MIS

Models of Decision
Making

ANGAD DEEP SINGH SEHDEVA 3191

ANISH PADHI 3192

TYD

INTRODUCTION
A Management Information System (MIS) provides information that organizations require to manage
themselves efficiently and effectively. Management information systems are typically computer
systems used for managing five primary components
1. Hardware
2. Software
3. Data (information for decision making)
4. Procedures (design, development and documentation)
5. People (individuals, groups, or organizations)
Management information systems analyse and facilitate strategic and operational activities. MIS Helps
in the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations evaluate, design, implement, manage, and
utilises systems to generate information to improve efficiency and effectiveness of decision making.
Most leading organisations (or colleges of business administration) have an MIS department,
alongside departments of accounting, finance, management, marketing and others.
A management information system gives the business managers the information that they need to
make decisions. Early business computers were used for simple operations such as tracking inventory,
billing, sales, or payroll data, with little detail or structure. Over time, these computer applications
became more complex, hardware storage capacities grew, and technologies improved for connecting
previously isolated applications. As more data was stored and linked, managers sought greater
abstraction as well as greater detail with the aim of creating significant management reports from the
raw, stored data.
Originally, the term "MIS" described applications providing managers with information about sales,
inventories, and other data that would help in managing the enterprise. Over time, the term
broadened to include: decision support systems, resource management, human resource
management, enterprise resource planning, enterprise performance management, supply chain
management, customer relationship management, project management and database retrieval
applications.

Most Management Information Systems specialize in particular commercial and industrial sectors,
aspects of the enterprise, or management substructure.

Management information systems (MIS), produce fixed, regularly scheduled reports based
on data extracted and summarized from the firms underlying transaction processing systems
to middle and operational level managers to identify and inform structured and semistructured decision problems.

Decision Support Systems (DSS) are computer program applications used by middle
management to compile information from a wide range of sources to support problem solving
and decision making.

Executive Information Systems (EIS) is a reporting tool that provides quick access to
summarized reports coming from all company levels and departments such as accounting,
human resources and operations.

Marketing Information Systems (MIS) are Management Information Systems designed

specifically for managing the marketing aspects of the business.

Office Automation Systems (OAS) support communication and productivity in the enterprise
by automating work flow and eliminating bottlenecks. OAS may be implemented at any and
all levels of management.

School Information Management Systems (SIMS) cover school administration, and often
including teaching and learning materials.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) facilitates the flow of information between all business
functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside
stakeholders.

MODELS OF DECISION MAKING

A management information system (MIS) is an organized combination of people,

hardware,

communication networks and data sources that collects, transforms and distributes information in an
organization. An MIS helps decision making by providing timely, relevant and accurate information to
managers. The physical components of an MIS include hardware, software, database, personnel and
procedures.
Management information is an important input for efficient performance of various managerial
functions at different organization levels. The information system facilitates decision making.
Management functions include planning, controlling and decision making. Decision making is the core
of management and aims at selecting the best alternative to achieve an objective. The decisions may
be strategic, tactical or technical. Strategic decisions are characterized by uncertainty. They are future
oriented and relate directly to planning activity. Tactical decisions cover both planning and controlling.
Technical decisions pertain to implementation of specific tasks through appropriate technology. Sales
region analysis, cost analysis, annual budgeting, and relocation analysis are examples of decisionsupport systems and management information systems.
There are 3 areas in the organization. They are strategic, managerial and operational control.
Strategic decisions are characterized by uncertainty. The decisions to be made in the area of strategic
planning are future oriented and relate directly to planning activity. Here basically planning for future
that is budgets, target markets, policies, objectives etc. is done. This is basically a top level where upto-the minute information on the food items ordered and breaks out percentages showing sales of
each item versus total sales is provided. The top level where strategic planning is done compares the
weekly sales totals versus food costs, allowing planning for tighter cost controls. Executive support
systems function at the strategic level, support unstructured decision making, and use advanced
graphics and communications. Examples of executive support systems include sales trend forecasting,
budget forecasting, operating plan development, budget forecasting, profit planning, and manpower
planning.
The decisions to be made in the area of managerial control are largely dependent upon the
information available to the decision makers. It is basically a middle level where planning of menus is
done and whenever an order is voided, the reasons for the void are keyed in which later helps in
management decisions, especially if the voids are related to food or service. The managerial control
that is middle level also gets customer feedback and is responsible for customer satisfaction.

