A management information system (MIS) is a computer system

consisting of hardware and software that serves as the backbone of an

organization’s operations. An MIS gathers data from multiple online systems,
analyzes the information, and reports data to aid in management decision-
making.

MIS is also the study of how such systems work.

Improved Decision-Making
The purpose of an MIS is improved decision-making, by providing up-to-date,
accurate data on a variety of organizational assets, including:

 Financials
 Inventory
 Personnel
 Project timelines
 Manufacturing
 Real estate
 Marketing
 Raw materials
 R&D
The MIS collects the data, stores it, and makes it accessible to managers who
want to analyze the data by running reports.

Types of Information

Central Information System

The goal of an MIS is to be able to correlate multiple data points in order to
strategize ways to improve operations. For example, being able to compare
sales this month to sales a year ago by looking at staffing levels may point to
ways to boost revenue. Or being able to compare marketing expenditures by
geographic location and link them to sales can also improve decision-making.
But the only way this level of analysis is possible is due to data that is
compiled through an MIS.

Running reports that pull together disparate data points is an MIS’ key
contribution. That feature, however, comes with a significant cost. MIS
implementation is an expensive investment that includes the hardware and
software purchases, as well as the integration with existing systems and
training of all employees.
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Information can be classified in a number of ways and in this chapter, you will learn two of the
most important ways to classify information.

Classification by Characteristic
Based on Anthony's classification of Management, information used in business for decision-
making is generally categorized into three types −
 Strategic Information − Strategic information is concerned with long term policy
decisions that defines the objectives of a business and checks how well these objectives
are met. For example, acquiring a new plant, a new product, diversification of business
etc, comes under strategic information.
 Tactical Information − Tactical information is concerned with the information needed
for exercising control over business resources, like budgeting, quality control, service
level, inventory level, productivity level etc.
 Operational Information − Operational information is concerned with plant/business
level information and is used to ensure proper conduction of specific operational tasks as
planned/intended. Various operator specific, machine specific and shift specific jobs for
quality control checks comes under this category.

Classification by Application
In terms of applications, information can be categorized as −
 Planning Information − These are the information needed for establishing standard
norms and specifications in an organization. This information is used in strategic, tactical,
and operation planning of any activity. Examples of such information are time standards,
design standards.
 Control Information − This information is needed for establishing control over all
business activities through feedback mechanism. This information is used for controlling
attainment, nature and utilization of important processes in a system. When such
information reflects a deviation from the established standards, the system should induce
a decision or an action leading to control.
 Knowledge Information − Knowledge is defined as "information about information".
Knowledge information is acquired through experience and learning, and collected from
archival data and research studies.
 Organizational Information − Organizational information deals with an organization's
environment, culture in the light of its objectives. Karl Weick's Organizational
Information Theory emphasizes that an organization reduces its equivocality or
uncertainty by collecting, managing and using these information prudently. This
information is used by everybody in the organization; examples of such information are
employee and payroll information.
 Functional/Operational Information − This is operation specific information. For
example, daily schedules in a manufacturing plant that refers to the detailed assignment of
jobs to machines or machines to operators. In a service oriented business, it would be the
duty roster of various personnel. This information is mostly internal to the organization.
 Database Information − Database information construes large quantities of information
that has multiple usage and application. Such information is stored, retrieved and
managed to create databases. For example, material specification or supplier information
is stored for multiple users.
 Information may be understood to have various dimensions. However, for our purpose,
the following dimension of information will be of interest.
i)                    Economic dimension,
ii)                   Business dimension, and
iii)                 Technical dimension.

We’ll be covering the following topics in this tutorial:

 Economic Dimension
 Business Dimension
 Technical Dimension
 Technological Issues
 Data Management 
Economic Dimension

This dimension of information refers to the cost of information and its benefits.
Cost of information
It may include
 
i)                   Cost of acquiring data,
ii)                  Cost of maintaining data,
iii)                 Cost of generating information, and
iv)                 Cost of communicating information.
 
