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Q1-3 What Is MIS?

up like mushrooms after a hard rain; they must be developed. They must also be maintained, and,
because business is dynamic, they must be adapted to new requirements.
You may be saying, “Wait a minute, I’m a finance (or accounting or management) major,
not an information systems major. I don’t need to know how to manage information systems.” If
you are saying that, you are like a lamb headed for shearing. Throughout your career, in whatever
field you choose, information systems will be built for your use and sometimes under your direc-
tion. To create an information system that meets your needs, you need to take an active role in that
system’s development. Even if you are not a programmer or a database designer or some other IS
professional, you must take an active role in specifying the system’s requirements and in managing
the system’s development project. You will also have an important role in testing the new system.
Without active involvement on your part, it will only be good luck that causes the new system to
meet your needs.
As a business professional, you are the person who understands business needs and require-
ments. If you want to apply social networking to your products, you are the one who knows how best
to obtain customer responses. The technical people who build networks, the database designers who
create the database, the IT people who configure the computers—none of these people know what
is needed and whether the system you have is sufficient or whether it needs to be adapted to new
requirements. You do!
Security is critically important In addition to management tasks, you will also have important roles to play in the use of
when using information systems information systems. Of course, you will need to learn how to employ the system to accomplish
today. You’ll learn much more about your job tasks. But you will also have important ancillary functions as well. For example, when
it in Chapter 10. But you need to using an information system, you will have responsibilities for protecting the security of the system
know about strong passwords and
their use now, before you get to and its data. You may also have tasks for backing up data. When the system fails (all do, at some
that chapter. Read and follow the point), you will have tasks to perform while the system is down as well as tasks to accomplish to
Security Guide on pages 60–61. help recover the system correctly and quickly.

Achieving Strategies

The last part of the definition of MIS is that information systems exist to help organizations achieve
their strategies. First, realize that this statement hides an important fact: Organizations themselves
do not “do” anything. An organization is not alive, and it cannot act. It is the people within a
business who sell, buy, design, produce, finance, market, account, and manage. So, information
systems exist to help people who work in an organization to achieve the strategies of that business.
Information systems are not created for the sheer joy of exploring technology. They are not
created so the company can be “modern” or so the company can show it has a social networking
presence on the Web. They are not created because the information systems department thinks it
needs to be created or because the company is “falling behind the technology curve.”
This point may seem so obvious that you might wonder why we mention it. Every day, however,
some business somewhere is developing an information system for the wrong reasons. Right now,
somewhere in the world, a company is deciding to create a Facebook presence for the sole reason
that “every other business has one.” This company is not asking questions such as:

• “What is the purpose of our Facebook page?”
• “What is it going to do for us?”
• “What is our policy for employees’ contributions?”
• “What should we do about critical customer reviews?”
• “Are the costs of maintaining the page sufficiently offset by the benefits?”

For more information on how an But that company should ask those questions! Chapter 3 addresses the relationship between
understanding of MIS can broaden information systems and strategy in more depth. Chapter 8 addresses social media and strategy
your career options, see the Guide specifically.
on pages 62–63.
Again, MIS is the development and use of information systems that help businesses achieve
their strategies. You should already be realizing that there is much more to this class than buying
a computer, working with a spreadsheet, or creating a Web page.