Environmental Information Systems for Strategic Marketing Planning

M complex organizations have developed sophisticated information systems to support their decision making and other managerial activities. Indeed, the term management information systems (MIS) has become so pervasive that it is now used to describe a wide variety of data processing systems, some of which are only indirectly related to the management process. Usually such systems-even the ones that support management decisions-are almost exclusively concerned with the control function as applied to the operational activities of the organization; few are directly focused on the planning function or the strategic marketing decisions that are so critical to the organization's future. This emphasis on operations and control rather than planning and marketing has resulted in the creation of sophisticated systems for collecting, processing, and disseminating internally generated information such as costs, inventories, and personnel data; while relatively unsophisticated systems suffice for coping with critical externally generated environmental information. For instance, if one investigates the MIS development efforts of many firms, he finds that these efforts have begun by emphasizing cost and financial data systems and have evolved to incorporate other varieties of internal data. Usually only after these internal systems have been rather fully developed is attention given to the systematic collection and utilization of external information. Even then this function is usually performed in a narrow sales context that may not significantly encompass the