From Executive to Enterprise Information Systems: the ... Executive to Enterprise... · From Executive to Enterprise Information Systems: the Challenge of the 90s Ian Meiklejohn Director

From Executive to Enterprise Information Systems: the Challenge of the 90s

Ian Meiklejohn

Director Business Intelligence

© Business Intelligence 1993 (+44815441830)

17

A review of EIS experience: 1987-93

Executive information systems as we know them emerged in the mid 80s in response to a

real need by senior managers for improved information in the area of corporate control.

Most senior executives were struggling to manage increasingly complex and volatile

businesses using the paper-based reports produced by the. batch-oriented so-called

"management information systems" (MIS).

The primary problem was data overload. Most organisations had no shortage of computer

systems; the problem was that their output was not useful to managers. The main

drawbacks were their lack of relevance to managerial concerns, and their inflexibility -

not least because of the reliance on paper. As one chief executive, Keith Humphreys of

Rhone Poulenc UK, pungently put it: "If you asked the computer department you got half

a mile of toilet paper."

What EIS did was to make it possible for executives to use computers directly, ending

their reliance on a reporting process that was fixed in terms of its frequency, its format

and its content. Key to this breakthrough was the provision of a user interface and other

design factors which provided an order of magnitude improvement in ease of learning

and use.

The software products which emerged to support EIS market were characterised initially

by high price - typically in excess of £100,000 - and by the fact they were integrated or

monolithic, in other words they provided all the functional elements on an EIS system,

including the graphical user interface, executive database, application development tools, -

and so on.

The lessons from early EIS use

If summarises the lessons learnt from the use of EIS over the past 5-6 years then a

number of important points stand out. The first and perhaps most important is that EIS

proved to be very different to traditional types of IT system. They posed special

challenges - which in some cases organisations failed to meet - and demanded a different

approach to system design, development and project managenient. The users of the

system - senior executives - had the prerogative to decline to use it, so the system had to

meet not just their needs, but their expectations.

Another important issue is that EIS often proved highly disruptive to the organisation's

status quo. They threaten existing patterns of information ownership, and the personal

position of those who rely on information for influence or status. However, the most

important lesson to emerge from EIS projects has been that, in the case of senior

© Business Intelligence 1993 (+4481544 1830)

18

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executives, identifying and capturing a set of information requirements in order to embed

these in a system is extraordinarily difficult. The reason is two fold ..

First, the information needs of very senior managers are much wider, and much more

volatile than those of other business professionals. For this reason the conventional

approach to systems analysis and development - indeed the entire systems life cycle - of

an EIS is different. Second, the executives themselves find it extraordinarily hard to

articulate their requirements. For the managers concerned, an EIS project is a learning

experience. Through the very fact of using such a system, the executives unde~standing of

its potential, and their requirements will significantly change.

For this reason an EIS has to be developed in an evolutionary and iterative way,

principally through the use of prototyping to elicit and test users' requirements. An EIS

never goes into a maintenance phase in the way that other corporate systems do. To a

large extent it remains in a state of ongoing development and evolution, as it is modified

to meet the changing concerns and requirements of the executives.

An EIS therefore is not primarily a technical project. It centres on the challenge of

identifying information requirements of managers, and embedding the resulting system in

the management process, so that it becomes as natural and indispensable as the telephone.

To a large extent it is a change management project - changing the working practices of

executives, and hopefully the management process of the organisation.

The growth of EIS: from executive to 'enterprise' use

A growing number of organisations are recognising that the concepts and the technology

of EIS are enormously valuable, and that they have widespread application. The result is

that, over the last 12-18 months a growing number of organisations have begun to

significantly extend the scope and role of EIS technology. Instead of restricting its use to

a small number of senior managers, companies are beginning to deploy it on a much

wider scale - to line managers, other business professionals, and even - in some cases - to

their customers.

