Lessons learned from the implementation of a Management Information System designed at the University of Otavalo, Ecuador

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the essential features of a Management Information System (MIS), designed and implemented at the Universidad de Otavalo to support strategic planning, institutional evaluation, and decision making. A five-phase and fifteen-stage process was applied, along with their corresponding techniques and expected results. Based on the literature review and their experience with the implementation, the authors devised a novel MIS implementation approach, comprising the following phases: planning, information analysis, MIS design, implementation and evaluation. The MIS consisted of four main modules: teaching, research, linkages with society, and management, and was based on the client-server model. The literature review did not yield any publications that discussed truly integrated management information systems applied to university management covering the four main modules, thus confirming the originality of the work described in this paper. The MIS implementation results contributed to the improvement of the management of the university through the automation of most of the processes and activities related to institutional planning and evaluation, and considerably accelerated the processing and analysis of useful information for decision making.