The decisions to be made in the area of operational control pertain to implementation of specific
tasks through appropriate technology. This is basically a lower level where the waiter takes the order
and enters it online via one of the six terminals located in the restaurant dining room and the order is
routed to a printer in the appropriate preparation area. The items ordered list and the respective
prices are automatically generated. The cooks send out of stock message when the kitchen runs out
of a food item, which is basically displayed on the dining room terminals when waiter tries to order
that item. This basically gives the waiters faster feedback, enabling them to give better service to the
customers. Transaction processing systems function at the operational level of the organization.
Examples of transaction processing systems include order tracking, order processing, machine control,
plant scheduling, compensation, and securities trading
The business decision-making is sequential in nature. In business, the decisions are not isolated
events. Each of them has a relation to some other decision or situation. The decision may appear as a
snap decision but it is made only after long chain of developments and a series of related earlier
decisions.
The decision-making process is a complex process in the higher hierarchy of management. The
complexity is the result of many factors such as inter-relationship among the experts of decisionmakers, a job responsibility, and a question of feasibility, the codes of morals and ethics and a
probable impact on business.
The personal values of the decision-maker play a major role in decision-making. A decision otherwise
being very sound on the business principle and economically rationality may be rejected on the basis
of the personal values, which are defeated if such a decision is implemented. The culture, the
discipline and the individual commitment to goals will decide the process and success of the decision.
The decision-making process requires creativity, imagination and a deep understanding of human
behaviour. The process covers over a number of tangible and intangible factors affecting the decision
process. It also requires a foresight to predict the post-decision implication and a willingness to face
those implications. All decisions solve a problem but over a period of time they give rise to a number
of other problems.
The need of information system in organization is to support the decision-making process. The
managers must be aware of problems before decision can be made. A problem exists when the real
situation is different than the expected one. After the problem has been identified, the cause of
existence of the problem must be identified and then the solution to the problem has to be found.

The decision-making process can be divided into three main phases:

Intelligence: searching the environment for condition calling for decisions. The phase consists
of determining that a problem exists.

Design: during this phase a set of alternative solution is generated and tested for feasibility.

Choice: in this phase, the decision-maker select one of the solution identified in the design
phase.

Thus, the decision process follows the sequence from intelligence to design and from design to choice.
It is possible to get back from one phase to another and whole process may be repeated. It is very
important to distinguish between programmed and non-programmed decision.
If a decision can be based on a rule, method or even guidelines, it is said to be programmed decision.
The effectiveness of rule can be analysed and then rule can be reviewed and modified from time to
time for an improvement. The programmed decision-making can be delegated to the lower level in
management.
A decision which cannot be made by using a rule or a model is the non-programmed decision. Such
decisions are infrequent but the stakes are usually larger. Therefore, they cannot be delegated to the
lower level. The MIS in the non-programmed decision situation can help to some extent, in identifying
the problem, giving the relevant information to handle the specific decision-making situation. The
MIS, in other words, can develop support system in the non-programmed decision-making situation.
Advertising budgets, new product decisions and similar problems illustrate the non-programmed type
of decision that cannot be automated.

TYPES OF DECISIONS
The types of decisions are based on the degree of knowledge about the outcomes or the events yet
to take place. If the manager has full and precise knowledge of the event or outcomes which is to
occur, then the decision-making is not a problem. If the manager has full knowledge, then it is a
situation of certainty. If he has partial knowledge or a probabilistic knowledge then it is decisionmaking under risk. If the manager does not have any knowledge, whatsoever then it is decision-making
under uncertainty.
A good MIS tries to convert a decision-making situation under uncertainty to the situation under risk
and further to certainty. Decision-making in the operational management is a situation of certainty.
This is mainly because the manager in this field, has full knowledge of environment, and has a
predetermined decision alternative for choice or for selection.
Decision-making at the middle management level is of the risk type. This is because of the difficulty in
forecasting an event with 100 percent accuracy and the limited scope of generating the decision
alternatives.
At the top management level, it is a situation of total uncertainty on account of insufficient knowledge
of the external environment and the difficulty in forecasting business growth on a long-term basis.
A good MIS design gives adequate support to all the three levels of management

TYPES OF DECISION-MAKING SYSTEMS

The decision-making systems can be classified in a number of ways. There are two types of systems
based on the managers knowledge about the environment. If the manager operates in a known
environment then it is a closed decision-making system. The conditions of the closed-decision making
systems are:I.

The manager has a known set of decisions alternatives and knows their outcomes fully
in terms of value, if implemented.

II.

The manager has a model, a method or a rule whereby the decision alternatives can be
generated, tested and ranked for selection.

III.

The manager can choose one of them, based on some goal or objective criteria.

Few examples are; a product mix problem, an examination system to declare pass or fail, or
acceptance of the fixed deposits.
If the manager operates in an environment not known to him, then the decision-making system is
termed as an open decision-making system. The conditions of this contrast closed decision-making
system are:I.

