Which of the following best represents the definition of management information systems?

I. The Emergence of MIS

The MIS area emerged in the early days of the electronic digital computer era. Prior to the emergence of MIS, organizations primarily focused on using computers to perform tasks, activities, and processes that had previously been done manually, e.g., invoicing, the creation of financial reports, and order processing. The business department that operated the computers and performed these automation projects was then generally referred to as electronic data processing (EDP).

When it was recognized that the data that were being processed could also be useful to managers in making their business decisions, new varieties of computer applications began to be developed. These early applications and systems focused on the summarizing and analyzing of the data that had been collected and processed. Such summaries initially took the form of month-to-month and year-to-year comparative analyses, cross-classification analyses such as sales categorized by product and by region, and trend analyses which could provide the bases for forecasts.

These analyses rapidly became more sophisticated, and the term “management information systems” was created to describe both the new focus of computer systems and the broader scope of the organization's information processing function. This shift, from a focus on data to a concentration on information, and from a focus on processing to a concentration on management support applications and systems, had a profound impact on both theory and practice.

The singular form of the term, “management information system,” thereby refers to a system with a particular objective—that of supporting managerial analyses, decisions, and actions. The plural form, “management information systems,” obviously relates to a collection of such systems, but more importantly describes an organizational function that is responsible for developing, operating, maintaining, and improving an organization's computer systems.

The field has subsequently broadened further to incorporate supporting a wide variety of activities such as the user development of computer applications, the maintenance and improvement of the organization's expertise in employing computer and communication technologies, the management of telecommunications, the execution and management of business process re-engineering, and the development and implementation of a wide variety of new systems such as executive information systems, group support systems, and systems for electronic commerce.

Since the individuals and activities being supported are diverse and can no longer be described solely as “management,” in some settings the MIS terminology has been replaced by the more generic term information systems (IS). In some organizations, the department is called Information Technology or Information Services or some other similar term. However, the term MIS remains in widespread use because it best describes the combination of management skills and technology skills which are essential to providing computer and communications support in an organizational context.

II.B.1.b Information Systems Organizational Controls

Information systems management is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the information processing facility, which includes ensuring that application systems can accomplish their work and that development staff can develop, implement, and maintain application systems. In addition to responsibility for day-to-day operations, information systems management is responsible for information systems planning, strategic planning, and information systems project management. Information systems management is responsible for control over (1) data entry when not performed in user departments; (2) library functions such as recording, issuing, receiving, and safeguarding all program and data files maintained on computer disks and tapes; and (3) data control group functions such as the collection, conversion, and control of input and the balancing and distribution of output to users, computer operations, security administration, quality assurance, database administration, systems analysis, application programming, systems programming, network administration, and help desk administration.

Information systems management is also responsible for the proper separation of duties within the information processing function. The proper separation of duties helps reduce the possibility that transactions are improperly authorized or recorded. At a minimum systems analysis and programming should be separated from computer operations to prevent an analyst or programmer from making unauthorized changes to a program and then using that changed program in operations. In fact the only function that application programming might be combined with even in a small operation is the systems analysis function. The application programmer would have too much control if combined with other functions within the information systems organization.

PSIM systems

Thanks to both Bob Banerjee, PhD (NICE Systems) and Charles Goslin, CPP/CISSP (Butchko, Inc.) for some of the content in this section.

Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) systems are conceivably capable of making an ordinary security system operate like something out of Star Wars. The earliest form of something like PSIM systems dates back to the early 1990s when large military contractors began to use Command, Control, and Communications (C3) consoles to integrate and control their large security systems. Earliest PSIM systems blended the C3 concept with ideas from battlefield command and control systems from the U.S., Soviet, and Israeli militaries that were capable of providing wartime decision makers with real situational awareness and the ability to decide what to do, based upon real-time information about the enemy and the actual availability and readiness of their own military assets. Military battlefield command and control systems gather data about the environment, the organization’s own security assets (what man and machine capabilities and training are located where and their immediate state of readiness to respond to a threat), and also continuous detection about enemy patrols and intrusions (again, what and where and a quick determination of the nature of the threat—capabilities, intent, and so on) The earliest PSIM systems provide only those tools. Today, better PSIM can also be programmed to provide decision making assistance (e.g., what is the threat likely to do, what security assets are best to deploy)

At their simplest, PSIM systems integrate sensors of all types and process the data presented by the sensors into an overall “situational awareness” view so that console operators can decide how to react to emerging incidents. A truly well-designed and implemented PSIM system can help assure success and help mitigate consequences for any kind of incident from a medical incident to a full-on terrorist attack. Additionally, PSIM can assist with training programs and record-keeping, linking that to incident response so that the most trained personnel are presented as primary assets to assign for a given type of incident. Perhaps more importantly, PSIM systems can help implement common Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) across a campus or an entire enterprise, thus lowering the organization’s liability, adapting real-time responses to evolving threats, recording every action and outcome for 360-degree incident debriefing, learning from mistakes as part of a continuous improvement cycle, and helping ensure business continuity and regulatory compliance. PSIM systems can also assist the organization’s security to generate real-time program metrics and analyze those metrics in order to improve the security unit’s return on investment (ROI) for the organization. Finally, PSIM is capable of enhancing an organization’s safety program and even helping to manage the organization’s operations program.

