Information Systems
Short for management information system or management information services, and pronounced as separate letters, MIS (Management Information System) refers broadly to a computer-based system that provides managers with the tools for organizing, evaluating and efficiently running their departments. In order to provide past, present and prediction information, an MIS (Management Information System) can include software that helps in decision making, data resources such as databases, the hardware resources of a system, decision support systems, people management and project management applications, and any computerized processes that enable the department to run efficiently.
Within companies and large organizations, the department responsible for computer systems is sometimes called the MIS (Management Information System) department. Other names for Management information system MIS include IS (Information Services) and IT (Information Technology).
Marketing Information Systems
Marketing activities are directed toward planning, promoting, and selling goods and services to satisfy the needs of customers and the objectives of the organization.
Marketing information systems support decision making regarding the marketing mix. These include:
1. Product
2. Price
3. Place
4. Promotion
The illustrates the structure of the entire marketing information system. In order to support decision making on the marketing mix, a marketing information system draws on several sources of data and information.
Sources of Data and Information for Marketing: Boundary-Spanning and Transaction Processing Subsystems
A marketing information system relies on external information to a far greater degree than other organizational information systems. It includes two subsystems designed for boundary spanning - bringing into the firm data and information about the marketplace.
The objective of marketing research is to collect data on the actual customers and the potential customers, known as prospects. The identification of the needs of the customer is a fundamental starting point for Total Quality Management (TQM). Electronic commerce on the WEB makes it easy to compile statistics on actual buyer behaviour.
Marketing research software supports statistical analysis of data. It enables the firm to correlate buyer behaviour with very detailed geographic variables, demographic variables, and psychographic variables.
Marketing (competitive) intelligence is responsible for the gathering and interpretation of data regarding the firm's competitors, and for the dissemination of the competitive information to the appropriate users. Most of the competitor information comes from corporate annual reports, media-tracking services, and from reports purchased from external providers, including on-line database services. The Internet has become a major source of competitive intelligence.
Marketing Mix Subsystems/Marketing Strategy
The marketing strategy subsystems support decision making regarding product introduction, pricing, promotion (advertising and personal selling), and distribution. These decisions are integrated into the sales forecast and marketing plans against which the ongoing sales results are compared.
Marketing mix subsystems include:
1. Product subsystem
2. Place subsystem
3. Promotion subsystem
4. Price subsystem
5. Sales forecasting
Product Subsystem-Information Systems
The product subsystem helps to plan the introduction of new products. Continually bringing new products to market is vital in today's competitive environment of rapid change. The product subsystem should support balancing the degree of risk in the overall new-product portfolio, with more aggressive competitors assuming higher degrees of risk for a potentially higher payoff.
Although decisions regarding the introduction of new products are unstructured, information systems support this process in several ways:
1. Professional support systems assist designers in their knowledge work
2. DSSs are used to evaluate proposed new products
3. With a DSS, a marketing manager can score the desirability of a new product.
4. Electronic meeting systems help bring the expertise of people dispersed in space and time to bear on the problem
5. Information derived from marketing intelligence and research is vital in evaluating new product ideas.
Place Subsystem-Information Systems
The place subsystem assists the decision makers in making the product available to the customer at the right place at the right time. The place subsystem helps plan the distribution channels for the product and track their performance.
The use of information technology has dramatically increased the availability of information on product movement in the distribution channel. Examples include:
1. Bar-coded Universal Product Code (UPC)
2. Point-of-sale (POS) scanning
3. Electronic data interchange (EDI)
4. Supports just-in-time product delivery and customized delivery
Promotion Subsystem-Information Systems
The promotion subsystem is often the most elaborate in the marketing information system, since it supports both personal selling and advertising. Media selection packages assist in selecting a mix of avenues to persuade the potential purchaser, including direct mail, television, print media, and the electronic media such as the Internet and the WEB in particular. The effectiveness of the selected media mix is monitored and its composition is continually adjusted.
Database marketing relies on the accumulation and use of extensive databases to segment potential customers and reach tem with personalized promotional information.
The role of telemarketing, marketing over the telephone, has increased. Telemarketing calls are well supported by information technology.
Sales management is thoroughly supported with information technology. Customer profitability analysis help identify high-profit and high-growth customers and target marketing efforts in order to retain and develop these accounts.
Sales force automation, involves equipping salespeople with portable computers tied into the corporate information systems. This gives the salespeople instantaneous access to information and frees them from the reporting paperwork. This increases selling time and the level of performance. Access to corporate databases is sometimes accompanied by access to corporate expertise, either by being able to contact the experts or by using expert systems that help specify the product meeting customer requirements.
Price Subsystem-Information Systems
Pricing decisions find a degree of support from DSSs and access to databases that contain industry prices. These highly unstructured decisions are made in pursuit of the companys pricing objectives. General strategies range from profit maximization to forgoing a part of the profit in order to increase a market share.
Information systems provide an opportunity to finely segment customer groups, and charge different prices depending on the combination of products and services provided, as well as the circumstances of the sale transaction.
Sales Forecasting-Information Systems
Based on the planned marketing mix and outstanding orders, sales are forecast and a full marketing plan is developed. Sale forecasting is an area where any quantitative methods employed must be tempered with human insight and experience. The actual sales will depend to a large degree on the dynamics of the environment.
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