What is Management Information System

Strategic planning is a matter of mapping the route between the perceived present circumstances and the desired future situation. Strategic management adapts higher education institutions (HEI) to their environment including educational policy, local demand for skilled labor, and other factors. The purpose of HEIs is to positively affect the development of society and the local community. The balanced scorecard approach developed by Kaplan and Norton (2001, 2004, 2006) is a framework for the communication and implementation of the strategy. The approach creates a shared understanding of the strategic plan by describing the plan using strategy maps, strategic objectives, measures and target values for the planning period (Niven, 2005). The balanced scorecard approach can be combined with other approaches and management tools. The purpose of this article is to report on a development project where the balanced scorecard approach was applied in the management information system MIS) of an HEI. The MIS integrates the different approaches of management into human resources (HR) planning. It is important that the balanced scorecard approach is supported by the MIS. This is especially critical in large organizations. Many administrative units and organizational levels emphasize the importance of automation enabling management to consistently aggregate the scorecards of lower organizational levels to the overall scorecard. The MIS with a portal is a valuable communication channel, information processor, management tool and the joint memory of the organization. The empirical part of the article describes the MIS of the Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS), where the MIS is based on strategic management and the balanced scorecard approach. The system integrates budgeting, action plans, HR planning and quality management. The data warehouse approach is used to capture data from the diverse source systems and to store the data in an integrated database. An MIS portal was developed to support the management process and be open to the personnel of the institution. The portal supports the dialogue and commitment of the personnel to the strategic outlines. The portal is open to management and the personnel of the institution.