Systems Practice. Vol. 8, No.

6, 1995

Perspectives on Executive Information Systems

Kari Partanen t and Vesa S a v o l a i n e n I

Executives who consider the acquisition of Executive Intbrmation Systems (EIS) may encounter several major problems already in their selection and introduction stages. Key issues are the following: Can the EIS's really match our managerial needs and support decision making in our organizational contingencies? How widely in the leadership levels can they be introduced? Are they easy-to-learn, easy-to-use and easily customizable? Do they utilize the newest information technology, e.g. graphics and modern interface technology? Can they work in our computer network? In order to facilitate elegant solutions of the selection problems, we construct an evaluation framework which guides the selection of an EIS product to match the managerial needs according to the organizational contingencies. This framework is useful immediately after the specification of the decision making support requirements of the executive. The effectiveness of the framework is shown by applying it and analyzing 13 EIS products. We also offer introduction and use experiences from four English and four Finnish large companies covering the opinions of 132 EIS users. In this paper we give general answers to the questions above and discuss other relevant issues. KEY WORDS: executive information systems (EIS); decision support: EIS evaluation; toot selection; use experiences.

1. A C Q U I R I N G A N E I S P R O D U C T MANAGERIAL REQUIREMENTS

TO MATCH

THE

In addition to the Group D e c i s i o n Support Systems, E x e c u t i v e Information Systems (EISs) are nowadays the most important innovation in high information technology as an aid o f managerial w o r k (Bergeron and R a y m o n d , 1992; H a r v e y and Meiklejohn, 1990; Holsapple and W h i n s t o n , 1987; Watson et al., 1992, Johansen, 1987). T h e s e support tools will m o s t fundamentally shape m a n a g e ment practices in organizations today and in the near future. T h e i r d e v e l o p m e n t started from M a n a g e m e n t Information Systems (MIS) and m o v e d to D e c i s i o n Support Systems (DSS) and finally to EISs (Rockart and D e L o n g , 1988).

JDepartment of Computer Science and Information Systems, University of Jyv~iskyl/i, Jyv~iskyl~i, Finland. 551
0894-9859/95/1200-0551 $07.50/0 ~) 1995 Plenum Publishing Corp~r'ation

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The basic EIS concepts are the following:

The user's Executive Information System consists of a tailored EIS software, computer hardware and data; we simply call this system the EIS in this paper. The EIS software is a package often called an EIS product. According to Carlisle and Alameddine (1990), the EIS is a computer based system which collects under one user interface all the IT services needed by the management (see also Rockard and DeLong, 1988). Above all, the EIS is used for detecting and identifying managerial problems. (Turban and Watson, 1989)
The managers who want to utilize EIS products will encounter many problems and are often at the mercy of the EIS suppliers. The main problem is to find such a product as best corresponds to the special needs and contingences of the organization (Partanen and Savolainen, 1992). Naturally, the proper definition of these needs and contingency factors (see Savolainen, 1991a,b, 1993) is the first precondition of a successful selection of an EIS product. The second precondition is the existence of an evaluation framework which helps in revealing the properties of the available EIS products. This evaluation framework is then used for maximizing the match of the requirements and the properties of the EISs and so to find the most suitable EIS product. Table I illustrates the decision making process of acquiring an EIS product. The most central complex task in that process is the evaluation of the large number of available EIS products. The main aim of this paper is to make a deep synthesis of the concept of EIS. This is done from several viewpoints. From a historical viewpoint we analyze and review the development steps of systems which support managerial decision making in Section 2. From the functional and technical viewpoints we construct the evaluation framework for guiding EIS product analysis and comparison in Section 3. According to the grouping of the characteristics of EIS products in this framework, we then apply it and analyze 13 available EIS products in order to reveal their functional capabilities, qualitative properties and technical properties. We made a field study among 132 English and Finnish EIS-users to analyze the actual EIS usage trends and issues today. The results

Table

I. Processof Acquiring an EIS Product

Step 1. Step 2. Step 3. Step 4. Step 5.

Requirementanalysis to define the need for computerizedsupport to managerialtasks. Definitionof social, technical and financial restrictions. Evaluationof availableEIS products. Matchingof managerial requirements, restrictions and products' characteristics. Final decision in selectingthe most effectiveand acceptable EIS product.
I II

Perspectives on Executive Information Systems

553

of applying our evaluation framework are presented in Sections 4, 5, and 6. The cost factors are discussed in Section 7. We also analyze experiences of EIS users as well as the introduction and use issues in Section 8. Finally, Section 9 includes short conclusions.

2. DEVELOPMENT OF MANAGERIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS The concept of Executive Information Systems is quite new but thousands of top managers are accepting the EIS as the most advanced software tool in supporting their decision tasks (Bergeron and Raymond, 1992; Harvey and Meiklejohn, 1990; Holsapple and Whinston, 1987). The early information systems for the managerial use from the 1960s to the mid 1970s were called Management Information Systems (MIS), and they still exist on an operational level aiming at supporting the solutions of structured problems. However, the managers who wanted to use the standard reports of MISs to solve their structured problems encountered two difficulties. First, the information they needed could not always be found in the report. Second, the information they really needed was only a small fraction of vast amount of the information the reports contained. Computer based managerial information systems of a new type were Decision Support Systems (DSS). These new systems narrowly focused on supporting managers in tackling unstructured or semistmctured decision making tasks but they fairly often required experts to use the systems because their early user interfaces were not good. The latest generation of the information systems for managerial support, Executive Information Systems (EIS), complete the shortages of the MISs even better than the DSSs (Rockart and DeLong, 1988; see also Turban and Watson, 1989 for the detailed comparison of DSS and EIS). While the DSSs are basically used for problem solving, the EISs are tools for problem identification and detection. The EISs have built-in links in a variety of corporate data sources, and they carry an ability to collect relevant information from a vast amount of data. Several studies, in addition to ours, have shown that they are user-friendly (Houdeshel and Watson, 1987; Rockart and DeLong, 1988; Volonino and Watson, 1990). They also utilize the most modem methods of communication, graphics, data storing and data access. Rockart and Treacy (1982) introduced the concept of EIS in 1981. Rockart and DeLong (1988) considered the EIS totally apart from the DSS though the former include several functions of the latter (cf. Hough and Duffy, 1987). In the following paragraphs we aim at analysing, on the basis of a generally used classification, the history and the functional meaning of the concepts MIS, DSS, and EIS.

