How to design your Management Information System

Information systems in business, inasmuch as they exist at all, are usually out of step with the needs of management. The skills and insights needed to manage information are lagging behind the technology to process data - the gap between the two is widening Many new areas of essential management knowledge have emerged, few business information systems are able to cope with these extended needs Management information systems are still designed to monitor internal historical events rather than to scan the business environment for future opportunities This paper identifies the specific abilities which companies must have to survive during the 1980s and it draws inferences for the architecture and management of information systems to enable those abilities to be developed. The paper concludes by suggesting a number of specific ways in which marketing researchers could serve the future needs of business