The importance and future of MIS

Gina DiNardo

MIS is not solely technology; it encompasses information systems that support not only business processes and operations, but also decision-making and competitive strategies within a business. As others have mentioned, and what I completely agree with is that technology is clearly the driver and heart of a business but MIS incorporates this technology with certain business strategies and tactics to improves and support operations. What could be cost efficient and effective from a business stand point might be to outsource tech applications, or rent rather than purchase and install an expensive ERP system; none of which can be understood or appreciated without a background in the exciting field of MIS. MIS takes technology to a higher level, making it work for the business it happens to be associated with. Without adopting the improvements that have been made in technology throughout the years, such as streamlining business operations with databases, ERP systems, CRM software etc, businesses would not be able to function as well as they do today.

MIS is my secondary major, but even so, I have found that a background in MIS can be pertinent to any career choice you might make. Students, especially with a background in MIS can be a very valuable asset to a division of a company where not many others will value the importance of how technology practically runs the business. Without an MIS background you can’t really appreciate the integration of information and technology which works to ultimately enhance the business practices you work with day in and day out. When I was interviewing for my position with KPMG, the partner I interviewed with seemed intrigued by my choice of double majoring in MIS. We must have spent a good 20 minutes discussing classes I had taken, what I could bring to the firm with what I have learned, and how I could potentially apply this knowledge to my position within the company. While this may not have necessarily won me the job, it was certainly a great way to differentiate myself from other candidates. Put very simply, one of my tasks at KPMG will be analyzing business reports in order to properly valuate other companies. As Scott and Greg mentioned, XBRL, which is an emerging XML-based standard to define and exchange business and financial performance information, is currently being used by KPMG. XBRL can be viewed as a system of bar codes for financial statements. It allows companies to use nationally and internationally common “tags” to identify individual reporting concepts that exist in a corporate report. It allows context to be communicated along with content. XBRL facilitates the communication of entire reports, avoiding "template reporting," which can be misleading and inaccurate, and allows the standardization of common business reporting concepts while providing flexibility to extend the vocabulary to meet individual circumstances. Receiving financial reports in real time will allow me to efficiently analyze and make the most accurate valuations possible; a very significant task to my position within the firm.

So while I was writing this paper, I was talking to my roommate who was looking up the time difference between the east coast and Mexico. After a quite successful Google search of what she was looking for she said, Laurlen15: what did people do before the internet and google? Laurlen15: thats how i find out everything i need to know. People these days are currently relying increasingly more on the internet and its extensive capabilities, stemming far beyond, but certainly starting with simple Google searches. When I told her about the blog I was writing for class she naively replied, Laurlen15: apparently blogs are the future, Laurlen15: my boss at work is obsessed. Blogs certainly are a wave of the future, as is Web 2.0 as a whole. I believe that the future of Web 2.0 will stem from the creativity of the users who create it, and also those that contribute to it. People just need to figure out how to get involved and how to successfully use Web 2.0 to their advantage. I read an article stating that Web 2.0's principal appeal is empowerment. More capable computers, high-speed Internet connections, and user-friendly Web 2.0 services give individuals the ability to perform sophisticated tasks without having to seek permission from overtaxed information technology departments. Web 2.0 is also being integrated into corporations. Companies are starting to learn from MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking services. The reason for this is because businesses are, in a sense, social networks formed to make or sell something. LinkedIn is an online service for people to post career profiles and search for prospective employees, and is becoming a major corporate recruiting source.

Overall, MIS is information, it is technology, and most importantly it is the combination of the two in order to support the ever important process of decision making. The future of MIS is people, and how they interact with and contribute to the Web, technology, and its extensive capabilities.

Just a Small Piece in the MIS Puzzle.

Greg Drocz

There I sat in the cramped, cluttered office, impatiently fanning through the neatly typed blue brochure that had been handed to me. In gold lettering, “Villanova School of Commerce & Finance: Academic Programs” was scrawled across the front. Startling me and forgetting I was only 3 feet from him, the booming voice of my academic advisor said, “So what do you want to minor in?” With a shrug I answered, “MIS I guess”, not really knowing what I had chosen. “Oh, computers,” he replied “that’ll go well with the accounting degree.” And with that brief encounter with my advisor 3 years ago I had chosen my minor - even though I would not take a minor course until the fall of my senior year. For the next two years family members and friends would ask how school was going and what I was majoring in. “Accounting major/MIS minor” was my standard reply. I could tell by their faces the abbreviation of MIS threw them for a loop. “Management Information Systems” I’d then say. Still blank faces. “Computers”, yup, now they understood. Now that I am about to complete my minor, my answer of “computers” shows just how misunderstood I was about the field. Management Information Systems isn’t just computers. Its technology, its information and it’s the use of these two combined to make intelligent decisions.