554 2.1. Management Information Systems

Partanen and Savolainen

The first type of information systems that were originally developed for the managerial use was and still is called a Management Information System. Most information systems for tactical and operational management in an organization are still today MISs. Their actual leading era was in the 1960s and 1970s. A typical MIS of the 1960s generated predefined standardized periodical reports to managerial (Ginzberg et al., 1982; Silver, 1991). They included, at the worst, all the recorded data printed line by line. The most advanced MISs produced different type of reports for different managerial purposes, e.g., summary reports and exception reports for different specific purposes and already were able to reduce the amount of irrelevant data delivered over to the managers. Later MISs brought along database thinking to the management (Sprague, 1980). The basis of a MIS was a database from which a MIS was able to retrieve the information actually needed. This facilitated the production of short standard reports and the solution of strictly restricted problems. Today the object oriented approaches are widening their impact on the MIS applications (Jacobson et al., 1992). Quite early Ackoff (1967) criticized the MISs and claimed that they produced too much unnecessary but not enough necessary information for the actual managerial use. Several scientists have stilllately agreed with AckolVs opinions about the problems of the MISs (Ein-Dor and Segev, 1978; Ginzberg, 1981; Silver, 1991). Also Hough and Duffy (1987) considered the MISs failed in trying to satisfy the information needs of executives. However, they saw that the MISs have succeeded as information systems of tactical and especially operative management because the decision making on those levels often is concerned with structured tasks (see also Alter, 1980; Sen and Biswas, 1985). Thus, the MISs are useful in routine tasks but--though they also facilitate the storing of operative data into databases--they are not suitable tools for executives. For continuously changing decision-making tasks such information systems are needed that facilitate contingency related analyses. That kind of information systems are discussed in the following paragraphs. 2.2. Decision Support Systems Gorry and Scott Morton (1971) introduced the concept of DSS. That name is used of an MIS which supports the solution of semistructured or unstructured problems. This feature is seen as a basic difference between the concepts MIS and DSS (Ginzberg et al., 1982). But though the DSSs are often considered an evolutionary developmental step after the MIS (Gorry and Scott Morton, 1971; Rockart and DeLong, 1988; Sprague, 1987; Sprague and Watson, 1986) the DSSs should, in general, be considered as different tools based on different

Perspectives on Executive Information Systems

555

,,

EtS

.1

/
I \

Fig. 1. Data sourcesofMIS, DSS and EIS. Note that functionallyMIS is mainlyused for operational management while DSS is a tool for problem solving and EIS for problem detection and identification. frameworks (see Bonczek et al., 1981). They utilize several MISs and are able to handle different business functions as a whole as shown in Fig. 1 (cf. also Sprague and Carlson, 1982). Sprague (1987) described how the DSSs were created through a mutual effect of the development of information technology (IT), management science and operations research. The experts of IT developed storing and management technqiues for data to a further extent. At the same time the management scientists and operations researchers developed mathematical models and methods for modeling and solving the managerial problems. In the DSSs both the data access properties of database technology and the optimization and simulation techniques of mathematical models were united. Keen and Scott Morton (1978) maintain that the DSSs are able to support the decision making of only structured or semistructured tasks but not of unstructured tasks (see also Millet and Mawhinney, 1990). Some scientists do not share their opinion (Hough and Duffy, 1987; Keen, 1987; Silver, 1991). Most DSSs facilitate ad hoc queries. It is just this feature that favours the opinion that the DSSs support also the solution of unstructured problems. Silver (1991) presents the following properties of the DSSs: Ad hoc queries which facilitate contingency related database queries from several databases at the same time (see also Hough and Duffy, 1987; Keen, 1987), Representation of data in different forms, such as text, tables, graphics and colors; this group includes also exception reports, tailoring of screens and graphics, and

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* Regression analysis, time series analysis, optimization methods, and simulation, especially what-if analysis. Alter (1980) has shown that at its best the DSS could increase the effectiveness of management by increasing the personal effectiveness of managers, by aiding in problem solving, by offering tools for interpersonal communication, by promoting learning about the organizational functions, and by increasing the control inside the organization. These capabilities, however, are rare. The users of DSSs are located on operative, tactical and sometimes even strategic managerial levels (Hough and Duffy, 1987; Rockart and DeLong, 1988; Sen and Biswas, 1985; Sprague, 1980). The general aim was to construct DSSs to serve the management as easyto-use information systems. However, the ease of use of the DSSs was soon criticized by several authors (Rockart and DeLong, 1988; Sen and Biswas, 1985; Silver, 1991). Anyhow, the development of data communication techniques, micro computers and software has remarkably increased the use of the DSSs (Keen, 1987). Also the executives found the information access and data modeling properties in the DSSs rather useful in decision making (Hough and Duffy, 1987). Further on, the DSSs brought along the IT on many directors' tables. This motivated the suppliers of these systems to further development. A poor user interface is the weakest point in the DSSs, and it restricted their introduction to the highest managerial level. The DSSs did not offer the executives the tools they needed. Thus, there still was lack of proper information systems for executives.
2.3. E x e c u t i v e I n f o r m a t i o n Systems