For example at Frito-Lay America's largest snack food company, it is currently rolling

out an EIS to 1,000 managers. Unum Corporation, one of the US's leading insurers

already has nearly 400 users of its EIS, and is planning the infrastructure to equip almost

all its managers with EIS tools. In the UK, the same trend is now evident. At ICI the

number of users of its head office EIS has grown from 25 to almost 250. At BP Research

a system supports 200 managers and professionals. At Tesco, a SAS user, a system

initially developed for 40-50 senior managers is now being extended to 400 managers

© Business Intelligence 1993 (+4481 544 1830)

19

including all the buyers. Some companies are envisaging even more ambitious use. For

example at British Gas a project is underway to support 1200 users across the country.

There are a number of factors driving the spread of EIS down and outwards through

organisations. Many of these relate to organisational and business pressures as well as as

number of powerful technology drivers. Notably, the infrastructure for widespread

screen-based reporting is falling into place. The penetration of PCs among knowledge

workers is now high, and they are increasingly connected together in local and wide area

networks. Secondly, EIS tools are reaching new levels of ease of use, and are falling in

cost. Thirdly, EIS features are increasingly becoming available on other types of

software.

Key technology trends

Looking at the technology drivers in more detail, one can identify several related

developments which are both fuelling and reshaping EIS usage. They include:

• The move to client-server architectures

• Downsizing

• The spread of industry standard graphical user interfaces

• The 'unbundling' of EIS functionality

• The emergence of low cost, "shrink-wrapped" EIS-like products

• The growing impact of object -oriented concepts and tools

Client-server architectures

A key trend in the IT market in general is the shift towards client-server architectures,

with application functionality being split between workstation software (client) and

LAN or host-based database servers. In a growing number of organisations database

servers are providing a powerful intermediate layer between 'legacy' mainframe databases

and operational systems, and end users with PCs.

For EIS applications, client-server architecture provides improved ability to disseminate

information effectively across networks. A key factor is the growing importance of SQL

as the standard API for client-server communication. As SQL database servers spread, so

it becomes easier for client applications with SQL query capability, which includes a

growing number of EIS products, to request data from multiple, different sources.

Client-server environments provide an ideal platform on which to position the staging

and extract databases which many EIS products provide. By permitting certain tasks (eg

database management) to be offloaded to the server, they have also precipitated the

unbundling of EIS features (see below). However it should be appreciated that client-


20

server technology remains immature, and considerable technical problems are frequently

encountered in integrating client application software, network communications software,

and database server applications.

In general, with client-server systems data is normally stored on LAN connected database

servers, where performance-intensive pre-processing tasks such as summarisation and

calculation of new views is also done. However the user interface, graphics and other

functions are performed locally. It is important to note however that vendors exploit LAN

architectures in very different ways, and have differing interpretations of the client-server

model. On the one hand are environments in which almost all the processing is done on

the server (eg in an X-Windows application) with only data presentation done on the

client. On the other hand are approaches where almost all the processing is done on the

client (PC), with only basic record retrieval performed on the server.

The issues involved in selecting and implementing client-server systems are highly

complex, and a full discussion is beyond the scope of this paper. However a number of

points should be considered. An EIS supplier claiming to provide a complete client-server

offering must be able to offer development tools for both client and server applications.

Currently some companies do not do so.

Another important issue is the extent to which a supplier provides 'open' client and server

components. In other words, how many servers can the supplier's client 'talk' to directly

(through eg program-level APIs), without relying on third party products. Conversely,

can other companies' client products (eg popular Windows applications) access data from

the supplier's server. In practice suppliers differ considerably in these areas, and in

general few have as yet have opened the server component of their product.

Finally, a number of vendors (such as SAS) emphasise the ability of their products to

develop 'configurable' client-server applications, in which the boundary between the

client and the server can be shifted so that application processing is performed on the

optimal platform.