PSIM systems have four main components:

Sensors and sensor interfaces including cameras, alarms, environmental sensors, guards-on-duty (time clock interface), real-time dynamic adjustments of threat level setting, intelligent video system outputs, time of day, day of week, communications systems and other sensor inputs, limited only by the designers’ imagination and the organization’s budget.

Data

Data: Real-time and historical sensor data and historical incident data

Rules: Threat-level rules, incident response rules

Automated and manual reports (e.g., historical, trends, asset utilization)

Data visualization tools

Logic-driven decision engine (SQL, etc.)

Human interface

Security console workstations

Administrative workstations

A given incident may present to different users in different ways. For example, an incident that rises above a certain threshold may alert a security director on a smartphone while he or she is on vacation and provide a choice (through the smartphone) as to how involved he or she wishes to be in the incident going forward (show me the resolution, include me in decisions, don’t bother me). At the same time, the full picture is being presented to console operators and on-duty supervisors, including relevant cameras (immediate vicinity and egress cameras), with analysis (this looks like a robbery with weapons/no weapons) and available assets for response (e.g., guards, lockdown, public address system announcement to the area of the incident, evacuation plan for adjacent areas).

Well-developed PSIM systems can actually predict security incidents. Major police departments in the United States are beginning to use PSIM systems in the prediction of crime to identify where, when, and what types of crimes are likely to occur, so that police departments can position patrol units in the exact geographical centers of the areas of likely crime exactly when the crime is predicted. Stunning improvements in criminal capture rates have been realized, and overall crime has been lowered due to the immediate presence of a police patrol at or near the center of the crime prediction area.

While most security professionals view PSIM as a wonderful (if expensive) industry offering, few are aware that PSIM costs can be amortized across a wide array of other organizational business units such as:

Building automation

Airport/Rail operations (really any type of business process operations)

Emergency response and business continuity

Training departments (all types of business training across all business units)

Public relations departments (incidents and responses)

Risk analysis departments

Sales and marketing (what’s selling where, when, and to whom)

Financial data trends and visualization

Boardroom (C-level decisions based upon business unit ROI)

PSIM is a very powerful tool that will see more and more use in and outside of the security department as time goes on.

II Intellectual Relationships Between the Information System Areas and Reference Disciplines

The MIS area is a relatively young field of study as compared to, for example, economics, physics, philosophy, organizational behavior, etc. As a field of study continues to grow and become coherent, study of the intellectual development of the field is important. In a relatively new field such as MIS, understanding the process of intellectual development and evolution of thought is even more beneficial because it identifies the basic commitments that will serve as the foundations of the field as it matures.

Eom has conducted a series of studies to infer the intellectual structure of the DSS field by means of an empirical assessment of the DSS literature from 1971 through 1995. The cluster analysis of his study resulted in a dendrogram (tree graph), which illustrates hierarchical clustering (Fig. 1). The dendrogram shows that the DSS tree consists of two main branches. The first branch of the DSS tree represents all DSS subspecialties and related references disciplines, excluding group support systems (GSS) and their reference disciplines. The first branch holds five reference disciplines: artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive science/cognitive psychology, multiple criteria decision making (MCDM), systems science, and organization science. It also includes five major areas of DSS research: foundations, implementation, individual differences/user interfaces, model management, and multiple criteria/negotiation DSS.

The second branch consists of GSS and related reference disciplines (communication science, organization science, psychology, and AI).

PSIM Software Implementation

Physical Security Information Management Systems (PSIM) are an especially elegant form of Graphical User Interface (GUI) that includes information that places the alarm information in the context of a map or aerial or satellite photo of a facility and provides the console operator with additional useful information about the alarm incident or event. Situational Awareness Software (SAS) also may update the movements of subjects based upon emerging sensor data, such as radar data. Situational awareness software is one of the most effective means of managing a security system from a console operator’s point of view. The SAS (or PSIM) provides a “top-level” view of the system and how it relates to its overall physical environment. The SAS/PSIM should have as a minimum the following basic elements:

Alarm icons

Camera icons

Intercom icons

Nested maps (to “drill down” into maps with greater detail)

Linked maps (to move from area to area—east/west/north/south)

In addition, all alarm points should display a GUI screen.

