Unit 8 Enterprise Information Systems: Structure

Business Intelligence and Tools Unit 8
Sikkim Manipal University Page No. 178

Unit 8 Enterprise Informati on Systems
Structure
8.1 Introduction
Objectives
8.2 Overview of an EIS
8.2.1 Definition of an EIS
8.2.2 Significance of EIS
8.2.3 Evolution of EIS
8.2.4 Benefits of an EIS
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs)
8.3 Information Needs of Senior Managers
8.3.1 Activities of the Senior Executives
8.3.2 Types of Information and their Attributes
8.3.3 Methods for Determining the Executive Information Needs
8.4 Architecture and Components of EIS
8.4.1 Hardware
8.4.2 Software
8.4.3 Interface
8.4.4 Telecommunications
8.5 EIS Applications
8.5.1 Financial
8.5.2 Marketing
8.5.3 Manufacturing
8.6 Future Trends in EIS
8.6.1 The Intelligent EIS
8.6.2 The Multimedia EIS
8.6.3 The Informed EIS
8.6.4 The Connected EIS
8.7 Summary
8.8 Terminal Questions (TQs)
8.9 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
8.10 Answers to SAQs, TQs, and MCQs
8.10.1 Answers to Self Assessment Questions (SAQs)
8.10.2 Answers to Terminal Questions (TQs)
8.10.3 Answers to Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
8.1 Introduction
To survive in the scenario of increased global competition, the CEOs of the
organizations are required to keep monitoring large amounts of information.
In this context, Executive Information Systems (EIS) emerged as a unique
and powerful interface to a variety of information sources to address the
specific information needs of a CEO and other senior managers. This Unit
focuses on the information requirements of top-level executives, the
architecture of the EIS to fulfill the information needs, and the future trends
of EIS.
Objectives:
The objectives of the Unit are to make you understand:
The purpose of Executive Information Systems (EIS)) in an Organization
Information requirements of senior executives
The design requirements of an EIS
Applications of EIS
Future trends of EIS
8.2 Overview of an EIS
An Enterprise Information System (EIS) is an information interface system
that is specially designed to facilitate the analysis of critical information for
operating an organization. These systems provide tools that support the
strategic decision making needs of the top executives of the organization.
For instance, an EIS may assist the CEO of an organization by providing not
only the operational performance of an organization, but also the activities of
its competitors, suppliers, customers, etc.
8.2.1 Definition of an EIS
In simple terms, an EIS can be defined as a computer-based system
intended to facilitate and support the information and decision making needs
of senior executives of an enterprise by providing easy access to both
internal and external information relevant to meeting the strategic goals of
the organization. These systems act as organizational-wide Decision
Support Systems to help top-level executives analyze, compare, and
highlight the trends and patterns of the important variables. Also, these
systems emphasize on graphical displays, easy-to-use user interfaces and
offer strong reporting capabilities.
8.2.2 Significance of EIS
An EIS provides the summarized or detailed data of the strategic information
at the convenience of the senior executives of an organization. An EIS
performs all these functions by constantly monitoring the internal and
external events and trends. For instance, an executive can use EIS to view
the sales functioning categorized by product, region, month, etc. Similarly,
the executive can also monitor the sales performance of the organizations
competitors. Based on the snapshot provided by the EIS, the executive can
drill down into the organizations data warehouse to display greater level of
details and to explore the current and past data patterns and trends. This
process can be continued till the executive reaches a single transaction
level and thus EIS provides the executive with the information that explains
the variance and helps in deciding a course of action.
The tools offered by EIS are programmed to provide canned reports or
briefing books to top-level executives. Today these tools allow ad-hoc
querying against a multi-dimensional database, and most offer analytical
applications along functional lines such as sales or financial analysis. But an
organizational EIS cannot become a substitute for other forms of information
technologies and computer-based systems viz., Management Information
Systems (MIS), Transaction Processing Systems (TPS), and Decision
Support Systems (DSS).
Today, the application of an EIS is not only in typical corporate hierarchies,
but also at personal computers on a local area network. These systems 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,
executives can use their personal computers to get access to the companys
data and decide which data are relevant for their decision making. This
arrangement enables all users to customize their access to the proper
companys data and provide relevant information to both upper and lower
levels in companies.
