SEGMENT 7

Enterprise Decision
Support Systems

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Enterprise Decision Support Systems

■ DSS to provide enterprise-wide support

■ Executives

■ Many decision makers in different locations

■ Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems

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 Enterprise Systems: Concepts and
Definitions

■ Executive information systems (EIS)

■ Executive support systems (ESS)

■ Enterprise information systems (EIS)

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 Evolution of Executive and
Enterprise Information
Systems
■ DSS and ODSS
■ 1980s: Top execs get Executive
Information Systems
■ 1995+’s: Move to everybody’s
information systems and enterprise
information systems
■ Definitions follow
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Executive Information System (EIS)
■ A computer-based system that serves 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

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Executive Support System (ESS)

Comprehensive support system that goes

beyond EIS to include

■ Communications
■ Office automation
■ Analysis support
■ Intelligence

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 Enterprise Information System

■ Corporate-wide system
■ Provides holistic information
■ From a corporate view
■ Part of enterprise resource planning (ERP)
systems
■ For business intelligence
■ Leading up to enterprise information portals
and knowledge management systems
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 Executives’ Role and Their
Information Needs
■ Decisional Executive Role (2 Phases)
1. Identification of problems and/or opportunities
2. The decision of what to do about them

■ Flow chart and information flow (Figure 8.1)

■ Use phases to determine executives’

information needs

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 Methods for Finding
Information Needs
■ Wetherbe's Approach
1. Structured Interviews
– IBM's Business System Planning (BSP)
– Critical Success Factors (CSF)
– Ends/Means (E/M) Analysis
2. Prototyping
■ Watson and Frolick's Approach
– Asking (interview approach)
– Deriving the needs from an existing information system
– Synthesis from characteristics of the systems
– Discovering (Prototyping)
• Ten methods
■ Other Methods
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 Characteristics of EIS

■ Drill down
■ Critical success Factors (CSF)
■ Status access
■ Analysis
■ Exception reporting
■ Colors and audio
■ Navigation of information
■ Communication
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 Critical Success Factors (CSF)

Monitored by five types of information

1. Key problem narratives
2. Highlight charts
3. Top-level financials
4. Key factors (key performance indicators (KPI))
5. Detailed KPI responsibility reports

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Characteristics and Benefits of EIS
(Table 8.1)

■ Quality of information
■ User interface
■ Technical capability provided
■ Benefits

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 Comparing and Integrating EIS
and DSS

■ Tables 8.2 and 8.3 compare the two systems

– Table 8.2 - DSS definitions related to EIS
– Table 8.3 - Comparison of EIS and DSS

■ EIS is part of decision support

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 Integrating EIS and
Group Support Systems
■ EIS vendors - easy interfaces with GSS

■ Some EIS built in Lotus Domino / Notes

■ Comshare Inc. and Pilot Software, Inc. -

Lotus Domino/Notes-based enhancements
and Web/Internet/Intranet links

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 Traditional EIS Software
■ Major Commercial EIS Software Vendors
– Comshare Inc. (www.comshare.com)
– Pilot Software Inc. (www.pilotsw.com)
■ Application Development Tools
– In-house components
– Comshare Commander tools
– Pilot Software’s Command Center Plus and Pilot
Decision Support Suite

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■ EIS
■ Data access

■ Data warehousing

■ OLAP

■ Multidimensional analysis

■ Presentations

■ Web

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 Multidimensional Analysis
■ Easy to develop an EIS in an OLAP system

■ Most are Web-ready

■ Can tap into data in a data warehouse via

the Web

■ Use advanced visualization tools

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 Representative OLAP /
Multidimensional Analysis
Packages
■ BrioQuery (Brio Technology Inc.)
■ Business Objects (Business Objects Inc.)
■ Decision Web (Comshare Inc.)
■ DataFountain (Dimensional Insight Inc.)
■ DSS Web (MicroStrategy Inc.)
■ Focus Fusion (Information Builders Inc.)
■ InfoBeacon Web (Platinum Technology Inc.)
■ Oracle xpress Server (Oracle Corporation)
■ Pilot Internet Publisher (Pilot Software Inc.)

