Q1. What do you understand by Information processes data?

Ans :- MIS is an Information system which helps in providing the management of an organization with information which is used by management for decision making. A management information system (MIS) is a subset of the overall internal controls of a business covering the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures by management accountants to solving business problems such as costing a product, service or a business-wide strategy. Management information systems are distinct from regular information systems in that they are used to analyze other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization. Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information management methods tied to the automation or support of human decision making, e.g. Decision Support Systems, Expert systems, and Executive information systems. During the period of preindustrial revolution most of the data processing was done manually. It was after the industrial revolution that the computers slowly started replacing manual labour. The modern digital computer was basically designed to handle scientific calculations. During the period 1940 to 1960 computers were commercially used for census and payroll work. This involved Large amount of data and its processing. Since then the commercial application exceeded the scientific applications for which the computer were mainly intended for. MIS is an Information system which helps in providing the management of an organization with information which is used by management for decision making. The Basic characteristics of an effective Management Information System are as follows: I. Management-oriented: The basic objective of MIS is to provide information support to the management in the organization for decision making. So an effective MIS should start its journey from appraisal of management needs, mission and goal of the business organization. It may be individual or collective goals of an organization. The MIS is such that it serves all the levels of management in an organization i.e. top, middle and lower level. II. Management directed: When MIS is management-oriented, it should be directed by the management because it is the management who tells their needs and requirements more effectively than anybody else. Manager should guide the MIS professionals not only at the stage of planning but also on development, review and implementation stages so that effective system should be the end product of the whole exercise in making an effective MIS. III. Integrated: It means a comprehensive or complete view of all the sub systems in the organization of a company. Development of information must be integrated so that all the operational and functional information sub systems should be worked together as a single entity. This integration is necessary because it leads to retrieval of more meaningful and useful information. V. Common data flows: The integration of different sub systems will lead to a common data flow which will further help in avoiding duplicity and redundancy in data collection, storage and processing. For example, the customer orders are the basis for many activities in an

organization viz. billing, sales for cashing, etc. Data is collected by a system analyst from its original source only one time. Then he utilizes the data with minimum number of processing procedures and uses the information for production output documents and reports in small numbers and eliminates the undesirable data. This will lead to elimination of duplication that simplify the operations and produce an efficient information system. Q2. What are the uses of Executive Information Systems? Many senior managers find that direct on-line access to organizational data is helpful. For example, Paul Frech, president of Lockheed-Georgia, monitors employee contributions to company-sponsored programs (United Way, blood drives) as a surrogate measure of employee morale (Houdeshel and Watson 1987). C. Robert Kidder, CEO of Duracell, found that productivity problems were due to salespeople in Germany wasting time calling on small stores and took corrective action (Main 1989). Information systems have long been used to gather and store information, to produce specific reports for workers, and to produce aggregate reports for managers. However, senior managers rarely use these systems directly, and often find the aggregate information to be of little use without the ability to explore underlying details (Watson & Rainer 1991, Crockett 1992). An Executive Information System (EIS) is a tool that provides direct on-line access to relevant information in a useful and navigable format. Relevant information is timely, accurate, and actionable information about aspects of a business that are of particular interest to the senior manager. The useful and navigable format of the system means that it is specifically designed to be used by individuals with limited time, limited keyboarding skills, and little direct experience with computers. An EIS is easy to navigate so that managers can identify broad strategic issues, and then explore the information to find the root causes of those issues. Executive Information Systems differ from traditional information systems in the following ways:

are specifically tailored to executive's information needs are able to access data about specific issues and problems as well as aggregate reports provide extensive on-line analysis tools including trend analysis, exception reporting & "drill-down" capability access a broad range of internal and external data are particularly easy to use (typically mouse or touchscreen driven) are used directly by executives without assistance present information in a graphical form

