What Is MIS?

MIS – Management Information Systems – play a vital role in the everyday workings of any business – they are an essential tool for the effective performance of a company. They are used to improve the flow of information, to provide more effective communication and to produce data used to problem-solve, and better improve systems and processes of an organisation. Here are some aspects and advantages of MIS for you to consider:

MIS Function

All businesses need to collate and analyse accurate data that can be interpreted to provide a more efficient way forward for a business. Once considered the domain of just large corporate organisations, modern software and technology makes MIS an affordable – and now essential – tool for businesses of any size and any business arena.

MIS Technologies 

Data, or information, storage and retrieval methods have developed immeasurably in recent years – from the old-fashioned, hand-written company ledgers to today’s comprehensive detailed spreadsheet systems that analyse data and create results in real time and provide the smallest detail! 

MIS Categories

There are many different formats and categories of MIS used today, some of which are summarised here:

  • Marketing Information Systems – These information systems create reports to demonstrate the success, or otherwise, of the various marketing and advertising campaigns your company runs, highlighting the most effective, allowing you to build upon those, rather than less ‘fruitful’ methods.
  • Business Intelligence Systems – These use the data you have accumulated or, in some case, purchased from third parties, and analyses it to produce reports aiding decisions on products, services and internal operations.
  • Customer Relationship Systems – CRM systems are used by all businesses to store crucial information about customers, clients, businesses, sales records and contact information amongst many other important data bases. They offer interactive bases for sales staff or phone agents to help inform prospective customers and clients in real time.
  • Sales Automation Systems – MIS affords a sales team many different automated tasks such as sending emails to customers or adding online forms, thus encouraging action on the clients’ part and stimulating business.
  • Financial Accounting Systems – Financial MIS contains a database of that all-important financial information, producing detailed reports on all aspects of accounting vital to the effective running of a business.
  • Human Resource Systems – MIS allows HR personnel to control the flow of information to a company’s different departments with regards to payroll, staff attendance and training records, benefits, and bonus figures along with sickness and holiday reporting amongst other functions.

Advantages of MIS

As we’ve seen, making effective use of MIS offer many advantages to a business including helping you obtain a complete picture of your business with regards to the smallest detail amongst the overall, larger business strategy. MIS reports can educate and motivate innovation, enhance product development, and help make more informed decisions across the business, whilst also examining employee performance, providing a more accurate picture of the strengths and, just as importantly, the weaknesses within your organisation. With that information, enhancements to processes and performance can be more accurately achieved.

Every organisation can benefit from enhanced communication between departments and the different layers of management and staff, and MIS provides the information to accurately achieve this whilst also helping understand and establish more effective marketing and advertising strategies and campaigns, all of which lead to both short and long-term corporate growth!

Reports

All of the above-mentioned advantages and functions have a common core – they create detailed, accurate reports providing the information that organisations can analyse and utilise to make better business decisions.

Optimus

For more information about MIS, please don’t hesitate to contact a member of the team. We hope this article was useful for you. You can read more about Optimus here.