While introducing the concept EIS Rockan and Treacy (1982) distinguished the EIS from the DSS by the fact that the EISs support the less structured decision-making tasks than the DSSs and are thus better able to utilize information sources outside the organization. In 1983 these systems were termed Executive Support Systems (ESS) in (Rockart and Tracy, 1982), and that term was used throughout the 1980s (Holsapple and Whinston, 1987, Houdeshel and Watson, 1987, Westland, 1990). The terms EIS and ESS are nowadays synonyms (Keen, 1987) but the newest literature has taken EIS into use and ESS has fallen into disuse (Christodoulakis et al., 1984, Volonino and Watson, 1990, Watson et al., 1992, Westland, 1990). In the 1980s, rather contradictory definitions of the EIS appeared in the literature. Some scientists define the EIS as a subclass of the DSS that is intended for the use of the topmost managers (Holsapple and Whinston, 1987; Keen, 1987). Some scientists see the EIS as a more developed version of the DSS (Hough and Duffy, 1987; Iyer and Schkade, 1987; Rockart and Treacy, 1982).

Perspectives on Executive Information Systems

557

Synnott (1987) locates the EIS somewhere between the MIS and the DSS from the viewpoint of the structuredness of decision making tasks. Rockart and DeLong (1988) consider the EIS totally apart from the DSS though the former include several functions of the latter (cf. Hough and Duffy, 1987). The key point is that the EIS serves higher managerial tasks than the DSS and is more information access oriented than model oriented, contrary to the DSS. The Executive Information Systems are specified for wide organizational objectives which can be contradictory (see also Houdeshel and Watson, 1987; Watson et al., 1992). According to Houdeshel and Watson (1987) the EISs are the latest effort to satisfy the information requirements of topmost managers. They see several differences between the EIS and the DSS owing to the following properties: The higher management uses the EIS without anyone intervening. The EIS facilitates easy online access to information about the present state of the organization, and the critical success factors of management have been taken into account in the EIS design (see also Volonino and Watson, 1990). The EIS also utilizes the most modem methods of communication, graphics, data storing and data access. Carlisle and Alameddine (1990) describe how the EIS can collect all the IT services that the management needs under one user interface. In this kind of a system the DSS is only one integrated part of the EIS (cf. Rockart and DeLong, 1988; Turban and Watson, 1989). As a starting point for the analysis of the properties of EIS we accept the EIS definition given by Carlisle and Alameddine (1990): "'An EIS is a computer
based system which collects under one user interface all the IT services needed by the management." 2.4. Generalization Trends in Information Systems for Managerial Use

In Fig. 1, the mutual technical relations of the MISs, the DSSs and the EISs are illustrated in terms oftbeir data sources. It shows how the MISs produce nearly all the internal information needed by the DSSs and the EISs. The EISs utilize the databases of the MISs as well as the data models and data of the DSSs. The EIS can also import external data from outside the organization. The architecture in Fig. 1 is quite common in the managerial support environments of today. From technical and user-interface points of view we can expect that multimedia facilities, knowledge base techniques and group decision support systems are going to have deep impacts on the development of EIS products in the near future (Christodoulakis et al., 1984, Johansen, 1988). The relations of the MIS, the DSS and the EIS can also be analyzed from the viewpoints of the user groups. Originally the MISs were marketed as information systems for top managers in the 1960s as well as the DSSs at the begin-

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Partanen and Savolainen

ning of the 1970's and the EISs at the end of the 1980s. The MISs operating in a mainframe environment in the 1970s were complex in use and could only offer a wide set of standard reports. The topmost management did not much use them but they became essential tools of the operative and tactical management. The DSSs and their user interfaces were developed along with micro computers and became somewhat more general also among managers on higher levels. According to a study of Hough and Duffy (1987), over 30% of 285 interviewed managers used DSSs themselves or through their secretaries. However, the majority of the users of the DSSs belonged to the middle management. A study of Harvey and Meiklejohn (t990) showed that the worldwide sales of the EISs increased by 82% in 1989 and this increase is predicted to continue. The same study also showed that the number of EIS users within each organization increases fairly quickly. Our empirical study has revealed that the increased IT utilization among the executives is due to at least two reasons. First, personal computers and their user-friendly programs have become more common. They offer true aiding tools for managerial tasks and raise the directors' motivation to use computers. Second, those directors who earlier on the tactical level used to utilize IT tools have brought IT with them on moving over to the topmost management. Also, as soon as the other directors discovered the advantages of IT, they started to use the computer. Section 7 in this paper aims at illustrating for example the extent to which the EIS has been accepted and introduced by the executives of today. 3. F R A M E W O R K FOR EVALUATING EIS PRODUCTS Carlisle and Alameddine (1990) studied the properties of EIS application generators in the U.S. market. They grouped these properties into seven sets: applications of office automation, applications to support data analysis, tailoring properties, graphics properties, applications to support planning, user interface properties, and issues concerning EIS introduction. Rockart and DeLong (1988) studied how the EISs are used in organizations and classified the EIS properties into two groups: applications of office automation, and applications to support planning and control. Drury and Russel (1990) investigated what could be done with versatile EIS software. They defined the EIS characteristics under four classes: usage characteristics, presentation properties, features of adapting the system to user's needs and to use envimoment, and functional properties. These scientists classified the EIS properties in different ways to serve their different research purposes. However, they associated mainly the same functional features with the EIS concept. Here these features are collected together to better serve as a basis of constructing an EIS evaluation and comparison framework which will facilitate the selection of these software products for the organizations. We classify the EIS characteristics into functional capabilities,

Perspectives on Executive Information Systems

559

qualitative properties, and technical properties. In addition to these, the cost factors were studied in our project. T h e functional capabilities are those features that should be matched to specific managerial needs, however, also the qualitative properties are important in this sense. Technical properties should be matched to other organizational contingencies. In this section we shall construct the framework and show its effectiveness by applying it to a set o f EIS products that c o v e r over two-thirds o f the EIS markets today. T h e whole framework can be seen in Table II.