8.2.3 Evolution of EIS
Traditionally, EIS was developed as mainframe computer-based programs
to package an organizations data for the key decision makers who are not
necessarily well acquainted with the using of computers. The term,
Executive Information System was coined at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) in the late 1970s. The CEO Goes On-Line, an article
written by Rockart in Harvard Business Review (1982) vividly describes the
emergence of the executive information systems to assist the top
management of the organization in making decisions.
By the mid-1980s, several vendors viz., Pilot Software (Command Center),
Comshare (Commander EIS) had started providing relatively easy
application environment for EIS that includes easy screen design, pre-
programmed access to new sources and flexible interface design. One of
the important factors behind the adoption of both large-scale data
warehouses and ERP systems will be the ability to easily feed the real-time
data to an organizational EIS. Thus it is not a matter of surprise that
wherever you find an ERP system, you also find a mission-critical EIS.
But the real support for EIS technology grew in later decades, say 1980s
and 90s. New vendors have come out with emerging products that have
increased the scope of available information sources. Thus the modern EISs
contain a wide-variety of data, including mission-critical business processes,
research and development efforts, customer-centric information and the
external data to support the necessary environmental scanning activities.
8.2.4 Benefits of an EIS
The advantages that an EIS brings to the organization are:
Provides tools to select, extract, filter, and track the critical information of
organization in an organized manner
Enables the top-level executives to use the system with ease (extensive
computer experience is not required)
Provides timely delivery of the organization-wide summary of information
highlighting the major deviations of the information wherever they arise
Provides a wide range of reports including the status reports, trend
analyses, drill down investigation, ad hoc queries.
Presents the information in graphical, tabular, and/or text formats
The organizational EIS is not a substitute for other information technologies
and computer-based systems. The other decision support systems are still
vital in bringing relevant information to the various levels of a modern
organization. The EIS feeds off the various information systems within an
organization for its internal information needs and then attaches itself to the
external sources as and when necessary to provide a macro view of
business.
However, executives face the following limitations with the Executive
Information Systems:
Cost of establishing an EIS is relatively high and so may not be
economically viable for small companies
Functions are limited and so the systems may not perform complex
calculations
Depends on the other information technologies in the organization to
gather the organizations internal data
Difficult to keep the current data as it focuses on historical data
For Section 8.2
1. Discuss the significance of an EIS in an organization and its role in
assisting the top executives of an organization?
8.3 Information Needs of Senior Managers
Typically, the information needs of the executives in an organization are
based on their position in an organizational hierarchy. The information
needs of a senior manager is quite different from that of a junior manager.
Senior mangers are involved in making strategic decisions and the junior
managers are involved in making operation related decisions. Thus the
designing of an Enterprise Information System will need to focus on the
decision-making requirements of the senior managers.
To understand the information requirements of the senior managers, we
need to understand the common traits of the senior managers. Typically the
traits of the senior managers in an organizational set up are as follows:
They are responsible for the business of the entire organization/
strategic business unit / autonomous business entity
They are enterprise-oriented in terms of their thinking
Their actions are future market oriented and focus on strategic horizons
rather than day-to-day activities
Their decisions will have considerable financial, human and business
consequences
They involve in strategy formulation and preparation of policy guidelines
They possess a wider span of control in the organization
8.3.1 Activities of the Senior Executives
The activities carried out by the senior executives include al managerial
functions; planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. The nature
of work at the top executive levels involves more time on planning and
supervising the other levels of business. According to several surveys done
in this regard, an executive carries out the following activities:
Entrepreneurial activities:
These are the strategic planning tasks that are usually triggered by real or
perceived changes in the external environment. The executives focus their
attention on understanding the market dynamics and changes in the global
business environment. The top executives are expected to identify the
opportunities in the market and come out with the plans for effective
implementation.
Disturbance management:
These activities require the immediate attention of the executives and
deployment of the resources to unexpended occurrences. The managers
need to be very careful in dealing with these activities as mismanaging of
these activities will have a severe negative impact on financial health of an
organization.
Allocation of resources:
Top executives possess the authority for the deployment of the resources
and so they act on allocating the organizational resources where the returns
could be high. Practical implementation of this task is very difficult as the
demand for resources is generally greater than their availability.
Negotiation:
The senior executive represents the organization in both internal and
external policy matters. They are involved in the resolution of conflicts and in
getting highly profitable contracts.
