MIS skills are in high demand

Speak to company heads or headhunters and you'll hear the sametired lament: "I wish I could find some good Management InformationSystems people." Bruce Fram, president and CEO of Luminate Corp., aRedwood City, Calif.-based provider of enterprise resource planningsoftware, will settle for just one "high-level MIS person."

Fram's situation is classic in the information technologyindustry. His five-year-old company jumped from small to mid-sizepractically overnight. Last year he had 50 people working for him,now he has 100. No wonder he needs help.

MIS people are hard to find because they're combination "geek" and"suit": They understand technology and can talk to everyone in thecompany, from the CEO to the folks on the loading docks.

"The MIS person must technically integrate every department somanagement gets a clear picture of how each one relates to the bottomline," explains Matthew Hollingsworth, president of Cincinnati-basedtechnical recruiting Web site Techemployment.com.

First, a company must decide what it wants its technology toaccomplish. Second, it must create a plan for achieving it. The MISperson spearheads both these efforts.

MIS became a hot buzzword in the 1970s when companies realized theimportance of networking systems. The function grew in importanceuntil the Internet catapulted it into a pivotal job in companiesplanning a global presence.

When Fram realized his technology was like a runaway horse he knewhe needed a seasoned MIS person to pull in the reins. His 250computers around the world needed constant maintenance. There wereissues of password administration, dial-in-access issues,administering computer agreements, and on and on. Only a skilled MISperson could channel all this massive computing power in the rightdirection.

Fram is searching for a person with an unusual mixture oftechnical and visionary skills. "This person must assess the presentin order to tell me where I must be three years from now," heexplains. In short, Fram needs someone who can create a realisticvision for his company

Finally, Fram says he wants more than a thinker. Like the hands-on techies he employs, he wants someone who can roll up his (or her)sleeves and make the vision a reality.

Put all of Fram's job specs together and you have a description ofa senior MIS person. Experienced MIS staffers are hard to findbecause they bring multiple, and what were once contradictory, skillsets to an organization. It's no wonder colleges all over the countryare churning out information systems grads as fast as they can. Salaries? The entry-level salary range is $50,000-$60,000.

Do you think you're cut out for MIS? Hollingsworth says the bestway to find out is by hanging out with MIS people at your company.Find out about their jobs and what your company's systems aresupposed to accomplish. Understand the theory behind the technology.

Bob Weinstein's latest book, I Hate My Boss! How to Survive andGet Ahead When Your Boss Is a Tyrant, Control Freak or Just PlainNuts, is published by McGraw-Hill.