Downsizing •.• and upsizing

The EIS market has reflected the strong downwards migration of host products to mid

range platforms, especially UNIX and LAN database servers, which offer dramatically

lower costs. Host· and mid-range EIS products such as SAS have been ported off

proprietary architectures into the fiercely price-competitive Unix environment, which has

been the first platform of choice for new client-server products.


21

Within the last 18 months the dramatic improvements in price performance of PCs has

driven the downsizing of products still further. Functionally rich EIS products are now

common on PC server platforms. PC-based products have also exploited the improved

performance provided by upwardly scalable operating systems such as Windows NT and

workstation UNIX environments (eg Motif) to be 'up-sized" and to compete with mid

range based systems. In other words, the traditionally distinct markets of the host and PC

vendors are converging on the middle ground of LAN and UNIX database servers.

Unbundling of EIS

An equally significant development is the 'unbundling' of EIS functionality which has

taken place. A full-feature EIS typically included a number of components, including:

a graphical user interface (GUI)

a relational or multi-dimensional database manager

a modelling environment or custom application logic

business graphics engine

an application development environment (4GL, visual programming environment, etc)

connectivity facilities (SQL query capability, program-level pipelines, etc)

Increasingly these component functions are available independently, in particular, the key

features of the graphical user interface, database, and connectivity tools. Moreover, they

are available as low cost, near commodity-priced PC products.

Many of these and similar products assume that the other components of an EIS - for

example the database management, modelling environment, host connectivity tools and

so on - can be provided by third party products. They exploit the growing market for a

range of 'middleware' and connectivity tools. 'Component' EIS are also critically reliant

on the existence of standards for the exchange of data with such products, notably via the

Windows DDE facility, SQL, database API standards such as ODBC (Microsoft)), or

IDAPI (Borland).

As are suit of the burgeoning market for low-cost 'shrink-wrapped' EIS, organisations are

starting to experiment with a 'DIY' approach to EIS by integrating a variety of off-the

shelf - ie non-specialist, tools. This approach has been fuelled by the growing

convergence of EIS and other software, and in particular the appearance of EIS-like

features on other applications, most notably graphical user interfaces.

EIS features become commonplace


22

The unbundling of EIS andthe emergence of cheap, graphical delivery systems has been

paralleled by the rapid spread of windowed, graphical user interfaces (GUIs) across

almost every other kind of application. The driving factor has been the explosive growth

of Microsoft Windows user interface. This has fuelled not only the development of new

GUI-based corporate applications, but also a trend to front existing character-based host

applications with a user-friendly GUI layer.

It is interesting to note that one reason for the rapid growth of the client server model is

the ease with which graphical user interfaces can be built, compared to using traditional

3GLs. The result is that a rapidly growing range of GUI programming tools, strong on

window-creation or object management facilities is now available, such as Visual Basic

(Microsoft), Realizer (Computer Associates), Gupta SQL Windows, ObjectVision, Enfin

(Easel Corp), and so on.

Even more significantly, new mass market, commercial software products now

increasingly resemble EIS in their user interface and some aspects of functionality. PC

products such as Access, Quattro, 1-2-3 for Windows, or Lotus Notes, feature many of

the most visible EIS characteristics, for example: colour icons and hot spots; hypertext

style menus; high quality data-driven graphics; communications scripting tools and

languages; visual programming facilities. The result is that 'EIS-like' interfaces are

becoming commonplace, even if the applications they front are mundane and used by

shop floor workers or secretaries.

The convergence of EIS and other software begs the question: in what ways do EIS

products continue to differ and add superior value, if features such as a graphical user

interface, database access, or integrated business graphics are widely available elsewhere.

Different vendors are seeking to answer this question in different ways. Most focus on

delivering superior quality and functionality of these features. There is also a widespread

emphasis on the robustness and 'industrial-strength' capability of their products, which

make them suitable for large-scale corporate applications in a way that PC-based 'snap

together' approaches may not be. In addition, some of the key areas in which EIS vendors

seek to differentiate themselves are:

• Superior functionality of the underlying development environment, for example a richer programming language, or support for object-oriented programming concepts. Vendors emphasise the benefits in terms of speed of application development, and maintainability of the resulting systems.


