Subsystems of Marketing Information System

A well-designed market information system consists of four subsystems.

1. First  is  the  internal  records  system,  that  provides  current  data  on costs, sales, cash flows, inventories and accounts receivable and payable. Various companies have developed advanced computer-based internal reports systems to permit for speedier and more inclusive information.
2. The second market information subsystem is marketing intelligence system, supplying marketing managers with daily information regarding developments in the external marketing environment. Characterized by creativity, scientific method, model building, multiple methodologies, and cost/benefit measures of value of information.
3. The third subsystem, marketing research, involves gathering information that is relevant to particular marketing problems facing the company. Marketing research procedure consists of five steps: developing the research plan; defining the problem and research objectives; analyzing the information; collecting information; and presenting the findings.
4. The fourth one is the Marketing Decision Support System (MDSS marketing system) that consists of decision and statistical tools to assist marketing managers in making better decisions. MDSS is a coordinated collection of systems, data, tools, and techniques along supporting hardware and software.  By using MDSS software and decision models, organization gathers and interprets relevant information from business and environment and turns it into a basis for the marketing action. MDSS experts utilized decision or descriptive models, and graphical, verbal or mathematical models, to carry out analysis on a wide variety of marketing problems.