Information Systems For Management Decision Making

Mr. Krishna Janardhan
7-March, 2009

Jack Janardhan has held various responsible posts with firms like TISCO, IBM etc. His responsibilities have taken him to places like Nigeria, Dubai, and Bangladesh. In fact he was responsible for introducing the Computer Services Division in Tata Steel and headed it till 1980.

Mr. Jack Janardhan started the presentation by asking the students about what they understood by Information, System & Management as it is essential to know about these 3 terms to understand about Information systems for management. He defined information as anything which has an element of surprise in it and which requires some kind of response. A System is a set of interrelated components, which consists of hardware and software applications that work towards a common objective. Management is a set of interconnected functions. It consists of people, procedure and rules. Like Systems, it also works towards common objective.

Mr. Janandhan’s next question was “Why does management need information?” He explained it thus: information is needed to maintain operational control, to make necessary corrections, to keep the objective under focus all the time, to help for maintaining progress, to do a good job worth recognition. But he said the most important reason for need for information is gain to an initiative for tomorrow.

The major decisions to be taken regarding this are- the kind of information needed, the areas to be covered, the extent of coverage, how much is to be spent and to choose a slow & steady approach.

He explained how to decide on the decision factors by citing some examples:
We may be spending too much in service when we are not a service company- a wrong priority, obviously. Another example he gave was, when two figures on the same item presented by two departments do not tally- it shows a clear lack of common understanding and too much of compartmentalization.
What could be done to avoid such problems? The answer lies in Automation of Information Sector for better management control. Automate Book keeping, Automation of the back office, Batch processing are some of the first steps to be taken in this direction. The next step would consists of a) Replacing the manual forms with computer outputs, b)Essential front office systems and c)Keeping accounts and payrolls.Then it should be followed by Design ERP systems and Complete automation.

This cannot be achieved without a Good management commitment, taking timely actions, using well-known project management techniques and constant review of the work. The critical success factors are commitment and building reasonable redundancies. Through this session we learnt the importance and usefulness of the Information Systems for Management decision making.