A management information system is made up of five major components namely people, business processes, data, hardware, and software. All of these components must work together to achieve business objects.
People – these are the users who use the information system to record the day to day business transactions. The users are usually qualified professionals such as accountants, human resource managers, etc. The ICT department usually has the support staff who ensure that the system is running properly.
Business Procedures: these are agreed upon best practices that guide the users and all other components on how to work efficiently. Business procedures are developed by the people i.e. users, consultants, etc.
Data: the recorded day to day business transactions. For a bank, data is collected from activities such as deposits, withdrawals, etc.
Hardware: hardware is made up of the computers, printers, networking devices, etc. The hardware provides the computing power for processing data. It also provides networking and printing capabilities. The hardware speeds up the processing of data into information.
Software: these are programs that run on the hardware. The software is broken down into two major categories namely system software and applications software. System software refers to the operating system i.e. Windows, Mac OS, and Ubuntu, etc. Applications software refers to specialized software for accomplishing business tasks such as a Payroll program, banking system, point of sale system, etc.
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