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Including Soft Information in EIS

Soft information is fuzzy, unofficial,

intuitive, subjective, nebulous,
implied, and vague

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Soft Information Used in Most EIS
■ Predictions, speculations, forecasts, estimates (78.1%)
■ Explanations, justifications, assessments, interpretations
(65.6%)
■ News reports, industry trends, external survey data
(62.5%)
■ Schedules, formal plans (50.0%)
■ Opinions, feelings, ideas (15.6%)
■ Rumors, gossip, hearsay (9.4%)

Soft Information Enhances EIS Value

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Organizational DSS (ODSS)

■ Three Types of Decision Support

– Individual
– Group
– Organizational
Hackathorn and Keen (1981)

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■ Organizational decision support focuses on
an organizational task or activity involving a
sequence of operations and actors

■ Each individual's activities must mesh

closely with other people's work

■ Computer support is for

– Improving communication and coordination
– Problem solving

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 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 management's 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)
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■ A distributed decision support system (DDSS). Not
a manager's DSS, but supports the organization's
division of labor in decision making (Swanson and
Zmud, 1990)

■ Apply the technologies of computers and

communications to enhance the organizational
decision-making process. Vision of technological
support for group processes to the higher level of
organizations (King and Star, 1990)

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 Common Characteristics of
ODSS (George, 1991)
■ Focus is on an organizational task or activity or a decision
that affects several organizational units or corporate
problems
■ Cuts across organizational functions or hierarchical layers
■ Almost always involves computer-based technologies, and
may involve communication technologies
■ Can Integrate ODSS with Group DSS and Executive
Information Systems
■ ODSS are an enterprise information system directly
concerned with decision support

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 Supply and Value Chains and
Decision Support
■ Supply chain: (originally) flow of
materials from sources to internal use

■ Demand chain: flow from inside to

customers

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 Supply Chain
■ The flow of materials, information, and
services from raw material suppliers
through factories and warehouses to the
end customers

■ Includes the organizations and processes

that create and deliver value to the end
customers
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 Supply Chain Management
(SCM)
■ To deliver an effective supply chain and
do it effectively

■ To plan, organize, and coordinate the

supply chain’s activities

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 SCM Benefits
■ Reduction in uncertainty and risks in the
supply chain
■ Positively affect
– inventory levels
– cycle time
– processes
– customer service
■ Increase profitability
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 Supply Chain Components
■ Upstream
■ Internal supply chain
■ Downstream

Involves product life cycle activities

Example (Figure 8.2)

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 Supply Chain
■ Related to the Value Chain Model
(Porter)

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 Supply Chain Problems
■ Uncertainty in the demand forecast
■ Uncertainty in delivery times
■ Quality problems
■ Poor customer service
■ High inventory costs
■ Low revenue
■ Extra costs
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 Solutions to Supply Chain
Problems
■ Outsourcing
■ Buy, not make
■ Configure optimal shipping plans
■ Optimize purchasing
■ Strategic partnerships with suppliers
■ Just-in-time delivery of purchases
■ Reduce intermediaries
■ Reduce lead times (EDI)
■ Use fewer suppliers
■ Improve the supplier-buyer relationships
■ Build-to-order
■ Accurate demand by working with suppliers
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 Computerized Systems
■ MRP
■ ERP
■ SCM

Integrating the supply chain

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 Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP)
■ Objective: integrate all departments and
functions across an organization into a
single computer system that can serve the
entire enterprise’s needs

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 ERP Software Vendors
■ SAP
■ Baan
■ PeopleSoft
■ Oracle
■ J.D. Edwards
■ Computer Associates

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 ERP
■ Very (VERY!) expensive
■ 2nd generation: doing better
■ Early 2000: moving to Web
■ Will fail if an organization’s business
processes do not fit the ERP system’s model

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 Application Service Providers
and ERP Outsourcing
■ ASP: software vendor who leases ERP-
based applications

■ Outsourcing

■ Now via the Web

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Corporate (Enterprise) Portals
and EIS
■ Integrates internal applications with
external applications
■ Generally via the Web
■ Can include
– groupware technologies
– presentation and customization
– publishing and distribution
– search
– categorization
– integration

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 Frontline Decision Support
Systems
■ Process of automating decision processes
and pushing them down into the
organization and even partners

■ Includes empowering employees

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 Future of Executive and
Enterprise Support Systems
■ Toolbox for customized systems
■ Multimedia support
■ Better access (via PDFs and cell phones)
■ Virtual Reality and 3-D Image Displays
■ Merging of analytical systems (OLAP / multidimensional
analysis)) with desktop publishing
■ Client/server architecture
■ Web-enabled EIS
■ Automated support and intelligent assistance
■ Integration of EIS and Group Support Systems
■ Global EIS
■ Integration and deployment with ERP products
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