Re: Executive Information Systems

"Mat Nicholls" <lufc4_at_hotmail.com> wrote in message news:3ba0bbc5.0411220755.4997861d_at_posting.google.com...
> Hi
>
> I have been doing some literature
> research on Executive Information Systems (EIS) and have noticed a
> significant drop in the amount of literature being produced over the
> last 8
> to 10 years. I know from personal
> experience that companies still use EIS in one form or another, so I
> found
> it quite interesting to see so few recent publications. Does anyone
> have
> any theories as to why this might be the case?

I think I recall responding to this same question (from you?) in some other forum, but I'll answer again in case I'm wrong.

The term "Executive Information Systems" is a dated one, while the concept is not. The umbrella term of "Business Intelligence" (not my favorite term -- could be an oxymoron) is used for all types of "reporting" against data. Other terms to look for are:

BI = Business Intelligence
DSS = Decision Support (that is often the name of courses in higher ed, including one I'm teaching)
Decision Analysis
Data Warehousing & Data Marts
OLAP = Online Analytical Processing
Cubes or Data Cubes
Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
Dashboards (I think these last two terms arose during the EIS years)

The term "EIS" didn't cut it. "Executive" was too limited a term and seemed to promise more than it could deliver, I suspect.

> I don't think it is an
> out-
> of-date idea (although you might disagree?) but maybe EIS are used
> differently now to 10 years ago and so need redefining in literature.
> Does
> anyone have an opinion or any experience with EIS?

Yes. I have worked with products that called themselves EIS, including Forest & Trees from Platinum, bought by CA (at which point it died, I suspect since that seems to be CA's MO). I have also worked with OLAP tools and creating cubes for analysis, as well as virtual cubes. Almost everything in this category today fits into the "BI" or Business Intelligence category, including ETL (extract-transform-load) tools, such as Data Stage from Ascential.

I don't see anything on the horizon to suggest that the term "EIS" is going to have any rebirth. Cheers. --dawn

> Regards
>
> Matthew Nicholls
Received on Mon Nov 22 2004 - 19:32:57 CET