1、Chapter 11: Executive Information and Support Systems,DSS have been rarely used by top executives Why? What are the needs of top executives? What is needed in computer-based information systems for upper management?,Unique MSS Tools,Executive Information Systems (EIS) Executive Support Systems (ESS)
2、 and Organizational DSS (ODSS) Plus Client/Server Architecture (C/S) Enterprise Computing,11.1 Opening Vignette: The Executive Information System at Hertz Corporation,The Problem High competition Keys to Success - Marketing and flexible planning Instantaneous marketing decisions (decentralized) Base
3、d on information about cities, climates, holidays, business cycles, tourist activities, past promotions, and competitors and customers behavior Must know competitors pricing informationThe Problem - How to provide accessibility to this information and use it effectively,The Initial Solution: A Mainf
4、rame-Based DSS (1987),Later: The Executive Information System (EIS) in 1988PC-based front-end to the DSS Commander EIS (Comshare Inc.) Tools to analyze the mountains of stored information To make real-time decisions without help Extremely user-friendly Maintained by the marketing staff Continuous up
5、grades and improvements Conformed to how Hertz executives work Implementation and acceptance were no problem System allows Hertz to better use its information and IS resources,11.2 Executive Information Systems: Concepts and Definitions,Tool that can handle the executives many needs for timely and a
6、ccurate information in a meaningful format (DSS In Focus 11.1) Most Popular EIS Uses Decision making (by providing data) Scheduling (to set agendas and schedule meetings) Email and electronic briefing (to browse data and monitor situations) (Table 11.1),Majority of personal DSS support the work of p
7、rofessionals and middle-level managers Organizational DSS support planners, analysts, and researchers Rarely do top executives directly use a DSSExecutive Information Systems (EIS) (or Executive Support Systems (ESS) Technology emerged to meet executive information needs,EIS - Rapid growth Prime Too
8、l for Gaining Competitive Advantage Many Companies - Sizable Increase in Profits with EIS Sometimes the Payback Period is Measured in Hours New Internet / World Wide Web and Corporate Intranets EIS Developments,EIS and ESS Definitions,Executive Information System (EIS) A computer-based system that s
9、erves the information needs of top executives Provides rapid access to timely information and direct access to management reports Very user-friendly, supported by graphics Provides exceptions reporting and “drill-down“ capabilities Easily connected to the Internet Drill down,Executive Support System
10、 (ESS),A Comprehensive Support System that Goes Beyond EIS to Include Communications Office automation Analysis support Intelligence (DSS In Action 11.2),11.3 Executives Role and Their Information Needs,Decisional Executive Role (2 Phases) 1. Identification of problems and/or opportunities 2. The de
11、cision of what to do about them Flow Chart and Information Flow (Figure 11.1) Use Phases to Determine the Executives Information Needs,Methods for Finding Information Needs,Wetherbes Approach 1991 (Figure 11.2)1. Structured Interviews (Table 11.2) IBMs Business System Planning (BSP) Critical Success
12、 Factors (CSF) Ends/Means (E/M) Analysis2. Prototyping Watson and Frolicks Approach 1992 .Asking (interview approach) .Deriving the needs from an existing information system .Synthesis from characteristics of the systems .Discovering (Prototyping) Ten methods (Table 11.3),Volonino and Watsons Strate
13、gic Business Objectives Approach 1991,Attempts to address some potential problems of the other methods Ignoring soft information Identifying the information timeliness Independence of information and specific executives,Organization-wide view Identify business objectives Link them to the information
14、 needs of individuals throughout the organization EIS evolves into an enterprise-wide system,SBO Method,Determine the organizations SBOs Identify related business processes Prioritize the SBOs and their related business processes Determine the information critical to each business process Identify i
15、nformation linkages across the SBO business processes Plan for development, implementation and evolutionSBO method meshes well with Business Process Reengineering Requires extensive coordination of communication between executive users and EIS developers,Other Approaches,Information Success Factors
16、Approach Problem: Needs Change as Executives Tasks and Responsibilities Change EIS Evolves,11.4 Characteristics of EIS,Table 11.4 Important Terms Related to EIS Characteristics Drill Down Critical Success Factors (CSF) Monitored by five types of information 1. Key problem narratives 2. Highlight cha
17、rts 3. Top-level financials 4. Key factors 5. Detailed responsibility reports,Status Access Analysis by Built-in functions Integration with DSS products Intelligent agents Exception Reporting Use of Color Navigation of Information Communication,11.5 Comparing EIS and MIS,Relationship between MIS and
