Bikash Dhakal

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Contents
Part 1 ..........................................................................................................................................5

Introduction .............................................................................................................................5

Examine, using examples, the terms ‘Business Process’ and ‘Supporting Processes’. ..............5

Business process: ....................................................................................................................5

Steps of Business Process: ...................................................................................................6

Example of business process ...............................................................................................7

Business processes categories: .................................................................................................8

1. Operational processes ................................................................................................9

2. Supporting processes .................................................................................................9

3. Management processes ..............................................................................................9

Supporting processes ............................................................................................................. 10

Areas of supporting process ............................................................................................... 10

Example of supporting process: ......................................................................................... 10

Differentiate between unstructured and semi- structured data within an organization. ............
11

Unstructured Data ............................................................................................................. 11

Semi-structured Data ......................................................................................................... 11

Difference between unstructured and semi- structured data. ............................................... 12

Evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of using application software as a mechanism for
business
processing. ............................................................................................................................ 14

Application Software:............................................................................................................ 14

Benefits of application software using in Business Process: ............................................... 14

Drawbacks of application software using in Business Process: .......................................... 15

Presentation slides ............................................................................................................. 16

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Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 21

Part 1

Produce a presentation which

• Examines business process and supporting processes using specific examples

• Shows the differentiate between unstructured and semi-structured data

• Evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of using application software for business
process

Note: you need to produce a written document which summaries your presentation.

Introduction
I founded an IT company “BDK Technology”. Also, I am working as a business analyst in the
company. I started a small company but now we are experiencing tremendous growth and there
are lots of data. That can be structured, semi structured and unstructured. Now, being a business
analyst, I have to manage data using different business intelligence tools so that I can take
decision effectively. Furthermore, there may be a lots of projects or tasks in my company. I want
to track records of every employee and progress of projects and tasks. So, for this I need to
develop Business Intelligence tools or application or programs which can solve specific problem
of our project.

But, before designing any tools / application / program, I have to conduct small scale research to
identify other organizations that have used business intelligence to improve their operation. And,
one of the most important things is to determine whether designed tools are user friendly or not.

So, first of all in this part I am going to make a documentation about business process, supporting
process, structured, semi-structured, unstructured data and also going to evaluates advantages and
disadvantages of using application software for business process.

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Examine, using examples, the terms ‘Business Process’ and ‘Supporting Processes’.
Business process:
An activity or series of activities what can accomplish specifics company goal is known as
business process. A business process contains series of steps that performed by a group of
stakeholders of company to achieve a concrete goal. Each step in a business process indicates a
task that is appointed to a participant. It is the fundamental building block for several related
ideas such as Business Process Management, Process Automation, and so on.

In above pictures we can see three very important factors of business process i.e. business steps,
business goals and stakeholders. It refers to wide range of structured and it implemented to
accomplish a predetermined organizational goal. Business process use in all organizational
levels; some may visible to customers and some may not.

The need and the advantages of a business process are quite apparent in large organizations. A
process forms the lifeline for any business and helps it streamline individual activities and make
sure that resources are put to their optimum use. Business process helps to identify what tasks are

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important to your larger business, stream line them to improve and also help to streamline
communication between people, functions, departments, to accomplish specific tasks. It sets a
hierarchy of approvals wherever relevant in order to ensure accountability and a maximum use of
resources, keep chaos from creeping into your day to day operations and standardize a set of
procedures to complete tasks that really matter to your business. (SearchCIO, 2019)

Steps of Business Process:

Step 1: Define your goals
In business process first of all we have to know about purpose of business process, why was it
created? How will we know if it is successful?

Step 2: Plan and map your process.

In second step we have to know what are the strategies needed to achieve the goals? And need to
make broad roadmap for the process.

Step 3: Set actions and assign stakeholders.

To conduct successful business process, we have to identify the individual tasks for teams and
machines need to do in order to execute the plan.

Step 4: Test the process

Testing is the experiment of design process whether it works successfully or not. So, we have to
run the process on a small scale to see how it perform. Notice any gaps and make adjustments.