8.3.2 Types of Information and their Attributes
According to the various studies undertaken, the types of information
needed by the senior executives include:
Cost accounting systems that relate revenues and expenses to specific
functional areas
Information obtained from the external sources viz., markets, suppliers,
customers, competitors
Subjective and objective assessment of several internal and external
issues
Information that has spread over across several computer systems
Based on the activities performed by the senior executives, the differences
in the attributes of the information required for the senior managers
compared to those of other executives are provided in Table 8.1.
Attribute of the
Information
Top executives Other executives
Accuracy Average level High level
Time horizon Future oriented Past and present oriented
Summarization High Low
Level of details Low High
Scope Broad Narrow
Orientation Both internal and external Internal
Table 8.1: Differences in information attributes bet ween senior executives and
others
Based on the above discussion, the type of information system to be
developed for senior executives needs to be different from those of the other
executives as provided in Table 8.2.
Subject System for Top executives System for other
executives
Data structures Multidimensional data structures Complex data structures
Volume of data Large volume (Historical data) Small volume of data
Workload AD-HOC Queries Pre-defined operations
Duplicated data De-normalized DBMS Normalized DBMS
Derived data and
Aggregates
Common Rare
Number of users Few in number Many in number
Table 8.2: Characteristics of the Information systems for Senior and other
executives
8.3.3 Methods for Determining the Executive Information Needs
Given the unique characteristics of the executive information needs, the
methods of determining those needs are as follows:
8.3.3.1 By-Product Method
Under this method, various information regarding by-products of the current
operations of the organization are summarized and aggregated through use
of the traditional TPSs and other MISs that are being used in the
organization. Using this method, exception highlighting is limited to those
areas with pre-defined ranges of values or summarized historical data. The
delivery mechanism of this method is mainly through generation of online
and/or hard copy reports.
8.3.3.2 Null Method
This method assumes that the information needs of senior executives are so
dynamic and fluid that the pre-defined reports generated by the typical
information systems are not very useful. Thus the method involves the
informal collection of mostly subjective information from trusted sources via
word of mouth. This method relies on the instantaneous exchanges and
discoveries that take place during the informal meetings of an organization.
8.3.3.3 Key Indicator Method
In this method, the top executives monitor only that information which
emerges from an extra ordinary condition. Whenever such an extra ordinary
condition emerges, the top executives may gather further information
intended to set right the condition.
8.3.3.4 Total study method
According to this approach, the information is gathered from a few of top
executives in the organization considering the totality of their information
needs. However, this method is more comprehensive in nature and is
expensive as well.
8.3.3.5 Critical Success Factors (CSF) Method
Under this approach, the critical success factors of an organization are
identified. The CSFs should be accurate if the organization wants to be
successful. Similar to the key indicators method, this method requires
gathering of the information on the identified CSFs and the information is
supplied to the top executives. But identifying the right CSFs is very crucial
in this approach. In order to come out with an appropriate set of CSFs, the
organization can consider taking structured opinions from the top executives
of the organization.
For Section 8.3
1. The attributes of the information required for the senior executives is
quite different from those of the other executives in an organization.
Comment.
2. Discuss various methods that are in practice to determine the
information needs of top-executives of an organization?
8.4 Architecture and Components of EIS
Now, many organizations are evolving from their big iron days of
mainframe to the more flexible and functional Client/server environment. On
several occasions, this evolution enables easier development and
implementation of computer-based decision support technologies. The
Client/Server architecture allows rapid additions and modifications to
business applications and facilitates widespread access and dissemination
of databases located through out the world.
Most of the early EIS products were originally developed for use in a high-
powered computing environment, but almost all the current products target
the Client/Server platform and are designed to be deployed in a wide variety
of settings; local, mobile, internet access, etc. The Client/Server architecture
of a typical EIS (Refer Fig 8.1) is depicted below.
Fig. 8.1: The Architecture of an EIS
Groupware
Server
EIS File
Server
Executive
Workstation 1
Executive
Workstation 2
Executive
Workstation 3
SQL
Server
Data
Warehouse
Web
Server
The components of an EIS can typically be classified as:
8.4.1 Hardware
The basic computer hardware required for a typical EIS includes the
following four components:
Input data-entry devices to allow the executive to enter, verify, and
update data immediately
The central processing unit (CPU), which is the kernel as it controls the
other computer system components
Data storage files through which an executive can save useful business
information, and also easily to search historical business information.
Output devices that provide a visual or permanent record for the
executive to read or save.
With the advent of local area networks (LAN), the EIS products became
available for networked workstations. These systems require less support
and are less expensive in terms of the hardware requirements. Also, there is
an increased access of the EIS information for several users within a
company.
