Management Information Systems is the study of people, technology, organizations and the relationships among them. Today we use information systems at all levels of operation to collect, process and store data. Management aggregates and disseminates this data in the form of information needed to carry out the daily operations of a business. Everyone who works in any business, from someone who pays the bills to the person who makes employment decisions, uses information systems. A car dealership could use a computer database to keep track of which products sell best. A retail store might use a computer-based information system to sell products over the Internet. In fact, many businesses concentrate on the alignment of MIS with business goals to achieve competitive advantage over other businesses. MIS professionals create information systems for data management; examples include storing, searching and analyzing data. In addition, they manage various information systems to meet the needs of managers, staff and customers.
Microsoft would be considered a MIS. For example, our textbook might have been created using Word. First, an author writes the content; other contributors and editors change, format, and edit the content, and then the content from a specific chapter can be integrated into the larger work. In this sense, Word is an effective tool in a management information system because it is facilitating the way a business operates. Think of the time and effort saved because with this word processing technology a document can be shared, stored, transmitted, worked on, and