Chapter One: Business driven Technology

Difference Between Management Information System & Information Technology

Management Information System:

Information Systems is a large umbrella referring to systems designed to create, store, manipulate, or disseminate information. Example of an information system is a pencil and a piece of paper. The two objects themselves are just tools, but together they create a system for writing (information). The term Information systems has been around a lot longer than the computer, or the term information technology. These days the two are sometimes thought to be synonymous, but that, in most cases is a misconception. 


Information Technology:

Information technology falls under the information systems umbrella, but has nothing to do with systems per say. IT deals with the technology involved in the systems themselves, e.g. an information system like wiki.answers.com contains many information technologies. Servers, server operating systems, web-server software (IIS, Apache, et al), and code written for the web-server software (PHP, C#, VB, PERL, Ruby, et al). Even your computer and browser make up part of this information system. Like the pencil and paper example, each one of the mentioned parts of this information system in itself is an information technology. 

That being said, most people in the profession no longer make a distinction. Moreover, companies call their IS/IT department a wide range of titles based on more on culture and tradition than anything else.



Relationship Between People, Information & Information Technology

•Information-Functional Culture - 

   Employees use information as a means of exercising influence or power over others. For example, a manager in sales refuses to share information with marketing. This causes marketing to need the sales manager’s input each time a new sales strategy is developed.

•Information-Sharing Culture  - 

   Employees across departments trust each other to use information (especially about problems and failures) to improve performance.

•Information-Inquiring Culture - 

   Employees across departments search for information to better understand the future and align themselves with current trends and new directions.

•Information-Discovery Culture - 

   Employees across departments are open to new insights about crisis and radical changes and seek ways to create competitive advantages.