Upon graduating, I will be working for Ernst & Young in their real estate auditing practice. As an auditor I can see numerous places where MIS will weave its way into my daily work however one area sticks out the most. A proposal has been made by members of the Big 4, Grant Thornton and BDO Seidman to have companies move towards the use of XBRL to report financial information – a form of reporting previously mention by Scott in a previous post. What does this mean for me as an accountant and an auditor? The access to real time financial data and user customized statements in place of standardized accounting statements. Being real time, XBRL may bring with it the ability to weed out misstatements by management. If information will be presented real time to the auditor, management of the companies being audited have harder time “cooking the books”. This in turn will also provide greater assurance to those who use the valuable information attested to by the auditor – the investors. In addition to XBRL, I see biometrics as something that I will encounter in my work experience. During the assessment of a company’s internal controls we may deem a company to have poor internal controls as to many employees have the ability to access and change information. We may then recommend biometrics, such as a fingerprint scan, in order to allow only those with proper clearance to access the information.

Work is not the only place where I see myself integrated into the world of MIS. The emergence of Web 2.0 will integrate everyone, or rather everyone willing to participate, into the world of MIS. As we saw in the video on YouTube, Web 2.0 is and will be what the users make of it. It truly has endless possibilities. Blogs, Wiki’s, MySpace, Facebook, and RSS feeds are just the beginning. The key thing with all of these is information and the use of this information is just starting to be tapped. Like Danielle, I envision a time where I receive, via other mediums such as cell phone or visual advertisement, personalized offers for goods and services based on the information that I have contributed to this vast Web 2.0. In fact, we’re already starting to see that. Log into Facebook and there is a company trying to sell movie posters in an advertisement on the side bar. What movies posters? It displays the actual posters of movies that I have listed in my “Favorite Movie” category. Empty your favorite movies and generic posters will be advertised to you. This is just a small example of how Web 2.0 will be such a valuable tool and those who contribute will get the most out of it.

Now that I am about to complete my minor I again realize how my answer of “computers” to friends and family was so far off base. MIS is more then that. It about information, using technology to access that information and using that information to make decisions – and we are just a piece in this puzzle.

"The real time reporting utopia?" http://www.it-analysis.com/business/content.php?cid=8977

MIS Post-Graduation

Joe Piscetta

I picked up my second major of MIS because I thought I needed something to differentiate me from every other Finance major in the business school. I knew that I liked computers and that I was pretty good with them; well, at least better with them than some of my friends. What I didn’t know was what MIS even was. Looking back now, I am very glad that I decided to take on the double major. I probably got the job that I got because of my MIS major. This summer after graduation, I will begin working for BearingPoint in their Enterprise Resource Planning division as a consultant. There will be a lot of traveling involved and I really am not sure what I got myself into. I could be doing anything from looking at trends in the technology market to doing due diligence for the company. With due diligence I would be helping the firm and its investors learn the profitability and marketability of its products and services. It is important to know how big the margins will be for the new product/service as well as how big the target market is before you invest all your money in it. Another key factor in determining the product/service’s value is whether or not it is unique; how easily can the product/service differentiate itself from a similar product/service of a competitor’s.

I actually will be in the Oracle practice of BearingPoint so I am sure I will get very familiar with PeopleSoft and ERP systems in general. ERP systems attempt to integrate all data and processes of an organization into a unified system. A typical ERP system will use multiple components of computer software and hardware to achieve the integration. I know that ERP has now shown itself to be a worthwhile investment for many companies and that these organizations are also looking to extract even more value from their existing ERP systems. Shifts in corporate structure and new compliance requirements are driving the need for improved access to information and cost savings. In order to realize greater return on investment from ERP systems, the actual ERP applications have to be specifically tailored to more effectively support adaptive business processes and help drive growth. What I will be attempting to do is strategically align the firm’s technology assets with their business processes. The outcome of this is that it will reduce their total cost of ownership and improve responsiveness, quality and return on investment. As Joe stated in his blog, “SOA is not just a phase; it is a movement and a base on which to build information structures for business and the internet.” I learned that BearingPoint and my position utilize their experience with service-oriented architecture and also business process management to help accelerate the creation of agile, flexible systems to better address today’s marketplace and operational demands.