The manager does not know all the decision alternatives

II.

The outcome of the decision is also not known fully. The knowledge of the outcome may
be a probabilistic one.

III.

No method, rule or model is available to study and finalize one decision among the set
of decision alternatives.

IV.

It is difficult to decide an objective or a goal and therefore, the manager resorts to that
decision, where his aspirations or desires are met best.

Deciding on the possible product diversification lines, the pricing of a new product, and the plant
location, are some decision-making situations which fall in the category of the open decision-making
system.
The MIS tries to convert every open system to a closed decision-making system by providing
information support for the best decision. The MIS gives the information support, whereby the
managers know more and more about environment and the outcomes, he is able to generate the
decision alternatives, test them and select one of the alternatives. A good MIS achieves this.

HERBERT SIMON MODEL

Decision-making is a process in which the decision-maker uses to arrive at a decision. The core of this
process is described by Herbert Simon in a model. He describes the model in three phases as shown
in the figure below:
I.

Intelligence: raw data collected, processed and examined, Identifies a problem calling
for a decision.

II.

Design: inventing, developing and analysing the different decision alternatives and
testing the feasibility of implementation. Assess the value of the decision outcome.

III.

Choice: select one alternative as a decision, based on the selection criteria.

In the intelligence phase, the MIS collects the data. The data is scanned, examined, checked and
edited. Further, the data is sorted and merged with other data and computations are made,
summarized and presented. In this process, the attention of the manager is drawn to all problem
situations by highlighting the significant differences between the actual and the expected, the
budgeted or the targeted.
In the design phase, the manager develops a model of the problem situation on which he can generate
and test the different decision alternatives, he then further moves into phase of selection called as
choice.
In the phase of choice, the manager evolves selection criteria such as maximum profit, least cost,
minimum wastage, least time taken and highest utility. The criterion is applied to the various decision
alternatives and the one which satisfies the most is selected.
In these phases, if the manager fails to reach a decision, he starts the process all over again and again.
An ideal MIS is supposed to make a decision for the manager.
An example of the Simon model would illustrate further its use in the MIS. For example, a manager
finds on collection and through the analysis of the data that the manufacturing plant is underutilized
and the products which are being sold are not contributing to the profits as desired. The problem
identified, therefore, is to find a product mix for the plant, whereby the plant is fully utilized within
the raw material and the market constraints, and the profit is maximized. The manager having
identified this as the problem of optimization, now examines the use of linear programming (LP)
model. The model is used to evolve various decision alternatives. However, selection is made first on
the basis of feasibility and then on the basis of maximum profit.

The product mix so given is examined by the management committee. It is observed that the market
constraints were not realistic in some cases and the present plant capacity can be enhanced to
improve the profit. The same model is used again to tool the revised position. Therefore, additional
data is collected and an analysis is made to find out whether the average 20 percent utilization of the
capacity can be increased. A market research for some products is made and it is found that some
constraints need to be removed and reduced. Based on the revised data linear programming model is
used and a better optimum solution is obtained.

CONCLUSION
It is necessary to understand the concept of decision-making as they are relevant to the design of the
MIS. The Simon model provides a conceptual design of the MIS and decision-making wherein the
designer has to design the system in such a way that the problem is identified in precise terms.
In the design phase of the model, the designer is to ensure that the system provides models for
decision-making. These models should provide for the generation of decision alternatives, test them
and pave way for the selection of one of them. In a choice phase, the designer must help to select the
criteria to select one alternative amongst the many.
The concept of programmed decision-making is the finest tool available to the MIS designer, whereby
he can transfer decision-making from a decision-maker to the MIS and still retain the responsibility
and accountability with the decision maker or the manager. In case of non-programmed decisions, the
MIS should provide the decision support systems provide a generalized model of decision-making.
The methods of decision-making can be used directly in the MIS provided the method to be applied
has been decided. A number of decision-making problem calls for optimization, and operational
models are available which can be made a part of the system, the optimization models are static and
dynamic, and both can be used in the MIS. Some of the problems call for a competitive analysis, such
as payoff analysis. In these problems, the MIS can provide the analysis based on the gains, the regrets
and the utility.
The concept of the organizational and behavioural aspects of decision-making provides an insight to
the designer to handle the organizational culture and the constraints in the MIS. The concepts of the
rationality of a business decision, the risk awareness of the managers and the tendency to avoid an
uncertainty, makes the designer conscious about the human limitations and prompts him to provide
a support in the MIS to handle these limitations. The reliance on organizational learning makes the
designer aware of the MIS and makes him provide the channels in the MIS to make the learning
process more efficient.