Step 5: Implement the process

After successful testing of the process, we can implement the process that means start running
the process in live environment. Properly communicate and train all stakeholders.

Step 6: Monitor the results

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Monitoring the process is review of the process, analysis of its pattern and documentation of the
process history.

Step 7: Repeat

If the conducted process is effective and successful to achieve the goals set, we can replicate it
for the future processes.

Example of business process

As an example, let’s take the content marketing process. It’s a process you’ll find in every
marketing department out there. The issue is, it can be rather hectic and chaotic unless you know
the process. There will be writers, designers, SEO experts, and web designers, all working
together to create a single piece of content.

Naturally, this involves a lot of steps and communication. Although this can vary from
organization to organization, the basic steps would be as follows.

➢ The content writer would receive the draft and write the content, whether it’s a blog article or
piece of copy. The first draft is written and reviewed to create the final draft, which is then
passed on to the next person in the workflow.
➢ The editor reviews the content to ensure there are no grammatical or copy mistakes in the
content. Once this is done, it moves to the designer.
➢ The designer takes the content and adds any infographics or images suited to the content.
➢ After this, the SEO expert reviews the article to ensure that keywords are all present as they
should be, and if needed, make any changes.
➢ Once that’s done, the article is published on the internet, with the marketing team promoting
visibility.

If the content is copy work, then there’s an additional step for the web engineers to code the
website for the changes needed.

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Business processes categories:

On the basis of company, industry, organization and nature of work, business process are
categorized into different types and category. Such as:

1. Operational processes
Operational process also known as primary processes. It deals with the core business and value
chain. Operational process constitutes the core business of the organization and create the
primary value stream. Operational processes represent essential business activities that
accomplish business objectives, e.g., generating revenue. Some examples of this include taking
customer orders and managing bank accounts.

2. Supporting processes

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Supporting process is secondary process. The processes that support the core processes.
Examples include accounting and technical support.

3. Management processes
The processes that govern the operation of a system. It measures, monitors and control the
activities related to business procedures and systems. Examples of management processes
include internal communications, governance, strategic planning, budgeting, and infrastructure
or capacity management.

Supporting processes
Support processes are defined as those processes in the organization which enable the optimal
performance of the core organizational process. Since they support the main processes, they
ensure the business resources in the quality and quantity needed, ensuring the quality of resource
supplies or support services and covers the overall effective functioning of the organization. It
provides some of the underlying activities and concepts that are needed to support of all the other
categories. Support processes support the adoption and ongoing maintenance of all of the data
organized processes described in the document.

Areas of supporting process

Supporting process possess the following process areas.

• Measurement and analysis: Support process identifies how the practice can measure the
effectiveness of how they have implemented data management processes.
• Process management: Support process assists the practice with developing work products,
for examples policies, procedure, business glossary, etc.
• Process quality assurance: It focuses on making improvements in how the data
management processes are implemented. (Healthit.gov, 2019)

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Example of supporting process:

Supporting processes includes following instances:

❖ Manage finance including costing.

❖ It manages information system. ❖ Human resources management.
❖ It processes.
❖ Vendor management processes.
❖ Risk management processes.
❖ Security management processes.
❖ Quality management processes.
❖ Corporate governance processes.

Unlike core processes they are relatively similar in different types of organizations. Support
processes are usually more complex and complicated in larger companies, because more people
are involved, organizational structure is taller, and so. Whereas in small companies only one
person can be responsible for a particular support process or activity. These processes do not
directly generate value to the customer. Having said that, the support processes are also vital for
the enterprise. The processes like management processes, accounting processes, and human
resource processes facilitate the working of an organization.

Enhancing these processes means making the fundamentally and strategically strong. Although
the support processes, do not add value to the client directly, they help in developing a solid
working environment. (ManagementMania.com, 2019)

Differentiate between unstructured and semi- structured data within an organization.

Data is a raw information or unorganized form that represents condition, ideas or objects. It is
limitless and occur everywhere in the universe. In business intelligence data can be in different
forms such as structured, unstructured and semi-structured data.