23

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• Superior capability of the database component of their product. Several vendors emphasise the need for database storage and manipulation facilities which go beyond those offered by standard SQL databases~ Multi-dimensional 'slice-and-dice', sophisticated time-series manipulation, or superior text management are examples.

• Superior connectivity to multiple data sources, including legacy systems.

• Superior ability to manipulate and add value to the data returned from queries, as opposed to the ad hoc query facilities themselves

W her e to s to r eEl S d a t a ?

For most organisations a critical issue is the ability to access a wide variety of data held

in legacy environments such as IDMS, or proprietary databases such as Supra, Adabas,

etc. The growing corporate standardisation on SQL rdbms is leading all EIS vendors to

develop dynamic links to corporate SQL databases. It should be noted however that the

degree of integration offered varies from product to product. Some can interrogate the

SQL databases directly, tYPically by embedding SQL queries in their own language, or by

providing language-level interfaces, while others rely on middleware products.

The spread of SQL is encouraging suppliers and user organisations to question the need

for a separate EIS staging database. Why not work directly off operational databases or

the standard corporate repositories? However, there are strong arguments why a

dedicated EIS staging database is necessary.

The first reason is that operational data is likely to be held at too low a level of detail.

Executives are concerned with aggregated, summarised or trend information. To generate

these dynamically means that significant processing is required, resulting in poor,

unpredictable performance. Also, operational systems are not designed to provide the

kind of data views and the 'slice and dice facilities that executives typically require. An

instance is the importance of historic, time-series data. Operational systems typically

hold limited history for transaction data, and rarely store this in time periods. In

executive support systems the opposite is true, and several products often support time

series as native variables.

Drawbacks of SQL

The emergence of SQL as a universal query standard presents a powerful argument for its

adoption as a database standard. However it should be recognised that SQL database

schemas are not well-suited for many of the kinds of application involved in management


24

support. In particular they do not naturally reflect the multi-dimensional perspective of

information which executives require. Their approach is to normalise data into a large

number of simple two-dimensional tables which destroy the real-world relationships

which executive users understand and wish to use. In order to create differently

dimensi9ned views of data, it is usually necessary to join many tables together, a task

which is processing-intensive, and more importantly, foreign to users.

Thus a number of major EIS vendors including SAS emphasise the benefits of

alternative, proprietary database management systems which provide~ for example, multi

dimensional manipulation of data, or other facilities such as complex summarisation,

merging of different time series data, ability to handle large objects, and so on.

Future trends and directions

One of the most interesting and important trends for management support systems will be

to expand their scope beyond purely numeric information, and beyond the single-use

paradigm. One of the driving forces for this tre~d is the rapidly growing interest in so

called 'groupware' concepts and tecln!ologies.

Groupware is interesting precisly because it is highly complementary to current EIS

concepts and tools in terms of functionality and task domain. Conventional EIS software

comprise tools that are primarily:

• numeric - providing tabular and graphic display of data that is essentially quantitative;

• individual - most applications are intended for personal use; few .EIS systems have interfaces or output designed for collective use, let alone any group-enabling features;

• well-structured - indeed this clarity of structure is normally essential to enable navigation using techniques such as drill-down;

• read-only - few executives have the abilitY to add their own input whether it be numeric - in the form of personal revised forecasts - or textual -commentaries etc.

One of the key roles of an EIS has been to impose the simplicity of structure (through eg

summarisation) to improve ease of access and rapid assimilation of numeric information.