The cost is related to the response time required to generate information and
communicate it. For systems with low response time, cost is high.
Value of information

Before a particular piece of information is acquired, decision-makers must know its

value. In decision theory, the value of information is the value of the change in decision
behavior because of the information. The change in the behavior due to new
information is measured to determine the benefits from its use. To arrive at the value of
new information, the cost incurred to get this information is deducted from the benefits.
Business Dimension

This dimension relates to the business angle of information. Its value to the
organization, sustainability of getting the information from a managerial standpoint,
accuracy and reliability of the information, scope and appropriateness of the
information are the parameters for understanding the business dimension of the
information. This dimension has got more to do with the ‘what’ of the information rather
than the ‘how’. Business dimension of information can have the following parameters:

 Time dimension – information has to be timely to be of any value. The basic utility
of information within an organization is in decision-making. If the information is not
timely then the decisions derived out of it will have poor quality. Hence, time is an
important dimension of information.
 Accuracy dimension – information has to be accurate to satisfy the user. Again
this is an important dimension as inaccurate information leads to bad decision-
making.
 Reliability dimension – information has to be reliable so that users have
confidence.
 Appropriateness dimension – information must be relevant to the receiver. It must
be appropriate to his needs.
 Scope dimension – information should be within the scope.
 Completeness of content dimension – information should be complete and not in
bits and pieces.

Technical dimension

The technical dimension relates to the information gathering, summarizing, storing and
retrieval, analysis and cost aspects of information. It can have the following
parameters:
1. Information gathering – the means of capturing the data and storing it
2. Analysis methodology – the data processing methodology

 Costs of information –

 Cost of data acquisition – the cost of data acquisition from the point of view of time
and resource (technical) costs. A piece of data is supposed to be costly to acquire
if say, it is recovered from a secondary source after processing it for a long time.
On the other hand the cost of acquisition of data is low for such cases when (say),
the customer is himself putting such data into the system (like in the case of ATMs
or online banking, the systems cost of acquiring data is very low is such cases)
 Cost of data maintenance – is the cost of maintaining the data in terms of
technical costs of space and efforts (technical) in maintaining it. A data source that
requires a lot of technical efforts like indexing, etc., and requires huge storage (for
say storing images, etc.), is said to be more costly.
 Cost of data access – is the cost in terms of resource requirements (both
processing and network) for accessing the data. Data that can be accessed after
utilizing a lot of CPU and network resources is said to be costly to access.
MIS CONCEPT
Management Information Systems (MIS) is the study of people, technology,
organizations, and the relationships among them. MIS professionals help
firms realize maximum benefit from investment in personnel, equipment, and
business processes. MIS is a people-oriented field with an emphasis on
service through technology. If you have an interest in technology and have the
desire to use technology to improve people’s lives, a degree in MIS may be
for you.

Nature of MIS
A management information system (MIS) is a system or process that
provides theinformation necessary to manage an organization effectively.
MIS and the information it generates are generally considered essential
components ofprudent and reasonable business decisions.
The importance of maintaining a consistent approach to the development, use, and
reviewof MIS systems within the institution must be an ongoing concern.
MIS should have a clearly defined framework of guidelines, policies or
practices,standards, and procedures for the organization.
These should be followed throughout the institution in the development,
maintenance,and use of all MIS.
MIS is viewed and used at many levels by management
.It should be supportive of the institution's longer term strategic goals and objectives.
To the other extreme it is also those everyday financial accounting systems that are
usedto ensure basic control is maintained over financial recordkeeping
activities.Financial accounting systems and subsystems are just one type of
institutional MIS

Scope of MIS
After understanding what is MIS and the nature of management, we move on to the
scope of MIS. Information Systems is growing at a fast pace to become one of the most
promising career fields in today’s world. With everything happening digitally, the
demand for MIS professionals is increasing more than ever. MIS involves performing a
number of task simultaneously such as- 

 Processing data
 Initiating transactions
 Responding to inquiries
 Producing reports and its summaries
 Manage the data created within the structure of a particular business

MIS acts in an organization just like a nervous system in a body by providing with the
relevant information for ease in the process of decision making.

The purpose of MIS is to work towards satisfying the information needs of everyone in
the business. It means providing the relevant information to those who need it.

Thus, MIS has a lot of potential to become one of the most promising careers for
individuals interested in the workings of a business. 

