Introduction to

Information System
Assignment
Prepared by Usaid ur Rehman

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Q#1) What is MIS? Discuss various activities performed by MIS in an
Organization.

MIS is the use of information technology, people, and business processes to record, store
and process data to produce information that decision makers can use to make day to day
decisions.

MIS is the acronym for Management Information Systems. In a nutshell, MIS is a

collection of systems, hardware, procedures and people that all work together to process,
store, and produce information that is useful to the organization.

The need for MIS

The following are some of the justifications for having an MIS system

 Decision makers need information to make effective decisions. Management Information

Systems (MIS) make this possible.
 MIS systems facilitate communication within and outside the organization – employees
within the organization are able to easily access the required information for the day to
day operations. Facilitates such as Short Message Service (SMS) & Email make it
possible to communicate with customers and suppliers from within the MIS system that an
organization is using.
 Record keeping – management information systems record all business transactions of
an organization and provide a reference point for the transactions.

Components of MIS

The major components of a typical management information system are;

 People – people who use the information system

 Data – the data that the information system records
 Business Procedures – procedures put in place on how to record, store and analyze
data
 Hardware – these include servers, workstations, networking equipment, printers, etc.
 Software – these are programs used to handle the data. These include programs such
as spreadsheet programs, database software, etc.

Types of Information Systems

The type of information system that a user uses depends on their level in an organization.
The following diagram shows the three major levels of users in an organization and the type
of information system that they use.

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Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

This type of information system is used to record the day to day transactions of a business.
An example of a Transaction Processing System is a Point of Sale (POS) system. A POS
system is used to record the daily sales.

Management Information Systems (MIS)

Management Information Systems are used to guide tactic managers to make semi-
structured decisions. The output from the transaction processing system is used as input to
the MIS system.

Decision Support Systems (DSS)

Decision support systems are used by top level managers to make semi-structured
decisions. The output from the Management Information System is used as input to the
decision support system. DSS systems also get data input from external sources such as
current market forces, competition, etc.

MIS Functions

MIS is set up by an organization with the prime objective to obtain management information
to be used by its managers in decision-making. Thus, MIS must perform the following
functions in order to meet its objectives.

1) Data Capturing:

MIS captures data from various internal and external sources of an organization. Data
capturing may be manual or through computer terminals. End users typically record data
about transactions on some physical medium such as paper form or enter it directly into a
computer system.

2) Processing of data:

The captured data is processed to convert it into the required management information.
Processing of data is done by such activities as calculating, comparing, sorting, classifying
and summarizing.

3) Storage of information:

MIS stores processed or unprocessed data for future use. If any information is not
immediately required, it is saved as an organizational record. In this activity, data and
information are retained in an organized manner for later use. Stored data is commonly
organized into fields, records, files and databases.

4) Retrieval of information:

MIS retrieves information from its stores as and when required by various users. As per the
requirements of the management users, the retrieved information is either disseminated as
such or it is processed again to meet the exact demands.

5) Dissemination of MI:

Management information, which is a finished product of MIS, is disseminated to the users in

the organization. It could be periodic, through reports or on-line through computer terminals.

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Q#2) what are the objectives of conducting a system analysis? What
factors simulates the need for a detailed analysis?

Definition: Information System Analysis and Design is method to develop and maintain the
system that perform basic business functions. The analysis and design are mainly base on
understanding business objectives and processes.

Goal: The overall goal of System Analysis is to study procedural components and modules.
The goal of System Designs to design whole software, which fulfils all the requirements of
customer. This leads to improve organizational systems, by applying software, which helps
employees to perform business, tasks more effectively.

Example: ‘Banking’– Earlier days all the processes of banks used to done manually or
through paper work which was time-consuming. While nowadays with the help of new
technology and proper analysis and design, everyone can do banking transactions easily
and faster.

Objectives:
1) To determine specific needs of system.
2) Discuss approaches and tasks of system.
3) Evaluate tools and techniques.
4) Use appropriate methods and techniques to design software.