Purpose of EIS The primary purpose of an Executive Information System is to support managerial learning about an organization, its work processes, and its interaction with the external environment. Informed managers can ask better questions and make better decisions. Vandenbosch and Huff (1992) from the University of Western Ontario found that Canadian firms using an EIS achieved better business results if their EIS promoted managerial learning. Firms with an EIS designed to maintain managers' "mental models" were less effective than firms with an EIS designed to build or enhance managers' knowledge. This distinction is supported by Peter Senge in The Fifth Dimension. He illustrates the benefits of learning about the behaviour of systems versus simply learning more about their states. Learning more about the state of a system leads to reactive management fixes. Typically these reactions feed into the underlying system behaviour and contribute to a downward spiral. Learning more about system behaviour and how various system inputs and actions interrelate will allow managers to make more proactive changes to create long-term improvement. A secondary purpose for an EIS is to allow timely access to information. All of the information contained in an EIS can typically be obtained by a manager through traditional methods. However, the resources and time required to manually compile information in a wide variety of formats, and in response to ever changing and ever more specific questions usually inhibit managers from obtaining this information. Often, by the time a useful report can be compiled, the strategic issues facing the manager have changed, and the report is never fully utilized. Timely access also influences learning. When a manager obtains the answer to a question, that answer typically sparks other related questions in the manager's mind. If those questions can be posed immediately, and the next answer retrieved, the learning cycle continues unbroken. Using traditional methods, by the time the answer is produced, the context of the question may be lost, and the learning cycle will not continue. An executive in Rockart & Treacy's 1982 study noted that: Your staff really can't help you think. The problem with giving a question to the staff is that they provide you with the answer. You learn the nature of the real question you should have asked when you muck around in the data (p. 9). A third purpose of an EIS is commonly misperceived. An EIS has a powerful ability to direct management attention to specific areas of the organization or specific business problems. Some managers see this as an opportunity to discipline subordinates. Some subordinates fear the directive nature of the system and spend a great deal of time trying to outwit or discredit it. Neither of these behaviours is appropriate or productive. Rather, managers and subordinates can work together to determine the root causes of issues highlighted by the EIS. The powerful focus of an EIS is due to the maxim "what gets measured gets done." Managers are particularly attentive to concrete information about their performance when it is available to their superiors. This focus is very valuable to an organization if the information reported is actually important and represents a balanced view of the organization's objectives.

Misaligned reporting systems can result in inordinate management attention to things that are not important or to things which are important but to the exclusion of other equally important things. For example, a production reporting system might lead managers to emphasize volume of work done rather than quality of work. Worse yet, productivity might have little to do with the organization's overriding customer service objectives.

Q3. How do you retrieve information from manual system? Information retrieval (IR) is the area of study concerned with searching for documents, for information within documents, and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching structured storage, relational databases, and the World Wide Web. There is overlap in the usage of the terms data retrieval, document retrieval, information retrieval, and text retrieval, but each also has its own body of literature, theory, praxis, and technologies. IR is interdisciplinary, based on computer science, mathematics, library science, information science, information architecture, cognitive psychology, linguistics, statistics and law. Key Drawbacks in Manual Paper Based Systems No transparency. Limited accountability. Cant retrieve information quickly. Chance of loss. Cant track or monitoring status of file processing. Scope for tampering contents. Not able to answer customer questions. Status of file is not known to the applicant. Entire organization is dependent on the file custodian for answers. Manual processes can be unreliable, slow and error prone. Errors reduce confidence in the organization. Restricted to onsite working hours and geography. Manual data entry, searching for lost files, and manual rework waste time and valuable resources. Papers can be lost at any point along the process, exposing potentially sensitive data. Physical papers can be hard to track and take up physical space for storage. Q4. What are the challenges of information management?

Ans. Challenges of Information Management In identifying their information management requirements, individuals face four major challenges in addition to securing the most appropriate information. First, they must deal with large quantities of information that may create overload. Second, they may face insufficient or conflicting information.

