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.