Table II. Classification of EIS Characteristics as a Basis for the Evaluation Framework
i

Functional capabilities of the EIS systems

Office support attributes Electronic mail Electronic notice board News service Analytical support attributes Ad hoc questions What-if questions Graphically represented trends Key word search Tracking of critical success factors Project management attributes Project planning Project monitoring
Qualitative properties of the EIS systems

Word processing Electronic calendar Tickler files Exception reporting Drill down investigation Possibility to add textual explanations to graphic pages

Project document control Communication tools

Customization attributes Task oriented reports User oriented reports Customized graphics Graphics attributes Graphics supported Presentation graphics Control attributes User interface Learning time Ease of use
Technical properties of the EIS systems

Customized menus Customized information sequencing

Graphical menus Colored graphics Navigation mode Control device Help function

Technical attributes Remote access Platform Micro network

Architecture Security mechanism Toolkit

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Partanen and Savolainen

The EIS products that were analyzed in our project are: Command Center (Pilot Ltd., England), Commander EIS (Comshare Inc., USA), EIS-Epic (Planning Sciences Ltd., England), Focus EIS (Information Builders Ltd., England), Holos (Holistic Systems Ltd., England), IBM Executive Decisions and IBM Personal Application Systems/2 (IBM Corp., USA), Info Manager EIS (Info Manager Oy, Finland), Lotus Notes (Lotus Development Ltd., England), Management View (Brossco Oy, Finland, Resolve 2000 (Metapraxis Ltd., England), SAS products (SAS Institute Inc., USA), TC-Boss (Tricons Oy, Finland) and Vantage Point (Execucom Ltd., USA, bought by Comshare Inc., USA). The leading EIS products in the world market are Commander EIS (26% of the market share), Pilot (16%), EIS-Epic (9%), Express (7%), Resolve 2000 (6%), Holos (6%), and IBM Executive Decisions (3%) (Harvey and Meiklejohn, 1990). Express was not available for our analysis. Our study has been carried out mainly on the basis of system tests on the vendors' sites and on what the vendors of the EIS systems have announced. The vendors have checked the functional data published in this paper. We also interviewed several EIS users and collected experiences and opinions of 132 EIS users. 4. FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES OF EIS PRODUCTS The functional capabilities of the EIS products are related applications by means of which some independent task can be performed, for example electronic mail, drill-down investigation and project monitoring. The functional capabilities are classified as follows: office support, analytical support, and project management attributes (see Carlisle and Alameddine, 1990; Drury and Russel, 1990; Rockart and DeLong, 1988). Office support attributes are considered to include electronic mail, electronic noticeboard, news service, word processing, electronic calendar, and tickler files (Christodoulakis et al., 1984; Drury and Russel, 1990; Rockart and DeLong, 1988). Today also a spreadsheet tool (Rockart and DeLong, 1988) and in the near future a voice mail could be included to the office support applications. Our analysis (see Table III) revealed that Lotus Notes and Vantage Point provide the most of these attributes while some EIS products could not be recommended at all. Several EIS products work in such interfaces as Windows 3.0, Macintosh and Presentation Manager and offer through them many office support attributes. Especially electronic mail, news service, and connection to commercial databases are quite common and their importance, is still increasing also in business management. For example in the U.S., access to Dow Jones News and United Press International is considered important among the EIS
users.

Analytical support attributes are the following: ad hoc questions to support the solutions of unstructured managerial problems, what-if questions to support

T a b l e III. Functional Capabilities o f EIS Products"

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E,D. Inli~

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Commander EIS Vantage point

Fncus EIS

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Management View

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Office support attributes y n n n n n

n n n

y n n n y y n n
n

n y n y n n n n y n Y y n
n n fl n

y n Y y y n y Y n Y y n y

n y y y y
n

tx~

n Y n y
n n

n Y n n

Electronic mail Electronic notice board News service Word processing Electronic calendar Tickler files

y y y y y y

n y y n n y

Analytical support attributes

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A d h o e questions y n y Y n n y Y y v y y Y y y y y y y y y n y y y y n y n n n y y y y n n Y Y Y Y Y n y y y y n y y n n

y y y y y y y
y n

y y

y y Y y y

n n Y n n

n y Y y y

y y

What-if questions Graphically represented trends Tracking of critical success factors Key word search Drill down investigation Exception report:.ng Possibility to add textual explanations to graphic pages
y y