Third, they must find ways to enhance their personal productivity. Fourth, they must acquire and maintain the technical skills needed for effective personal information management. 1. Dealing with Quantities of Information The gap between the amount of information that an organization can collect and the ability of its employees to make sense of that information has been widening rather than narrowing. The early fear that computers would so improve a persons ability to process and manage information that a job holder would need only one-third to one-half the time to do his or her job has been dispelled The reverse has occurred. Often employees face an infoglut, an overload of information. As individuals move higher in the organizational hierarchy and assume more managerial responsibility, information overload become an even more significant challenge. To avoid such overload individuals must carefully asses their information needs and then find effective ways of managing the required and available information. They must also find ways to manage data better. 2. Facing Insufficient or Conflicting Information Although computers can make large quantities of information available to individuals, such information may not address their needs. Ramesh, ASM of Airtel, may wish to do some library research about competitors products. In spite of the large amount of information in the librarys electronic catalog, she may not be able to secure the precise information she needs. Because computers process input from diverse sources, users may also obtain conflicting information if one source updates information more frequently than another does. 3. Enhancing Personal Productivity Employees in any organization increasingly use information technology to improve their personal productivity. To ensure high productivity, employees must know how to use computers to facilitate, not hinder, their performance. They must know how to access the information they require and recognize when manual data collection and processing is adequate. Often employees must lobby their employers to add new technology that will help increase personal productivity. The ability to show the cost-effectiveness of additional expenditures for diagnosing and meeting information needs is critical. Employees must also understand and demonstrate when advanced technology is a detriment rather than an asset. 4. Maintaining Technical Skills Finally, using information technology effectively requires continuous updating of technical skills. Although many companies provide training to their employees, others do not. Ensuring that employees have the appropriate skills has both financial and time cost implications. As a result, employees may find their mobility and productivity limited by the extent to which they can learn new technical skills independently of their employer.

Q5. Explain the different components of MIS.

Ans. The components of MIS The physical components of MIS comprise the computer and communications hardware, software, database, personnel, and procedures. Almost all organizations employ multiple computer systems, ranging from powerful mainframe machines (sometimes including supercomputers) through minicomputers, to widely spread personal computers (also known as microcomputers). The use of multiple computers, usually interconnected into networks by means of telecommunications, is called distributed processing. The driving forces that have changed the information processing landscape from centralized processing, relying on single powerful mainframes, to distributed processing have been the rapidly increasing power and decreasing costs of smaller computers. Though the packaging of hardware subsystems differs among the three categories of computers (mainframes, minicomputers, and microcomputers), all of them are similarly organized. Thus, a computer system comprises a central processor (though multiprocessors with several central processing units are also used), which controls all other units by executing machine instructions; a hierarchy of memories; and devices for accepting input (for example, a keyboard or a mouse) and producing output (say, a printer or a video display terminal). The memory hierarchy ranges from a fast primary memory from which the central processor can fetch instructions for execution; through secondary memories (such as disks) where on-line databases are maintained; to the ultra high capacity archival memories that are also employed in some cases. COMPONENT DESCRIPTION Hardware Multiple computer systems: mainframes, minicomputers, personal computers Computer system components are: central processor(s), memory hierarchy, input and output devices Communications: local area networks, metropolitan area networks, and wide area networks Software Database Personnel Systems software and applications software Organized collections of data used by applications software Professional cadre of computer specialists; end users in certain aspects of their work Specifications for the use and operation of computerized information systems collected in user manuals, operator manuals, and similar documents