The reasons for initiating systems analysis are:

1. It is necessary to establish the system boundaries which would define the scope and the
coverage of the system. This helps to sort out and understand the functional boundaries of
the system, the department boundaries in the system, and the people involved in the
system. It also helps to identify the inputs and the outputs of the various sub-systems,
covering the entire system.

2. The analysis of the system helps the system designer to conclude whether the system is
the closed type or an open, and a deterministic or a probabilistic. Such an understanding of
the system is necessary prior to design the process, to ensure the necessary design
architecture.

3. It is necessary to define the system objective(s). Many a times, it is observed that the
systems are historically in operation and have lost their main purpose of achievement of the
objectives. The users of the system and the personnel involved are not able to define the
objective(s).

Since we are going to develop a computer-based system, it is necessary, to redefine or reset

the objectives as a reference point in context of the current business requirement.

4. The strategic purpose of the analysis of the system is to seek the acceptance of the
people to a new development. System analysis process provides a sense of participation to
the people. This helps in breaking the resistance to the new development and it also ensures
the commitment to the new system.

5. It is necessary to understand the importance of the system in the organization. This

throws more light on its utility and would help the designer to decide the design features of
the system. It would be possible them to position the system in relation to the other systems
for deciding the design strategy and development.

6. The system, many a times, acts as an interface to the other systems. Hence, through
such an interface, it activates or promotes. some changes in the other system. It is
necessary to understand the existing role of the systems, as an interface, to the interests of
the other systems. Any modification or changes made should not affect the functioning or the
objectives of the other systems.
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7. The analysis of the system helps to establish the feasibility from different angles. The
system should satisfy the technical, economic and operational feasibility.

8. The analysis of the system helps in defining the resource requirements in terms of
hardware and software. Hence, if any additional resources are required, this would mean an
investment. The management likes to evaluate the investment from the point of view of
return on such investment. If the return on the investment is not attractive, the management
may drop the project.

Q#4) Define Following?

 Operations Support System
 Information
 Artificial Intelligence

Operations Support System

An operations support system (OSS) is a software component that enables a service

provider to monitor, control, analyze, and manage the services on its network. These types
of software applications, along with a business support system (BSS), support most
customer-facing activities, including ordering, billing, and support.

The development and implementation of OSS systems often involve information technology
(IT) expertise as well as the help of integrators that can ensure the software works with
network infrastructure to pass on important information about the fulfillment and delivery of
services.

OSS and BSS Integration

OSSs emerged in the traditional voice telephone systems to manage voice connections.
They were later adapted to manage IP-based Internet traffic (including VoIP) and broadband
services. Together with the BSS, the OSS is important for delivering many business
functions. The two systems are often tightly linked and sometimes referred to together as
OSS/BSS. An OSS can transmit order, fault, and service assurance information to the BSS.

The OSS/BSS market is huge, estimated by various research firms to approach $50 billion
worldwide. Some of the key players in the OSS market are Amdocs, Ericsson, HPE, and
Oracle.

Both OSS and BSS software can require heavy development to launch new services. While
they are often used by network architects and engineers to monitor and maintain systems,
they are typically developed and maintained by IT staff, which in many telecom operators is
distinct from the network architecture staff.

Information

Information is stimuli that has meaning in some context for its receiver. When information is
entered into and stored in a computer, it is generally referred to as data. After processing
(such as formatting and printing), output data can again be perceived as information.

When information is packaged or used for understanding or doing something, it is known as

knowledge.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

The ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly

associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing
systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the
ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from experience. Since the

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development of the digital computer in the 1940s, it has been demonstrated that computers
can be programmed to carry out very complex tasks—as, for example, discovering proofs for
mathematical theorems or playing chess—with great proficiency. Still, despite continuing
advances in computer processing speed and memory capacity, there are yet no programs
that can match human flexibility over wider domains or in tasks requiring much everyday
knowledge. On the other hand, some programs have attained the performance levels of
human experts and professionals in performing certain specific tasks, so that artificial
intelligence in this limited sense is found in applications as diverse as medical diagnosis,
computer search engines, and voice or handwriting recognition.

