MIS , the acronym for the ‘Management Information System’ is a buzzword in today’s business world. Found in abundance in the literature of management science, the practicing managers of Business& Industry are happy to make use of it more as a managerial jargon than anything else. Quite often they stop shy of exploring it beyond its naiveties, forfeiting thereby all options of exploiting its potential power to their own advantage. MIS
The decision makers of today, especially those perched at the helm, suffer from a peculiar syndrome that they are well and all-informed irrespective of the fact whether they have a MIS in place in their own organizations or not. Gaps in the availability of information are unabashedly cooked up, much to the chagrin of the intelligentsia of the companies they belong to, making in the process mockery of the syllabi of the MBA degrees courses.
Progress:
MIS has progressed leaps and bounds with the advent and penetration of Information Technology in the business world. The ERP has added muscle to its strength. MIS today is fast emerging as an independent discipline, a separate profession by itself. Backed up by an enterprise-wide IT, it is making waves and setting new standards in the management of business affairs. In the context of an organization-vehicle metaphor, IT is the engine-hardware; MIS is the upholstery-software providing the much-needed cushion and comfort to its passengers. Those who dare to ride on it are likely to succeed; others who continue to get mesmerized by their conventional wisdom are inviting trouble for themselves.
Objective:
This paper attempts to clear the penumbra of vagueness that still surrounds the minds of many a industry honcho who still continue to be guided by their archaic knowledge base. To them MIS is a fad, a fancy, perhaps a flashy icon of young and articulate IT geeks. Glued to their past they fail to see the changing scenarios through their myopic glasses. Failing to acknowledge their shortcomings, the irony is, they try to cling to their conventional wisdom with greater force.
At the other end of the scale are those who exult in creating an image that they are the embodiment of all that are progressive and modern in this changing world. They pose as if they are the last word in everything whether it is MIS, IT or any other technique of management science.
Dim View:
Barring exceptions, the managerial clan usually adopts a very dim view of the Management Information System (MIS). Quite often they suffer from a sense of superiority complex posing to be super-informed which in effect shuts them out from their surroundings – the realities of the changing world. As a consequence, the MIS managers face a tough time in peddling their virtues – an ocean of opportunities waiting to be tapped and churned for enhancing the prosperity of their organizations. It has been observed that while the front line managers often get away taking the credit of their decisions, the MIS managers are left with the consequences of the wrong decisions, the blame of which is squarely heaped on ‘inadequate’ or ‘unreliable’ {mosimage}Wonder
Such a treatment often forces the MIS fraternity to wonder -
• Whether they really understand the role of MIS – especially its potential power in transforming the bottom line of the company?
• Whether they are aware of the MIS’s vital role in the overall framework of the company?
• Whether they are aware of the strong bond the MIS enjoys vis-à-vis the other functional groups of the company?
• Whether they are aware of the potential danger by neglecting the MIS?
Much to the mortification of the intelligentsia, the answers to most of the above questions are in the negative and this phenomenon applies to a majority of the business enterprises across the country. There lies the real danger of the business community failing to assess the role of the MIS in their adopted business models. Ignoring or undermining its relevance can lead to catastrophic consequences beyond redemption.
True, the MIS is not a panacea to all the problems faced by a business enterprise, but it can definitely ameliorate a large part of its malfunctioning. So, why not recognize the power of MIS and give it the respect and attention it deserves?
Present Perception:
While volumes have been written and talked about MIS in print media and elsewhere, there is yet a lot to be discovered and learnt. The aspects, which are already known about MIS, may be briefly mentioned as under.
• MIS as the name suggests is an embodiment of the virtues of management, information and systems sciences. MIS derives its strength from the applied nature of these sciences.
• The managerial science provides the problem or application framework, information science provides the technology or the information handling framework and the systems science provides the solution or design framework.
• MIS is both a science as well as an art. While the information technology represents the scientific aspect of MIS, the results in the form of reports, analyses, graphs etc. provide its artistic content.
• MIS plays a great role in enhancing the quality of business decisions by reducing the element of risk and uncertainty often associated with them.