Management Information System - Decision

support
in
public
administration. Case study of
the
Hungarian
Central
Statistical Office
dr. Jzsef KRPTI
Hungarian Central Statistical Office
joekarpati@gmail.com

Above a certain size of the organization, whether private

or
public,
the
decision
making
level of the management requires digested information to
receive
support
in
the
form
of
exact and relevant data or reports. These data are a
reflection
of
the
most
important
strategic and operational elements of the specific
organization,
giving
an
overview
of
the
activities and results of planning, production, marketing,
sales,
customer
relations,
cash
flow etc. depending on the core activity of the company. The
quality
of
these
data
is
of
the
utmost importance, since the top management of large
organizations
derives
its
high
level
decisions mostly from such digests instead of going
down
in
the
depth
of
the
core
activity components. As the supporting Information
Technology
went
through
a
significant development during the last decades, and business
intelligence
solutions
were
developed, more and more attention was drawn to these
technologies
in
the
private
sectors companies and
large or central public
administration
institutions
as
well.
The
article displays a brief case study of the design and
implementation
of
such
a
management
information system (MIS) in the Hungarian Central
Statistical
Office
in
detail.
The
implemented system had to comply with several

expectations,
where
some
of
them
were
specified for public administration. As the daily
application of an MIS is still rare in
Hungarian public administration, the efforts of the office
were
almost
exclusively
based
on international good practices and the definition of our own
needs.
Keywords:
Information
technology,
business
intelligence, management information system, report,
dashboard, OLAP, public administration, intranet,
database, Key Performance Indicators.

1 Introductory notes
The need to manage an organization by examining
the
feedback
information
of
its operation is an obvious demand of the top
management
of
all
organizations.
This requirement itself is as old as the first truly
managed societies and

organizations of several thousands of years ago. The way how the leaders of a
society or an organization actually did this activity, went through an obvious
development depending on the size of the managed structure and - certainly - the
technical and scientific level of the given entity. The development of the
discipline of (management-) controlling woke up always higher expectations and
a permanently emerging burden on those organizational units, which had the
responsibility of reporting on the activities to the top managers. For a very long
time, this function was mostly and clearly considered as a specific sub-role of
accounting, but the information requirements have progressively exceeded the
limits of the financial / accounting areas. However, the lack of sufficient
information and data integration did not make it possible to explore the opportunities
of such information to the full.
As the modern Information Technology (IT) in the nineteen-seventies gave a broader
opportunity for more and more companies to computerize several areas of their operation,
including the already mentioned accounting, the inventories, even some demographic data on
sales etc. the management discovered that they have a wide selection of historic business data like
never before. It became clear that these data could be used for further purposes, but theyd
require a certain filtering and prioritization.
The emerge of the integrated IT solutions for business companies like ERP systems,
business process management and so on boosted the amount of information what a company
produced about its own activities. This resulted in a completely new battlefield where response
to information needs became more and more hard to find, since the complexity and
fragmentation of the information was exponentially growing, as IT tools began serving such
purposes in more and more sophisticated ways.

2 From business intelligence to the MIS

Fifty years of evolution in IT gave importance to a new definition called business
intelligence.1
In the given context business was a collection of activities for
whatever purpose, and intelligence was interpreted as the ability to apprehend
the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action towards
a desired goal. This definition is still acceptable for the activity it describes. The
application of different business intelligence (BI) tools in the operation of an
enterprise is becoming nowadays a key issue. Even small or medium size
enterprises start discovering the opportunity of using the information, which is

see H.P. Luhn s referred pioneering article on business intelligence

produced during their own activities, on detailed customer analysis and sales forecasting
from historical data for example.
Especially larger enterprises are those ones, where another level of information
may also be needed, not for the operation itself, but for a summary of facts. This
purpose is served by management information systems, which can really play an
important role, as theres a natural demand from the top management to receive
up-to-date or at least very timely, relevant information on the operation of the
enterprise. This service was done on paper in the form of different reports for a
very long time, and it is still being in use. The problem is that usually the top
management requires a complex set of indicators, data or reports, which content
are mostly in the hands of several responsible units within the organization. So
the term MIS is commonly used to refer to the group of several information
management methods tied to the automation or support of human decision
making, integrating different data sources. Theres no common agreement on a
more specific definition, since the content of management information systems is
not really an object for standardization. A good MIS should rather refer to the
actual needs of the specific users who are intended to use it. It may contain
statistics, accounting information, payroll information, customer data and so on.
There are only two assumptions: MISs are to support decision making with their
digested and integrated content, and they are not the systems where operators of
different areas implement their actual activities.
Based on these statements we could agree on the following definition: The management
information system in the 21st century is an IT solution that extracts timely, relevant and wide
ranging data from the transactional2 systems of an enterprise, for the purpose of an
integrated overview and matching of data from different sources, ready for analysis of the
most important information and serving the goal of supporting the high level decision making.
The best management information systems are comparable to the dashboard of a car, where the
most important data during the operation are reflected by specific gauges. Although the outlook
of MISs may vary from very graphical to very dry tabular or even textual format, the comparison
is reasonable.

