Marketing information system (MIS) is the material resources in the complex, organizational methods, procedures, thanks to which the necessary information is collected accurately and on time, with the right frequency, processed and provided to the competent persons of the organization for their management decisions. Having implemented such a system, the organization is moving to global business practice, which, as it should be, is market oriented and provides competitive advantages. This is a kind of work with market information that allows you to more fully use the available opportunities and avoid threats. Marketing information system, its use allows to increase the competence of not only the management team, but also the whole company.
As noted earlier, the main objective is to provide the necessary marketing information to help make the right and timely management decisions. At the same time, the tasks performed can be divided into the following types:
- periodic monitoring;
- conducting research upon request.
Each normally developing company needs certain information: about consumers, competitors, empowerment, and solving current problems. If there is a need for special studies upon request, the company can perform them both independently and by involving agencies from the outside. The choice of the contractor, in this case, depends on whether the marketing information system is able to do this the way a professional agency would. Ability is determined by the availability of experience and IIA resources.
At the same time, the simplest studies or, conversely, unique ones are best done on their own. On the other hand, standard studies that involve obtaining primary information are better and cheaper than specialized agencies.
What should be noted is that the marketing information system in the company should be directly subordinate to the head. This is necessary in order to exclude a biased assessment of the situation, as well as a kind of guarantee of independent research results. The IIA form is determined by the tasks set and the size of the budget allocated for this.
Interaction with specialized agencies makes it possible to obtain the following result:
- research program developed by specialists;
- making connections and choosing a company in order to conduct the research itself;
- Together with the selected company, experts develop market research methods ;
- analysis is carried out;
- recommendations are made for decision-making based on research.
If the company itself does not have a specialist engaged in such activities, it would be wise to have permanent partnerships with one or two specialized agencies. In the course of constant communication, an understanding of the specifics of problems is achieved.
So, marketing information systems consist of:
- a system based on internal data (these are enterprise reports);
- information about changes in the environment;
- a marketing research system with the participation of specialists;
- analysis of the information received, decisions made in order to be able to improve the results.
Currently, the analysis of research results is carried out using a huge number of computer programs. Along with fairly simple, very complex options exist and are successfully used.