As the saying goes. “Hindsight is always 20/20”, but for those companies who are looking to make critical management decisions, there is no way to look into the future with a 20/20 gaze. For many facets of business, however, management information systems have become a practical and fruitful means of developing better business operations and expanding a company’s market.  Previously it may have been necessary to use only human intuition, but today there are many ways to avoid the thorny biases and judgment errors that affect decision-making processes.
It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know
While many people think of networking as a means of finding a job or expanding your professional list of people you know, it is also a means of helping your business to expand and get a better ability to compete in the market. Networking is more than just signing up on social sites, however: it is using electronic data interchanges in order to get information about the products coming in and the products going out of your business. If you’ve ever met a person who has lived in a small town all his life and knows everyone and how to get anything done you get the idea of how networking should work. Through digital networks, it is possible for a company to have all the right connections and accomplish anything that needs to be done.
Planning For The Future
One type of management information system software is known as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software allows all departments in a company to have access to all facets of information that they are permitted to see. Instead of a single computer system for management, a single computer system for human resources, and a single computer system for a sales department, today it is possible to bring together all aspects of a company under a single management information system. This allows anyone at any time to compare numbers between multiple people and multiple points of view.
Getting The Numbers You Need
Some people express concern about how information is tracked. The reality is that most information that is tracked is extremely mundane — what products you prefer to buy and where you prefer to buy them, as opposed to your credit card number. Data mining has become a term associated with identity theft, but most companies use it as a means of understanding exactly what their customers want and what price they are willing to pay for it. By analyzing purchasing information in the form of trends or projections, it is possible to estimate how well a new product will do once it hits the marketplace and begins to move units off of the shelf.
Becoming Learned
Management information systems (MIS) are more than a theoretical means of improving business performance. Today, it is possible to get an undergraduate or an advanced degree in MIS. Many of these courses are similar to computer science with a heavy focus on data interpretation, but also incorporates management and business courses so that an individual who runs their own company or their own department would be able to look at the figures and understand what they are seeing.
The Future Of The Industry
As the MIS field expands, there is a good probability of finding a good job in the future. There was a 20% growth in MIS jobs between 2006 and 2010, with no apparent slowdown in sight as more companies look for ways to become more productive with limited information. With an average starting salary of eighty thousand dollars, furthermore, it offers a very practical career path for anyone looking to profit from the business world’s interest in continual self-evaluation and self-improvement.
See Also:
- Things That Make You Go Hmmm: What On Htrae Is Going On?
- Outside the Box: A Stock Market Message from Darth Vader
- Trends: Revenue Management
- Gadgets for Hedging Financial Risks
- Insurance Tips for Small Businesses
Resources:
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| Management Information Systems for the Information Age |
Management Information Systems, Moving Business Forward |
Management Information Systems |
Management Information Systems (13th Edition) |
Joshua Turner is a writer who creates informative articles in relation to business.
Image courtesy of nokhoog_buchachon / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