On the other hand it has long been recognised that much management activity centres on

'softer', less structured information in the form of news, ideas, proposals, explanations,

opinions, etc. For EIS developers, meeting this requirement has proven a major

challenge, especially as EIS have increasingly become more widely targeted at. middle


25

managers and business professionals. Groupware offers the potential to redress a major

area of weakness in existing executive and management support systems.

Managing textual information

An area of particular importance for the future development of EIS will therefore be

improved management of textual information. A major difficulty for management support

currently involves linking stored text documents with numeric reports which are created

by EIS tools. Current EIS do not provide the tools or the right metaphor for handling text.

They work on the basis of well-defined rules; drill down is only possible because the

structure of the information is known ahead of time. The interfaces do not let you browse.

Moreover few executives if any can predict what they want. Most do not know what they

want until they see it.

It is not surprising, therefore, that a growing number of companies are looking at linking

their EIS with a tool such as Notes which can act as a vehicle for information collection,

or even turning to groupware products such as Notes as the primary tool for

communication between distributed executive(s) teams. One example is the UK

consultancy Price Waterhouse, which has followed its US arm in adopting Notes as the

primary executive reporting vehicle, In 1991 a major reorganisation converted a regional

organisation structure to one managed nationally, based on business sectors. The need to

manage an extended geographic business led it to introduce Notes for all senior

management's review information, as well as to manage marketing and project

management activities.

Developing a strategy for Enterprise EIS

At first sight enterprise information systems would appear to have more in common with

the MIS (management information systems) of the 70s and early 80s. However this

perception is flawed. The lessons of those organisations to have successfully developed

large-scale enterprise information systems is that many if not most of the success factors

for EIS are directly applicable to larger enterprise systems.

Among the common success factors are:

• •

• •

The need for a committed business sponsor - or multiple sponsors

Treating the system as a series of related modules and applications, rather then a monolithic, single application whole

Adopting an evolutionary development approach

The need to continue to develop and change the system in line with changing business need


26

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• Adding value to information - data access alone is not enough.

Precisely because an enterprise information may grow to become very large it is

necessary to avoid the dangers which caused largely caused MIS to fail in the 70s and

early 80s. In particular it is important to escape from supply side thinking, which focuses

on assembling as wide and as detailed a range of information as possible. Despite their

large scale, most of enterprise information systems in use today have not been designed

an integrated, monolithic systems. Instead they have grown up as a series of related but

separate applications or modules. And they have been developed on the basis of an

evolutionary development approach which has ensured that the users' real requirements

are being met, and to allow them to contribute meaningfully to the system's design.

However it is clear that enterprise information systems pose a technical and project

management challenge which is an order of magnitude greater than those of EIS. Indeed

many of the issues involved remain unclear or poorly understood. The demands of larger

user populations for access to large volumes of operational data tests the robustness and

accessibility of the available technology. Many of the earlier versions of EIS products

were stretched to the limit and beyonc;l by organisations which dramatically expanded the

number of users into the hundreds .. Particularproblems which have arisen are:

• Lack of integration of EIS platform with operational systems

• Maintaining synchronisation of operational systems and EIS databases

• Excessive maintenance costs

• Inability of EIS tools to support specific requirements

As mentioned above, EIS technology has been based on the paradigm of creating separate

staging databases to hold selected key performance indicators for executive use. However

as the number of users and EIS databases have grown, this has become an increasingly

onerous activity. A frequent consequence is that organisations find the number of

support staff needed to maintain the EIS system - whether within the EIS project team or

the IS department - has grown to worrying levels. In response to this challenge a number

of organisations believe that large scale EIS must be more highly integrated with the

mainstream information systems environment. According to Unum Corporation's CIO,

~ John Alexander, for example: "Unum clearly sees an absolute requirement to have its EIS

integrated with the developmen~ and production process in the information systems

themselves. As we make the transition from mainframe-centric to PC and LAN

production systems, organised round client server design, EIS has to be integrated with

that."


27

, .