In an ideal PSIM implementation, each camera should also be a “pseudo-alarm” point that links to a PSIM screen (as well as to nearby cameras), so that when an operator double-clicks on a camera, it becomes the new focus camera and related cameras around it also display (video guard tour); in addition, a PSIM map shows the area of the selected camera. This facilitates the video pursuit function.

Database Access

The native database system that comes with IMS is based on a hierarchical model, which preceded the development of relational database systems. The higher performance of the hierarchical model is one of the reasons IMS-based applications are still in production. Today's IMS applications can also use DB2, in addition to or in place of the IMS DB database. The database access runs using the application's thread. A data propagation utility is available that moves data updates from IMS DB to DB2, or vice versa, automatically. Java library support allows IMS DB to invoke stored procedures hosted in DB2. Other tools allow data to be moved between IMS and non-IBM relational databases.

VIII.G. Access and Circulation Services

ILS have improved management information systems by providing canned and customizable reports concerning collection and database use; circulation, workflow, and workload statistics; and automatically generating periodic notices for fines, overdue, lost, and recalled materials.

In addition to barcode systems discussed earlier, other information tracking and inventory systems have been introduced. The digital smart chip is being used by some libraries. A radio frequency identification (RFID) smart chip is inserted into library materials. The smart chip actually stores bibliographic data about the item. The system assists in inventory and shelf-reading, providing security against material theft and streamlining checkout processes. Smart cards are used for library user identification, to access databases, to check out materials, and as debit cards for fines, printing, etc.

3.16.6.1 Individual Property Location, Image, and Details

Implementation of the TAX management information system with GIS integration provided a better understanding to the government officials and policy makers to resolve the tax related issues effectively in generating much-needed revenues. The system is not only time efficient but transparent and sustainable. On the basis of the diagnostic assessment, government can now identify the individual property location, image, and details of the particular land parcel along with its scanned P.T.1 and P.T.8 forms in the Tax MIS.

The web portal was provided spatial details with a detailed roadmap, real property information along with area, shape, and nonspatial information. This information helped to determine the undeclared and unclaimed properties. This web portal provided a comprehensive picture with complete information of each property unit that not only enhanced the taxation system but also provided an advanced cadastral information of all the six districts under study. Few snapshots of the system are shown in Fig. 13.

Before computerization and development of Tax MIS system, P.T.1 and P.T.8 forms were generated manually with no predefined rules of taxation that was unendurable. The related inspector was at liberty to impose and calculate tax of a property unit and assesse has to pay. Tax MIS system not only provided digital P.T forms but designed a standard tax calculator (Figs. 14 and 15).

Now these forms are available with a single click, auto generated P.T.1 and P.T.8 forms are shown in Figs. 16 and 17.

Decision support systems (DSS)

Decision support systems are sometimes confused with management information systems, but they are quite distinct. Whereas the latter provide predefined information to the manager, decision support systems (DSS) are used by the manager to predict actions based on a formal model of the organisation. There are various definitions in the literature. Indeed, the literature of the mid-1980s tended to use the terms ‘management information system’ and ‘decision support system’ interchangeably. Here the distinction between the terms is taken to be that whereas management information systems provide information, the manager uses a decision support system to manipulate information. Spreadsheet packages are typical decision support tools in a library environment, used to explore ‘what if scenarios, for example, ‘If the library cuts its printed serials budget by 10% over the next year, what would be the likely effect on document delivery services?’

Decision support systems are less structured than management information systems, and are based on a more or less formal model of the organisation and its relationship with its environment. The model may be a simple ‘what if spreadsheet analysis of a budget or a more sophisticated model such as resource scheduling. Whereas data for a management information system are drawn mainly from internal sources (typically a data processing or ‘transaction-oriented’ system), a decision support system will draw its data from internal sources, such as data processing systems or management information systems, but also from external sources, such as user surveys.

III.A.1. Hierarchical DBMS

In the late 1960s, IBM developed the first commercial hierarchical DBMS information management system (IMS), and its DL/1-language. The principles behind the hierarchical model are derived from IMS. Hierarchical DBMSs organize their record types in a hierarchical tree. This approach is well suited for large systems containing a lot of data. Hierarchical databases support two types of information—the record type which is a record containing data, and parent-child relations (PCR) which define a 1:N relationship between one parent record and N child-records. Hierarchical DBMS retrieve data fast because all the paths that link record types are predefined. Hierarchical databases are still used in many legacy systems and IMS is still the leading hierarchical DBMS used by a large number of banks, insurance companies, and hospitals as well as several government agencies.