Procedures

Multiple computer systems are organized into networks in most cases. Various network configurations are possible, depending upon an organizations need. Fast local area networks join machines, most frequently clusters of personal computers, at a particular organizational site such as a building or a campus. The emerging metropolitan area networks serve large urban communities. Wide area networks connect machines at remote sites, both within the company and in its environment. Through networking, personal-computer users gain access to the broad computational capabilities of large machines and to the resources maintained there, such as large databases. This connectivity converts personal computers into powerful workstations. Computer software falls into two classes: systems software and applications software. Systems software manages the resources of the system and simplifies programming. Operating systems (UNIX, for example) control all the resources of a computer system and enable multiple users to run their programs on a computer system without being aware of the complexities of resource allocation. Even if you are just using a personal computer, a complex series of actions takes place when, for example, you start the machine, check out its hardware, and call up a desired program. All of these actions fall under the control of an operating system, such as DOS or IBM OS/2. Telecommunications monitors manage computer communications; database management systems make it possible to organize vast collections of data so that they are accessible for fast and simple queries and the production of reports. Software translators-compilers or interpreters, make it possible to program an application in a higher-level language, such as COBOL or C. The translator converts program statements into machine instructions ready for execution by the computers central processor. Many categories of applications software are purchased as ready-to-use packages. Applications software directly assists end users in their functions. Examples include generalpurpose spreadsheet or word processing programs, as well as the so-called vertical applications serving a specific industry segment (for example, manufacturing resource planning systems or accounting packages for small service businesses). The use of purchased application packages is increasing. However, the bulk of applications software used in large organizations are developed to meet a specific need. Large application systems consist of a, number of programs integrated by the database. To be accessible, data items must be organized so that individual records and their components can be identified and, if needed, related to one another. A simple way to organize data is to create files. A file is a collection of records of the same type. For example, the employee file contains employee records, each containing the same fields (for example, employee name and annual pay), albeit with different values. Multiple files may be organized into a database, or an integrated collection of persistent data that serves a number of applications. The individual files of a database are interrelated. Professional MIS personnel include development and maintenance managers, systems analysts, programmers, and operators, often with highly specialized skills. The hallmark of the present stage in organizational computing is the involvement of end users to a significant degree in the development of information systems. Procedures to be followed in using, operating, and maintaining computerized systems are a part of the system documentation.

Q6. Write a note on Ethical and Social issues with E-Commerce

As unethical scandals continue to plague corporate America, questions have been raised as to whether being in business means being unethical. Todays business executives are faced with many challenges that must be solved on the basis of ethics and not on the basis of personal interests. These executives must be aware of intellectual property rights and how they will be protected in a digital society where ignoring the rights is easy but accountability is not. Even more issues are raised in a society that is technology driven. One must take into consideration computing power, which now allows organizations to rely solely on computer systems for their critical operations. With declining storage costs, it is now easier to maintain detailed databases on clients and networking advances have made copying data from one location to another as easy as one click. Businesses attempt to govern ethical issues for how people or businesses should act. This attempt, which is called the Code of Ethics, acts as a guideline on what is generally ethical or socially acceptable. As you read on, you will learn the different aspects of ethical issues in a digital firm. An information or property right, rights that individuals and organizations have with respect to information that pertains to them, is highly regarded in the information technology society (Laudon, 147). Organizations take great strides in protecting these rights and laws have been established to ensure protection. Illegal acts that infringe upon these rights are deemed unethical and socially incorrect. One classification of property rights is a trade secret. A trade secret is any intellectual property or product used for a business purpose that can be classified as belonging to that business (Laudon, 159). A company may classify their work as a trade secret as long as it is not based on information in the public domain and the law protects the actual ideas in a product, not only their manifestation. There is one drawback to trade secret protection. Although virtually all software programs of any complexity contain unique elements of some sort, it is difficult to prevent the ideas in the work from falling into the public domain when the software is widely distributed (Laudon, 159). Another form of property right protection is a copyright. A copyright provides more protection than a trade secret and is not as vulnerable to the public domain. A copyright offers protection for original works of authorship. Copyright protection affords the author of a copyrighted work with specific rights that the author can give or sell to others or keep for him/herself for up to 70 years (law.freeadvice.com). A creators work can be copyrighted without actually applying or registering for the copyright. The instant you begin to work on something original it is subject to copyright law. Although the work is copyrighted it is still vulnerable in some ways to unethical practices. If a person copies your work you may have legal recourse and in some cases be compensated for your losses. These illegal acts, which may include the copying of a website, literary works, musical works, computer databases and motion pictures, are an infringement of the copyright laws. Patents, which grant the owner an exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind an invention for 20 years, are designed to ensure that inventors of new machines or methods are reward for their labor while making widespread use of their inventions (Laudon, 160). The patent itself provides a detailed description of the invention, and how it is used or how to make it. There are three basic types of patents; utility, design and plant. A utility patent includes an invention or discovery of a process, a machine or an article of manufacture. A utility patent can also include mixtures of ingredients and chemicals. Design patents are given to an article of manufacture for the mere design and appearance. On the other hand, plant patents are given to anyone who has invented or discovered and asexually produced any distinct and new variety of plant (law.freeadvice.com). Patents are protected by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and infringements can be pursued in a court of law. Persons that are found in violation of the patent can have their items