The decision as to the kind of information architectures needed to support large-scale

enterprise information systems is a complex one. It is clear however that in the future

EIS and enterprise information systems must fit into a model of distributed computing.

Information management

Even more important than the information delivery infrastructure are the organisational

and information-related issues. Where enterprise information systems are deployed in

support of corporate processes a critical issue is the need for common measures of

business performance and their corresponding data definitions. The close integration

with operational systems, and the larger amounts of data involved mean that the process

of intermediate adjustments common in the production of summarised management

reports is unlikely to be feasible. Significant redesign or modification of the previous

measures and definitions may be required to harmonise them with other departments or

divisions.

One of the most interesting challenges for organisations in the future is to develop

standards to accommodate the growing number of non-traditional and especially non

financial measures of business performance. As EIS is used increasingly to monitor

indicators such as product quality, customer service, process quality benchmarks, and so

on, it becomes important to ensure that these are defined in common ways. If they are to

be implemented in a trans-enterprise fashion, then they must also be compatible at a

system level, and capable of communication and comparison.

A symptom of this growing need is the proposal by one consulting firm of an 'enterprise

knowledge standard', as a means of representing .knowledge about an organisation's

corporate structure, information and performance measurement systems in a format

which is enterprise-independent.

Adding value to data

The expanding user population for EIS is also influencing the nature of applications, and

making fresh demands on the functionality of EIS products. Beyond the ability to

integrate better with core operational systems, a key issue is the extent to which they can

support the specific requirements of many different middle level managers, analysts and

planners. In practice this creates a demand for a wide range of user interfaces and of

different tools and applications: for example forecasting, modelling, visual data analysis,

and so on

Thus currently a growing number of organisations are adopting products which provide

an integrated EIS and DSS platform. In the future however EIS products will have to


28

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provide a still widener range of specialist features to meet users' needs. These will include

the above mentioned area of text management, as well as other infonnation types such as

image and video.

Conclusions

It is a mistake therefore to assume that there is a 'right' and 'wrong' size for an EIS. It is

likely that large-scale enterprise EIS· can deliver far greater value to the business as a

whole, through support for flatter structures, improved management control ('what gets

watched gets done), and responsiveness (the 'quick-thinking' company). However much

will inevitably depend on the particular circumstances of the organisation: the specific

needs of its senior executives; the extent of its ability to deploy and absorb a major new

corporate system. For some organisations a relatively small scale EIS may provide the

focus and degree of tailored support to senior executives that is needed and which cannot

be achieved in a large system.

While at any given time there is no 'right' size for an EIS, such a system must succeed in

embedding itself in the organisation. It must link into the organisation's working

practices and processes For this to happen it must be used by a significant number of

senior executives. As long as the system remains peripheral to the regular processes of

management review, control and planning it is unlikely to have a long or successful

future.

As EIS-like systems spread to a widening community of managers and knowledge

workers it is clear that a critical challenge lies in balancing the need for common

corporate applications with specific, tailored applications which meet diverse

requirements of specific individuals and business areas.

This paper is based. on the Business Intelligence report Selecting an EIS, a

comprehensive guide to all leading EIS products and their evaluation. For further

infonnation contact Business Intelligence on +4481 544 1830.


29

I.

From Executive to Enterprise Information Systems:

The Challenge of the 190s

Ian Meiklejohn

Director

Business Intelligence Ltd.

The information in the following presentation Is based on original research undertaken by Business Intelligence, Including material from the report,

Succeeding with EIS.

I Business Intelligence Limited I

From Executive to Enterprise Information Systems:

Overview

• EIS 1987 - 1992: a review of experience

• EIS 1993: Key Trends

• From Executive to Enterprise information systems: - Business Drivers - Technology Drivers

• Developing a strategy for enterprise information systems: key issues and success factors


30

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i I !

EIS use 1987 - 1992: a review of experience

• Met a real need among senior managers to improve the timeliness, relevance and intelligibility of information

• Key benefits were: - a quantum improvement In the user interlace - dynamic access to selected, summarised indicators - integrated graphics .