We consider those systems transactional where the purpose of the IT system is to

support an activity in the core production value chain or in the area of supporting administrational
activities of an enterprise.

3
Managing information in the Hungarian Central
Statistical Office
Public administration, especially in the Eastern or Central European countries
was (and to some extent - still is) suffering from fragmentation, unclear
responsibilities and insufficient information flow in the hierarchy of the
organization. This situation resulted in several attempts and results at different
public administration organizations in Hungary as well, as more and more
decision makers realized in administration, that a more effective tool is required
for better operation. This chapter will introduce the situation from an insiders
point of view.
The Hungarian Central Statistical Office
(HCSO) has launched a very
comprehensive strategy from 2005. During the last years the development of
subject matter areas in statistics and dissemination, the institutional relations and
also the organizational and management reforms resulted in a more qualitative,
effective and transparent statistics office. A major role in institutional
management was given among other plans to process management, a new,
resource based program planning system, the evaluation and analysis of the
performance of programs - in a significantly different way, in parallel with the
central public administration requirements - and the introduction of a new
management information system which was intended to collect and present
different operational data and reports in a standardized way. As this plan was
set in the HCSO Strategy3, the office had a countrywide organizational structure
with 19 local (county) units and approximately 1800 employees. Although the
organization went under a very major reform by creating 6 regional offices
instead of the county office structure in 2005, and this was followed by the
specialization of the regional offices for a given subject matter area with
nationwide responsibility (!) in 2007, the size and structure of the organization of
HCSO remained similar to a quite large enterprise.
The top management of HCSO has stated that for a more effective control on the
different operations of such a large organization, a management information
system would be useful. There were several actual reasons to underline this idea.
First of all, the operational information was required more and more in a
standardized form from top management, but the sources of information were
very dispersed within the organization. We introduced new management
techniques, taken from the market sector like starting projects for different
development purposes, but the monitoring was not solved properly, yet. The
further communication and feedback of presidential reports was also not solved there was only a one way information flow within the organization with much
3

HCSO Strategy 2005-2008

less feedback from top to down. Finally, there was an emerging demand to form a more
transparent operation on mid-level management, too, which also required a solution of the
information flow.
Based on these statements within the organization, the president of the office suggested to
start a new development project, where the goal was to create a tailor made MIS for the
management of HCSO. Since the resources were not sufficient for implementing the entire
idea in practice, it was decided that the project would consist of two phases. The first phase
was a preparatory phase, where the collection of MIS requirements, system planning and
the framework concept were finalized.
The first phase of the project stated in Spring 2005 and was finished by that
Autumn. During these months the first step was to sort out the different demands
of the management, since the basic idea was to extend the use of the MIS to the
heads of departments as well. Interviews with different management members
were carried out, which resulted in a catalogue of a possible content.
In parallel with that, a definition study was prepared on the current status of
information flow in practice, then a recommended scheme for reporting rules,
technical solution and content was designed. It was continuously envisaged that
the information should not serve as a tool of power but a fundament for good
decision making. This approach was highly appreciated among the members of
mid-management level and they were very supportive during the first phase.
The fundamental findings of the 2005 definition study could be summarized as the
following:
a)

Information presence

All kinds of operational information are present, what usually managers of tasks
would need for their work, but sometimes they are a bit hard to find, since some
managers simply dont know about the existence of a specific information.
b)

Information definition and standardization

Some groups are well defined, but some groups are not standardized and are hard
to compile in a useful format. That means that the owners of the data are usually
forced to create unique queries and collections of data. This is also reflected in
the behavior of the managers who require the information: they change their
ideas on content very quickly avoiding the smallest chance of creating such a
stabile query, which could result in some time series for analysis later on.
c)

Quality

Correlating with the previous point, the fulfillment of different quality aspects
varied highly. There were some very timely but completely irrelevant operation
information, but some of the most important are not possible to be presented in

real time, just in a given time lag. There were very accurate information or data, usually coming
directly from a transactional system, but there were requirements which only could have been
fulfilled by manual work, resulting in a greater risk of errors and discrepancies.
d)