Q#5) What are the risk of ERP implementation?

1. Failure to Redesign Business Processes to Fit the Software:

There is a strong desire to fit the new ERP system to fit to the current process. But this is
hardly the case. In fact, the right thing is to redesign your current processes to fit to purchase
an ERP system.

The reality is neither option is easy. It is very difficult in most business to change old or
existing processes and to customize the ERP system to fit to current processes is a costly
and time-consuming venture. In my view this is the biggest ERP implementation risk

2. Lack of Senior Management Support

Support of top management is crucial for accomplishing projects objectives. It is easy for
senior managers to become a sponsor but very difficult to let go the crucial team member for
pilot testing or superuser training.

The unfortunate fact is the people who need to be trained as “Super Users”, are the same
“key” people who run the business. The lack of senior people supports to give time away
from the desk, as they are too afraid to miss sales, delivery to customer is one of the most
common ERP implementation risk.

3. Insufficient Training and Reskilling of End-Users

A number of firms learned that investment in training and reskilling the employees were
higher than expected. Most ERP implementation comes with deadlines that need to meet.
As a result, there is hardly enough time to train most people and give them skills they need
to reach the satisfactory performance state.

4. Lack of Ability to Recruit and Retain Qualified Systems, Developers

Many of the organizations found it difficult to recruit and retain good ERP specialists
because the market rates for these people are high. The developers of biggest market share
ERP vendors like SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics and Infor are in high demand and moves
from one consultancy project to another. So not finding an in-house ERP specialist could be
significant ERP implementation risk.

5. Inability to Obtain Full-Time Commitment of Employee to Project Management

and Project Activities

Like point 2, it might be difficult to get managers and employees to commit to project
management roles because they may be uncertain about what responsibilities will still be
open to them once they are transferred back to their positions.

Or, in some cases, there’s no back up for their day job while busy in implementation and
testing causing backlog of work, up-set customers and compounding stress as a result.

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6. Lack of Integration

Once ERP is implemented or about to be implemented, it is very important that key business
processes cover areas related to feasibility, requirements, prototyping and implementation
ERP functionalities. These areas are the source of many issues in ERP implementation.

Further, ERP implementations increasingly include technical work through enhanced

configuration features and the need for extensive integration with other systems (for example
financial, supply chain or quality software & tools).

Another example would be old metrics which was life blood to measure the business is no
more available as they used, hence, process and systems functionalities must fit each other
for proper integration.

7. Lack of Change Management

It is very easy to take for granted that all employees will accept that implementing an ERP
system is ‘Good Thing’! It might not be the case when you talk to the employer who is using
the same old system for the last 10 years and feels the things, he/she is doing a fine job for
business and customers with the old system.

These people firmly believe “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

The people who know most in business and are very good at their job sometimes can be the
biggest roadblock of new system deployment and can come up with all possible reasons
why it will not work as they know the business inside out! Hence, imposing significant ERP
implement risk.

Therefore, it is important to launch a change in a management program to make them

understand why business and they must go through the pain and why the grass is greener
on the other side.

8. Poor Technology Planning

Lack of adequate technical expertise and adequate technology infrastructure for supporting
project requirements, these ERP implementation risk factors include technological newness
(need for new hardware and software), application size (project scope, number of users and
team diversity), application complexity and failure of technology to meet specifications.

9. Less than Awesome Project Management

Let’s accept it, implementing ERP is a massive project and last anything between 18 and 24
months or more. Less than awesome project management in any business is significant
ERP implementation risk.

The extent of risk of project cost and time overrun due to the lack of a measurement system
for assessing and controlling project risk depends on project size, experience with the new
technology and project structure.

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