y y

y y

n y

y y

y
y n y y y

Project management attributes

y y
n n n n u n n n n n y n n n n y

n n n n

n n n n

y y y y

n n

n y

y y

n n

n n

Project planning Project monitoring Project document control Communication tools

n n

n n

n n

n n

n n

n n

562

Partanen and Savolainen

semistructured decision making tasks, graphically represented trends, continuous tracking of critical success factors, key word search, drill down investigation, exception reporting, and possiblity to add textual explanations to graphic pages (Bergeron and Raymond, 1992; Carlisle and Alameddine, 1990; Drury and Russel, 1990; Rockart and DeLong, 1988). Most of these attributes are crucial as functional capabilities of EIS systems, and Table Ill indicates how six EIS products can offer at least seven out of eight possible attributes in this group. Analytical support attributes enable selective access to organizational data sources. Some EIS products even facilitate direct databases queries through rather user-friendly user-interfaces where the user only defines what information is needed and the EIS system itself defines how to find it. Our case study evaluated the analytical support attributes according to their importance in eight English and Finnish user organizations. The results can be seen in Table IV. Some scientists have pointed out that ad hoc queries are very useful applications especially for the executives (Drury and Russel, 1990; Rockart and DeLong, 1988). Our study revealed that ad hoc queries are still infrequently utilized among executives because of their unwillingness to learn this fairly complex function. Many researchers (Bergeron and Raymond, 1992; Drury and Russel, 1990; Rockart and DeLong, 1988) have also pointed out the forecasting features of EIS products. Forecasting is supported by ad hoc questions, whatif questions are graphically represented trends which already are included in this framework. Forecasting is not considered an independent attribute in this study. Project management attributes as pan of EIS are all the facilities of project planning and control: project planning, project monitoring, project document control, and inter-project communication tools. Our study indicates that only a few EIS products include these facilities (see Table III). Lotus Notes is a positive exception and includes all those properties. However, several scientists (see, e.g., Carlisle and Alameddine, t990; Drury and Russel, 1990; Rockart and DeLong, 1988) emphasize the importance of the availability of these attributes in EIS systems. Our separate field study indicated that some project management

Table IV. Importanceof AnalyticalSuppon Attributes in a DescendingOrder in Eight Organizations

I II I III

1. Graphicallyrepresentedtrends 2. Drill down investigation 3. Exceptionreporting 4. Continuoustrackingof critical success factors 5. Possibilityto add textual explanationsto graphic pages 6. Ad hoc questions 7. What-ifquestions 8. Key word search
I

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tools were generally used but the users did not necessarily want to integrate them to EIS systems. 5. QUALITATIVE P R O P E R T I E S OF EIS PRODUCTS The qualitative properties of EIS products include the capabilities to control the system, its user interface and data presentation. These attributes are classified as follows (Bergeron and Raymond, 1992; Carlisle and Alameddine, 1990; Drury and Russel, 1990; Rockart and DeLong, 1988): customization, graphics and control attributes. Customization means here that the executives themselves can tailor the EIS. The following paragraphs will present these characteristics. According to many researchers (Bergeron and Raymond, 1992; Carlisle and Alameddine, 1990; Drury and Russel, 1990; Rockart and DeLong, 1988) customization attributes contain customized production of task-oriented reports and user-oriented reports, graphics, menus, and information sequencing. These attributes describe how flexibly the user interface and data representation of the EIS can be tailored according to the user's needs. Rockart and DeLong (1988) and Drury and Russel (1990) emphasize the importance of the capabilities of tailoring menus and reports. The EIS user must feel that the system offers the necessary information in a pleasant form--otherwise the user starts utilizing other information sources. Table V shows that nine out of 12 EIS products offer at least four of these five attributes. Graphics attributes, i.e, graphics supported interface, presentation graphics, graphical menus, and colored graphics, are considered the fundamental feature of EIS by many researchers (Bergeron and Raymond, 1992; Carlisle and Alameddine, 1990; Drury and Russel, 1990; Millet and Mawhinney, 1990; Rockart and DeLong, 1988). Graphics are also included in many definitions of EIS. For example Houdeshel and Watson (1987) see that it is the graphics that distinguish the EIS from DSS and MIS (see also Rockart and DeLong, 1988). Graphics can be regarded as a tool for utilizing modern IT in business organizations and it is essential for management groups. For instance Carlisle and Alameddine (1990) and Millet and Mawhinney (1990) point out that the EIS has to present information in the forms the users need. In business environments that very often means the use of business graphics. Graphics attributes include graphic data presentation and colored graphics (Carlisle and Alameddine, 1990). As our Table V shows, all the analysed EIS products satisfy graphics attribute requirements quite well. The measurement of control attributes was a much more difficult task in our practical analysis of EIS products (cf. Carlisle and Alameddine, 1990; Drury and Russel, 1990; Rockart and DeLong, 1988) and it demanded profound discussions among the suppliers and the EIS users. The yes/no answers are not sufficiently informative as can be seen in Table V. These control attributes are:

T a b l e V. Qualitative Properties o f EIS Products"

IIIII I IIII III IIIIIII III II II

EIS-

Command center Epic Holos

Commander EIS

Focus EIS

IBM E.D. and AS/2 lnfo Manager EIS Lotus notes Management View Resolve 2000 TCBoss Vantage point SAS product family

Customization attributes

y y y y

y y y y

y y y y

n n n n

y y y y

n n n n

y y y y

y y y y

y n n y

y y n y

y y y y

y y y n

n y y y

Task oriented reports User oriented reports Customized graphics Customized menus Customized information sequencing y y n y n y y n y y