Accessibility

There were several source IT systems with usually very different technical
platforms, lots of ad hoc activities were required to produce reports even from
automatized systems, and there was no single pipeline for information requests
but usually managers needed to ask for specific information on their own.
This analysis pointed very quickly and clearly at those areas, where a development
was to be achieved by the project and it fully confirmed that the demands of the top
management were righteous.
Due to the mentioned lack of resources, the management information system was
not constructed in the coming year of 2006. Instead, a paper based MIS was
launched which meant that the top and mid-level management started receiving
continuous standardized reports without asking for them at all. This practice had
some very good consequences and looking backwards we can be really satisfied
that this practice was introduced prior to the implementation of the IT system.
The reasons were the following: during the launch period in the first months of
the Paper based MIS the content, the format, the responsibilities and the
frequency of the introduced reports were clarified. We implemented several
changes in content based on the first feedbacks of the managers, who received
these reports, and we were also able to define the real owners of the specific
data, who were asked in writing by the president to fulfill the data requirements.
It took about a year to get acquainted with the reports and information.
The
entire process was coordinated by the Planning department, which is a unit with
similar tasks as a controlling unit has at enterprises. This department became
responsible for operating the paper based - and later on the IT supported - MIS.

4 Implementation of the MIS with IT support

Since some resources were revealed during 2006, the second phase of the project was able to be
started in late Summer. By this time we already had some experience with the paper based
operation and were able to refine and define the information needs of the upcoming users.
We had some basic decisions by this time which oriented the project in the
direction of selecting a specific IT tool for the purpose, and these decisions were

connected to the parallel reconstruction of the Intranet site of HCSO. Since it was decided
that the new Intranet portal will use a portal software which is highly usable for MIS
purposes as well, the project accepted this environment as the starting point.
The project had to face several challenges during the automation process of the
different data sources, since data were on heterogeneous platforms ranging from
Oracle to Microsoft through unique developments. The essence of these data had
to be integrated into one single database, which is an sql database with OLAP
functionality4. On the other hand we also had easier tasks to solve, because we
were offered to use the embedded services of the portal framework like
document management, calendars for specific purposes, version history, survey
and forum possibilities, so we started experimenting how different data could be
presented in the best way.
On technical side, we realized that the new MIS is simple and easy to handle
through a web browser, there is a personalization possibility and we can solve
the full integration with the Microsoft Office environment in HCSO. The
finalized MIS uses now the regular Intranet platform of the HCSO, being a
chapter of it.

5 Main advantages of the IT based solution

We defined the main expected advantages of the MIS as the automatic creation
and publication of reports with unified format and fixed content (standard
reports), a platform to reach the detailed database and analyze it
(in first line for
helping analysts of MIS but it is open to all who are interested in details), the easy
publication of tailor made analyses, the possibility to monitor key processes in a transparent way
and distribute information in a very wide circle (news, documents, graphs, tables etc.) through
the portal.
The main difference of the IT supported MIS compared to a paper based system is the fact that
standard reports are now required through a single pipeline, the Planning department. If
the top management considers an information requirement important, it becomes a
standard report which will be developed and produced regularly from the time it was introduced.
That means that the amount of single, direct information queries from managers to the
owner of data was reduced and due to the common agreement on the content of reports, we are
able to produce time series in specific areas.

For a detailed description see E.F. Codds 12 rules on on-line analytical processing

We also succeeded to decrease the information distribution via e-mails, since sending
documents for opinion and approval, and sending large report files with graphs and tables were
a burden on the e-mail system. Now these files are stored on line on the server of MIS, ready to be
reached.
We also are able to orientate the users to key topics, as MIS has an own starting page with a clear
structure and a headlines-column.
Maybe the most important outcome is that the regular monitoring of the
operational information is mostly automatized, and embedded into regular
HCSO processes as a process quality aspect itself. The owners of information
usually fulfill their obligation to give data without additional burden, since we
introduced the standardized reporting on most areas to use at least mostly the
templates they were already using for a different purpose, or to document their
own work anyway.

6 The different participant roles in MIS

Basically four specific roles are separated in the HCSO for the management
information system.
The Database administrator is responsible for access
management, operation supervision (log files etc.), hardware-software
maintenance and updates, patches. Hes the real IT specialist in the circle. The
MIS Content administrator is the supervisor of automatized input processes,
and is responsible for semi-automatic data conversion from standard files. The
role also includes the management of news and documents, as a general content
manager of MIS, so basically nobody else is entitled (with some exceptions
below) to publish something or to insert some changes or new lines in the
databases. The content administrator is also responsible for the support of users
on the service, while we have to point it out, that this participant is not an IT
specialist, rather a so called power user of the applications. There are further
Subpage administrators in MIS, because some of the parts are maintained
directly by separate persons. An example of that is the calendar of travels and
subject matter meetings abroad, where the International division has the sole
responsibility to maintain the embedded calendar directly. The fourth role is the
Data owners role who doesnt maintain MIS directly. Instead the data owner
checks, or sometimes also sends their automatically produced datafiles or the
manually created data table or documents to the MIS Content administrator, who
disseminates the data on the portal after a check.
The system is based on a generally issued an open handbook , which explains in
detail if which specific department of HCSO has to deliver which dataset, by

what frequency and deadlines, in what format. The handbook is also supplied with templates
for the reporting obligations wherever possible.

