Management and organizations
facing constantly changing problems, diverse managerial styles, and
ever present information needs offer a challenging context for developing
computer based information systems. MIS uses computer technology to
provide information and decision support to managers, helping them becomes
more effective. Developments in the young computer industry are changing
corporate management style.
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Computer technology, including DBMS’s, is the motivating and enabling
basis for the rapidly expanding field of MIS. A management information
system is an integrated, user machine system for providing information
to support operations, management, analysis, and decision making functions
in an organization. The system utilizes computer hardware and software,
manual procedures, models for analysis, planning, control and decision
making and a data base.
Managers at all
levels use similar data. Operating managers require data which is timely,
precise, detailed, internal and historical. Upper level managers need
data which is aggregated, external as well as internal, future oriented
as well as historical and covering a longer span time. An effective
MIS cannot be built without viable data management tools. Such tools
were not generally available previously. Moreover, most organizations
did not effectively use DBMS technology until two decades before. An
important key to a successful MIS is the effective management of an
organization’s data resources.
Role of the Database
in an Organization:
An organization
is traditionally viewed as a three level pyramid-operational activities
at the bottom, management planning and control activities in the middle
and strategic planning and policy making in top management. The corporate
database contains data relating to the organization, its operations,
its plan and its environment.
State of Database
Management In Organizations:
The needs of organizations
and management are changeable, diverse and often ill-defined, yet they
must be met. Added to these are outside pressures from federal taxing
authorities, federal securities agencies and legislators making privacy
laws. Both internal and external forces demand that organizations exercise
control over their data resources.
Decisions and actions in the organization are based upon the image contained
in the corporate database. Managerial decisions direct the actions at
the operational level and produce plans and expectations which are formally
captured and stored in the corporate database. Transactions record actual
results of organizational activities and environmental changes and update
the database to maintain a current image.
People in the organization query the database for information to conduct
the daily operations. Middle management receives reports comparing actual
results to previously recorded plans and expectations. The corporate
database provides data for modeling and forecasting which support top
management needs. The corporate database supports all levels of an organization
and is vital for operations, decision making and the management process.
While management
seeks to control data resources, computer applications grow. When a
corporation achieves comprehensive support of its operations, for instance,
computer applications begin to penetrate into higher management levels.
With comprehensive database support of operations, an MIS can mature
as a tool for planning, control and decision making. Earlier, in the
development of an MIS, an organization must appoint a DBA to manage
its data resources.
While an organization’s move toward the database approach can be
hastened by the acquisition of a DBMS, the latter is not necessary.
Most commercially available DBMS’s fall substantially short of
ideal capabilities, making their acquisition an interim measure - a
move to help the organization learn how to operate in a managed data
environment. In seeking DBMS capability, building one’s own system
is unrealistic except for large organizations with special needs, such
as a very large database or large volumes of known transactions requiring
rapid online response.
Data is a vital resource in an organization and must be managed. The
organizational database is an essential component in a management information
system. Of the four components of a data processing system, attention
to data has lagged behind the development of machines and programming
technology. Taking a database approach requires an organization to focus
on data as a valued resource. Data is separate from programs and application
systems which use it.
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