18、 EIS (Figure 11.3) MIS is TPS based MIS typically lacks data integration across functional areas Differences (Table 11.5) MIS does not accommodate many users decision styles Often has slow response time Executive decision making is complex and multidimensional MIS usually designed to handle fairly s
19、tructured, simpler configurations MIS do not usually combine data from multiple sources New advances are changing that,11.6 Comparing and Integrating EIS and DSS,Tables 11.6 and 11.7 compare the two systems Table 11.6 - Typical DSS definitions related to EIS Table 11.7 - Compares EIS and DSSEIS is p
20、art of decision support,Integrating EIS and DSS: An Executive Support System (ESS),EIS output launches DSS applications Intelligent ESS Users roles Commander Decision (Figure 11.4) Commander OLAP,Integrating EIS and Group Support Systems EIS vendors - Easy interfaces with GDSS Some EIS built in Lotu
21、s Domino / Notes Comshare Inc. and Pilot Software, Inc. - Lotus Domino/Notes-based enhancements and Web/Internet/Intranet links,11.7 Hardware and Software,EIS Hardware Mainframe computers using graphics terminals Personal computers connected to a mainframe, a minicomputer, or a powerful RISC worksta
22、tion Departmental LAN or a client/server architecture An enterprise-wide network, or on a client/server enterprise-wide system. Workstations perform high-speed graphics displays EIS (Enterprise Information System, Everybodys Information System),EIS Software,Major Commercial EIS Software Vendors Coms
23、hare Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI; http:/) Pilot Software Inc. (Cambridge, MA; http:/) Application Development Tools In-house components Comshare Commander tools Pilot Softwares Command Center Plus and Pilot Decision Support Suite,Trend for EIS Software Vendors with Third Party Vendors Producing Specialized
24、EIS Applications,Comshare, Inc.s Commander Series Commander FDC for consolidation, reporting, and analysis of financial information Commander Budget Plus for budget development and multidimensional planning Commander Prism for personal multidimensional analysis and modeling Arthur - a family of supp
25、ly chain focused applications for retailing (planning, allocation and tracking) Boost Application Suite - a decision support solution for the consumer goods industry (Boost Sales and Margin Planning, Boost Sales Analysis),Pilot Software, Inc. Budget 2000 (with EPS, Inc.) is a budgeting application t
26、hat includes the power of Pilot Decision Support Suite for budget preparation In Touch/2000 is a software agent that enables organizations to instantly create personal cubes (multidimensional databases), sales reports, budget forecasts and marketing plans Sales & Marketing Analysis Library of Pilot
27、Decision Support Suite to perform detailed business reporting for sales and marketing professionals,More EIS Software,Commercial EIS Software,Typically Includes Office Automation Electronic Mail Information Management Remote Information Access Information Analysis Representative List of EIS Software
28、 Products (Table W11.*),11.8 EIS, Data Access, Data Warehousing, OLAP, Multidimensional Analysis, Presentation, and the Web,When data are delivered and viewed by an executive, by definition, the software is considered to be an EIS Data warehouses as data sources for EIS Advanced data visualization m
29、ethods and hypermedia within EIS Comshare, Inc.s Execu-View,Hypermedia over an Intranet via a Web Browser within the EIS,Comshare Commander DecisionWeb Internet Publishing module of the Pilot Decision Support SuiteOn-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) Tools Slice-and-dice multidimensional data cube,O
30、LAP Packages,DSS Web (MicroStrategy, Inc.) Oracle Express Server (Oracle Corp.) Commander DecisionWeb (Comshare, Inc.) DataFountain (Dimensional Insight Inc.) Pilot Internet Publisher (Pilot Software, Inc.) WebOLAP (Information Advantage Inc.) Focus Fusion (Information Builders, Inc.) Business Objec
31、ts Inc. (Business Objects) InfoBeaconWeb (Platinum Technology, Inc.) BrioQuery (Brio Technology Inc.) Data multidimensionality - In Touch/2000 - Pilot personal cubes,Pilot Software, Inc.s Decision Support Suite,Client/server, LAN-based, Windows-based software product (was Lightship) Pilot Desktop fo
32、r ad hoc end-user data access Pilot Designer for development of executive information applications Pilot Analysis Server for access to multidimensional data models Pilot Discovery Server for data mining and predictive modeling Pilot Internet Publisher for publishing multidimensional data on the Worl
33、d Wide Web Pilot Sales & Marketing Library for a specific vertical market Excel Add-in - OLAP front end with Pilot Analysis Server,11.9 Enterprise EIS,Tool for Enterprise Support Executive-only EIS Enterprise-wide Information SystemFunctional Management DSS Tools are Integrated with EIS EIS is Diffu