Unstructured Data

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Any data that does not have a recognizable structure is known as unstructured data. Unstructured
data is unorganized and raw and can be textual or non-textual data. It is information in many
different forms which does not hew to conventional data. One of the most common form of
unstructured data is text, it generates and collects in wide range of forms, including word
documents, email messages, PowerPoint presentations, survey responses, from blogs, social
media sites, etc. Because of its nature, unstructured data isn't suited to transaction processing
applications, which are the province of structured data. Instead, it's primarily used for BI and
analytics. (SearchBusinessAnalytics, 2019)

Semi-structured Data
Data that is neither raw data, nor typed data in conventional database system is known as semi
structured data. Semi structured data is somehow structured data but it is not organized in
rational model, in a table and object-based graph. Semi-structured data lies somewhere between
structured and unstructured data. It is not organized in a complex manner that makes
sophisticated access and analysis possible; however, it may have information associated with it,
such as metadata tagging, that allows elements contained to be addressed. (Techopedia.com,
2019)

Difference between unstructured and semi- structured data.

Big data in a company includes large volume, high velocity and extensible variety of data. Below
we can study the comparative information between unstructured and semi-structured data.
Properties Unstructured Data Semi-structured Data
Technology It is based on character and It is based on XML/RDF
binary data.

Transaction management No transaction management Transaction is adapted from

and no concurrency. DBMS not matured.

Version management Versioned as whole. Versioning over tuples or

graph is possible.

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Flexibility It is flexible and there is It is less flexible than

absence of schema. unstructured data.

Scalability It is very scalable. It is less scalable than

unstructured data.

Robustness Robust property is absent. New technology but not very

spread.

Query performance Only textual query is possible. Queries over anonymous

nodes are possible.

As an owner and data analyst of an IT company I have to deal with various kinds of data that
may be in any form. I have to categorize them and to do analysis of collected data. Unstructured
and semi-structured are two different form of data sources. Unstructured data includes videos,
images, and audios. Today, in our digital universe 90% of data which is increasing is
unstructured data. This data is not fit for relational database and in order to make them store,
scenario came up with NoSQL database. Today there are four family of NoSQL database: key
value, column-oriented, graph-oriented, and document-oriented. Most of the famous organization
today(Amazon, linkedln, Facebook, Google, Youtube) is dealing with NoSQL data and they are
replaced their convention database to NoSQL database.

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Unstructured data is not based on Schema. It is not suitable for relational database and 90% of
unstructured data is growing today. It includes digital media files, Word doc., pdf files and stored
in NoSQL database.

Semi-structured data includes e-mails, XML and JSON. Semi structured data is not fit for
relational database where it is expressed with the help of edges, labels and tree structures. These
are represented with the help of trees and graphs and they have attributes, labels. These are
schemaless data. Data models which are graph based can store semi-structured data. MongoDB
is a NOSQL model that support JSON (semi-structured data). Data consist of tags and which are
selfdescribing are generally semi-structured data. They are different from structured and
unstructured data. Data object Model, Objects Exchange Model, Data Guide are famous data
model that express semi structured data. Concepts for semi-structured data model: document
instance, document schema, elements attributes, elements relationship sets. (Google.com, 2019)

Semi-structured data is not based on Schema. It is represented through label and edges and
generated from various web pages. It has multiple attributes.

Hence, in my company I can organized those kinds of data successfully.

Evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of using application software as a mechanism for
business processing.

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Application Software:
Application software is a software which is developed to help the user to perform specific tasks
is known as application software. It is created for a specific purpose. Business intelligence
application software is a set of tools used by companies to retrieve, analyze, and transform data
into meaningful information. It includes data visualization, data warehousing, dashboards, and
reporting. Word processing software, Database programs, Entertainment software, Business
software, Educational software, Computer-aided design (CAD) software, Spreadsheet software
etc. are some example of application software. Also, ad-hoc solution, simplified workflow, full
BPM, custom application software etc. are application software uses in business processing
mechanisms. (Technologyadvice.com, 2019)

Benefits of application software using in Business Process:

Following are some benefits of uses of application software in business process mechanisms.

