MIS:Management Information Systems

Chapter 2 Global E-Business and Collaboration

What is a Business Process ? Decision Types

• A set of logically related tasks that define Decisions are classified according to type:
how specific business activities are
performed to produce a product or service. ✓ Unstructured decisions: the decision
maker must provide judgement, evaluation,
• Business processes may be related to functional areas and insights into the problem definition.
or be cross functional. Important processes are typically

cross functional, that is they span several departments.

✓ Structured decisions: repetitive and
routine, and decision makers can follow a
definite procedure for handling them to be
efficient

✓ Semistructured decisions: only part of the

problem has a clear-cut answer provided by
an accepted procedure.

A single organization may use a number of

different information systems.
How IS Improves Business Processes ?
• Increasing efficiency of existing processes
– Automating steps that were manual
• Enabling entirely new processes
– Changing flow of information
– Replacing sequential steps with parallel
steps
– Eliminating delays in decision making
– Supporting new business models

Yesmine Chalgham 1
MIS:Management Information Systems

Transaction processing systems (TPS)

• Computer programs that handle routine

business transactions such as billing,
ordering, payroll, shipping…. and generate
related documents.
• They replace administrative tasks and serve
operational managers.
• TPS data feeds into MIS and DSS systems
used by middle management.

Systems for Business Intelligence

– Business intelligence is a contemporary
term for data and software tools for
organizing, analyzing, and providing access
to data to help managers and other
enterprise users make more informed
decisions.

2. Decision support systems (DSS)

1. Management information systems (MIS)
• DSS focus on problems that are unique and
The primary purpose of MIS is to process data
rapidly changing, for which the procedure for
into information.
arriving at a solution may not be fully
• They typically provide answers to routine
predefined in advance.
questions that have been specified in
• DSS helps middle management make
advance and have a predefined procedure
unstructured and semi-structured decisions.
for answering them.
• DSS may use external information as well
• MIS serve middle managers
TPS / MIS data .
• MIS provide standardized reports (customer
• DSS can be either fully computerized or
orders, customer complaints, sales and
human-powered, or a combination of both. .
production…).
• Managers use MIS reports to evaluate daily
activities, discover problems, make decisions,
control performance, etc.
• For example, sales reports can be used to analyze trends of
products that are performing well (or bad).
• This information can be used to make future inventory orders i.e.
increase orders for well-performing products and reduce the orders
of products that are not performing well.

Yesmine Chalgham 2
MIS:Management Information Systems

3. Executive support systems (ESS)

ESS are designed to:
• Facilitate senior management in making key
strategic decisions that affects the overall
profitability and success of the firm,
• Help them monitor organizational
performance, track activities of competitors,
Recognize changing market conditions,
Identify problems and opportunities
• ESS addresses unstructured decisions
(nonroutine, novel) requiring judgment, Enterprise Systems (ERP)
evaluation, and insight. • ERP systems integrate data from many
• Incorporate data about external events (e.g., business processes into a single system
new tax laws or competitors) as well as eliminating complex, expensive links between
summarized information from internal MIS computer systems in different areas of the
and DSS business.
• ESS present graphs and data from many • ERP includes modules for accounting, inventory management,
production planning, customer sales orders, and more.
sources through an interface that is easy for
• Information that was previously fragmented
senior managers to use (digital dashboard)
in different systems could be shared across
the firm
• ERP reduce costs and increase efficiency,
improve firm flexibility by speeding the flows
of information, and increase the visibility by
enabling managers to get an overall view of
operations

Supply Chain Management (S C M) Systems

• While ERP covers nearly all functional areas
of a business, SCM is more specialized,
dealing only with supply chain planning and
Systems for Linking the Enterprise
execution (raw materials ordering, goods
• How can a business manage all the information in these
different systems (TPS, MIS, DSS, ESS)? How do these receipt, quality inspection, shipping products
systems “talk” with one another and work together? to customers).
• Information about orders, production and
• One solution is to implement enterprise inventory levels is shared between partners
applications which are systems that span (suppliers, customers, distributors, and
functional areas, execute business different logistics companies) in a real time basis.
processes and include all levels of The goal is to move the correct amount of
management. product from source to point of consumption
as quickly as possible and at lowest cost.
• 4 major Enterprise Applications: • SCM module is sometimes a part of ERP
1. Enterprise systems (ERP) software.
2. Supply chain management systems
3. Customer relationship management systems
4. Knowledge management systems

Yesmine Chalgham 3
MIS:Management Information Systems

Customer Relationship Management (C R M) • E-commerce – Subset of e-business –

Systems Buying and selling goods and services
• A CRM system coordinates the business through Internet
processes that deal with customers (sales, • E-government: Using the Internet to deliver
marketing, and customer service) information and services to citizens,
• CRM combines customer data from multiple employees, and businesses. E-government
sources to help firms identify profitable services may include paying taxes, renewing
customers, acquire new customers, improve driving licenses, sending electronic requests
service and support, and target products for information or complaints, etc.
more precisely to customer preferences.
It lets you know important customer data Collaboration and Teamwork
such as birthdays, locations, age and • Collaboration is working with others to achieve shared

industry, which you can use to personalize and explicit goals. Collaboration focuses on task or mission
accomplishment and usually takes place in a business or
communication as well as offerings.
other organization and between businesses.
With the right offers made to the right
customers at the optimal time, you can make
What is a Social Business ?
better deals!
• Many firms today develop collaboration by
• Some ERP systems include a CRM component
embracing social business — the use of
social networking platforms and internal
Knowledge Management Systems (K M S)
social tools.
• KMS is concerned with creating new
• The goal of social business is to deepen
knowledge, storing and applying that
interactions with groups inside and outside
knowledge inside the organization.
the firm, to speed up information sharing,
• KMS collect valuable knowledge and make it
innovation, and decision making.
available for whomever needs it, wherever
and whenever he needs.
Example: if you have an expert in your company it is a good
Collaboration and Social Business Tools
idea to record the knowledge that person has in case he • Collaboration tools: ✓ E-mail, instant
leaves the company
messaging, wikis…
• KMS are expensive and tend to be used by
✓ Virtual worlds
larger companies
• Multifunction softwares that allow teams to
share information, files, and documents .
Intranets and Extranets They include:
• Intranets: A private network accessible only ✓ Virtual meeting systems (Zoom, Microsoft
to employees to securely share specific parts teams…)
of its IS. ✓ Cloud collaboration services (Google Drive,
• Extranets: Company Web sites accessible Google Docs, etc.)
only to authorized vendors and suppliers ✓ Microsoft SharePoint and I B M Notes
✓ Enterprise social networking platforms
E-Business, E-Commerce, and (Linkedin, Facebook, Tiktok, Twitter, etc.) and
E-Government internal social tools (Facebook workplace,
• E-business: Use of digital technology and Yammer, Chatter…).
Internet to drive major business processes

Yesmine Chalgham 4
MIS:Management Information Systems

• Collaborative business culture

– Senior managers rely on teams of employees
– Policies, products, designs, processes, and systems
rely on teams
– The managers purpose is to build teams

Yesmine Chalgham 5