Management Information System Section

In today‘s IT scenario, an organization‘s success greatly depends on its ability to get accurate and timely data on its operations of varied nature and to manage this data effectively to guide its activities. If an organization does not have the ability to manage and store a vast volume of data, and to quickly retrieve the required information that is most relevant to a given query, then this data tends to become a distraction and liability, rather than an asset.

This irony drives the need for an increasingly powerful and flexible Information Management System. A well-defined Information System is the true wealth of an organization. As the organizations grow and change, the pressures for more information increase, there will be an ever-increasing need for information systems analysts to develop better versions of information systems.

Initially the first MIS portal was developed in 2002 for COMSATS University Islamabad and still growing on the day-to-day demands efficiently and effectively. The MIS system has been mature enough to a complete management system and called COMCMS (COMSATS Campus Management System).

The Role of MIS Section is to plan, coordinate and supervise all activities related to the design, development and implementation of organizational information systems and software applications

In this connection, MIS Section under IT-Centre is providing the following types of Services/Projects/MIS:

Details of MIS Section Services:

A: Associate HoD Office

MIS Office take care of all the activities of IT-Centre in absence of Head IT-Centre, to ensure smooth running of IT Services.

B: Technical Consultancy

MIS section provides technical consultancy for relevant services from time to time. It includes but not limited to software, multimedia hardware, surveillance systems and hardware API services.

Almost 8 years back we developed a complete Human Resource Management System. There was no human resource management system available, everything was being manually maintained. It has been maintained from time to time to cater for the needs of organization. Recently we got some major requirement from the HR Section that needed a complete recoding of the system. We have introduced complete salary packages module into the system. Furthermore we implemented a complete leave maintenance system in HRMS. The system has eased a lot of work for HR Section. Centralized HR Management system is in place to keep the employee data instead of manual/Ms.Excel based entries and reporting facility up to the top management.

Multi-tier Salary verification portal to keep a control on employee against office timing misuse. The system is integrated with HRMS and Biometric centralized database. The system automatically compute working hours as per organization policy. All the department heads have complete role to view and verify each and every member of concerned department.

Employee work hours derive many useful metrics. These help in measuring who are efficient and help improve the performance of the organization. Every organization whether it is an educational institution or business organization, requires maintaining a proper record of attendance of their employees for effective functioning of organization.

Fingerprint recognition is very advanced today in terms of technology and being using for attendance purposes. They are secure to use, unique for every person and do not change in one's lifetime.

We have a comprehensive Biometric Attendance Monitoring system running within CUI since 2008. At that time the biometric technology was then recently introduced and CUI also took an opportunity to avail such a service for its employee attendance demands. At that time, there were not so many organizations which implemented such systems. We had purchased 10 such machines after foreseeing the future needs of our organization. We have recently in 2015 upgraded the system with 20 new biometric machines.

Our system got an edge over the other available systems that we have developed a custom application called COMSATS Attendance Monitoring System (CAMS) that do all the necessary activities like fingerprint data and attendance log updates by itself, and the entire data is maintained at centralized database. MIS Team, has made special arrangements for the employees of CUI, regarding attendance awareness. To begin with, an android based application has been developed as well as a web portal has been prepared, to serve the purpose. Using the service, the end user can check the attendance history of past 30 days (including off days) as well as check their Official and Contact Information using the services. This will help them check their data and ask for update, if not up-to-date.

Delivering public services through SMS is becoming popular in organizations as a way of communication with their employees. It is seemingly more effective than other modes of communication since the end users can be instantly conveyed any message and needs no extra service to obtain for example email for which the end user has to be connected to internet. When the SMS-based communication model is compared to Internet-based communication models, SMS based model can deliver almost all of the service offerings of Internet-based models and meet the requirements of organization’s employees except for downloading forms. The outcome justifies the implementation of SMS-based communication services.

To address the problems stated above, an SMS-based communication system was launched in 2016 in CUI. The CUI Disburse information to its Faculty, Staff using this system very effectively when require.

An CUI Employee Health Insurance information system was developed in 2014 and till today 2018 is working very effectively.

The MIS team was successfully launched a project CUI Centralized Information Management System (CIMS) in 2014. Such systems are implemented in organizations for general news & information disbursing among various entities. All the entities within the campus get benefits from this system be it administration, employees or students. This will also serve its purpose for oncoming guests and those interested in admission. The Display Devices were installed in entire Academic blocks within Islamabad campus. It will display various news and instructions for the awareness of employees as well as students.

In this connection, All academic/administrative departments sends request to MIS/Media Support Team to be displayed at the said facility block wise/floor wise etc.

The MIS team got credits to work on all kinds of automation projects. All kinds of Access/Security Access controls are deployed and managed by MIS team.

A Comprehensive COMSATS Students Information System including 40+ Modules was developed by MIS team in 2002. This system was successfully run approximately 12 years. After Fall 2012, another system CU-Online was deployed in replacement of this system. Which was developed and managed by other campus team however still we maintaining COMSIS back-end and archival services for Islamabad campus. They have access to all the reports till February 2012, while having read-only rights. We are regularly providing previous log upon inquiry from the examination.academic section.

Educational Institutes pose many unique challenges when it comes to security. A video surveillance system must be carefully planned out in order to keep watch over the diverse assortment of facilities that comprise a typical campus community. Security surveillance systems help you monitor activities around campus and spot trouble as it is happening.

The objective of this project is to setup a video surveillance system for all Academic Blocks. Currently we do have such active facility for entrance and corridors of the building in Academic Block 1.

Prominently placed cameras warn students and staff that they may be monitored, which can deter bad behavior. Due to different complaints from departments regarding classroom equipment damage and loss of personal belongings, a surveillance project is going to be setup on three floors of Academic Block 1.