1. Business process modeling: Application software helps to create and test multiple processes
and work flows within company using a visual process design tool.
2. Agility: Any company can face with the need of changed constantly. So, change may become
necessary as a result of new regulation. Application software facilitates the design of
processes

that are flexible. We can get flexibility of making changes to business process with minimal
costs.
3. Productivity: It facilitates the automation of a lot of repetitive elements within regular
workflows. So, application software of business process improvements like removal of
bottlenecks, parallel processing, and elimination of redundant steps can easily be achieved. It
allows employees to spend more time on other activities.
4. Efficiency and reduced risks: The visibility of business processes allows for concentration
on inefficiencies. Because application software gives organizations the opportunity to work

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more efficiently, they are able to save their resources. It also results in the creation of
betterdesigned, executed and monitored processes which can help reduce the risk of fraud.
5. Consistency, Repeatability & Transferability: With application software, each task is
executed the way it was planned and designed. Identical problems are addressed the same
way and there is no need to reinvent the wheel, even if roles do change.
6. Workflow Management: Design, test and implement advanced workflows by integrating
robust communication between team members, systems, and data.
7. Sustainability: Business Processes are continually improved to adapt to changing
organizational conditions so that they can deliver the expected results. This adaptation can be
achieved with application software while maintaining control or managerial oversight.
8. Business Rules Engine: Design business rules and conditions for each business process.
9. Analytics: Application software define metrics, get insights in real time, and run any report
with ease. (Famuyide and Famuyide, 2019)

Drawbacks of application software using in Business Process:

1. Developing application software designed to meet specific purpose can prove to be quite
costly for developers. This can affect their budget and their revenue flow, especially if too
much time is spent developing a software that is not generally acceptable.
2. Some software that are designed specifically for a certain business, may not be compatible
with other general software. This is something that can prove to be a major stumbling block
for many corporations.
3. Developing them is something that takes a lot of time, because it needs constant
communication between the developer and the customer. This delays the entire production
process, which can prove to be harmful in some cases.

4. Application software that is used commonly by many people, and then shared online, carries
a very real threat of infection by computer virus or other malicious programs. (Anon, 2019)

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Presentation slides
Here I am going to attach my presentation slides which includes and summarize above
documentation on bullet points highlights.

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Hence, in above screen shots I have highlighted different factors, advantages, disadvantages and
etc. about business process and its role in the business intelligence techniques.

Conclusion
Hence, business process helps to identify what tasks are important to your larger business, stream
line them to improve and also help to streamline communication between people, functions,
departments, to accomplish specific tasks. It sets a hierarchy of approvals wherever relevant in
order to ensure accountability and a maximum use of resources, keep chaos from creeping into
your day to day operations and standardize a set of procedures to complete tasks that really
matter to your business. So, in this part I have explained about business process, supporting
process, different types of data such as structure, unstructured and semi structure and about
application software, their advantages and disadvantages while using in business process.

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Part 2 ........................................................................................................................................22

Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 22

“The tools and technologies associated with business intelligence functionality.” ......................
22

Compare the types of support available for business decision making at varying levels within
an organization. ..................................................................................................................... 23

Types of support available for business decision making. .................................................. 23

Decision-Making at Different Levels in the Organization: ................................................. 24

Comparative study on different decision making at varying level: ..................................... 25

Justify, with specific examples, the key features of business intelligence functionality. .........
27

Business intelligence functionality ..................................................................................... 27

Compare and contrast a range of information systems and technologies that can be used to
support organizations at operational, tactical and strategic levels. .......................................... 30

Four Major Types of Systems ................................................................................................ 30

Executive support system (ESS) ........................................................................................ 31

Management information system (MIS)............................................................................. 32

Decision Support Systems (DSS) ....................................................................................... 33

Transaction support system (TPS) ..................................................................................... 34

Relationship of system to one another................................................................................ 35

Summary ............................................................................................................................... 36

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Part 2
Write an article which

• Compares the different types of support available for decision making at varying levels
within an organization.
• Justifies the key features of business intelligence functionality with reference to specific
examples.
• Compares and contrasts different information systems and technologies that can be used
to support to support organizations at operational, tactical and strategic levels.
Introduction
In this part I am going to prepare an article which compare the different types of support
available for decision making ideas at varying levels within an organization, justification on the
key features of BI functionality and also going to compare and contrast different information
systems and technologies that can be used to support organization at operational, tactical and
strategic levels.

