SOFT INFORMATION IN ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS

8.8 SOFT INFORMATION IN ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS

W a t s o n e t al. ( 1 9 9 6 ) r e c o g n i z e d that d e c i s i o n - m a k e r s r e q u i r e s o f t i n f o r m a t i o n , o f t e n p r o v i d e d informally, f o r m a k i n g d e c i s i o n s . T h e y p e r f o r m e d a n i n - d e p t h s t u d y o f h o w

a n d t o w h a t e x t e n t s o f t i n f o r m a t i o n i s i n c l u d e d i n E I S . S o f t i n f o r m a t i o n i s "fuzzy, u n o f - ficial, intuitive, s u b j e c t i v e , n e b u l o u s , i m p l i e d , a n d v a g u e . " T h e y f o u n d that s o f t i n f o r m a - tion w a s u s e d i n m o s t E I S , b r o k e n d o w n i n t o t h e f o l l o w i n g c a t e g o r i e s :

9 P r e d i c t i o n s , s p e c u l a t i o n s , f o r e c a s t s , a n d e s t i m a t e s ( 7 8 . 1 %) 9 Explanations, justifications, assessments, and interpretations (65.6%)

• N e w s reports, i n d u s t r y trends, a n d e x t e r n a l s u r v e y d a t a ( 6 2 . 5 % ) « Schedules and formal plans (50.0%) • Opinions, feelings, and ideas (15.6%)

C H A P T E R 8 ENTERPRISE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

D S S I N A C T I O N 8 .1 3

SERFIN FINANCIAL GROUP IN MEXICO CITY USES EIS

Because of the critical e c o n o m i c situation in 1994,

linked to a Sybase database and collected data from dis-

Mexican banks found themselves burdened with a large

parate operating systems at the three primary data cen-

amount of loan obligations. Serfin Financial Bank, the

ters in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and M o n t e r e y . T h e

third-largest bank in Mexico, survived by implementing data warehouse took more time to complete than the an EIS and a data warehouse to enable its top managers

EIS development.

to review and continue tracking outstanding loans and In the beginning, the SAS EIS served only the top to monitor the daily growth of liabilities on a branch-

12 executive officers. By using the new system, Serfin by-branch basis.

reduced its response time for performing a forecast Serfin realized that it was technologically behind

from 2 hours to 30 seconds, leading to better perfor- the times because its decision-makers had been using

mance. The system helped the bank get through the simple graphical spreadsheet software to view daily cus-

financial crisis.

tomer data. To update its capabilities, the bank insti- tuted an EIS that allowed users to perform more com-

Source: Condensed from Thomas Hoffman, "Mexican Bank plex tasks, such as monitoring daily performance, Finds Crisis Control," ComputerWorld. Vol. 29, No. 25, June

budgeting, and forecasting activities. The system was

1995, p. 79.

The widespread use of soft information in the form of predictions, speculations, forecasts, a n d e s t i m a t e s i s i m p o r t a n t for p l a n n i n g p u r p o s e s . O t h e r r e s e a r c h d o c u m e n t s t h e u s e o f t h e s e t y p e s o f s o f t i n f o r m a t i o n . G e n e r a l l y t h e E I S s u p p o r t staff c a n e n t e r this i n f o r m a t i o n , but s o m e t i m e s t h e E I S m a y g e n e r a t e t h e i n f o r m a t i o n a u t o m a t i c a l l y

b a s e d o n historical data ( b y d a t a m i n i n g ) o r b y i n t e l l i g e n t a g e n t s ( I A ) s c a n n i n g n e w s s o u r c e s a n d internal reports. E x p l a n a t i o n s , justifications, a s s e s s m e n t s , a n d i n t e r p r e t a - tions help executives make sense of what is happening inside and outside the firm. M a n y e n t e r p r i s e s y s t e m s a l l o w u s e r s t o clip e x p l a n a t i o n s o n t o s c r e e n s o r e - m a i l b e f o r e p r o v i d i n g t h e i n f o r m a t i o n t o o t h e r users. N e w s r e p o r t s are g a i n i n g p o p u l a r i t y a s n e w s feeds, both textual and video, and have become widely available, especially via the Web. As intelligent agents filter news (internal and external), we expect more news

f e e d s t o b e p r o v i d e d t h r o u g h e n t e r p r i s e s y s t e m s . O n a n i n d i v i d u a l basis, C N N . c o m p r o - v i d e s f r e e a c c e s s t o n e w s f e e d s i n a similar m a n n e r .

The inclusion of soft information enhances the value of enterprise systems for e x e c u t i v e u s e r s ( s e e D S S i n A c t i o n 8.13). M o s t o f t h e p a r t i c i p a n t s i n t h e W a t s o n e t al. (1996) study indicate that with respect to soft information they plan to concentrate efforts on external news services, competitor information, and the ease of process

e n t e r i n g s o f t i n f o r m a t i o n . A f e w f i r m s are f o c u s i n g o n m a k i n g i t e a s i e r f o r u s e r s t o a d d soft i n f o r m a t i o n t h e m s e l v e s .