Management Support Systems

When information systems focus on providing information and support for effective decision making by managers, they are called management support system. Management support system began when the concept of management information systems (MIS) originated in the 1960s.
The concept of MIS was developed to counteract such inefficient development and ineffective use of computers. Though tarnished by early failures, the MIS concept is still recognized as vital to efficient and effective information systems in organizations for two major reasons:

• It emphasizes the management orientation of information technology in business. A major goal of computer-based information systems should be the support of management decision-making, not merely the processing of data generated by business operations.
• It emphasizes that a systems framework should be used for organizing information systems applications. Business applications of information technology should be viewed as interrelated and integrated computer-based information systems and not as independent data processing jobs.

Management Information Systems (MIS) are the most common from of management support systems that use the integrated resources of hardware, software, network, database management and people to perform input, processing, output, storage, and control activities that transform data resources into information products. They provide managerial and users with information products that support much of their day-to-day decision-making needs. MIS provide a variety of reports and displays to management. The contens of these information products are specified in advance by managers so that they contain information that managers need. MIS retrieve information about internal operations from databases that have been updated by transaction processing systems. They also obtain data about the business environment from external sources.
Decision Support Systems (DSS) are a natural progression from information reporting systems and transaction processing systems. DSS are interactive, computer-based information systems that use decision models and specialized databases to assist the decision-making processes of managerial end users. They differ from MIS, which focus on providing managers with prespecified information (report) that can be used to help them make more effective, structured types of decisions.
Executive Information Systems (EIS) are management information systems tailored to strategic information needs of top management. Top executives get the information they need from many sources, including letters, memos, periodicals, and reports produced manually as well as by computer systems. The goal of computer-based executive information systems is to provide top management with immediate and easy access to selective information about key factors that are critical to accomplishing a firm's strategic objectives.