Management Information Systems Flashcards

Management Information Systems

Most companies rely heavily on management information systems (MIS) to run their businesses, including ordering, shipping, customer interaction, and other functions.

• MIS is crucial for remaining competitive, especially in Internet-based business.
• Organizations must adapt to technological advances and innovations.

Competing in the Information Age

Technology is transforming the world into a living information system.

• Examples include controlling lighting from smartphones and daily health checks via smart toilets.
• Technological advances bring unexpected security risks.

Technologies in the Information Age

• Internet of Things (IoT): Interconnected, internet-enabled devices collect and share data without human intervention.
• Machine to Machine (M2M): Devices connect directly to other devices.

Core Drivers of the Information Age

• Data: Raw facts that describe the characteristics of an event or object.
• Information: Data converted into a meaningful and useful context.
• Business Intelligence (BI): Information collected from multiple sources that analyzes patterns, trends, and relationships for strategic decision-making.
• Knowledge: Skills, experience, and expertise combined with information and intelligence, creating intellectual resources.

Data Types

• Structured Data: Defined length, type, and format (numbers, dates, strings), stored in relational databases or spreadsheets.

  • Machine-Generated Data: Created by machines without human intervention (sensor data, point of sale data, weblog data).
  • Human-Generated Data: Generated by humans interacting with computers (input data, clickstream data, gaming data).

• Unstructured Data: Not defined, free-form text (emails, tweets, text messages); accounts for about 80% of data.

  • Machine-Generated Data: Satellite images, scientific atmosphere data, radar data.
  • Human-Generated Data: Text messages, social media data, emails.

Information

The difference between data and information:

• Computers/machines need data.
• Humans need information.

Information has value only insofar as its users do as well.

• Variable: A data characteristic that stands for a value that changes over time.

  • Managers use variables to create hypothetical scenarios for studying future possibilities.

• Report: A document containing data organized in a table, matrix, or graphical format.

  • Dynamic Report: Changes automatically during creation (updating daily stock market prices, calculating available inventory).
  • Static Report: Created once based on unchanging data (sales report from last year, salary report from five years ago).

Business Intelligence (BI)

Information collected from multiple sources (suppliers, customers, competitors, partners, industries) that analyzes patterns, trends, and relationships for strategic decision making.

• BI manipulates multiple variables, including interest rates, weather conditions, and gas prices.

Analytics

The science of fact-based decision making.

• Used for data-driven decision making.

Categories of Analytics

• Descriptive Analytics: Describes past performance and history; helps spot trends.
• Diagnostic Analytics: Examines data to answer "Why did it happen?"; helps determine the cause of outcomes.
• Predictive Analytics: Extracts information to predict future trends and identify behavioral patterns; allows proactive action.
• Prescriptive Analytics: Creates models indicating the best decision or course of action; requires complex algorithms and advanced technologies like machine learning.

Business Analytics

The scientific process of transforming data into insight for better decisions.

• Data Analyst: Collects, queries, and consumes organizational data to uncover patterns for strategic business decision-making.
• Data Scientist: Extracts knowledge from data by performing statistical analysis, data mining, and advanced analytics on big data to identify trends and market changes.

Knowledge

Today's workers are commonly referred to as knowledge workers.

• They use BI and personal experience to make decisions based on both information and intuition.
• Knowledge includes skills, experience, and expertise coupled with information and intelligence.

Knowledge Assets

Human, structural, and recorded resources available to the organization.

• Reside within the minds of members, customers, and colleagues and include physical structures and recorded media.
• Knowledge Facilitators: Help harness and catalog the wealth of knowledge in the organization.
• Knowledge Workers: Individuals valued for their ability to interpret and analyze information.

Conclusion

Using data, information, business intelligence, and knowledge to make decisions and solve problems is the key to business success.

• These core drivers of the information age are the building blocks of business systems.