Scope of MIS
After understanding what is MIS and the nature of management, we move on to the
scope of MIS. Information Systems is growing at a fast pace to become one of the most
promising career fields in today’s world. With everything happening digitally, the
demand for MIS professionals is increasing more than ever. MIS involves performing a
number of task simultaneously such as- 

 Processing data
 Initiating transactions
 Responding to inquiries
 Producing reports and its summaries
 Manage the data created within the structure of a particular business

MIS acts in an organization just like a nervous system in a body by providing with the
relevant information for ease in the process of decision making.

The purpose of MIS is to work towards satisfying the information needs of everyone in
the business. It means providing the relevant information to those who need it.

Thus, MIS has a lot of potential to become one of the most promising careers for
individuals interested in the workings of a business. 

Components of MIS
The major components of MIS are:
Components of MIS
 People Resources: People are required for the operation of all information system.
 Data Resources: Database holds processed and organized data.
 Software Resources: It includes all sets of information processing instruction.
 Hardware Resources: Include all physical devices and materials used in
information processing.
 Process: is a step undertaken to achieve a goal.
As, We have covered the basic concept of management information system which
includes what is MIS, MIS definition, MIS meaning, MIS components.
Now, let us move further and try to understand MIS objectives, MIS
characteristics, MIS advantages, MIS role, MIS challenges, MIS limitations etc.

Objectives of MIS
What is MIS objective: MIS has five major objectives which include:
1. Data Capturing
2. Processing of Data
3. Storage
4. Retrieval
5. Dissemination
 Objectives of MIS
These MIS objective are discussed below in detail.
Data Capturing
MIS capture data from various internal and external sources of the organization. Data
capturing may be manual or through computer terminals.

Processing of Data
The captured data is processed to convert into the required information. Processing of
data is done by such activities as calculating, sorting, classifying, and summarizing.

Storage of Information
MIS stores the processed or unprocessed data for future use. If any information is not
immediately required, it is saved as an organization record, for later use.

Retrieval of Information
MIS retrieves information from its stores as and when required by various users.
Dissemination of Information
Information, which is a finished product of MIS, is disseminated to the users in the
organization. It is periodic or online through a computer terminal.

Characteristics of MIS
What is MIS Characteristic? MIS plays a very important role in every aspect of an
organization. These characteristics are generic in nature. 
Following are the characteristics of MIS:
1. System Approach
2. Management Oriented
3. Need-Based
4. Exception Based
5. Future Oriented
6. Integrated
7. Long Term Planning
8. Sub-System Concept
9. Central Database
Characteristics of MIS
System Approach
The information system follows a System’s approach. The system’s approach implies
a holistic approach to the study of system and its performance in the light for the
objective for which it has been constituted.

Management Oriented
The top-down approach must be followed while designing the MIS. The top-down
approach suggests that the system development starts from the determination of
management needs and overall business objectives.

The MIS development plan should be derived from the overall business plan.
Management oriented characteristic of MIS also implies that the management actively
directs the system development efforts.

Need-Based
MIS design and development should be as per the information needs of managers at
different levels, strategic planning level, management control level and operational
control level. In other words, MIS should cater to the specific needs of managers in an
organization’s hierarchy.
Exception Based
MIS should be developed on the exception-based reporting principle, which means an
abnormal situation, i.e. the maximum; minimum or expected values vary beyond
tolerance limits. In such situations, there should BE exception reporting to the
decision-maker at the required level.

Future Oriented
Besides exception-based reporting, MIS should also look at the future. In other words,
MIS should not merely provide past or historical information; rather it should provide
information, on the basis of projections based on which actions may be initiated.

Integrated
Integration is a necessary characteristic of a management information system.
Integration is significant because of its ability to produce more meaningful
information.

For example, in order to develop an effective production scheduling system, it is

necessary to balance such factors as setup costs, Workforce, Overtime rates,
Production capacity, Inventory level, Capital requirements and Customer services.

Long Term Planning

MIS is developed over relatively long periods. Such a system does not develop
overnight. A heavy element of planning is involved. The MIS designer must have the
future objectives and needs of the company in mind.

Sub-System Concept
The process of MIS development is quite complex and one is likely to lose insight
frequently. Thus, the system, though viewed as a single entity, must be broken down
into digestible sub-systems which are more meaningful at the planning stage.

