Is this information transient (used once, then
discarded) or persistent (must be kept)?
What is its form (data type)?: Text? Number? Date? Boolean
(Yes/No)? Something else?
What medium carries it? In someone's head? Written down on
paper? Electronic? Other? Multiple?
Congrats!! You have just done (some of) the work of an MIS
Business Analyst.
Note the difference (in emphasis) between an OM analyst and an
MIS analyst:
Primary OM concern: performance metrics of the
process; e.g., cost, efficiency, average process time,
average wait time, average queue time, etc.
Primary MIS concern: process information flows; how IT can
enable and improve these porcesses.
Problem: How would OM and MIS
people read the 'Churchill'
excerpt?
Wisner & Stanley Chapter 9: Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP):
A business consists of many aspects and components; all of
which have processes that constantly exchange information with each
other:
What if we could manage the complete flow and exchange of
information, in
its entire complexity, with a single, computerized information system?
W. & S. (p. 334) ERP: "Corporate system of record, a
single database (RR: with applications), linking manufacturing with
such businesses processes
as new orders, purchasing, credit, accounting, supply chain management
and planning." (Figure 9.2 p. 321).
However, reality in 1980s, early/mid 1990s:
Different parts of the company run their own, different
systems.
No fully integrated systems available.
Computing in companies had 'evolved organically.'
Incompatible (noninteroperable) technologies.
Few, if any, data-sharing standards.
Computerized information flow complex, error prone and
inefficient:
Same data entered multiple times in multiple formats:
Inconsistencies.
Changes require multiple updates.
Deletion requires multiple removals of data items.
Second-order administration.
Lots of home-grown, 'brittle' data connectors.
Too many errors, too much time.
Very difficult for 'Management' to know what was really
going on in the company (HP supply chain example).
