What is Information Systems Management?

Okay, So What Exactly is Information Systems Management?

Open a stock market investment with $1,200. Add $1,200 from your pay every month for 20 years, at the average return rate of the stock market (12.07 percent), and at the end of only two decades you will have $1,057,730.23.

So maybe now you are asking yourself, “What exactly is Information Systems Management, anyway?” 

Information Systems By the Numbers

Educated people capable of information systems management could find work in certain key industries:

  • Healthcare
  • Cloud computing
  • Mobile services
  • Finance
  • Security

What Does an Information Systems Manager Do?

Information Systems Managers (aka information technology—IT—managers) perform work of great value to companies. Mid- to large-size companies utilize IT managers to fill several roles related to computer-based information: 

  • Plan for technology needs
  • Coordinate systems within a company
  • Oversee and direct daily operations of the IT departments

Besides maintaining and repairing current IT systems from the sales force’s notebooks and netbooks to backing up critical financial data on mainframes nightly, IT managers plan for future technology, selecting systems and supervising technology add-ons. 

A Taste of the ISM Life

If you have been frustrated by your own attempts installing a wireless router in your own home, loading tax software every year, or repeatedly purchasing new laptops every two to three years, you have a sense of what information systems management (ISM) is all about. Not only must ISM departments handle hardware needs, they must solve software dilemmas. They must keep current systems talking to each other while planning for future growth. They must peer across the horizon and divine the future. Working in ISM is a challenging, but rewarding, field. 

Beyond your own home, you may have explored ISM at school, because from high school through graduate schools, technology sharpens young minds. Did you play Oregon Trail? (Born after 1980? Look it up!) Prepare Power Point book reports? Build your own website? All of these applications of computer technology are made possible by Information Systems Managers. The transparent use of these technologies—the ease with which you used them, unaware of the planning and work behind them—means the folks in ISM did their jobs. 

Educated & Engrossed

IT managers and information systems managers must combine business smarts with computer skills. The work is uniquely a blend of memes and men, Windows and women—you not only deal with hardware, you deal with people every day. You listen to department heads who are completely computer illiterate, coaxing from them their technology needs. You translate their earnest but vague desires into practical solutions. And then you diligently oversee all that hardware, update all that software, and educate employees in the use of both. 

Skilled workers in ISM must understand a company’s strategic goals, organizational structure, and financial constraints. IT managers must speak truth to power, too, when explaining what is or is not possible to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a company. 

Information Systems employees need to stay up to date on all innovations, not only to avoid expensive mistakes but to best select new technology to solve practical problems. Computer technology evolves quickly, and the IT department needs to evolve with it. 

To start your journey as an IT manager, begin by earning a Master of Science in Information Systems at ECPI. By contacting ECPI now, you could be on your way to a future in information systems management in as little as 15 months. It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!

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