Graphics attribules

Graphics supported Presentation graphics Graphical menus Colored graphics

y y y y

y y y y

y n y y

y n y y

y y y y

y y y y

y y y y

y y y y

y y y y

y y y y

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y y n y

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Contral attributes

User interface
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standard or own user interface which can be either one's own or Windows 3.0 or Presentation manager (OS/2) or Apple Macintosh or SAA (in IBM mainframes), ease of learn expressed in learning hours, ease of use expressed in scale from 1 (difficult) to 5 (easy), navigation mode in the screens control which can be windows, menus, icons or function keys, control device, i.e., mouse, keyboard or remote control, and help function. As a whole, the highly developed easy control functions and customization properties have made the executives accept the modem information technology into their own personal managerial use. The EIS functions have been automated; the user acts totally on the what level without any need to know how the system acts. Drury and Russel (1990) regard the ease of use aspect as the most important feature of the EIS. Our study proved the learning times surprisingly short, their median being I hour according to vendors' opinion and 2 hours according to users' opinion. In general we can claim that according to our study the easy-touse requirements of the EIS control functions seem to be satisfied quite well in EIS products today. 6. T E C H N I C A L P R O P E R T I E S OF EIS The technical attributes which are often important to be matched to existing standards and other contingencies are (Bergeron and Raymond, 1992; Carlisle and Alameddine, 1990; Drury and Russel, 1990): remote access, platform, micro network, architecture (distributed or open), security mechanism, and toolkit. Especially the issues of micro and network effectiveness and database connections are decisive today when vast information masses are transmitted and processed. Our study indicated that the platform can be either IBM PC compatible (or Apple Macintosh) or mainframe or both. The EIS product can be either a consistent package or built on a family of packages. The latter is the case with SAS products (SAS/EIS, SAS/GRAPH and Base/SAS), Focus EIS (PC/Focus and Focus/EIS) and IBM (IBM Executive Decisions and Personal Application Systems/2). Some EIS products have been built on a Decision Support System which facilitates the data modeling and analysis properties, e.g., EIS-Epic (on MasterModeller DSS) and Vantage Point (on IFPS DSS-Interactive Financial Planning System). Some EIS products are nearly only user friendly user interfaces for data presentation and need a DSS for the analysis capabilities. Such systems are Commander EIS (using One-up or System-W DSSs), IBM Executive Decisions (using IBM Personal Application System/2) and SAS/EIS (using SAS/ OR software). Holos includes both EIS and DSS properties in the same product. The technical attributes are an interesting area. However, they are not problems of executives but the major concern of technical staff. Our project made also an analysis of these issues but unfortunately this is not the right forum for presenting its further details. For a rough insight, see Table VI.

Table Vl. Technical Properties of EIS Products"

Hill IIII I I I

III

III

III

Technical attributes
Holos y pam su o y y y n y y y y o o od o n n -s su s m pm p am n n y n y p s o y y n p s o y y
IIIII I

Command center n pm s o n y

Commander EIS

EISEpic

F~us EIS

IBM E.D. and AS/2 Infi~ Manager EIS Lotus m~tes Management View Resolve 2000

SAS pn~duc! family n pm s o n y

I

TCBoss n pm s o y n

Vantage point y p su o y y

Remote access

Platform

pare

pm

Micro network

--

su

Architecture

od

Security mechanism

Toolkit

" ( y = p r o p e r t y e x i s t s , n = p r o p e r t y d o e s not e x i s t , p = I B M c o m p a t i b l e P C , a = A p p l e M a c i n t o s h , m = m a i n f r a m e ; s = m i c r o n e w o r k s s u p p o r t e d , n e t w o r k s not s u p p o r t e d , u = u s e r s e r v r s o f t w a r e ; d = d i s t r i b u t e d a r c h i t e c t u r e , o = o p e n a r c h i t e c t u r e ) .

= micro

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567

7. C O S T ISSUES We analyzed also the price distribution of EIS products. Our attributes of EIS costs are price of user license of EIS product, length and cost of EIS implementation process, total price for a 10 users system, annual maintenance cost, and cost of vendor support. Most common costs for a 10 users' system were U.S. $50,000-100,000 ranging from U.S. $4,000-400,000. Implementation times ranged from 1 day to I year for 10 users system, a quite common time being 1 month. Approximately, licences form one half and consulting another half of the total EIS costs. It should be noted that the final total costs are difficult to predict though the price of a user licence is known. Also, it should be realized already at the very beginning of the EIS acquiring process that the user's EIS is never ready and final--it will be modified continuously. We found out that the building costs of EIS in a small organization are almost the same as those in a large organization because the same requirement analysis, design and selection tasks must be performed. The EIS products are not yet commonly used in small and medium size organizations because they are fairly expensive and smaller organizations are easily controllable without an EIS. Anyway, the trend goes now from mainframe EISs to micro EISs, and the latter are essentially cheaper than the former.
8. U S E R S ' E X P E R I E N C E S

The application of our evaluation framework answered to such questions as "Are the EIS systems easy-to-learn, easy-to-use and easily customizable?'"

"'Do they utilize the newest information technology, e.g., graphics and modern interface technology? . . . . Can they work in different computer networks?" We conducted a case study in order to find answers to the following questions in our research: "What EIS applications are utilized in business organizations? How widely can they be introduced in leadership levels ?" The companies involved in this study were selected with specific care. About 30 Finnish and 20 English companies were contacted by telephone. Based on the conversation with the IT staff, four Finnish and four English companies were selected for our more profound analysis. Early introduction of EIS, a high number of users and the advanced functionality of EIS was taken as a criterion of choice. Two types of questionnaires, with a request to collect experiences of all the users in the company, were sent to every company, one addressed to the IT personnel and another to the EIS users. The questionnaires consisted of 34 questions. Our evaluation framework was applied to the construction of multiplechoice questions. The respondents completed the questionnaires, but we wish especially to point out that the answers were specified with face-to-face interviews with these 16 persons during 1- to 2-day visits to the companies. In these

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Partanen and Savolainen

eight companies we were able to collect the experiences of 132 EIS users and eight IT experts, emphasizing both EIS usage and technical issues. The EIS organizations explored had employees from 11.700 to 90.000 averaging about 40.000. The turnover of these companies ranged from $460m to $12.594m, averaging $4.620m. The case organizations represented the following lines of business: manufacturing (3), trade (3), financial services (1), and transportation (1). In this section we will clarify the exploration of the functional, qualitative, and technical properties of the EIS systems in these eight companies. 8.1. Utilization of the Functional Properties of EIS Table VII first illustrates the distribution of office support application users. The figures on each organizational level indicate the number of organizations in which that particular application is represented. This study shows that office support applications are quite scarce in EIS systems. About 25% of these sysTable II. Usage of Office Support and Analytical Support Applications in Eight Case Organizations"
I

Users" positions in organizations Top management Middle manag, Operat. manag.

