Abstract

     Considering constantly increasing global competition in the market and developing technologies, information systems (ISs) have become an important component of the business world and a vital component of intelligent systems. An IS provides support for planning, controlling, analyzing activities, and support in decisions by managing data throughout the organization to assist executives in their decisions. The main function of an IS is to collect data spread between various parts of the organization and business partners and to process these collected data to form reliable information, which is required for decision making. Another critical function of an IS is to transfer the necessary information to the point-of-need in a timely manner. ISs assist in the conversion of data and information into meaningful outcomes. An IS is a combination of software, data storage hardware, related infrastructure, and people in the organization that use the system. Many business organizations rely on management information systems (MISs), and they conduct their critical operations based on these systems. The existence of an efficient MIS is a requirement for the sustainability of any business. However, MIS’s efficiency depends on the business’s requirements and nature. The compatibility of MIS with business in the company is vital for the successful implementation of these systems. The current study analyzes differences in expectations of manufacturing and service industries from MISs. For this aim, a fuzzy multi-criteria group decision-making (F-MCGDM) model is proposed to determine the differentiating success factors of MIS in both manufacturing and service industries. Findings indicate that there are considerable differences in the needs of both industries from MIS.

Introduction

     The availability of processed data is critical for any type of business, especially in a highly competitive environment, because real-time access to correct information provides executives of an organization to achieve an advantage against their competitors by taking efficient, effective, timely, and strategically reliable decisions. Collecting the required data, processing to convert it into information, and storing this information are the main functions of an IS. These systems are defined as the combination of people, hardware, software, data, procedures, and policies [1]. People in the system are called end users or clients, who use, develop and operate the system. IS design is made toward end users’ requirements by system analysts. Hardware includes computers and other equipment related to the process, storage, and transfer of data. Additionally, this hardware is a physical interface between the IS software and the end user. All these components interact with each other to handle information that flows inside the organization, and in many cases between peers in the supply chain.

     Most organizations require an information technology (IT) infrastructure. IT is concerned with modern enterprise management functions such as manufacturing, marketing, banking, and financing [2]. A well-designed IT infrastructure is a necessity for a well-performing IS. If IS is thought of as a production process in a manufacturing facility, information can be assumed as the final product. If the final product (information) cannot be delivered under a certain lead time and if it does not meet the customers’ (clients’) requirements, customers will not be satisfied with the product, and the company will lose its customers and future revenues [3]. IT contributes to innovation efforts by supplying increased communication and coordination between different departments and helps reduce the cost of transactions in an organization [4]. A successfully implemented IS, supported by a sufficient IT infrastructure, increases the performance of the whole supply chain of the organization via increased flexibility achieved in all operations between the peers in the chain [5].

Conclusions

     Requirements of today’s businesses increased the importance of ISs. Rapidly changing market conditions and customer needs force companies to react quickly to these changes. Adapting to constantly developing technological trends requires the existence of an effective MIS in organizations to aid executives in their decisions to acquire a sustainable business. However, ensuring the successful implementation of MIS requires a good fit of these systems with the organization’s business. Understanding the differences in business needs and differentiating factors related to MIS’s success must be determined for different industries. Therefore, an F-MCGDM framework is proposed in this study to fill the gap in the literature by determining the differences in expectations of manufacturing and service industries from MIS.

     The application of the proposed F-MCGDM framework to manufacturing and service industries to evaluate the success factors of MISs revealed a considerable difference between the expectations and requirements of companies in these industries from the MISs. Selecting the right MIS according to the most important factors of the company by considering the differentiating factors is important for the actual performance of MISs after the implementation.