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“The tools and technologies associated with business intelligence functionality.”

Bikash Dhakal
15th June 2019

Business intelligence is a technology-driven process for analyzing data and presenting

actionable information to help executives, managers and other corporate end users make
informed business decisions. In today’s dynamic world business firms have to take a number
of decisions every now and then. Managers know how important decision-making is from the
organizational point of view. For example, in research and development management has to
decide whether to pursue one or multiple design strategies

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Compare the types of support available for business decision making at varying levels
within an organization.
Types of support available for business decision making.
In today’s dynamic world business firms have to take a number of decisions every now and
then. Managers know how important decision-making is from the organizational point of view.
For example, in research and development management has to decide whether to pursue one or
multiple design strategies. Decision making capacity plays vital role in every types of
business. So, we have to make correct decision in our every step of business. For that we can
use different types of support system available for business decision making at different level
that helps us to make correct decision. A decision support system is a computerized
information system used to support decision-making in an organization or a business. A DSS
lets users sift through and analyze massive amounts of data, and compile information that can
be used to solve problems and make better decisions. Decision support systems allow for more
informed decision-making, timely problem-solving, and improved efficiency for dealing with
problems with rapidly changing variables. (Managementstudyguide.com, 2019) Following are
some decision-making supports available:
1. Communication- driven support
It is a type of support system that emphasizes communications, collaboration and shared
decision-making support. It enables communication between groups of people, facilitates
the sharing of information, supports collaboration and coordination between people and
also supports in group decision tasks.

2. Knowledge-driven support
“Knowledge should be shared. It only grows by sharing”. Like it’s important to share
knowledge within the organization, it’s equally important to determine what to share with
whom. Not all details can be shared with everyone. This means that it is absolutely
necessary to decide knowledge sharing rules and regulations, so that it can be used
effectively and appropriately. It is a computer-based reasoning system that provides
information, comprehension and suggest
Pageto24users
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3. Document-driven support
A document driven support helps in document retrieval and analysis a collection of related,
unstructured documents searches engines, document indexing and summarization
document and knowledge management. The decision support systems is capable of
gathering and presenting several typical information such as comparative data figures,
accessing information assets that include relational and legacy data sources, consequences
of diverse decision alternatives, providing past experiences in a particular context as well
as projecting figures according to assumptions or new data.

4. Data-driven support
It is a type of support that emphasizes access to and manipulation of a time-series of
internal company data and sometimes external data. Simple file systems accessed by query
and retrieval tools provide the most elementary level of functionality. Data warehouse
systems that allow the manipulation of data by computerized tools tailored to a specific
task and setting or by more general tools and operators provide additional functionality.
Data-driven DSS with On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) provides the highest level of
functionality and decision support that is linked to analysis of large collections of historical
data. Executive Information Systems (EIS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are
special purpose Data-Driven DSS
In above I have discussed different types of support available in business decision making.
Now I am going to discuss this support system in different varying level regarding our
company
“BDK Technology”.
Decision-Making at Different Levels in the Organization:
Continuous analysis of organizational decision-making process is essential to high quality and
transparent decisions; otherwise a business runs with a prejudice: the notion that it is good at
making decision, even if in reality it is not. Some decisions are related to evaluating
investments, allocating resources or assessing mergers and acquisition proposals while some
are about introducing new products, studying their shelf life or enhancing manufacturing
efficiency. There are also day-to-day decisions that are valid for a point of time. Typically,
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While objective decisions may not require creativity, subjective decisions do. (Essays, Research
Papers and Articles on Business Management, 2019)

Like decisions made in each department at each level are different, similarly a decision
support system analyst must take into consideration the type of decisions and distinguished
factors influencing decision-making before going to the drawing board and designing the
architecture. Above fig gives an indication of the relative number of each type of decision
made at each level in the organizations. However, the categories should not be treated as
exclusive. For example, the production manager of a machinery manufacturing firm might
primarily be en-gaged in technical decisions, while the legal adviser of the company might be
involved in institu-tional matters.
From above, we have three different types of decision-making level. They are.
1. Strategic level (top level management)
2. Tactical level (middle level management)
3. Operational level (bottom level management)
Comparative study on different decision making at varying level:
Given table shows the comparative study on the types of support available for business decision
making at varying levels within an organization.