Application

Other

Total

Office support applications

Electronic mail Electronic notice board New service Word processing Electronic calendar Tickler files 2 l 3 1 1 1 2 I 3 3 1 1 2 1 3 3 1 1 2 -3 3 1 t 2 3 3 1 1 3

Analytical support applications Ad hoc questions What-if questions Graphically represented trends Tracking of critical success factors Key word search Drill down investigation Exception reporting Possibility to add textual explanations to graphic pages
i

1 2 8 5 3 6 8 5

3 1 6 4 2 5 6 5

1 -3 3 2 2 3 2
II

2 2 4 3 2 3 3 2

4 5 8 5 3 8 8 7

"The column "'total" indicates the total number of organizations where the application concerned had been installed.

Perspectives on Executive Information Systems

569

tems did not contain any office support applications. In one EIS system only the news service was installed. Table VII shows that the most frequently installed applications were electronic mail, word processing, and news service. Electronic calendar and tickler files tended to be infrequent applications, both installed in only one EIS system. Among the top management the most common applications were news services in three and electronic mail in two out of eight EIS systems. Among the lower level management and other staff the news service, word processing and electronic mail were the most popular applications. Also a spreadsheet tool was integrated in some EIS systems. In the first place, one explanation for infrequent installations of office support applications is that the managers have not used these applications prior to the EIS system. Within EIS they have found electronic mail and news service useful and easy to use by themselves. However, word processing, calendaring, and tickler files are still sekreterial duties. Second, middle and operational management utilize office automation distinctly from EIS system. Third, some EIS products do not include any office support applications nor facilitate user interface building to the existing office automation systems. Our case study showed that the access to data outside the organization is still a technical challenge to many organizations. Access to this data is not the main problem but its incompatibility causes additional work for which organizations are not ready. The news services are found useful but the connections to external databases are considered too expensive in some organizations. Analytical support applications are also presented in Table VII. Analytical support applications are essential EIS characteristics. The users of these applications can be found throughout the vertical organization, though the top management dominates. Over 50% of attributes illustrated in Table VII were implemented in each EIS system. Drill down, graphically represented trends and exception reporting were built in every EIS system we surveyed. A possibility to add textual explanations to graphics pages was included in nearly all of EIS systems. What-if questions and key word search were less frequently integrated EIS applications. The top management has utilized graphically represented trends and exception reporting in each EIS system we explored. Common applications among the top management were also drill down analysis and possibility to add textual explanations to graphics pages. Ad hoc and what-if questions tended to be rarely installed applications. The middle management's view of the EIS is similar to the top management's view. Graphically represented trends and exception reporting were represented in 75% and drill down and possibility to add textual explanations to graphics pages in 62 % of EIS systems. Quite an interesting question is why ad hoc questions are used only rarely among the top management but quite often

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Partanen and Savolainen

among the middle management. The middle management has traditionally performed the ad hoc analyses and ad hoc questioning. Now EIS requires a broad understanding of the system and may need to much time from the very busy top management. What-if questions were integrated in only 12% of middle management EIS systems. Anyhow, it was broadly used because in many of the now explored organizations the what-if questions were performed by distinct spreadsheet tools. EIS installations in case organizations were found more frequently in use of the top management because many EIS systems have initially been built for the top management. The middle and particularly the operational management start utilizing the EIS later. Our study indicates that the age of EIS system and the users" organizational level correlate strongly. The older the EIS system is, the lower the level of the users in the organization is. For example, in three of our eight case companies which have installed the EIS also for the use of operational management, the average age of the EIS system was 5.3 years ranging from 2 to 9 years, The average age of those systems which have not exploited EIS on the operational level was 2.0 years. Project management applications were included in only 1% of the eight EIS systems of the case organizations. Project management systems were used in many of the companies surveyed but they were not integrated in the EIS system. Our study indicated that project management is fairly exceptional in the EIS.
8.2. Utilization of the Qualitative Properties of EIS

In this section we illustrate the graphics, user interface, and customization properties of the EIS. The colored graphics property belongs to every surveyed EIS system. For example graphically represented trends were included in each EIS system. During the discussions on the site, colored graphics were clearly evident in every case organization. User interface properties were cleared up by inquiring the opinions of EIS users. In these eight companies, nearly 25 % of the users belonged to the top management and the rest of users of the middle management. The ease-of-learn aspect was evaluated by asking the users how quickly they have learned to use the current EIS system. Learning times ranged from 1 to 4 hours averaging 2 hours. Each user had utilized computers before the installation of the EIS which fastened the learning process. However, the EIS can be regarded as extremely easy to learn. The ease-of-use aspect was evaluated by a 5-step scale where 1 states ditIicult to use and 5 easy to use. The marks ranged from 4 to 5 averaging 4.5. This indicates clearly that the users find the EIS extremely easy to use. The controlling device was surveyed by asking the users their tool for controlling

