Real-Life Communication
MIS specialists are computer experts with an understanding of business
needs. In a way, they are the interface between the business world and computer
technology.
Good communication skills are essential. If there's
a problem with the computer system, the MIS specialist has to solve it. For
example, Mark Strandco, a management information systems analyst, has to be
able to pull out a manual and look up the answer.
MIS specialists need
to do research to find out if certain equipment, software or applications
are suitable for their company. They read trade magazines, computer software
manuals and understand business terminology. Everything they know, they have
to be able to communicate to others.
You're the MIS person for
a small but growing Internet company. One of the new employees has been having
trouble with her computer and various applications.
You've been
able to straighten things out, even though sometimes they were due to user
error, not computer error. Now she claims that her computer is sending bogus
e-mail attachments to people.
You go over and check things out. Quickly,
you realize that her computer has been infected with a new computer virus.
You see that the virus attaches itself to every outgoing e-mail without the
sender knowing.
The virus calls itself Happy04.exe and doesn't
look dangerous at all. In fact, it looks kind of cute. When someone opens
it, the virus installs itself onto their computer and then sends itself out
along with all of that person's outgoing e-mail.
This is a serious
threat to your company. Everyone talks via e-mail and the prospect of every
system being infected is a serious one indeed.
You decide that the
best way to handle this problem is to send an e-mail to everyone in your company.
Make your message compelling without inspiring panic. Make sure to tell people
they can avoid infecting their systems if they simply delete the attachment
without opening it.