MIS has another image too that is yet to be explored in depth. The exposition of this aspect of MIS reveals a new dimension on its understanding in the context of a business organization that is essentially a living system.
If you are asked whether MIS is a living system or not? You would most probably beg the question that how could MIS, which is constituted of machines, data and information, be classified as a living object? But does this concept that MIS is a non-living system really pass the test of scrutiny?
Living System
MIS has some striking similarities with the living systems, especially, that of a human being - the highest form of living genus that Mother Nature has gifted to this wonderful world.
What the MIS does to an organization, is similar to what the Central Nervous System (CNS) does to a human being. As both the human beings as well as the organizations are living systems, by corollary, the MIS like the CNS is also a living entity. Like the Central Nervous System, the MIS too has a sensor that receives data and information from the environment, a processor that processes the gathered information and a trigger mechanism that shoots out actions to be taken on the basis of the results generated by the processor.
The striking similarity of the MIS with the living systems does not end here. It can as well be compared with the Central Circulatory System (CCS) of the human species as well. The role of MIS in this context is analogous to that of blood in a human body. As the blood carries food and nutrients to the cells to help regenerate themselves, so does the MIS which distributes knowledge and information pieces to all the nodal or decision making points of a business enterprise to help keeping it fighting fit against all odds.
Like the Central Nervous System (CNS) or the Central Circulatory System (CCS) of a human body, the MIS has an all-pervasive and omnipresent role in the context of a living organization viz. a business enterprise. A business entity without a proper information system in place is akin to a human body struggling to function without its essential supplies of food and nutrients. MIS thus can
be viewed as a lifeline of equal importance in the context of an organization - a key to survival, growth and prosperity.
MIS: A Living System
Visibility & Vitality:
Let’s evaluate the relevance of MIS from a different perspective of comparing its merits vis-à-vis those of its more glamorous cousins like the Marketing, Manufacturing, Finance etc. of a business enterprise.
Marketing is a primary and fundamental activity devoid of which no organization can exist, let alone grow and prosper. As a consequence, it commands a lot of attention and enjoys more privileges than any other functional area, leave alone MIS or information related activities. Popularity or importance wise it enjoys the pride of place much to the chagrin of the other groups making equal or more contributions towards the cause of the organization
High visibility is a characteristic feature of the marketing discipline and the marketing folk generally hog the lime light over rest of the functionaries in an organizational milieu. But does this state of affair, which is prevalent in most of the organizations really justify? Perhaps not, let’s explore. What is needed is a balanced attention to each and every functional group. Impartiality is a virtue that is often at a premium in the managerial environment of many a business enterprise.
Visibility does not guarantee superiority, especially in the management of business processes or even in other walks of life. There are plenty of instances where systems of various sorts performing in the background make solid contributions towards the cause of the organization without making any fuss about their roles. The MIS is one such functional group that works in silent mode. Like the so many vital organs of a human body that are working within the body system without making any visible impact, the MIS in a business setup is making equally significant contributions from the background as well.
Working in the background, shorn of any visibility whatsoever, does not diminish its vitality and relevance to the organization as a whole. There lies the relative merit of the MIS and its personnel who continue to toil irrespective of any status symbol, recognition or pampering, remaining completely unruffled against all odds and adversaries, It is perhaps time the management of many a business enterprise understands the self-sacrificing role of the MIS and their ‘silent’ soldiers and bring them at par with the rest of the organization’s functional groups.
In fact MIS emerges as a clear winner over Marketing, Finance, and Purchase or for that matter any specific discipline in terms of its all-pervasive footprint within an organization. While the MIS cuts across the application areas of all disciplines while the latter have their activities restricted within their domain spaces only.
MIS & Marketing: Visibility & Vitality
Finally:
The Management Information System or MIS is an important lifeline of any business enterprise aspiring to prosper in this competitive world.
The author is General Manager (C&IT), Bhilai steel Plant of SAIL in Kolkata. He may be contacted at troy1950@sailgmail.com
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