What is the use of internal records available in marketing information systems?

First, let's
define what is a MIS, or Marketing
Information System. 

The literal
definition from Kotler
(1988), author of the textbook Marketing Management:

Analysis Planning and Control, a MIS
is: 

... a continuing and interacting
structure of people, equipment, and
procedures to gather, sort, analyze,
evaluate, and distribute pertinent, timely and accurate
information for use
by marketing decision-makers to improve their marketing planning,

implementation, and control.

In other words, and
as the
name implies, a MIS is a program in place that sums up all data on
generated profits,
demographics reached, products sold, equipment used, and
processes followed during a marketing
campaign. The purpose of having all of
this information is to determine whether the marketing
program in place is
working and producing the desired effects. 

The MIS, as

stated previously, produces a myriad of different information, including data and,
most
importantly, internal records. When you think about the word "records"
in any context,
you are talking about past and present history of
performance. Therefore, part of the data
contained in the MIS will include
how the product sales and movement did in the past and
present. This is how
you can establish a correlation of whether the marketing intervention needs

to be looked at again, or whether it can remain the same. 

Kotler
(1988) also
defines the internal records as the most important indicators of
marketing performance, as they
derive their value from the actual sales
invoices. Therefore, the internal records are of
absolute value to the MIS
and include the following: 

• orders
  received for
  the product
• sales invoices



• stockholdings

Internal records are also super
important
because look at all the information they provide based on these
indicators:

• type of product sold by industry,
  by size and pack type


• average value of product sold by
  total volume of sale by country


• average amount of
  product sold by pack type, by country, by customer



• average value of product sold compared to industry as a
  whole


• average value of the product sold by specific
  salesperson

These are just some of the
plethora of variables internal records can
generate and analyze. The
breakdown of information helps the industry see where to move and what

changes to make in marketing systems. Hence, this is one of the most important
indicators of
sales and marketing quality.