After earning your four-year degree, you may be looking to earn your masters degree. However, you shouldn’t automatically look at a masters degree in the specific or even the general area of your undergraduate degree. The world is changing rapidly, and you don’t want to earn your masters degree in something that may not have a strong financial payback in the years ahead. One graduate degree that is assured to be important is that of a master of science in management information systems. The following are a few reasons this is true.
We live in the information age
Today, there is enormous amounts of data. There is so much data that gathering it is not a problem. The issue is how to process this data. Businesses and governmental institutions know that there is value in the data, but they struggle to process it. There are methods that can be applied to processing this data, so benefits can be realized, but the number of people qualified to do this is small. This is one of the reasons you need to consider information systems management as a graduate degree. With demand so high, there will be plenty of job opportunities in the future as well as good salaries.
Businesses benefit from data analysis
Often, a company will have a lot of data as well as several problems that can be solved with this data. One of the things that you will learn in information systems management is how to identify a problem from the perspective of data, and then attempt to solve this problem with the data. A company may understand a problem, but this problem needs to be formulated in a manner that the data at hand can solve it. This type of problem solving with data can lead to greater profits for a business, and this is why the job can be so lucrative.
Companies gather data on customers
Companies will have data on their customers that is gathered from sales. They will have data gathered from inquiries by prospective customers. They will have data from market research studies, and they may have data that was purchased from independent marketing companies. This data, over time, can grow to levels that can no longer be managed nor processed in a beneficial way. This is when information management becomes critical. Data can be organized and analyzed in ways the can provide conclusions about data. It can show trends of consumer and customer demands today and in the future. This information can help a company emphasize certain products in their marketing campaigns while reemphasizing others, or they can conclude that certain products should be terminated. This increases a company’s profit greatly.
Information management helps product development
New products can be designed that will hit the market running because they are exactly what the customers wanted. Designing new products or designing simpler things such as new packaging or a new advertising campaign have a much greater chance at success when the data is analyzed properly.
In the information age, acquisition of information, in all of its forms, is easy. It doesn’t take a lot of talent or skill to gather information. However, what you do with this information is a different story. It is more difficult to manage information, and this is why you need to pursue a graduate degree in the management of information systems. The University of Alabama Birmingham is an example of a school that offers this type of graduate degree.