7
Current content of HCSOs management
information system
The MIS is under a systematic revision every year, inserting new demands and filtering out
not required services from the content. The current setup of the MIS contains 6 chapters as
indicated below in picture 1.
Since HCSO introduced a standardized nomenclature for its programs and the
different steps of the workflow (activities) also, these nomenclatures became
widely and obligatorily used for the identification of human resource and
financial data in planning, the electronic working time registration (electronic
time sheets), project monitoring and accounting also. The nomenclature codes as
unique identifiers make it possible to survey the different programs from several
aspects, as the different sources of information can be linked together by the use
of these common identification codes. This is the basis for the comprehensive
presentation of information.
The presentation itself takes place in five different ways according to the type of content and
the type of the data source. Most parts in MIS are covered with standard reports, which
usually have only one dimension that can be changed, and thats the reference period (time).
These reports are created from an OLAP database directly when you click on them, and
their content in tabular format cannot be changed by the user.
For a more sophisticated analysis or for the creation of time series, the
fundamental databases behind the standard reports can also be reached by a
dynamic OLAP tabulation query, where the user is able to select different
dimensions and combine them freely. Some of the information are also presented
on graphs, where the restructuring of the table produces immediately a new
graph also on the intranet page. The data from these tables can also be exported
to Excel, but the MIS database certainly can not be overwritten.
The third form(s) of presentation are two, specifically developed embedded
applications on the portal. In the case of the project monitoring system each
project has a subpage with document library and several unique services, like
automatic deadline monitoring for project tasks etc. In the case of investment
monitoring all partner accounts and project accounts can be monitored at a
glance, from the point of view of their financial investment requirements.

The fourth and most simple way of presentation is the case, when certain information
can not be inserted in to a database, because it would make no sense to do so. In these cases we
publish the original source document that can be a .doc or .xls or .pdf file etc.
The fifth way of presentation is through the embedded services of the portal software, in
the case of the business travels for example, which I already mentioned.
- budget and financial data

Organizational
Information

- HR information
- Internal education
- Internal audit reports and tables public procurement
- Annual program plans

Production
information

MIS

- Monthly resource usage data

- New programs, tasks
- Dissemination performance

Portal
Development
information

- Strategic development plans

BSC indicators

- Development projects monitoring application Investment monitoring application

- GRANT and other international project
information

HCSO Knowledge base

+2
- Subpages for internal committees

- International travel calendar of HCSO officers

- Metadata of the MIS files

- Other useful information and docs on planning,

and visiting delegations (with involved

documents)
- Document management of top level
management meetings and board meetings

International contact lists, abbreviations etc.

Picture 1.
The chapters of HCSOs Management Information System

8 Experiences so far
During the project the top management has realized that the potential of the
implemented system is much higher then expected. In order to that the final
decision on the starting of MIS made it possible for every single member of staff
in HCSO to use the system and look at its information. The purpose of that was

the fact, that HCSO - being a public administration

organization - is committed to give a transparent
overview on its operation for all employees and has
no financially confidential information which is
the case mostly in the private sector. So we
currently have more than one thousand potential
users. A part of the users (approximately 150)
already have received a detailed training on the use
of the system, and we still plan organizing more of that.
The wide use of the MIS is promoted internally, and the
Planning department has also made comprehensive
analysis documents from its content. A member of
these - the annual report on HCSOs 2007
operation - is now under final editorial check and
will also be published on HCSOs website, to
enhance the transparency of the office reflected to the
society.
The president and other managers are more and more
used
to
the
fact
that
they
have a standard service in their hands, what they are
using
always
more
often.
On the other hand, the employees of HCSO feel the
importance
of
the
gesture
of
making the system available for them, even though
we
clearly
have
to
see,
that
this intention is far beyond a management
information
system,
its
already
rather an Organizational Information Management
System
which
can
be
used
for several purposes.
The evolution is going on - we always collect new
demands from the users to find out how this service
could even satisfy them even more for decision making
or for just general information.
References
H.P. LUHN: A Business Intelligence System,
IBM Journal, October 1958.
online available at:
http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/024/ibmrd0204H.pdf
HCSO Strategy 2005-2008, Hungarian Central
Statistical Office, Budapest 2005

