Management information systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Management information systems - Essay Example It is through obtaining such information, that the management of an organization is therefore able to improve its decision making capabilities, since it can now base its decisions on the accurate information regarding the company’s internal and external environmental factors. The major distinction between Management information systems and the other forms of information systems is that the management information systems enables an organization to analyze the organizational operational activities, and thereby facilitate strategic choices for the company, owing to the consideration of both the internal and the external factors influencing the organization’s operations (Lucey, 2004). ... The management information systems used in Wal-Mart are based in the information department, which comprises of a hierarchy of information specialists, who assists in the collection, analysis, interpretation and distribution of vital information regarding the organization and its internal as well as external environment, for the subsequent decision-making by the organizations top management. After the management accesses the gathered and interpreted data and information, it then plans for the subsequent implementation of the necessary actions to ensure that the business is able to overcome the challenges it faces, while capitalizing on the identified areas of its strengths (Wailgum, 2007). Thus, the Wal-Mart information system comprises of a senior systems information analyst at the top of the hierarchy, who is assisted by the business systems information analyst who is the second in command, followed by the senior business information manager, who is in turn subordinated by the rele vant sectional information managers, assisted by supervisors, and then the employees at the levels below (Wailgum, 2007). The whole department is under the leadership of the Executive Vice-President of the organization, who is also the Chief Information Officer. The organization has established a data collection and storage system based at the Jane Data Center, which has a massive capacity of 460 terabytes, enabling the organization to collect varied forms of information from within the organization and its external environments, for the purpose of storing such data and eventually analyzing it to enable the organization make informed decisions regarding its