The role of MIS has changed and expended over the last four decades.
Decade 1 - (1950's - 1960's): "Elecsystems" could be afforded by only the largest organizations. The were used to record and store book keeping data such as journal entries, specialized journals, and ledems were used to generate a limited range of predefined reports, including income statements (they were called P & L back then), balance sheets and sales report. They were trying to perform a decision making support role, but they were not upto the task.
Decade 2 - (197o's - 1980's): By the 1970's "decision support system" were introduced. They were interactive in the sense that they allowed the user to choose between numerous options and configurations. Not only was the user allowed to customize outputs, they also could configure the programs to their specific needs. There was a tough. As part of your mainframe leasing agreement, you typically had to pay to have an IBM system developer permanently on site.
Decade 3 - (1980's - 1990's) : The main development in the 1980s was the introduction of decentralized computing. Instead of having one large mainframe computer for the entire enterprise, numerous PC's were spread around the organization. This meant that instead of submitting a job to the computer department for batch processing and waiting for the experts to perform the procedure, each user had their own computer that they could customize for their own purposes. Many poor souls fought with the vagaries of DOS protocols, BIOS functions, and DOS batch programming.
As people became comfortable with their new skills, they discovered all the things their system was capable of Computers, instead of creating a paperless society, as was expected, produced mountains of paper, most of it valueless. Mounds of reports were generated just because it was possible to do so. This information overload was mitigated somewhat in the 1980's with the introduction of "executive information system". They streamlined the process, giving the executive exactly what they wanted, and only what they wanted.
The 1980's also saw the first commercial application of Artificial Inteligence techniques in the form of "expert system". These programs could give advice within a very limited subject area. The promiise of decision making support, first attempted in management information systems back in the 1960's had step-by-step, come to fruition.
Decade 4 - (1990's - 2005) : The 1990's saw the introduction of the "Strategic Information System". These system used information technology to enable the concepts of business strategy developed by scholars like M. Porter, T. Peters, J. Reise, C. Markides, and J. Bamey in the 1980s.
Decade 5 - (2006 - Onward) : The role of Management information Systems had now expanded to include strategic support. The latest step was the commercialization of the Internet, and the growth of intranets and extranets at the turn of the century.
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