Executive Information SystemAn Executive Information System (EIS) is a computer-based information
system designed to provide senior managers access to information relevant
to their management activities. An EIS can support strategic activities
such as setting policies, planning, and preparing budgets. The objective
of these systems is to gather, analyze, and integrate internal and external
data into dynamic profiles of key indicators.
While EIS differ considerably in the number of sophistication of features,
their most common feature is immediate access to a single database where
all current financial and operational data can be found. In many cases,
the information made accessible was previously available but was difficult
to access or use. Features of EIS include drill-down analysis capabilities
(the incremental examination of data at different levels of detail), trend
analysis capabilities (the examination of data across desired time intervals),
exception reporting, extensive graphics, the providing of data from multiple
sources, and the highlighting of the information an executive feels is critical.
Whereas the traditional focus of Management Information Systems (MIS) has
been on the storage and processing of large amounts of information, the
focus of EIS is on the retrieval of specific information about the daily
operational status of the organization's activities. Whereas the purpose
of an EIS is the monitoring and scanning of the environment to give executives
rapid exposure to changes in the environment, the purpose of Decision Support
Systems (DSS) is to support ad hoc decisions as well as routine analysis.
And while the core of DSS is extensive modeling and analysis capabilities,
the core of EIS is status information about the organization's performance.
Expert Systems use artificial intelligence
to go beyond basic decision support.
EIS involve extensive consolidations, drill down queries and so on, which
can also take a
long time in comparison with the traditional kinds of query and update transactions.
Relational databases cannot deal with these kinds of queries in a timely
manner. A new class of query server, called Multi-Dimensional Database (MDDB)
is emerging. The MDDB typically sits above the operational database and
is loaded from below with historical data and nearly new operational data.
The MDDB summarizes this data through the process of aggregation and stores
it in a hierarchical format. In this way, it is able to service complex
queries in an order of magnitude faster than could be achieved using a traditional
relational database.
EIS are offered for various platforms. However, many of the available EIS a geared towards business environments and are less applicable for transportation planning.
Prices vary widely depending on the sophistication of the EIS functionality.
In general, approximately $500 to $1,000 should be budgeted for this kind
of software.
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