Practical applications of MIS are for example the Balanced Scorecards, the electronic dashboard and financial data systems.

Balanced Scorecards are part of the Management Information System. Balanced Scorecards are very useful to monitor the progress of the organisation or department along a variety of dimensions: financial, customer focus, internal processes and learning. Good financial results are then the outcome of a strong customer focus, solid internal processes and good learning processes. Although it was developed for companies in the mid-west of the US, the Balanced Scorecard has been proven to work in a wider setting. For further details, I refer to the books by Kaplan and Norton.

Some companies have an internal website with a so-called dashboard on which important measures (key success factors) for the company are on display. Employees can deduce the 'health' of the organisation from this electronic dashboard. This is a very useful way for management to communicate and discuss the strategy and tactics of the company. What could be on the electronic dashboard? It depends on the company. But for a chemical company, it could be the availability of plants (% of time on stream) etc.


Finally, each company needs an overview of income and costs etc. Companies use internal financial data systems to be able to formulate the Profit & Loss (income) statement and cash flow statement. It goes without saying that companies can't do without such a system.

I hope of some use!

Dr. Francine van Looij MBA

Pls i really need to get more information on financial data system,thanks