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S.N. Strategic level (top level Tactical level (middle level operational level (bottom
management) management) level management)

1. It includes technology It includes establishing It develops operational

decisions (i.e. choice of parameters (for measuring plans, establish actions
appropriate technology, operational efficiency and
equipment’s, process productivity), making plans that are necessary to
choice and degree of to improve utilization of achieve operational
automation), capacity existing resources, planning
goals, Quality
decisions (amount, timing for modernization, make or
and type), facilitates buy decision, planning for specifications and
decisions (size, location medium term maintenance inspection and test
and specializations), (preventive and condition
vertical integration monitoring) to enhance the details.
(direction, extent and availability of production
balance). facilities.

2. Creative skills are needed Persuasive skills are needed Operative skills are
in Top level management. in Middle level management. needed in low level
management.

3. Strategic level production Focus is on fixing Plans are definite, and

planning helps to achieve performance parameters and action oriented and
the goals in the best generating data to compare plans are expressed in
possible way. actual and planned terms of parameters,
performance and taking steps which can be quantified.
to reduce gap between
planned and actual.

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4. All the strategic level Plans to enhance equipment It helps to monitor the
planning is always availability and overall progress of the plan and
associated with risk and it productivity of the take corrective action if
is used in some futuristic production function. needed to achieve the
assumption. target.

5. This type of support is This type of support is for Operation are normally
carried out for a long certain period of time. carried out for a short
period of time. period of time.

6. This type of support This type of support This type of support

coordinates the activities cooperates with other ensures whether good
of different department. department for smooth working condition is
functioning of organization. provided to the workers.

7. Only certain number of Moderate number of persons Support from large

persons are needed to are needed to provide support. number of persons are
support. needed.

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Justify, with specific examples, the key features of business intelligence functionality.
Business intelligence is a technology driven process which analyze the data and present
actionable information to help executives, managers and other end users to make effective
business decisions. BI uses wide variety of tools, applications and methodologies that enable
organization to collect data from various sources. Business Intelligence delivers the insight
executives need in order to make the right decisions because it connects the data, technology,
analytics, and knowledge that business professionals need to ensure success. It is with
Business Intelligence that organizations and enterprises gain competitive advantage.
Organizations around the globe are just now beginning to realize all of the potential benefits of
Business Intelligence, as they harness the power of Big Data. Companies that use BI
effectively also identify market trends and business issues that need to be corrected.
Business intelligence functionality
Some of the key features of business intelligence functionality are as follows:
1. Predictive Analytics and Modeling:
BI solution majorly helps you to analyze the data and trends by analyzing your previous data
sets. But one capability which a BI solution must have is the predicting capabilities, it enables
the decision makers to predict the market trends, and other business requirements like sales,
staffing, market trends etc. With the use of predictive analytics, it helps an organization to be

proactive, forward looking, retain and grow their customer with improving business operation
on their business. (Examples, n.d.)

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Predictive analytics is reflected in today Big Data Trends, and its tools are essentially Big Data
Technologies. The market demand for predictive analytics software corresponds with a closely
related toolset, Big Data Analytics Tools. It helps optimizing marketing campaigns, improving
operations, fraud detection and reduce risks. For example, retail is Probably the largest sector
to use predictive analytics, retail is always looking to improve its sales position and forge
better relations with customers. One of the most ubiquitous examples is Amazon’s
recommendations. When you make a purchase, it puts up a list of other similar items that other
buyers purchased. Much of this is in the pre-sale area – with things like sales forecasting and
market analysis, customer segmentation, revisions to business models, aligning IT to business
units, managing inventory to account for seasonality, and finding best retail locations. But it
also acts post-sale, acting to reduce returns, get the customer to come back and extend
warranty sales.
2. Interactive Reports and Operational Reports
Interactive reports allow users to condense the massive amounts of collected data into a wide
variety of possible views. Users can take advantages of features like statistical analysis and
regression to identify trends, anomalies and outliers in the data whereas At the end of each
day, business intelligence features like these can provide your organization’s executives with a