Download at:
http://portal.ksh.hu/portal/page?_pageid=37,59
5444&_dad=portal&_sche ma=PORTAL
E.F. CODD: Providing OLAP (On-line Analytical
Processing) to User-Analysts:
An IT Mandate written by Codd E.F., Codd
S.B., and Salley C.T. , Codd
& Date, Inc. 1993.
An abstract is available online at: http://www.fpm.com/refer/codd.html

ANALYSIS
Above a certain size of the organization, whether private or public, the decision making level of the
management requires digested information to receive support in the form of exact and relevant
data or reports. These data are a reflection of the most important strategic and operational elements
of the specific organization, giving an overview of the activities and results of planning, production,
marketing, sales, customer relations, cash flow etc. depending on the core activity of the company.
The quality of these data is of the utmost importance, since the top management of large
organizations derives its high level decisions mostly from such digests instead of going down in the
depth of the core activity components. As the supporting Information Technology went through a
significant development during the last decades, and business intelligence solutions were developed,
more and more attention was drawn to these technologies in the private sectors companies and large
or central public administration institutions as well. The article displays a brief case study of the design
and implementation of such a management information system (MIS) in the Hungarian Central
Statistical Office in detail. The implemented system had to comply with several expectations, where
some of them were specified for public administration. As the daily application of an MIS is still rare
in Hungarian public administration, the efforts of the office were almost exclusively based on
international good practices and the definition of our own needs
The emerge of the integrated IT solutions for business companies like ERP systems, business process
management and so on boosted the amount of information what a company produced about its own
activities. This resulted in a completely new battlefield where response to information needs became
more and more hard to find, since the complexity and fragmentation of the information was
exponentially growing, as IT tools began serving such purposes in more and more sophisticated ways.
The best management information systems can be made comparable to the dashboard of a car, where
the most important data during the operation are reflected by specific gauges. Although the outlook
of MISs may vary from very graphical to very dry tabular or even textual format, the comparison is
reasonable.
Public administration in the Eastern or Central European countries was suffering from fragmentation,
unclear responsibilities and insufficient information flow in the hierarchy of the organization. This
created a lot of problems as a lot of decisions were being made based on insufficient and unclear data,
but as the Hungarian Government realized the importance of decision making using MIS it made a
two-step process to initiate this drive.

Every Government department maintains an archive and records units for the proper storage and
archiving of all records produced by the organization. The international community in the form of
donor agencies has on several occasions helped the Government in funding and setting up modem
information systems for government bodies, and these systems have been stocked with modem
technologies. Through local as well as overseas training, Uganda has built up the capacity for the
effective management of information systems and services.

OBSERVATIONS:
Planning and implementation of information technologies is an involved and complicated endeavor,
and becomes more so with each new innovation. It is no longer enough to simply automate clerical
tasks or transfer reams of data into a computer. Todays technologically savvy organization must make
use of integrated information systems, which will not only allow them to process data and perform
clerical tasks but also provide services in a more effective and user-friendly way. Integrated municipal
information systems can offer better ways to provide for government administration and service
deliveries but getting there is no easy matter.
Over the course of the last decade public organizations have increasingly made use of the process of
strategic planning. It should be noted that strategic planning arose out of the private sector as a
process designed to minimize risks and maximize profits, by establishing formal planning systems to
replace, older, informal, intuitive methods. Because it has been a primarily private sector project,
most of the research and writing done on the topic focuses on market share and profit. This factor
does not detract from the reality that strategic planning can certainly have an impact on a public
organizations success and effectiveness.
Strategic planning is a tool that can be used by organizational decision-makers to enhance their
decisions and help them make more informed choices. In order to be effective, strategic planning must
be ongoing, always adapting to the changes in organizational environment and direction. If used in a
proactive manner, strategic planning can assist or facilitate direction, consensus, and resource
prioritization.

SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTH

Managers tended to view MIS as operational tools and did not recognize their impact on the
organization

managers perceived a gap between industry claims of what MIS could do and the difficulties
of their organizations in duplicating those claims

managers tended to view MIS as critical to the organization only when it impacted their
needs for information or servicesotherwise they failed to see their facility as a resource

managers constantly focused on financial justification for MIS investments

top management had become increasingly action-oriented with a short-term focus to the
detriment of long-term planning especially for MIS

WEAKNESS

The decision making takes a long

Lot of hierarchical levels this leads to improper dissemination of Data

Set rules may act as hindrances

Lack of Autonomy

Lack of skill in the management

OPPORTUNITIES

Will make things much more streamlined

Can curb corruption

Storage is made easier and less cumbersome

Quick retrieval of data is possible

THREATS

Constant fear of getting hacked

Loss of data due to hardware crashes

Bigger investment