Central Database
A central database is a mortar that holds the functional systems together. Each system
requires access to the master file of data covering inventory, personnel, vendors,
customers, etc. It seems logical to gather data once, validate it properly and place it on
a central storage medium, which can be accessed by any other subsystem.
Advantage of MIS
A good management information system can be used not only for the storage of
electronic data alone but must be able to support the analysis required by
management. There are many advantages of MIS which are utilised by manager to
achieve organization goal.
The following are some of the benefits of a good MIS.
 Increased customer satisfaction
 Improved quantity and quality of information
 Improved quality and quantity management decisions
 Improved responsiveness number of the competitor’s condition
 Improved operational efficiency and flexibility
 Improved quality of internal and external communications
 Improved quality of planning
 Improved quality control and supervision

Role of MIS
A management information system (MIS) plays an important role in business
organizations.
What is MIS role: There are many roles of MIS and some of the important MIS
role are discussed below:
1. Decision making
2. Coordination among the department
3. Finding out Problems
4. Comparison of Business Performance
5. Strategies for an Organization
 Role of MIS

Decision making
Management Information System (MIS) plays a significant role in the decision-
making process of any organization. In any organization, a decision is made on the
basis of relevant information which can be retrieved from the MIS.

Coordination among the department

Management Information System satisfy multiple need of an organization across the
different functional department.

Finding out Problems

As we know that MIS provides relevant information about every aspect of activities.
Hence, if any mistake is made by the management then MIS, information will help in
finding out the solution to that problem.

Comparison of Business Performance

MIS store all past data and information in its Database. That why the management
information system is very useful to compare business organization performance.

Strategies for an Organization

Today each business is running in a competitive market. An MIS supports the
organization to evolve appropriate strategies for the business to assent in a
competitive environment.

Challenges of MIS
What is MIS Challenges: There are three major challenges of MIS: high cost, training
of employees and maintenance cost. These are briefly discussed below:
1. High Cost
2. Training of Employee
3. Maintenance Cost
High Cost
Development of new computerized based information system is a problem for the
organization due to the cost factor and it creates problems because with the change of
time there is need of up-to-date of the information system.

Training of Employee
Employees should have the capacity of learning of the information system with the
changing competitive and business environment; otherwise it will be difficult for the
organization to stay in the market.

Maintenance Cost
Sometimes a problem arises due to server crash and website crash. Sometimes it leads
to the loss of information. So, maintenance cost is needed to tackle the above
problem.

Limitations of MIS
Even though MIS has many benefits but it also has its limitations. Limitations of
MIS are discussed below:
 While MIS may solve some critical problems but it is not a solution to all
problems of an organization.
 It cannot meet the special demands of each person.

 MIS if designed in an improper manner does not serve the management and

hence is of little relevance.

 The MIS is not good if the basic data is obsolete and outdated.

IS Functions

The broad functions of MIS are as given below:

1. To improve decision-making: MIS helps management by providing background

information on a variety of issues and helps to improve the decision-making
quality of management. The fast and accurate information supplied by MIS is
leveraged by the managers to take quicker and better decisions thereby
improving the decision-making quality and adding to the bottom line of the
company.
2. To improve efficiency: MIS helps managers to conduct their tasks with greater
ease and with better efficiency. This reflects in better productivity for the company.
3. To provide connectivity: MIS provides managers with better connectivity with
the rest of the organization.

                                     

MIS Applications
Many organizations are structured based on functional areas. This is often reflected in an
organizational chart. Typically, functional areas include finances, human resources, marketing,
etc. Many of these functional areas have their own Management Information System, or MIS.

Financial MIS
A financial MIS provides financial information for managers to make daily decisions on
operations within the organization. Most systems provide these functions:

 Integrate financial information from multiple sources

 Provide easy access to financial information in summarized form
 Enable financial analysis using easy-to-use tools
 Compare historic and current financial activity

A financial MIS often has a number of subsystems, depending on the type of organization. These
include systems to analyze revenues, costs and profits, auditing systems for both internal and
external purposes and systems to manage funds. A financial MIS can also be used to prepare
reports for third parties, such as external auditors or shareholders.