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detailed summary of the daily events, giving them the information they need to make critical
decisions
3. . Data visualization
Data visualization is the process of interacting with clients to understand patterns, trends, and
insights by transforming data into a visual context. Data visualization is to generate visuals
from the data. It can be in any form like tables, graphs, charts, images, patterns, movies, etc.
(SearchBusinessAnalytics,
2019)

.
In above figure we can monthly
see expenses report that compares spending data across
categorie
—travel, office supplies, etc. or even across departments. While such trends could
s be
easily overlooked in a spreadsheet, a bar chart will visualize the data. It’s an easy way to
comparinformation, as it will uncover highs and lows at a quick glance. An accounting
edepartment can present the information to leadership or department heads and gain
immediate
understanding of
challenges.
4. Open
integration
Smart BI platforms will beaccess
able tonot only your organization’s own data, but
from email, social media, information
websites and more. For example, instead of only providing your
internal sales data, your BI platform could accompany that information with reviews and
comments about
our products. With so many data formats and so many applications to pull
y
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from, it’s important that your BI platform is able to integrate as many different types of data as
possible under a single roof, seamlessly combining disparate forms of information into an
actionable report. 5. Ranking Report
This feature allows you to create reports that order specific categories of information, from
across multiple dimensions, by selecting specific criteria. With the help of ranking report an
organization get an idea of what aspect is going good and what aspect is going bad on their
business. An organization can take critical decision by analyzing ranking report which helps
them to change their state. Ranking reports let you view the best and worst performing aspects
of your business. For example, you could create a report that ranks your 10 best-selling
products, regions or sales people. (Features and Conrad, 2019)
Compare and contrast a range of information systems and technologies that can be used
to support organizations at operational, tactical and strategic levels.
For the last twenty years, different kinds of information systems are developed for different
purposes, depending on the need of the business. In today’s business world, there are varieties
of information systems such as transaction processing systems (TPS), office automation
systems (OAS), management information systems (MIS), decision support system (DSS), and
executive information systems (EIS), Expert System (ES) etc. Each plays a different role in
organizational hierarchy and management operations. This study attempts to explain the role
of each type of information systems in business organizations. (|, 2019)
Four Major Types of Systems

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Above figure shows the specific types of information systems that correspond to each
organizational level. The organization has executive support systems (ESS) at the strategic
level;
management information systems (MIS) and -support
decision systems (DSS)
at the
management level; and transaction processing systems (TPS) at the operational level. Systems
at each level in turn are specialized to serve each of the major functional areas. Thus, the
typical
systems found in organizations are designedworkers
to assist
or managers at each level and in
the functions of sales and marketing, manufacturing and production, finance and accounting,
and human resources. The four major information support systems are discussed
below:
Executive support system (ESS)
Executi
ve Information Systems have been developed, which provide rapid access to both
internal and external information, often presented in graphical format, but with the ability to
present more detailed underlying data if it is
required.

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Senior managers use executive support systems (ESS) to help them make decisions. ESS serve
the strategic level of the organization. They address nonroutine decisions requiring judgment,
evaluation, and insight because there is no agreed-on procedure for arriving at a solution.
Executive information systems provide critical information from a wide variety of internal
and external sources (from MIS, DSS, and other sources tailored to the information needs of
executives) in easy-touse displays to executives and managers. An EIS provides senior
managers with a system to assist in taking strategic and tactical decisions. An executive
information system is designed to generate information that is abstract enough to present the
whole company operation in a simplified version to satisfy senior management
Management information system (MIS)
Management information systems are a kind of computer information systems that could
collect and process information from different sources in institute decision making in level of
management. Management information systems Provide information in the form of
prespecified reports and displays to support business decision making. The next level in the
organizational hierarchy is occupied by low level managers and supervisors. This level
contains computer systems that are intended to assist operational management in monitoring
and controlling the transaction processing activities that occur at clerical level. Management
information systems (MIS) use the data collected by the TPS to provide supervisors with the
necessary control reports. Management information system is type of information systems
that take internal data from the system and summarized it to meaningful and useful forms as
management reports to use it to support management activities and decision making.