• Used monolithic, proprietary tools from specialist vendors - created a niche supplier market

• Rapid uptake among Fortune and Times 1000 co·s

• Use largely restricted to senior executives . I,....,B:-usl-:-ness~I:""'!'DteI':::"ugence-.LI~mI":':"'ted':'"ll

EIS use 1987 - 1992: key lessons from experience

• EIS are different to MIS

• Many EIS failed; some EIS were successful ·DSS·

• An EIS is NOT a technical project

• EIS involve a steep learning· curve for executives

• Despite the failures, EIS are increasingly recognised as a key management concept

• EIS concepts,·software and·development methods are influencing many other types oUT application


31

EIS are different to traditional IS projects

• Director-level sponsor/champion

• IS in control

• Rigidly specified

• Rapid delivery

• Designed for frequent change

• Users can reject

. • 'Political' impacts (changes culture

information privileges, etc)

EIS Trad'IIS

Yes No

No Yes

No Yes

Yes No

Yes No

Yes No

Yes No


EIS use 1987 - 1992: key lessons from experience

• EIS are different to MIS

• Many EIS failed; some EIS were successful'DSS'

• An EIS is NOT a technical project

• EIS involve a steep learning curve for executives

• Despite the failures, EIS are increasingly recognised as a key management concept

• EIS concepts, software and development methods are influencing many other types of IT application


32

1 f

EIS in 1993: From IExecutivel to IEnterprisel

• The number of users is increasing, and the focus is shifting to line managers and business professionals.

• EIS products are being downsized and re-architected for client-server environments.

• The costs of EIS are falling sharply. 'Shrink-wrap' data access and presentation products are proliferating.

• The EIS market is converging with mainstream applications. EIS features are appearing on all software.

• EIS are unbundling; 'snap-together' EIS development is becoming common.


From IExecutivel to IEnterprisel

"Today EIS is simply an information system. You certainly have a need for an executive component, but it's difficult to draw the line between 'exclusive' and what's needed to run the business efficiently. " Mark Jankowski, CIO, Pepsico Foods International

"The company is moving in the direction of EIS becoming an every manager's information system. We anticipate the time in the future when it will be an every employee's information system. " John Alexander, CIO, Unum Corporation


33

EIS in 1993: From IExecutivel to IEnterprisel

• The number of users is increasing, and the focus is shifting to line managers and business professionals.

• EIS products are being downsized and re~architected for client-server environments.

• The costs of EIS are falling sharply. 'Shrink-wrap' data access and presentation products are proliferating.

• The EIS market is converging with mainstream applications. EIS features are appearing on all software.

• EIS are unbundling; 'snap-together' EIS development is becoming common.


Business Drivers: The Role of IT • Enterprise-wide sharing of information to support the

extended organisation and devolved management "All employees and suppliers must become privy to virtually all the firm's information" Tom Peters

• New organisation structures: self-directed, 'virtual' teams to manage across the value chain and geographic boundaries

.. Team working will become a reality. It will not be an option., it will be about survival." Mike Johnson, Head of IT Unilever

• Widening scope of performance measurement - to include the future value drivers

"The classical cost accounting, budgeting, and planning systems are not able to handle the requirements of the organisation of the 19909." Jack Rockart, MIT. I Business Intelligence Limited I

34

Enterprise Information Systems: Technology Drivers

• The spread of PCs and lANs: creating an affordable infrastructure for 'screen-based reporting'

• Downsizing: lowering software costs and improving scalability

• The GUI has become a commodity: offers integration at the desktop (DOE, OLE; ODBC)

• Client-server:.fragmenting 11'l0n·olithic applications (unbundling); . creating flexible corporate architectures

• Object oriented technology (interfaces, programming) and other RAD tools: making development fast and easy

I Dusiness Intelligence L1m1t..d I

The Impact of Client-Server

• The IT infrastructure fragments into clients, data servers and 'middleware'. Some vendors offer all three, while others specialise in one market segment.