destroyed and may be ordered to pay for actual damages plus additional profits that may have been lost by the creator. Creators and inventors face many challenges when it comes to protection of their property rights. A protected work is very easy to copy and claim as your own. It is up to the owner of the work to find the infringer and they may go unnoticed. The most prevalent issue on this topic is the downloading of music and movies from the internet. Most law officials claim that downloading music for free is an infringement of the owners of the copyrighted material. Another dimension of ethical and social issues is accountability and control. This aspect refers to who can and will be help accountable and liable for the harm done to individual and collective information and property rights (Laudon, 148). Organizations have mechanisms in place to determine who took responsible action and who is actually responsible for the infringement. On the other hand, liability is used to permit individuals to recover the damages done to them by other actors, systems or organizations. The main issue effecting organizations is whether individuals and organizations that create, produce and sell systems are morally responsible for the consequences of their use. The argument is that if a product, service, software or machine was used by an organization and it harmed a person, who should be held liable. Courts have generally found that the producer of software that is part of a machine that injures someone physically or economically, the producer of the software and the operator can be held liable for damages. Although courts are more reluctant to hold authors, publishers and booksellers liable for contents, therefore, courts have been wary of holding software authors liable for booklike software (Laudon, 163). The next dimension of ethical and social issues in the digital firm is system quality. Two important aspects of system quality are data quality and systems errors. The logic behind this is that software developers must draw a line between when a product is complete and when it is time to distribute it. Developers go through lengthy processes to ensure a bug-free application but some programs are actually distributed with minor bugs still in them. The reason why this is done is because the product may never get released or could cost the consumer a very high price to use because the cost to fix these small errors is very high. The argument arises from the fact that some system errors are foreseeable and correctable but it comes at a great expense. The bottom line is when should an organization release software or services for consumption by others. There is a fine line between having to release a program that is error and bug free and knowingly releasing a program with these problems. The positive is that these problems are likely to be widely reported in the press. Although it is proven that the most common source of business system failure is data quality. The negative is that the software industry has yet to regulate testing standards for producing software with acceptable but not perfect performance. The last dimension is quality of life. Some social consequences are not a violation of individual rights, nor are they property crimes but they can affect the quality of life. Information technologies can easily destroy valuable elements of our society but on the other hand they can bring us benefits. It seems as though for every good consequence there must be a bad one. This give and take relationship is very prevalent in todays technology driven society. Some examples of technology that may affect quality of life are computer crime and abuse. Computer crime is the commission of illegal acts through the use of a computer or against a computer system (Laudon, 166). Examples of computer crime are hacking, using malicious software and sniffing. These forms of crime include gathering of confidential data, exploiting a computer system and using the internet to transmit viruses. These acts are illegal and have a huge impact on the quality of life. On the other hand, computer abuse is not illegal. These acts include the use of a computer and are considered unethical. An example of this type of abuse is spamming. Spammers send out mass e-

mails to consumers who have not requested this information. This issue has become very heated and several companies have built software to counteract e-mail spamming.