I will be attempting to sell to people and companies that whether you are upgrading your current ERP system or implementing a new one, it can help you unite people, process and strategy easily. It also will help you create flexible technology solutions as well as deploy timely and much more accurate information across the entire enterprise. A successful ERP solution helps a company gain several key factors in their industry. By achieving process innovations that facilitate greater integration and help your company focus organizational attention on prioritized demands your company will receive greater operational efficiency. An effective ERP system will also display a faster time to benefit for the company. By having an industry-tailored application from BearingPoint, it speeds their time of delivery and it reduces project risk to help the company get their process and system up and running faster. With agile IT architecture, applications can respond faster and more effectively to changes in business process coming within the organization or from the marketplace; this gives the company improved business responsiveness. ERP solutions can also help reduce IT expenditures. Effective reuse of IT assets helps realize sustainable cost reductions from your IT function and makes resources available to deploy toward growth initiatives. We learned in class that ERP applications can also extract information from your pre-existing data warehouses; this in turn, has led to DBMS technology becoming more of a commodity recently. All in all, I believe that the industry I will be working in is going to continue to grow, and as long as I can show companies the benefits of ERP solutions I will be able to maintain a job for several years.

A Little History and My Interest in MIS

Kevin Fisher

The field of Management Information Systems has really come into the spotlight of late with all the business that is being done over the internet. Since the inception of the internet large companies and small companies have been able to come together in one online marketplace. This marketplace is available to any person with a computer around the entire world. Consumers can go online to purchase anything from clothing to software in just a few clicks of the mouse. MIS comes into play with all this in the way in which companies take care of business over the internet. In order to perform ecommerce, companies must have the ability both financially and technologically to take care of orders and manage all the other aspects of selling items online. Also, companies can take advantage of many other things that the internet makes possible such as advertising to a large, international audience and observing the processes of other companies.

The internet is not the only thing that the MIS concentrates on. It also looks at ways in which companies can improve their internal business processes by integrating departments with the use of networks, databases and software. This integration can be very expensive to implement but by doing so companies can improve their entire business and cut unnecessary costs. With the integration of departments and the cutting of costs along with the audience that the internet reaches, firms that keep track of the advances in the MIS field can greatly improve their profits.

All though the internet reaches a huge amount of people there are still people that do not have access to the internet and the speeds at which the people are accessing the internet changes greatly from place to place. This difference in connection speed and availability is known as the last mile broadband and is a major topic in the MIS field. As technology is growing and chips and computer power are getting smaller and faster respectfully, the difference in the way in which people are accessing the internet is becoming faster. It used to be that dial up using modems was the fastest way in which to access the internet. As more and more people started to access the internet the technology began to evolve and cable modems and DSL were discovered. These two technologies made it possible for people to access the internet at a way faster speed. Up until today cable has been the fastest way to surf the internet but as of recently the implementation of fiber optic has created a huge buzz in industry and the speeds of access are going to rise significantly once again.

With so much business being done over the internet companies must always monitor their processes to look out for problems and be able to fix those problems at a moments notice. Companies are not the only ones who need all time access to the internet and it is for this reason that technologies such as networking and wireless have become a major issue in the field of MIS. As technology has evolved so has home networking devices and software. Homes are becoming able to take advantage of this technology and are building home networks that have enough power to do what some small businesses are able to do. Wireless is probably one the biggest things that is affecting people. People want to be connected at all times and with WiFi and WiMax technologies they can achieve this. People can leave their homes without having to leave the internet and with computers getting more powerful and smaller by the day they can bring the internet with them. It is just a matter of time before a computer will not even be needed and the internet will be able to be accessed from phones and PDA’s.

These are the reasons that MIS is a very important field and one of the reasons that I choose MIS as a major here at Villanova. While some areas are learned in college and no further stuff is needed to learn in order to continue in that field that is not the case at all in MIS. If one wants to be successful in the field of MIS they must continue to learn even after leaving college because technology will continue to evolve and people must keep up on these emerging technologies.