Marketing MIS
A marketing MIS supports activities throughout the many activities of marketing departments.
Some of the typical subsystems of a marketing MIS are marketing research, product
development and delivery, promotion and advertising, product pricing and sales analysis.
One of the most common uses of a marketing MIS is to produce sales reports. These are typically
produced on a regular schedule, such as by week, month and quarter. Reports can be organized
by sales representative, product, customer or geographic area. Such reports allow managers to
see which aspects of sales are doing well and which ones need attention.
Perhaps one sales representative has suddenly experienced a drop in sales by losing one major
customer and needs some support to develop some new leads. If there are only a handful of sales
reps sharing one office, a manager might be able to pick up on this just by talking to everyone.
However, what if a manager has to oversee more than 100 sales reps in 12 different offices
around the nation? A specialized information system that provides regular updates in a
meaningful format will make it a lot easier for the manager to make effective decisions.

Manufacturing MIS
Manufacturing is one of the areas where information systems have made a major impact. A
typical manufacturing MIS is used to monitor the flow of materials and products throughout the
organization. In a manufacturing process, raw materials or parts are transformed to finished
products, and a manufacturing MIS is used at every stage. Some of the common subsystems in a
manufacturing MIS include: design and engineering, production scheduling, inventory control,
process control and quality control.

MIS - Planning and Design 

The design and implementation of an MIS cannot be

carried out in an unplanned fashion. The different
groups of tasks and the cost of design and
implementation make it a major project.

The conceptual design outlines the structure of the

MIS and indicates the performance requirements for
those who will develop the detailed design. Since it
establishes the broad outlines of the MIS, the
managers who are going to make use of it should have
a major role in the development and evaluation of
alternative concepts.

The management must recognize the fundamental

business problems and objectives of the MIS. The
system constraints can be environmental, basic
business, or technical. The management is mainly
responsible for describing the first two.
The detailed design of the MIS begins after the conceptual framework has been devised.
The detailed design starts with the performance specifications provided by the conceptual
design and ends with a set of specifications for the construction of the MIS.
If the operating system is not going to be changed, the
design of the MIS should be developed in association
with the design of the operating system.

A complete description of the detailed design cannot

be given, as design work is a creative and problem-
solving activity. The 'systems approach'to problem
solving uses a systems orientation to define problems
and opportunities and develop solutions.

Strategic Planning for MIS

Strategic planning for MIS is a managerial activity that enhances the working process
and prospects of an organization.

The preparation of an organization's information system has traditionally been divorced

from the overall strategic planning processes by which the organization plans for its
future. The relation between the organization's "strategy set" and an MIS "strategy set"
is conceptualized and illustrated as an M/S strategic planning mechanism.

For strategic planning and management, there are many structures and methodologies
to choose from. Although there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to choosing
the right system, the majorities of them follow a similar trend and share similar
characteristics.

Many frameworks cycle through some variation on some very basic phases:
  Analysis or assessment, where current internal and external environments are analyzed.
 Strategy formulation, strategy formulation process is developed and documented.
 Strategy execution is a phase of planning where the proposed plan is converted into
operational planning.
 Evaluation or sustainment/management phase, where ongoing refinement and
evaluation of performance, culture, communications, data reporting, and other strategic
management issues occurs.

Strategic Planning Process

The strategic planning process necessitates a great deal of consideration and planning
from a company's upper management. Executives can consider a variety of options
before deciding on a course of action and then determining how to strategically execute
it.

A company's management should choose a strategy that is most likely to deliver

positive results (usually described as increasing the company's bottom line) and that can
be implemented cost-effectively with a high probability of success while minimizing
unnecessary financial risk.

Strategic planning is traditionally thought to be done in three steps: growth,

implementation, and evaluation.

1) Strategy Formulation
 In the process of formulating a strategy, a company will first assess its current situation
by performing an internal and external audit.
 The purpose of this activity is to identify the organization's strengths and weaknesses to
frame effective strategies.
 As a result of the analysis, managers decide on which plans or markets they should focus
on and how to best allocate the company's resources.
 Business strategies have long-term effects on organizational success.
 Strategy formulation is one of the most critical activity which can be carried out by the
higher-level management executives of the company. This activity mainly focuses to
assign the resources necessary for their implementation and future perspectives of the
organization.

