MIS vs.

DSS

Management Information Systems

vs.
Decision Support Systems
MIS: The Big Picture
 MIS provides information about the
performance of an organization
 Think of entire company (the firm) as
a system.
 An MIS provides management with
feedback
 MIS: The Big Picture

The Firm
Processing
Input: Raw Materials, Output: Products,
Supplies, Data, etc. Services, Information etc.
MIS

Managers,
VPs, CEO
MIS: Feedback for a Firm
 Q: How are we doing?
 A: Look at the report from the MIS
 Generic reports: Sales, Orders,
Schedules, etc.
 Periodic: Daily, Weekly, Quarterly, etc.
 Pre-specified reports
 Obviously, such reports are useful for
making good decisions.
How is a DSS different?

MIS DSS
 Periodic reports  Special reports that may
only be generated once

 Pre-specified,  May not know what kind

generic reports of report to generate
until the problem
surfaces; specialized
reports.
MIS vs. DSS: Big Differences
 In a DSS, a manager generates the
report through an interactive interface
 Flexible & Adaptable reports
 DSS Reporting is produced through
analytical modeling, not just computing
an average, or plotting a graph.
 Business Models are programmed into a
DSS
 Types of Decisions
Operational Tactical Strategic

Un- Cash Re-engineering a New e-business initiatives

structured Management process
Company re-organization

Semi- Production Employee Performance Mergers

structured Scheduling Evaluation
Site Location
Capital Budgeting

Structured Payroll
MIS vs. DSS: Another Difference

TPS DSS
Operational Tactical Strategic
Management Management Management
Decisions Decisions Decisions

MIS EIS
 Strategic Management
 The People  Decisions
 Board of Directors  Develop Overall Goals
 Chief Executive  Long-term Planning
Officer  Determine Direction
 President  Political
 Economic
 Competitive
 Tactical Management
 People  Decisions
 Business Unit  short-medium range
Managers planning
 Vice-President to  schedules
Middle-Manager  budgets
 policies
 procedures
 resource allocation
 Operational Management
 People  Decisions
 Middle-Managers to  short-range planning
 Supervisors  production schedules
 Self-directed teams  day-to-day decisions
 use of resources
 enforce polices
 follow procedures
Decision Structure Information Characteristics
Ad Hoc
Unstructured Unscheduled
Summarized
Infrequent
Forward Looking
Strategic Management
External
Wide Scope

Semi-structured
Tactical Management
Pre-specified
Scheduled
Detailed
Frequent
Historical
Operational Management Internal
Structured Narrow Focus
MIS vs. DSS

MIS DSS
Support Info about Info and modeling to
performance analyze problems
Report Periodic reports Interactive Inquiries
Form or On Demand
Format Pre-specified Flexible and Adaptable
Fixed format
Processing Extract and Analytical modeling
manipulate data of data
What is Analytical Modeling?

Examples
 Supply Chain Modeling – Simulate
what would happen if you reduced
your inventory?
 How many items would go out of stock?
 How much would you save?
 Is reducing inventory a good thing?
More Modeling

Price Point Modeling – model what

would happen if you lowered or raised
the price of your product
 uses information about
 your customers income and
 your competitors prices
 uses well-know supply and demand
models
Typical MIS Reporting
 Periodic Scheduled Reports
 Example: Monthly Financial Statements
 Exception Reports
 Example: List of items out of stock
 These reports contain information but
they might not directly help you
determine the best decision to make.
More MIS Reports
 Demand Reports and Responses
 Available whenever a manager needs them,
updated in real-time.
 Push Reporting
 Information is pushed to a managers computer
 Example: Report is pushed every time a supplier
is late with a shipment
 MIS Reporting is all about giving managers
feedback and doesn’t necessarily help
directly with decision making.
How is DSS reporting different?

 Modeling helps predict the outcome of

a decision.
 This directly helps you make a
decision
 Possibly an optimal decision
 With a DSS you can explore possible
alternatives.
 Analytical Modeling is the key
Type of Example
Modeling
What-if What if we cut advertising by 10% what
analysis would happen to sales?
Sensitivity Let’s cut advertising by 1% repeatedly so
analysis we can see its relationship to sales
Goal-seeking Let’s try increasing advertising until sales
analysis reach $1 million
Optimization What level of advertising maximizes our
analysis overall profit?