Introduction to
MIS
Minder Chen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Martin V. Smith School of Business and economics
CSU Channel Islands
Email: Minder.Chen@csuci.edu
What is MIS?
• M: Management
– Management, Organization, Business Function,
Business Process, Organization and Human Behaviors
• I: Information
– Data, Information, Knowledge
– Creation, Gathering, Storing, Organizing,
Consolidating& Condensing, Filtering, Delivery, and
Sharing of Information
• S: System
– General Systems Theory (GST)
– Input-Process-Output and Storage
– Creative Problem Solving Process
•
•
•
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_information_system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_thinking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_theory
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 2
A System View of an Information System
Information System
Boundary
Environments
Information
Producer
Data
Providers
Input
Process
Output
Information
Destinations
Data
Sources
Control
Data storage
Information
Consumers
Procedure
What are the Hardware for Inputs, Outputs, Processing, and Storages?
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 3
Characteristics of Good Information
Figure 1-6 here
Information overloading
Source: Using MIS 3e
Deliver just enough accurate, relevant, and timely information
to the right persons to make better decisions.
How much energy does a Google search consume?
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 4
Information Quality (IA) and Categories
Source:
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/files/2008/12/3947-ex3-lo7.png
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/manage-your-information-as-a-product/
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 5
Presentation of Information
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 6
Another Version
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 7
Managing Information as a Resource
• The resources of the industrial age
were tangible things that could be
mined, processes, bought, sold,
managed, and easily understood.
• In the emerging post-industrial
society, there is little understanding
of the characteristics of information
– the basic yet abstract, resource.
Harland Cleveland, "Information as Resource," The Futurist, December 1982, 34-39.
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 8
Information as Products/Services
• CarFax: CARFAX - Vehicle History Reports and VIN number
check - http://www.carfax.com
• Britannica:
– http://www.britannica.com/
– Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information
Transforms Strategy
– The printed version was blown away by ??? Three
strikes out.
Source: http://www.hbr.org/products/877X/877Xp4.pdf
– A comeback act?
– Why Britannica matter? No printed version, 2010/2012.
• Information as services
– Google: Searching for information (Google would provide
“access to the world's information in one click”)
– Facebook: Sharing information
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 9
CD-ROM based Encyclopedia
• Encarta, Grolier, and Compton, list for $50 to
$70; usually bundled with a new PC for free.
• Content
• Distribution channel
• Cost:
– With a marginal manufacturing cost of $1.50
per copy, the CD-ROM as freebie makes good
economic sense.
– The marginal cost of Britannica, in contrast, is
about $250 for production plus about $500 to
$600 for the salesperson’s commission.
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 10
Britannica Sales
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 11
Britannica vs. Wikipedia
Wiki vs. Wikipedia
Characteristic
Britannica
Wikipedia
Price
Content
generation/Editorial
Update frequency
Revenue stream
Quality of the content
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 12
Information Life Cycle
Information
Data
Decision
Action
http://faculty.csuci.edu/minder.chen/MIS310/Reading/20000905cleveland.pdf
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
• Intelligence
• Design
• Choice
MIS - 13
Even the Caveman Needs Knowledge to Survive
The information-knowledge-wisdom hierarchy. The
caveman has lots of information; he selects and organizes
useful information into knowledge, but he does not achieve
wisdom until he has integrated his knowledge into a whole
that is more than useful than the sum of its parts.
Source: Harlan Cleveland, "Information as a Resource," The Futurist, December 1982, 34-39.
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 14
DIKW (Information) Hierarchy
Wisdom
Know why
Knowledge
Know how
Learning: Integration into strategic
policy through experience
Information
Know what
Analysis: Application to
decision making
Data
Know nothing
Observation: Description of events
Event
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
Happening/Doing
MIS - 15
Moving Up the Knowledge Hierarchy
• Where is the knowledge we have lost in
information?
• Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
• Where is the life we have lost in living?