8.4.2 Software
The basic software needed for a typical EIS includes four components:
Text base software (usually the type of documents)
Database that includes heterogeneous databases residing on a range of
vendor-specific and open computer platforms so as to help executives
have access in providing both internal and external data
Graphic base as graphics to turn volumes of text and statistics into
visual information so that executive can easily understand the same.
These graphic types may include time-series charts, scatter diagrams,
maps, sequence charts, and bar charts
Model base as the EIS models contain routine and special statistical,
financial, and other quantitative analysis.
Easy to use, ready response to executives' requests, and price are the
important considerations in the selection of appropriate software. Further,
one has to confirm that the software considered runs on existing hardware.
8.4.3 Interface
An EIS can retrieve the relevant data for decision makers only if the
interface is effective. Several types of interfaces that are available to the EIS
structure include scheduled reports, questions/answers, menu driven,
command language, natural language, and input/output.
Also, the interface designed must fit the decision makers decision-making
style. The more comfortable the EIS is the more efficient it becomes for an
executive. However, the ideal interface for an EIS would be uses friendly
highly flexible, consistent in performance, and ability to reflect the
executives world.
8.4.4 Telecommunications
Transmitting data from one location to another location is very crucial for
establishing a reliable network. Thus telecommunications within an EIS can
accelerate the need for access to distributed data. As decentralization is the
current trend in the organizations, these telecommunications play an
important role in networked information systems.
For Section 8.4
1. Mention the components in a typical Executive Information System (EIS)
and elaborate the role of each of these components.
8.5 EIS Applications
Unlike the presentations and reports provided by the traditional
management information systems, EIS can distinguish between vital and
seldom-used data, and also can track different key critical activities for
executives. Thus the executive information systems enable executives to
find the data according to user-defined criteria and promote information-
based insight and understanding. Some of the benefits offered by the EIS in
several functional areas of the organization are as follows:
8.5.1 Financial
An EIS offers an approach to integrate planning or budgeting with control of
performance reporting, and it can be extremely useful to finance executives.
The EIS focuses on accountability of financial performance and it
recognizes the importance of cost standards and flexible budgeting in
developing the quality of information provided for all executive levels. It
provides various types of financial data to the executives like financial ratios,
cash flow analysis and it also helps the executives to estimate the trends
and make capital investment decisions.
8.5.2 Marketing
EIS can be effectively applied to assist marketing executives in making
effective marketing decisions. The EIS can provide an approach to sales
forecasting, which will enable the executives to compare sales forecast with
past sales. Also, EIS offers an approach to make product pricing by
evaluating various alternative prices through establishing the relationship
between the variables; sales volume and price per unit. Similarly, the
executives are benefited through use of EIS by obtaining the data on the
exiting market trends, competitors strategies, and changing customer
interests, demands, and preferences.
8.5.3 Manufacturing
To bring in meaningful managerial and operational information and for
controlling the manufacturing operations, the executive is expected to make
so many decisions and study several decision variables that affect the
decision. For instance, consider the purchasing activity in a manufacturing
functional area. In this regard, EIS provides the data required for the
executives to carry out an effective evaluation of the vendors and buyers,
evaluation of purchased materials, and analyze the critical purchasing
areas. Thus the executive can oversee and review purchasing operations
effectively through use of the EIS. In addition, the use of EIS can be
extended to other areas of manufacturing viz., production planning and
control, quality control and management.
For Section 8.5
1. Discuss the application of EIS in executing various functions of an
organization?
8.6 Future Trends in EIS
The future of EIS will not be bound by mainframe computer systems. The
systems smoothen the existing decision-making processes. The future
systems will become diverse because of integrating potential new
applications and technology into the systems, such as incorporating artificial
intelligence and integrating multimedia characteristics and ISDN technology
into an EIS. However, the EIS of tomorrow would be intelligent, multimedia
friendly, informed and connected as discussed below.
8.6.1 The Intelligent EIS
The amount of data provided to an executive is overwhelming and the
potential for information overload is constant even with an EIS. Thus
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can perform some of the data screening for the
executive and thereby reduce the amount of time spent in searching for the
relevant data. Another branch of AI is Expert Systems (ESs). An ES can be
used within an EIS to assist the user with appropriate model selection to
analyze a problem. Based on the rules provided to the system, the ES can
instruct the user on the appropriate model that would best fit the problem
context.