• 'Commoditisation' of clients and servers

• New focus on middleware tools and data stores.

• Encouraging users to mix and match different clients and servers.

• SQl becomes the 'glue' that binds different components together (SQl as an API, not a user tool)

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UNBUNDLING OF EIS

CUSTOMISED VS. USER INTERFACE STANDARD

USER INTERFACE (WINDOWS! (4GL TOOLS) MOTIF, ETC)

EIS 'ENGINE' EIS FUNCTIONALITY

DELIVERY ENGINE PLUS SYSTEMS

EXECUTIVE INTEGRATION TOOLS

DATABASE (4GL TOOLS)

4GL TOOLS EXECUTIVE PROPRIETARY DSS DATABASE OR CORPORATE

'STANDARD' (4GL TOOLS)

I . Business Intelligence Limited I

Enterprise Information Systems: Supporting business change

The major pay-off from enterprise EIS will come from their use in linking management strategy to measureable actions and goals. EIS enable top management to influence the organisation by:

• signalling what is important • creating organisational alignment behind key goals • identifying effective measures of performance "Many companies have objectives such as developing a total customer focus, or improving product quality. The problem is they don't know how to conceive and build a flow of information that complements the business. That is where an enterprise information system comes in." Walt Dempsey, EIS Manager, Pratt & Whitney


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Enterprise Information Systems: Key Challenges

• Developing an open, information architecture

• Managing the information deluge - developing appropriate enterprise data models and 'knowledge dictionaries'

• Appropriate tools and interfaces for different users .

• Adding value to raw data - data access is not enough

• Rapid application development and easy maintenance

• Integrating EIS with other applications

I Business Intelligence Umikd I

Developing an information architecture forEIS

• Access to multiple data sources, platforms, files and database formats (any data from anywhere)

• Scalable, cross-platform support for applications

• Rapid application development and maintenance will be critical to meet changing needs.

• A key decision is where to hold management data: the choice between corporate repositories, staging databases, or direct access will be' critical

• Is SQl good enough?

I Business Intelligence Umikd I

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Enterprise information management strategy

• Increasing use of (enterprise) data dictionaries and business models

• Common business definitions will be essential. Increasingly enterprise 'knowledge' indexes will be needed to enable users to find information.

• Information ownership: creating a culture of corporate sharing of information will be essential.

I Business intelligence Limited I

Enterprise information: Adding Value to Data

• Data access is not enough: users will seek added value through application features:

- intelligent exception reporting - modelling, multi-dimensional slice and dice - visual data analysis - vertical application features (Quality, HR, GIS)

• Different types of interface will continue to be necessary for different types of users

• The trend will emerge for a single Imanager's desktop' that integrates personal and corporate applications and services. I BusinesslntelllgenceLimited I

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Enterprise information: beyond numbers - text and image

• Growing recognition that EIS addresses only a part of management work.

• Major pay-offs in management productivity and competitive impact from unstructured, non-numeric applications: text, image, video (eg Ads on Desks)

• Groupware concepts will Increasingly impact traditional management information systems.

• Initially, specialist servers and applications will be required; these must be integrated with EIS

I Dllllness IDteillge_ LimIted I

The future pay-off from EIS

The real gains from EIS will come from •••

• Increasing the range of relevant information available to managers, especially external, textual and Isoftl information.

• Improving the intelligibility of the information

• Using the EIS to stimulate the developmentand use of new performance indicators.

• Improving the integration of the EIS with other management support and communication systems.

-. -. '.-.

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I Dllllness IntelUgen<e Limited I

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Documents

From Executive to Enterprise Information Systems: the ... Executive to Enterprise... · From Executive to Enterprise Information Systems: the Challenge of the 90s Ian Meiklejohn Director