2) Strategy Implementation
 After successful strategy formulation, the organization needs to define the key objectives
of the company, and allocate resources for the strategy's implementation.
  The success of the implementation of strategic planning is often determine by selecting
an efficient strategy and put the strategy into action.
 To execute the strategy, there is a need to create an effective framework to optimize the
relevant resources, and redirecting marketing strategies to achieve the desired
objectives.

3) Strategy Evaluation
 Every businessman/woman understands that today's success does not guarantee
tomorrow's success. As a result, managers need to assess the effectiveness of a selected
approach.
 Evaluating the internal and external factors influencing the strategy's execution,
assessing efficiency, and taking corrective action to improve the strategy's effectiveness.
 For an instance, a company can make certain changes to achieve the desired changes in
customer relations; it needs to implement a new customer relationship management
(CRM).
 The three stages in strategic planning take place at three levels of hierarchy: upper
management, middle management, and operational management. As a result, it is
critical to encourage collaboration and engagement among employees and managers at
all levels to help the company work as a more functional and productive team.

Benefits of Strategic Planning

Following are the most significant advantages of strategic planning:

 Helps formulate better strategies using a logical, systematic approach

 Enhanced communication between employers and employees
 Empowers individuals working in the organization

Conceptual System Design

During the system analysis, the analysis of system data is very important. Analysis of
data is made up of more than one level at the beginning (first level) and different ideas
are used at each level. At first level, analyst develops a conceptual system design.

Since the conceptual design sets the direction for the management

information system (MIS). It is vital that managers participate seriously and heavily at
this stage. Conceptual design is sometimes called feasibility design, gross design or
high level design.

The conceptual design phase takes as input.

1. A crisp statement of a management information requirement and
2. A set of management objectives for the MIS

In the conceptual design stage that the alternative overall MIS designs are conceived
and the best one is selected by the system analyst in consultation with the top
management. The feasibility of meeting the management objectives for the MIS is
assessed showing how the system will work at the high level is drawn. Therefore,
conceptual design is also known as gross design; high level becomes the basis for the
detailed MIS design.

Hence, conceptual design is a pre-design for the detailed design. In fact, conceptual
design is the “centerpiece” of the process. Only after conceptual design is completed,
it can be sure that the MIS can successfully be constructed.

The conceptual design involves the following tasks.

1. Defining problems in more details.

2. Refining the management objectives to set system objectives.
3. Establishing system constraints.
4. Determining information needs and their sources.
5. Developing alternative designs and selection one from these various designs.
6. Document the conceptual design and preparing the report.

Detailed System Design

the main objective of the detailed system design is to prepare a blue print of a system
that meets the goals of the conceptual system design requirements. Detailed system
design involves the following phases.
    Project planning and control.
    Involve the user
    Define the detailed sub-system.
    Input/Output design.
    Feedback form the user
    Database design.
    Procedure design.
    Design Documentation
1) Project planning and control

In order to ensure an effective and efficient design of an MIS, it is very important that a
detailed design process should in itself be considered a complete project. Therefore,
the first step in the detailed design is planning and controlling, so that standards may
be established and a proper follow-up is made. Some of the main points, which are
important in planning and control of a detailed design, are given below.
Project planning
1.      Formulate the project objectives.
2.      Define the project tasks.
3.      Prepare a network diagram of all events and activities so as to specify sequential
and parallel events.
4.      Schedule the work as per the requirements of the user.
5.      Prepare a budget for the project.
1) Project planning and control

In order to ensure an effective and efficient design of an MIS, it is very important that a
detailed design process should in itself be considered a complete project. Therefore,
the first step in the detailed design is planning and controlling, so that standards may
be established and a proper follow-up is made. Some of the main points, which are
important in planning and control of a detailed design, are given below.