8.6.2 The Multimedia EIS
A multimedia database management system can increase the future EIS
users resources to manipulate text, voice and images effectively within an
integrated database structure. These database systems offer the benefits
like voice concatenation, transformation of information, scaling of objects,
rotation of images, and merging of various data types.
8.6.3 The Informed EIS
In this EIS, the data access tools are well-integrated so that the EIS can
systematically find and organize the necessary information for the executive
from various data stores and deliver it to the EIS desktop in a manner that
allows it to be easily understood and readily used.
8.6.4 The Connected EIS
With the wide spread availability of high-bandwidth communications media,
this EIS will serve as a valuable resource for improving relationship building
and maintenance.
8.7 Summary
An External Information System (EIS) is a computer-based system intended
to facilitate and support the information and decision making needs of senior
executives of an enterprise by providing easy access to both internal and
external information relevant to meeting the strategic goals of the
organization. As these systems are mainly intended for the senior managers
of an organization, we need to under stand how the role of senior executives
is different from that of other executives.
The senior executives are mainly involved in making strategic decisions and
the impact of the decision on the organization is very high. More than the
information from the internal sources, the senior executives are expected to
have information from the external sources as well. Thus EIS plays a vital
role in terms of providing the right information on right time covering both
internal and external sources. Also, organizations may adopt any of the
following methods for determining the information needs of the senior
executives; By-Product method, null method, key indicator method, total
study method, and critical success factors (CSF) method.
Today the Client/Server architecture is becoming more popular as it allows
rapid additions and modifications to business applications and facilitates the
widespread access and dissemination of databases located through out the
world. This is the reason the modern EIS products are also being made to
use the Client/Server platform. The basic components involved in an EIS
include hardware (input data-entry devices, the central processing unit
(CPU), data storage files, and output devices), software (text base software,
databases, graphic base, and model base), interface systems, and
telecommunications. The application of EIS can be extended to all functional
areas of the organization viz., manufacturing, finance, and marketing.
However, the EIS of tomorrow would be intelligent, multimedia friendly,
informed and connected and will surely succeed in deriving more benefits
for the organizations and the executives.
8.8 Terminal Questions (TQs)
1. What is an EIS and describe how an EIS brings in benefits for senior
executives of an organization?
2. The information requirements of the senior executives are different from
the other executives of the organization. Keeping this statement in mind,
discuss the activities carried out by the senior executes of an
organization.
3. Write a note on typical applications of an Executive Information System
(EIS) in an organization?
8.9 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
1. EIS stands for __________.
a. Enterprise Information Systems
b. Executive Information Systems
c. Enterprise Intelligence Systems
d. Executive Intelligence Systems
2. The target users of the Executive Information Systems are ______.
a. Top-level executives
b. Middle- level executives
c. J unior-level executives
d. All the above
3. Which of the following statements is wrong with regard to an Executive
Information System (EIS)?
a. These systems are designed to facilitate the analysis of critical
information to run an organization
b. These systems collect the information from both internal and
external sources of an organization.
c. These systems provide a wide-range of reports viz., sales
analyses, drill down investigation, ad hoc queries.
d. These systems can effectively replace the other information
technologies in the organization.
4. Which of the following is a characteristic(s) of an Executive Information
System (EIS)?
a. Provides access to the data from a broad range of internal and
external sources.
b. Presents the information in graphical, tabular, and/or text formats
c. Focuses on supporting the senior-level management decisions.
d. All the above
5. The term Executive Information System (EIS) was coined in 1970s at
_____________.
a. Harvard Business School
b. Stanford University
c. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
d. North Carolina State University
6. Which of the following statements is true with respect to the null
method of determining the information needs of the senior executives?
a. the method focuses only the business and market facts and there
is no place for subjective information.
b. the method involves the informal collection of subjective
information from the trusted sources
c. the method includes the data collected from the market surveys
conducted on random basis
d. the method prioritizes the information provided by the executives of
the organization according to their position in the organizations
hierarchy.