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Above figure shows how a typical MIS transforms transaction level data from inventory,
production, and accounting into MIS files that are used to provide managers with reports.
Decision Support Systems (DSS)
A Decision Support System is a computer-based system intended for use by a particular
manager or usually a group of managers at any organizational level in making a decision in
the process of solving a semi structured decision. Decision Support Systems are a Kind of
organizational information computerize systems that help manager in decision making that
needs modeling, formulation, calculating, comparing, selecting the best option or predict the
scenarios. Decisionsupport systems are specifically designed to help management make
decisions in situations where there is uncertainty about the possible outcomes of those
decisions. A decision support system is a computer-based information system that assists
managers in making many complex decisions, such as decisions needed to solve poorly
defined or semi structured problems.

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Above figure illustrates the DSS built for this company. The system operates on a powerful
desktop personal computer, providing a system of menus that makes it easy for users to enter
data or obtain tion
informa .
Transaction support system (TPS)
Transaction processing systems (TPS) are the basic business systems that serve the operational
level of the organization. A transaction processing system is a computerized system that
performs and records theutine
dailytransactions necessary to the conduct of the business.
ro At
the lowest level of the organizational hierarchy we find the transaction processing systems
that
support the-today activities of the
day business.

Above figure depicts a payroll TPS,

s awhich
typicali accounting transaction processing system
found in most firms. A payroll system keeps track of the money paid to employees. The master

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file is composed of discrete pieces of information (such as a name, address, or employee

number) called data elements. Data are keyed into the system, updating the data elements. The
elements on the master file are combined in different ways to make up reports of interest to
management and government agencies and to send paychecks to employees. These TPS can
generate other report combinations of existing data elements. (Paginas.fe.up.pt, 2019)
Relationship of system to one another

Above figure describe how the systems serving different levels in the organization are related
to one another. TPS are typically a major source of data for other systems, whereas ESS are
primarily a recipient of data from lower-level systems. The other types of systems may
exchange data with each other as well. Data may also be exchanged among systems serving
different functional areas. For example, an order captured by a sales system may be
transmitted to a manufacturing system as a transaction for producing or delivering the product
specified in the order or to a MIS for financial reporting. (UKEssays.com, 2019)
Characteristics comparisons of different information support system.

Types of system Information inputs Processing Information Users

outputs

Executive Aggregate data; Graphics; Projections; to Senior

information stimulations; responses managers
external, internal
system (EIS) interactive queries

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Decision Low volume data Interactive; Special reports; Professionals;

support system or massive stimulations; decision analyses; staff
databases analysis
(DSS) optimized for data responses to managers
analysis; analytic queries
models and data
analysis tools.

Management Summary Routine Summary and Middle

information transaction data; reports; exception reports. managers
system (MIS) high volume data;
simple model simple
models; low-
level analysis
Transaction Transaction; events Sorting; Detailed reports; Operative
processing listing; lists; summaries personnel;
system merging; supervisors updating

Summary
There are different types of information systems used in business organizations. transaction
processing systems designed to records the daily routine transactions necessary to the conduct
of the business. Office automation systems designed to support office tasks. Process control
systems designed to Monitor and control industrial or physical processes. Management
information system (MIS) basically concerned with converting data from internal sources into
information which is then communicated to managers at all the levels, in all functions to make
timely and effective decisions for planning, directing and controlling the activities for which
they are responsible. Decision support systems designed to help manager in decision making
that needs modeling, formulation, calculating, comparing, selecting the best option or predict
the scenarios. Executive information systems provide senior managers with a system to assist
in taking strategic and tactical decisions. Expert system program designed to emulate human

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reasoning. This study attempts to clarify the role of each type of information systems in business
organizations.

Hence, in this part I have discussed different types of support available for decision making, key
features of business intelligence functionality and different information systems and technology
that used to support to support organization at operational, tactical and strategic levels.

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