Perspectives on Executive Information Systems

571

EIS functions. Most interviewees control the EIS with a mouse. The oldest EIS system was controlled only with a keyboard, and the interviewee using that system encountered problems in learning the keyboard use and remembering keyboard functions. Systems which can be controlled with a mouse were also easy to learn and use. The help function was needed only by one interviewee. This can be attributed to the ease-of-use aspects of the EIS. The EIS users were asked to state which EIS applications they occasionally customize. Five users tailored graphics and four tailored reports. Menus and information sequence were customized by only some interviewees. One third of the users did not customize their EIS system at all. The customization activity depends partly on the EIS product by which the system is constructed. Some particular EIS products possess ease-of-learn and ease-of-use customization capabilities whereas others require training. We believe that also the users' personal attitude toward information technology and their skills influence the willingness to customize the EIS system. The development of the EIS has reached a stage where their user interface and usage have become particularly easy and the functional properties match the managers' needs. These are the essential criteria for a system to be considered as an EIS.
8.3. Utilization of the Technical Properties of EIS

The following technical properties were examined: remote access, architecture, security mechanism, and hardware and network settings. Remote access was built in three of these eight EIS systems. The users are accessing those systems also from geographically distant places. For example the EIS users of one case organization reside in Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York, and London. Remote access was technically possible in every company but it had not been implemented in two firms for security reasons. The other companies which had not implemented this feature simply did not need it. The architecture was open in each case. An open architecture is flexible for environmental changes. Security mechanisms were found in every surveyed EIS system. The security was double-guaranteed. First the system controls log-in by passwords. Second the EIS system controls that the user can access only the data he or she is authorized to, i.e., the user has a personal view to the EIS system. Hardware and network settings: Two EIS systems in our case organizations were running only in mainframes. Three EIS systems operated in micronetworks. Another three EIS systems were operating in micronetworks and they used mainframes as data storages. The last approach is usually quite an efficient solution especially when the databases are large. In micronetworks large databases require a user-server architecture, in which the server machine stores and

572

Partanen and Savolainen

processes data and send only the results to the user's PC. The user's PC presents the information in a particular form. Some interviewees mentioned that overload of the microcomputer is the major problem in their EIS system. This shortage can be overcome by using a user-server architecture.
8.4. Issues in Construction, Introduction and Use of EIS

The issues in utilizing EIS products in business organizations were studied both among the technical staff and among EIS users. There occurred problems at three stages: construction, introduction, and use of EIS systems. In this section we do not entirely solve these problems but bring them up as future research topics. At the construction stage we found rather general problems already known in the literature (Keen and Scott Morton, 1978; Sprague and Carlson, 1982). It was quite usual that the users were not able to indicate their information needs. Prototyping may ease this problem. The resistance of those who earlier had been responsible for acquiring the data was also recognized. This problem was often solved by giving them responsibilities in updating data for the EIS. Also data collection was found rather complicated: sometimes the operative systems were defective, dispersed, and technically incompatible. At the introduction stage, the problems were mostly individual. In some cases the use of the keyboard was difficult to learn. Somtimes the production of a high number of reports was regarded as a problem. Quite often the EIS offered some directors an access to the information in others' responsibility areas, and this caused problems. Also at the use stage the problems varied quite a tot. A large number of problems appeared due to incorrectness and untimeliness of data. Most of these problems can be solved by properly assigning responsibilities for acquiring and updating data in time. If the EIS system is seen as a continuously developing, eternal prototype, the responsibility for maintaining the EIS in the changing organizational environment can be kept active. External information is often in incorrect forms for the EIS and external sources offer it excessively. Naturally, also micro networks frequently cause problems. 9. SUMMARY This paper has offered an introduction to information systems for managerial use. Our main aim was to analyse the state of the art in the field of Executive Information Systems and to clarify the issues in defining the EIS and introducing it in business organizations. Through a historical survey we proceeded to an exact definition of the EIS systems and constructed a framework for analysing EIS systems and their usefulness. Our field study among 132

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573

Finnish and English EIS users and eight technical staff members revealed the applications used, their real users in different managerial levels, and practical problems in the introduction and use of EIS. Our discussions in the field also clearly indicated the fact that the EIS is becoming more and more a tool on lower management levels. The problem of finding an effective EIS for the organization can be solved mainly in two steps: A precondition for successful selection of the EIS product is a proper definition of the organizational contingency factors and executives' requirements for the computerized support in their decision making. Our EIS evaluation and comparison framework can be used as a tool in the process of acquiring an EIS product to match the managerial needs and organizational contingencies. Our framework helps in revealing the properties of the available EIS products. The match of the requirements and the properties of the EISs is then maximized to find the most suitable EIS product. The effectiveness of the framework was demonstrated by evaluating 13 EIS products available in the market. Our analysis results (described in tables) showed both similarities and differences in their functional capabilities, their qualitative and technical properties, as well as their cost factors. It means that the organizations with different managerial support requirements have several alternatives to choose. In practice, both the definition of these support requirements and the final selection of the EIS product are difficult problems in practice. Our framework can partly guide in solving both of them. If we were to characterize the EIS products in general, we could say that they are well equipped with analytical support capabilities and modem graphics and they are easy-to-learn, easy-to-use and easily customizable. Project management properties are not commonly integrated in the EIS. Their platforms are changing from mainframe systems to micro networks. Our experiences have shown that the utilization of the EIS is spreading from top management to lower management levels as the systems are becoming better known and the prices are decreasing (cf. Compeau and Higgins, 1991). Our discussions with the EIS vendors also revealed that in the near future we can expect multimedia and group decision support features (Christodoulakis et al., 1984; Johansen, 1987) to widen their impact on the EIS products.

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