7. Which of the following is the benefit derived by the organizations
through use of the Client/Server architecture?
a. this architecture allows rapid additions and modifications to
business applications
b. this architecture facilitates the widespread access and
dissemination of databases located through out the world
c. Both (a) and (b)
d. None of the above
8. Which of the following approaches gathers information from a few of
senior executives to understand the complete information needs of the
senior managers in an organization?
a. Total study method
b. Key indicator method
c. By person method
d. Critical success factors method
9. Telecommunications has become an important component of EIS
because _____________.
a. there is a decentralization trend in the organizations in terms of
making decisions
b. there is a centralization trend in the organizations in terms of
making decisions
c. the number of executives in the organizations are growing on
continuum basis
d. None of the above
10. Which of the following is not a characteristic of future EIS?
a. Intelligent EIS
b. Automated EIS
c. Informed EIS
d. Connected EIS
8.10 Answers to SAQs, TQs, and MCQs
8.10.1 Answers to Self Assessment Questions (SAQs)
Section 8.2
1. An EIS is a computer-based system intended to facilitate and support
the information and decision making needs of senior executives of an
enterprise by providing easy access to both internal and external
information relevant to meeting the strategic goals of the organization.
An EIS provides the summarized or detailed data of the strategic
information at the convenience of the senior executives.
Also, it performs various functions by constantly monitoring the internal
and external events and data trends. Also, the executives can drill down
into the organizations data warehouse to display a greater level of
details and to explore the current and past data patterns and trends on
the basis of the snapshot provided by the EIS. The tools offered by EIS
also provide canned reports or briefing books to top-level executives.
These are discussed in detail in Sections 8.2.1 and 8.2.2.
Section 8.3
1. The information requirements of the senior executives are quite different
from those of the other managers. This is because the activities carried
out by the senior executives are strategic in nature and the
consequences of the decisions taken by them will have a larger impact
on the financial conditions of the organization. Thus the attributes of the
information that the senior executives seek for, is different from those of
the other managers. The attributes of the information for the senior
managers include high level of summarization will low levels of details,
broader scope in nature, and the time horizon is of future-orientation
with an average level of accuracy. Also, the sources of information
includes both internal and external to the organization.
2. As the information needs of the senior executives are unique in nature,
identification of these needs is to be done carefully. Some of the
methods determining these information needs are as follows.
As per the By-Product method, the information by products are
summarized and aggregated.
Another approach, Null method deals with the informal gathering of
the vital information from the trusted sources.
In the Key Indicator method, the senior executives monitor only that
information where the information is out-of-nominal condition.
The Total study method gathers information from a few of top
executives in the organization concerning the totality of their
information needs.
The Critical Success Factors (CSF) Method aims at gathering the
information on continuous basis on the identified CSFs.
Since each of these methods have their advantages and limitations, one has
to carefully identify an appropriate method of determining the information
needs of the senior executives. These methods are discussed in detail in
Section 8.3.3.
Section 8.4
1. The components of EIS include hardware (input data-entry devices, the
central processing unit (CPU), data storage files, and output devices),
software (text base software, databases, graphic base, and model
base), interface systems, and telecommunications.
Section 8.5
1. The EIS brings in various benefits in all functional areas of an
organization. These are discussed in detail in Section 8.5.
8.10.2 Answers to Terminal Questions (TQs)
1. An EIS is a computer-based system intended to facilitate and support
the information and decision making needs of senior executives of an
enterprise by providing easy access to both internal and external
information relevant to meeting the strategic goals of the organization.
The advantages that an EIS brings to the senior executives of an
organization are discussed in Section 8.2.4.
2. The senior executives are involved in making strategic decisions and the
impact of these decisions is very high on the whole organization. Also,
the senior managers do not confine themselves to an individual
functional area and the kind of activities they are involved are divergent
in nature. Thus the information needs of senior executives are quite
different from those of the other managers. The important activities
carried out by the senior managers of an organization are provided in
Section 8.3.1.
3. The application of EIS can be observed in all functional areas of the
organization including manufacturing, finance, and marketing. The
application of EIS in these functional areas is discussed in Section 8.5.
However, some of the common features offered by the modern EIS across
the functional areas are as follows:
Status access, drill down, exception reporting, trend analysis, ad hoc
query handling and report generation
Multiple user interfaces, graphic user interface navigation
Multi-dimensional data mining and data visualization
Multiple search engines and algorithms
Data management capabilities
Wide spread access to external databases and information repositories
8.10.3 Answers to Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
1. Ans: b
2. Ans: a
3. Ans: d
4. Ans: d
5. Ans: c
6. Ans: b
7. Ans: c
8. Ans: a
9. Ans: a
10. Ans: b

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Business Intelligence and Tools Unit 8

Sikkim Manipal University Page No. 178

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