T.S. Eliot, Choruses from "The Rocks," 1934
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 16
Information Systems Components
Computer
• Server
• PC
• Mobile
Networking
System SW,
Application
SW
Data,
Information,
Knowledge
Source: adapted from Using MIS 3e
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
Manual
Procedures
and Business
Process
Individuals,
Groups,
Departments,
Enterprise-wide,
Customers,
Trading partners
MIS - 17
Information as Product vs. By-Product
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 18
Information as: Product vs. By-Product
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/manage-your-information-as-a-product/
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/files/2008/12/3947-ex1-lo7.png
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 19
huMan, Market, Money, Method, Machine, Material, Message
Business environments
• Market demands
• Technology development
• Social trends
• Locations/Localization
 
Message:
Information
Man: Human Resource, Employees
Market: Customers
People
Processes
Method:
Technique, Process,
Project, Task
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
Things
$$$
Money:
Accounting,
Finance,
Investment
Machine:
Property, Facility,
Technology
Material:
Raw material,
Product
MIS - 20
MIS
• Management BY Information Systems
• Management OF Information Systems
Resources
Information
Systems
Information
Manages
Other
Resources:
HR, Money,
Material,
etc.
As Products or Services
Managing Information as Resource (Inventory Information System)
Selling Information as Products (eBook)
Offering Information as Services (Facebook)
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 21
IT, IS and IM
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
Competing with Information: A Manager's Guide to Creating
Business Value with Information Content
MIS - 22
The Extended Enterprise
Buy
Suppliers
Make/Add Value
Back
Office
Sell
Front
Office
Customers
E-Business: Virtual and Dynamic Enterprise
Manufacturing
Finance
Engineering
Supply Chain
Sales
Support/Service
Marketing
Back Office Integration
Demand Chain
Supply Chain Management
Customer Relationship Management
Enterprise Resource Planning
©
© Minder
MinderChen,
Chen,2001-2002
1996-2013
MIS - 23
A Federation of Information Systems
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 24
Information Systems Triad
Operational
Data Warehouse
Data Mart
Database
Enterprise
Workflow
OLAP
Online
Analytical
Processing
OLTP
Online Transaction
Processing
Data
Information
BI
DSS
EIS
Business
Process
Workflow
Messaging Systems
Knowledge
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
Workflow, Collaboration, Groupware
MIS - 25
Information Systems
• Transaction Processing System
–
–
Online transaction processing system (OLTP)
Batch, Online, real-time
• Management support system
–
–
Decision support system (DSS), Executive information system
(EIS), Digital Dashboard
Data warehouse, Business intelligence (BI)
• Units involved
– Individual, group, and departmental, enterprise-wide,
inter-organizational information, social network system
• Strategic Information Systems
• IT Platforms
–
–
–
Traditional desktop/client-server application
Web-based applications (Electronic Commerce)
Mobile applications
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 26
Information System Applications
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 27
COBIT’s Information Criteria (I)
• Effectiveness deals with information being
relevant and pertinent to the business process as
well as being delivered in a timely, correct,
consistent and usable manner.
• Efficiency concerns the provision of information
through the optimal (most productive and
economical) use of resources.
• Confidentiality concerns the protection of
sensitive information from unauthorized
disclosure. (Sony PlayStation Network hacked)
• Integrity relates to the accuracy and
completeness of information as well as to its
validity in accordance with business values and
expectations.
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 28
COBIT’s Information Criteria (II)
• Availability relates to information being available
when required by the business process now and in
the future. It also concerns the safeguarding of
necessary resources and associated capabilities.
• Compliance deals with complying with the laws,
regulations and contractual arrangements to which
the business process is subject, i.e., externally
imposed business criteria as well as internal
policies. (Sarbanes–Oxley Act)
• Reliability relates to the provision of appropriate
information for management to operate the entity
and exercise its fiduciary and governance
responsibilities.
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 29
Exercise – 20-minute break and 5-minute presentation
• Describe your background and experiences
–
–
–
Company name and the industry it belongs to
Position and general responsibility
Three major decisions
• Pick the most important decision involved in this position
and find out the following:
–
–
–
–
–
Characteristic of the decision: Operational vs. Strategic;
Structured vs. Unstructured; Routine vs. Non-routine
What information is current used to support the decision
What kind of source data should be collected to generate the
information needed
Under which task is this decision performed
What is the broader business process that this task belongs.
• What additional improvements can be made from the
perspectives of information systems and decision making
© Minder Chen, 1996-2013
MIS - 30