Web 2.0, Web 3.0, and Change.Infinite

Steven Ishak

“According to former Secretary of Education Richard Riley, the top ten jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004” (scottmcleod.org). This quote is extremely exciting, yet frightening for any college student graduating within the next few years. We’ve now come to a point in time where many of the things we learn about technology one year will quickly become outdated two to three years down the line. This statement means that we, as technologically savvy people, must be constantly aware of the advances taking place and be able to understand how to implement them into advancing our businesses’ strategies as oppose to how to actually use and operate them.

In a quest for understanding the rapid advances of technology we must first understand the most important underlying theme that is driving all of these advances: mass customization. In an effort to better understand the peer-to-peer traffic on the internet, we are now developing what we know as Web 2.0. “Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second-generation of Web-based services…that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users” (Wikipedia.com). Examples of Web 2.0 sites include facebook.com, youtube.com, and myspace.com. All of these sites are user content driven sites and allows for communication and personalization that has never been seen before. In addition to these networking sites, companies are now revolutionizing their own websites in order to better serve their customers. For example, being a huge basketball fan, I am constantly visiting one of my favorite sites, www.nba.com. Recently I just noticed they have now come up a new feature called an “NBA Widget.” This allows you to implant information about your favorite player, team, or scores to your own personal networking website or search engine such as Google.com so you are constantly informed about the latest news even though you are not on the nba.com site.

As stated earlier, technology is changing at an incredibly fast pace. Nearly 4 weeks ago, I heard of the term Web 2.0 for the first time in my life. While researching information on Web 2.0 to write this blog I couldn’t help but notice coming across another buzz word: Web 3.0. When I first noticed this term my thought was “what the hell is going on? Here I am trying to learn about what I had thought was some new fancy buzz word and by the time I truly understand it, it would have become outdated. What I really should be doing is learning more about Web 3.0 and speculate what Web 4.0 might be like.” So I did just that.

Since Web 3.0 is an extremely new buzz word the information about it is rather limited. One definition for Web 3.0 is “the realization of composite applications that provide easy, transparent and organized access to ‘the world’s information’. Another definition proposed by Nova Spivack [founder of Radar Networks], proposes that a more objective way to define Web 3.0 is as the third decade of the Web, to take place from the year 2010 to 2020. Spivack suggests that Web 2.0 has largely been focused on front-end user-interface improvements such as AJAX, while Web 3.0 will shift the focus back to the backend -- the underlying technologies of the Web, enabled by Semantic Web technologies” (wikipedia.com). Also Web 3.0 is believed to also become the evolution of a 3-Dimensional internet. This is a feature that can be of great interest to companies in regards to mass customization. Web 3.0 is seen as an “era when machines will start to do seemingly intelligent things”(nytimes.com). For example, if a user is doing a search on Web 3.0 to find a good hotel “concepts like room temperature, bed comfort and hotel price, and can distinguish between concepts like ‘great,’ ‘almost great’ and ‘mostly O.K.’ to provide useful direct answers. Whereas today’s travel recommendation sites force people to weed through long lists of comments and observations left by others, the Web 3.0 system would weigh and rank all of the comments and find, by cognitive deduction, just the right hotel for a particular user.”(nytimes.com)

If the Web 3.0 system is ever completely created the only step I could see being done after that, aka “Web 4.0,” is complete artificial intelligence where machines could one day search, find, and order our specific wants and desires for us with minimal input into the devices. Although it seems a little far fetched right now, I do believe that is the direction where we are heading and it may be attainable in the near future.

Now what does all this have to do with me? Being a senior, MIS major and hoping to find a job in basically any IT department of any company, this evolution of the internet has a huge effect on any future jobs I may have and I need to be aware of the constant changes of the internet. More importantly, I hope to one day have a business of my own, and nowadays it is very difficult to own a successful company without also owning a successful website. So truly understanding the constant changing forces of what drives a successful website is extremely important in making that success possible.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin

http://www.scottmcleod.org/didyouknow.wmv

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_3.0#Web_3.0_technologies

Markoff, John, “Entrepreneurs See a Web Guided by Common Sense” http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/business/12web.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5088&en=254d697964cedc62&ex=1320987600