Executive Information System

SUMBER

An Executive Information System (EIS) is a type of management information system intended to facilitate and support the information and decision-making needs of senior executives by providing easy access to both internal and external information relevant to meeting the strategic goals of the organization. It is commonly considered as a specialized form of a Decision Support System (DSS)[cf., [1]].

The emphasis of EIS is on graphical displays and easy-to-use user interfaces. They offer strong reporting and drill-down capabilities. In general, EIS are enterprise-wide DSS that help top-level executives analyze, compare, and highlight trends in important variables so that they can monitor performance and identify opportunities and problems. EIS and data warehousing technologies are converging in the marketplace.

In recent years, the term EIS has lost popularity in favour of Business Intelligence (with the sub areas of reporting, analytics, and digital dashboards).

History

Traditionally, executive information systems were developed as mainframe computer-based programs. The purpose was to package a company’s data and to provide sales performance or market research statistics for decision makers, as such financial officers, marketing directors, and chief executive officers, who were not necessarily well acquainted with computers. The objective was to develop computer applications that would highlight information to satisfy senior executives’ needs. Typically, an EIS provides data that would only need to support executive level decisions instead of the data for all the company.

Today, the application of EIS is not only in typical corporate hierarchies, but also at personal computers on a local area network. EIS now cross computer hardware platforms and integrate information stored on mainframes, personal computer systems, and minicomputers. As some client service companies adopt the latest enterprise information systems, employees can use their personal computers to get access to the company’s data and decide which data are relevant for their decision makings. This arrangement makes all users able to customize their access to the proper company’s data and provide relevant information to both upper and lower levels in companies.

Management information system

SUMBER

A management information system (MIS) is a subset of the overall internal controls of a business covering the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures by management accountants to solving business problems such as costing a product, service or a business-wide strategy. Management information systems are distinct from regular information systems in that they are used to analyze other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization.^[1] Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information management methods tied to the automation or support of human decision making, e.g. Decision Support Systems, Expert systems, and Executive information systems.^[1]

Overview

At the start, in businesses and other organizations, internal reporting was made manually and only periodically, as a by-product of the accounting system and with some additional statistics, and gave limited and delayed information on management performances.

In their infancy, business computers were used for the practical business of computing the payroll and keeping track of accounts payable and accounts receivable. As applications were developed that provided managers with information about sales, inventories, and other data that would help in managing the enterprise, the term "MIS" arose to describe these kinds of applications. Today, the term is used broadly in a number of contexts and includes (but is not limited to): decision support systems, resource and people management applications, project management and database retrieval application.

[edit] Definition

An 'MIS' is a planned system of the collecting, processing, storing and disseminating data in the form of information needed to carry out the functions of management. According to Phillip Kotler "A marketing information system consists of people, equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision makers." (Kotler, Phillip and Keller, Kevin Lane; Marketing Management, Pearson Education, 12 Ed, 2006)

The terms MIS and information system are often confused. Information systems include systems that are not intended for decision making. The area of study called MIS is sometimes referred to, in a restrictive sense, as information technology management. That area of study should not be confused with computer science. IT service management is a practitioner-focused discipline. MIS has also some differences with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) as ERP incorporates elements that are not necessarily focused on decision support.

Professor Allen S. Lee states that "...research in the information systems field examines more than the technological system, or just the social system, or even the two side by side; in addition, it investigates the phenomena that emerge when the two interact." ^[2].

information system (wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_system

The term "information system" has different meanings:

• In computer security, an information system is described by the following components (Aceituno, 2004):
  • Structure:
    • Repositories, which hold data permanently or temporarily, such as buffers, RAM, hard disks, cache, etc. Usually, a database management system
    • Interfaces, which exchange information with the non-digital world, such as keyboards, speakers, scanners, printers, etc.
  • Channels, which connect repositories, such as buses, cables, wireless links, etc. A Network is a set of logical or physical: an introduction to informatics in Organisations. ^[1].
• The common view of an information system is that of an Information processor, that involves Input-Process-Output.

Information technology is a very important malleable resource available to executives.^[2] Many companies have created a position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) that sits on the executive board with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Technical Officer (CTO).The CTO may also serve as CIO, and vice versa. The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), who focuses on information security within an organization, normally reports to the CIO.

There are five types of information system. These are transaction processing systems, excutive support systems, business systems, knowledge work systems and office information systems.

Information Systems has a number of different areas of work:

• Information Systems Strategy
• Information Systems Management
• Information Systems Development

There are a wide variety of career paths in the information systems discipline. "Workers with specialized technical knowledge and strong communications skills will have the best prospects. People with management skills and an understanding of business practices and principles will have excellent opportunities, as companies are increasingly looking to technology to drive their revenue." ^[3]

From prior studies and experiences with information systems there are at least four classes of information systems:

• Transaction processing systems
• Management information systems
• Decision support systems
• Expert systems
• Business intelligence

Information System development

The IT Department partly governs the information technology development, use, application and influence on a business or corporation. A computer based information system, following a definition of Langefors^[4], is:

• a technologically implemented medium for recording, storing, and disseminating linguistic expressions,
• as well as for drawing conclusions from such expressions.

which can be formulated as a generalized information systems design mathematical program.