best guesses, luck
– Results in:
• Overproduction, underproduction
• Misallocation of resources
• Poor response times
– Poor outcomes raise costs, lose customers
• Example: Verizon’s web-based digital
dashboard to provide managers with real-time
data on customer complaints, network
 Competitive Advantage

• Delivering better performance

• Charging less for superior products
• Responding to customers and suppliers in real
time
• Examples: Apple, Walmart, UPS
 Survival

• Information technologies as necessity of

business
• Industry-level changes
– Example: Citibank’s introduction of ATMs
• Governmental regulations requiring record-
keeping
– Examples: Indian IT act 2000, Copyright Act,
Competition rule
– Dodd-Frank Act
 What Is an Information System? (1 of 3)

• Information system
– Set of interrelated components
– Collect, process, store, and distribute information
– Support decision making, coordination, and
control
• Information vs. data
– Data are streams of raw facts
– Information is data shaped into meaningful form
Figure 1.3: Data and Information
 What Is an Information System? (2 of 3)

• Three activities of information systems

produce information organizations need
– Input: Captures raw data from organization or
external environment
– Processing: Converts raw data into meaningful
form
– Output: Transfers processed information to people
or activities that use it
 What Is an Information System? (3 of 3)

• Feedback
– Output is returned to appropriate members of
organization to help evaluate or correct input
stage
• Computer/computer program vs. information
system
– Computers and software are technical foundation
and tools, similar to the material and tools used to
build a house
Figure 1.4: Functions of an Information System
 Dimensions of Information Systems

• Organizations
• Management
• Technology
Figure 1.5: Information Systems Are More Than
Computers
 Dimensions of Information Systems:
Organizations (1 of 2)
• Hierarchy of authority, responsibility
– Senior management
– Middle management
– Operational management
– Knowledge workers
– Data workers
– Production or service workers
Figure 1.6: Levels in a Firm
 Dimensions of Information Systems:
Organizations (2 of 2)
• Separation of business functions
– Sales and marketing
– Human resources
– Finance and accounting
– Manufacturing and production
• Unique business processes
• Unique business culture
• Organizational politics
 Dimensions of Information Systems:
Management
• Managers set organizational strategy for
responding to business challenges
• In addition, managers must act creatively
– Creation of new products and services
– Occasionally re-creating the organization
Dimensions of Information Systems: Technology

• Computer hardware and software

• Data management technology
• Networking and telecommunications
technology
– Networks, the Internet, intranets and extranets,
World Wide Web
• IT infrastructure: provides platform that
system is built on
It Isn’t Just Technology: A Business Perspective
on Information Systems (1 of 3)

• Information system is instrument for

creating value
• Investments in information technology
will result in superior returns
– Productivity increases
– Revenue increases
– Superior long-term strategic positioning
 It Isn’t Just Technology: A Business Perspective
on Information Systems (2 of 3)
• Business information value chain
– Raw data acquired and transformed through
stages that add value to that information
– Value of information system determined in part by
extent to which it leads to better decisions,
greater efficiency, and higher profits
• Business perspective
– Calls attention to organizational and managerial
nature of information systems
 It Isn’t Just Technology: A Business Perspective
on Information Systems (3 of 3)
• Investing in information technology does not
guarantee good returns
• There is considerable variation in the returns
firms receive from systems investments
• Factors
– Adopting the right business model
– Investing in complementary assets (organizational
and management capital)
Figure 1.7: The Business Information Value
Chain
Complementary Assets: Organizational Capital
and the Right Business Model (1 of 2)

– Assets required to derive value from a primary

investment
– Firms supporting technology investments with
investment in complementary assets receive
superior returns
– Example: Invest in technology and the people to
make it work properly
 Complementary Assets: Organizational Capital
and the Right Business Model (2 of 2)

• Complementary assets
– Examples of organizational assets
• Appropriate business model
• Efficient business processes
– Examples of managerial assets
• Incentives for management innovation
• Teamwork and collaborative work environments
– Examples of social assets
• The Internet and telecommunications infrastructure
• Technology standards
➢ A MIS is:
• Integrated user-machine system
• For providing information
• To support the operation,management, analysis and
decision making functions
• In an organisation
➢ This system utilises
• Computer h/w & s/w
• Manual procedures
• Models for analysis, planning, control and decisions
making &
• A database

85
 Conclusion

• MIS is not just about technology, but it encompasses

people, culture, the organization and business practices.
• MIS and Business should complement each other.
• IT should not be seen as a panacea. It should be inducted
into a company according to the need of the business.