34、sing Lower into Organization Levels EIS = Enterprise Information System EIS = Everybodys Information System,11.10 EIS Implementation: Success or Failure,EIS Development Success Factors (Table 11.10),Committed Executive Sponsor Correct Definition of Information Requirements Top Management Support,EIS
35、 Operational Success Factors (Table 11.11),Deliver timely information Improve efficiency Provide accurate information Provide relevant information Ease of use Provide access to the status of the organization Provide improved communicationsAn IS for upper management must fit with their decision style
36、s,Motivations for Developing an EIS,Internal in nature Providing easier, faster access to information 80 % - Evolving approach Sequencing of the phases varies More successful development efforts include Initiation Definition of systems objectives Feasibility analysis,Determinates of EIS Acceptance,R
37、apid Development Time Staff Size EIS AgeNot Ease of Use Not High Usage Not Many Features Not a Staff Close to Users,Factors Contributing to EIS Failures (Table 11.12),Technology-related factors Support-related factors User-related factorsMost EIS fail because they do not provide value for their high
38、 cost though EIS benefits are difficult to measure,Benefit and Cost Assessment Practices in EIS,Most Systems Realized Expected Benefits Were Lower than Expectation Greatest Problem - Information Contents, Not Information Delivery Issues,Unexpected EIS Benefits,Enhancements to the enterprise-wide inf
39、ormation architecture Consolidation of data into warehouses Consolidation of analysis tools into OLAP methods Consistency of terminology across the enterprise,11.11 Including Soft Information in EIS,Soft information is fuzzy, unofficial, intuitive, subjective, nebulous, implied, and vague,Soft Infor
40、mation Used in Most EIS,Predictions, speculations, forecasts, and estimates (78.1%) Explanations, justifications, assessments, and interpretations (65.6%) News reports, industry trends, and external survey data (62.5%) Schedules and formal plans (50.0%) Opinions, feelings, and ideas (15.6%) Rumors,
41、gossip, and hearsay (9.4%),Soft Information Enhances EIS Value,More in the Future External news services Competitor information Ease of entering soft information,11.12 The Future of EIS and Research Issues,Toolbox for customized systems - Commander EIS LAN, Forest and Trees, and Pilot Decision Suppo
42、rt Suite Multimedia support (databases, video and audio news feeds, GIS) Virtual Reality and 3-D Image Displays Merging of analytical systems with desktop publishing Client/server architecture Web-enabled EIS (Comshare Commander DecisionWeb, Pilot Decision Support Suite Internet Publishing module, S
43、AS Institute Internet support enterprise software suite) Automated support and intelligent assistance Integration of EIS and Group Support Systems Global EIS,Research Issues,Relationship between the executive sponsors organizational position and commitment level to EIS success Most important factors
44、 when selecting an operating sponsor? Prediction of EIS benefits in advance How EIS software affects the development process and system success Best staffing level and organizational structure for the builder/support staff,Most effective methods to identify executives information requirements Major
45、EIS data management problems and their solutions Impact of soft data on EIS success Major problems associated with spread and evolution How to increase EIS functionality while maintaining ease of use Effective use of emerging technologies with EIS Most effective screen presentation formats,Current T
46、rends in EIS,More enterprise-wide EIS with greater decision support capabilities Integration with other software (Lotus Domino / Notes and World Wide Web) More intelligence - intelligent software agents,Other EIS Issues,How to assess EIS benefits and costs How to cluster EIS benefits depending on pl
47、anned system uses How EIS diffuses throughout the organization How to perform screen management - creation, modification and elimination,Five Broad Categories of EIS Benefits,(Table W11.1) Help developers in design and development (Iyer and Aronson 1995),11.13 Organizational DSS (ODSS),Three Types o
48、f Decision Support Individual Group Organizational Hackathorn and Keen 1981,Organizational decision support focuses on an organizational task or activity involving a sequence of operations and actors Each individuals activities must mesh closely with other peoples work Computer support is for Improv
49、ing communication and coordination Problem solving,Definitions of ODSS,A combination of computer and communication technology designed to coordinate and disseminate decision-making across functional areas and hierarchical layers in order that decisions are congruent with organizational goals and managements shared interpretation of the competitive environment (R. T. Watson 1990)A DSS that is used by individuals or groups at several workstations in more than one organizational unit who make varied (interrelated but autonomous) decisions using a common set of tools (Carter et al. 1992),
