What is the difference between an information system and an information management system?

Often, they are used interchangeably. Basically, think of an Information System (IS)as that system that is used by and accessable to everyone. Any factory worker may use an Information System to look up a part, or you may use an Information System in the library to find a book. The Management Information System, or MIS, is that system that is used by management to make management decisions. So the factory worker may not have access to the MIS, but the CEO would use the MIS to schedule work flow, hire more employees, make decisions about building new factories. The librarian in your local library would use the IS to find a book but an MIS to schedule other librarians to work on peak traffic days.

Management Information Systems is alao a type of software which allows the adminstrator on a network the ability to control how programs, data and information is accesed, used and so on.

• These systems allow the administrator access to information on the welfare or security of the network.
• Jobs such as daily task creation, routine backups and database population, etc. can be controlled and automated to run at will or at preset times.
• With these systems, access to the people, data and programs on the company intranet becomes a snap with reports and visual information.
• A large number of things such as computers, system security levels and people can be controlled by these systems.
• A MIS will usually sit on top of and contol the actual information system, which is the base and structure of a company network or corporate knowledgebase of the underlying company as it were.
• These systems also allows an administrator to automate some repetitious tasks.

When companies build a network of data, poeople, programs and such this information can become quite extensive and cumbersome, and very hard to manage - hence the MIS to control it in an organized fashion.