2) Involve the user

System designers must inform the user regarding the new information system being
developed and gain their support and acceptance. In this phase, users are assured
that changes will benefit them or that they will not be at disadvantage because of the
new system.
3) Detailed sub system definition
In detailed system design, every system needs to be broken down to ascertain all
activities required and their respective inputs and outputs. In some of the cases, sub
systems are broadly defined in the conceptual design phase, but at this stage they are
specifically defined to work out every detail concerning the sub-system. Decomposition
of the system

valuation of MIS
Evaluation of MIS is a process in which the performance of an organizational MIS is
determined. According to the performance results, the organization evaluates and
implements the necessary modifications in MIS. Various terms related to the evaluation
of MIS are,

1. Evaluation approaches
2. Evaluation classes
3. Product-based MIS evaluation
 4. Cost/benefit-based evaluation

1) Evaluation Approaches
Various approaches are used to evaluate the organizational MIS performance. The most
common approaches are,

 Quality Assurance Review: The quality assurance review is also known as a technical
review. It determines the technical quality performance of MIS. The quality assurance
review determines the data transmission rate, main or secondary storage, and CPU
capacity.
 Reliability and Accuracy: Reliability and accuracy is a key indicator of measuring the
performance of an MIS. The usefulness of the resulting information is usually determined
by the precision of the data, it uses some parameters to find reliability and accuracy.
 Timeliness of Information: The results of MIS must be recent. And when evaluating
patterns, management must make assumptions about the organization's future, based
on MIS data. A more recent on MIS, decision making always reflects on current reality
and correctly predict their impact on the business. If the data collection and processing
delay its availability, the MIS must take into account its potential age-related inaccuracies
and present the resulting information accordingly, with probable error ranges.

The MIS development personnel or a quality assurance group performs the quality
assurance review.

2) Evaluation Classes
To evaluate the performance of MIS, the following two classes are used,

 Effectiveness: The effectiveness class determines the quality of the MIS output. MIS is
effective if the quality of its output is good and the process of producing output is right.
 Efficiency: The efficiency class specifies the total amount of resources required by MIS to
obtain the output.
 Completeness of Information: For a specific decision, a successful MIS provides all the
most important and valuable information completely. If any information is not available
due to missing data, the gaps are highlighted and potential possibilities are either shown
or possible implications arising from missing data are addressed.

The relationship between effectiveness and efficiency can be defined as effectiveness is

a measure of the quality of an MIS output, while efficiency is a measure of the resources
required to achieve the output. 

3) Product-based MIS evaluation

The product-based MIS evaluation is also known as effectiveness evaluation. Determines
the effectiveness of an MIS output. For assessing the effectiveness of MIS output, a
model structure may be used.

 Model Structure: A model structure is a structure that contains various information

attributes such as timeliness and relevance. To determine the MIS effectiveness in an
organization, we need to determine the information attributes for the MIS output.
Some of commonly used attributes are,
o Timeliness: Real-time information may be called information that is evaluated in
a very short period.
o Relevance: Questions such as timeliness, authority or novelty of the outcome
may include significance.
o Accuracy: The accuracy of information or measurements is their consistency,
even in small details, of being accurate or correct.
o Completeness: Completeness' refers to how comprehensive the data is.
o Adequacy: The ability to obtain the information required for decision making in a
timely and reliable manner.
o Explicitness: The degree to which the MIS is consistent with the particular
organization.
o Exception-based: MIS should be built based on the exception-based reporting
concept, which implies an irregular condition where the maximum, minimum, or
predicted values differ outside the limits. Exception reporting should be given to
the decision-maker at the appropriate level in such cases.

4) Cost/benefit-based evaluation
Cost-based evaluation of the MIS system determines the benefits expected from the
developed system. Different approaches are used to measure the cost and evaluate the
various benefits to organizations. The approaches of cost-benefit analysis are used to
find out the feasible solution. The benefits to be expected from the system and
expected benefits are carried out in the cost/benefit calculation of the different
expected costs. The measurement of cost/benefit decides the system's cost-
effectiveness.

MAINTENANCE OF MIS
Maintenance Management Information System (MMIS) is a mechanized claims
processing and information retrieval system for Medicaid  that's required by the
federal government. All states are required to operate an MMIS to support Medicaid
business functions and maintain information in such areas as provider enrollment;
client eligibility, including third party liability; benefit package maintenance;
managed care enrollment; claims processing; and prior authorization. A fiscal agent
who is a private contractor to the state, normally selected through a competitive
procurement process, may operate the state's MMIS.