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Management Information System

Managers at both large and small companies continually need to collect and valuate information. Sources of crucial information may be external

(customers, distributors, competitors, consultants) or internal (staff specialists, sales representatives, production people). The managers who use this information include those who make decisions about what will be sold, those who decide how it will be produced, those who decide what prices will be charged. All these managers need a carefully planned and organized management information system (MIS)that provides timely and effective information to support their decision making.

A management information system, as the name implies, is made up of several components. Perhaps the most important is the people. Everyone in a company is a potential beneficiary of the system and a potential source of input, although usually only some are given access to it or the responsibility for reporting facts and figures. Furthermore, in companies with extensive and well-organized management information systems, a MIS manager is given responsibility for co-coordinating the flow of information and overseeing the specialists who work with the system.

A second component of management information system is procedure. To be efficient and effective, a MIS should specify what kind of information is needed, where it comes from, how it is to be supplied to the system, how it is to be manipulated, where it is to go, and what format it is to be supplied.

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