Jörg H. Mayer

Six principles for redesigning executive information systems—findings of a survey and evaluation of a prototype

Information Systems (IS) meant to help senior managers are known as Executive Information Systems (EIS). Despite a five-decade tradition of such IS, many executives still complain that they bear little relevance to managing a company and, even more, fail to accommodate their working style. The increasing acceptance of IS among todays executives and technological advances of the Internet era make the present moment favorable for redesigning EIS. Following the design science paradigm in IS research, this article provides six principles for such a redesign. To do so, we survey executives regarding their requirements and the IS they currently use. We then derive principles for a redesign to fill the gaps. They address diverse areas: a comprehensive information model, functions to better analyze and process information, easy-to-use IS handling, a more flexible IS architecture and data model, a proper information management, and fast prototype implementation. Finally a field test demonstrates and evaluates the utility of our proposal by means of a prototype.

Situational Management Support Systems

Digital natives increasingly populate organizations’ management. These new-generation managers more naturally accept management support systems (MSS), but also have higher expectations about how they should accommodate their individual user preferences. As a result, managers question MSS that have been developed without configuration mechanisms to accommodate their working style, relevant MSS use cases, and different MSS access modes. The objective of this article is to reveal managers’ different MSS use situations and propose levers for tailoring (conceptual) MSS design to them. Use situations generalize classes of similar user-group preferences. We first apply findings from a literature review to cluster managers’ user-group preferences into 36 MSS use situations. Second, we propose that the selection of end-user devices can serve as a main lever for MSS configuration. Third, we complete the configuration with a MSS user-interface design. Finally, we demonstrate utility of our configuration model by presenting and evaluating a prototype.

Current Changes in Executive Work and How to Handle Them by Redesigning Executive Information Systems

Executives in Europe have significantly expanded their role in operations—in parallel to their strategic leadership. At the same time, they need to make decisions faster than in the past. Redesigned executive information systems (EIS) should support top managers in their new roles. This article examines how corporate management is evolving, and what issues a redesigned EIS should address. Embracing a “new normal” environment, we arrive at four prescriptive statements for an EIS architecture that is more business-driven than the state of the art. This architecture differs by applying a business-to-IT approach, designed in four layers: strategy, organization, alignment, and IT support. With such a structure, it is possible to “drill-through” to information needed to executives’ more operational decisions. Furthermore the proposed architecture balances key performance indicators from five information clusters for accelerating executives’ decision making: financial accounting, management accounting, compliance management, program management, and cash flow and liquidity management.

Systematic development of business-driven requirements – using next-generation EIS design as an example

Despite many improvements to IT support for executives, they still complain that executive information systems (EIS) bear little relevance to their management task and fail even more to accommodate their working style This indicates that business issues should more strongly drive requirements for next-generation EIS The article contributes to such an EIS design by systematically developing requirements criteria that are more business driven than the state-of-the-art To do so, requirements lists of EIS, structural models of user satisfaction and technology acceptance are evaluated with criteria derived from the requirements engineering discipline The findings show a dual gap: as the rigor of the models increases, they become less relevant for practice In comparison, the requirements lists demonstrate relevance, but do not evidence strong rigor To bridge this gap, this article applies the principle of economic efficiency to balance scientific rigor with relevance for practice A case demonstrates a first implementation and helps to evaluate the results of this article by using the same criteria as for the state-of-the-art reflection The findings should lead to better next-generation EIS design and should also be applicable to IS in general.

More applicable environmental scanning systems leveraging modern information systems

With Ansoff’s article about weak signals as a flagship example, a substantial body of knowledge about environmental scanning systems exists. However, these concepts often go unused in practice. The 2008/2009 economic crisis provided a strong, ongoing impulse for redesigning such information systems (IS). This article develops six guidelines for the conceptual design of environmental scanning systems that are more applicable than those specified by previous research. We start with literature research, which reveals three gaps in existing approaches. Then we develop design guidelines to fill these gaps with the help of “modern” IS. To address the lack of sound requirements analysis, our first design principle proposes 360-degree environmental scanning systems for executives and suggests how to select the most important scanning areas. Three further findings cover weaknesses in the IS model perspective, focusing on more effective implications of weak signals. In terms of method, we propose incorporating scanning results more closely into executives’ decision-making processes. Applying the design guidelines at a raw materials and engineering company, we arrive at a prototype we call the “corporate radar.” It includes an IS-based tree with economic value added at risk on top. The resulting lessons learned help to evaluate our findings and the research method presented here, as well provide concrete starting points for future research.

New-generation managers and their IS support: getting it right with the corporate navigator

Companies today operate in an increasingly dynamic environment. Due to their overall responsibility, managers are particularly affected by this situation. Information systems (IS) that aim at helping managers are known as management support systems (MSS). They are designed to serve as their central, hands-on, day-to-day source of information [1].

New-Generation Managers' Business/IT Alignment Perspective for a More Business-Driven IS Design

Digital natives are increasingly populating organizations’ management. As they have higher expectations of IS accommodating their non-functional user preferences, the frontend application design of management support systems (MSS)—as managers’ direct user-interface—plays an increasingly dominant role. By means of using new-generation managers’ perspective of a business/IT alignment, this article proposes a method for a more business-driven IS design. We obtain both a set of business-driven MSS requirements and—applying this approach—initial design guidelines. We evaluate our approach with respect to the state of the art and propose avenues for future research.

How service orientation can improve the flexibility of executive information systems: an architecture reworked from a business perspective

In recent years, service orientation has been discussed as a new design paradigm promising better manageability and changeability of increasingly complex IS. This article examines their role in executive information systems (EIS) design and contributes a reworked architecture that is more flexible than the state of the art. Structured in terms of four layers strategy, organization, alignment, and IT support it uses cross-layer modeling chains that enable even drill-through analyses when needed. Mapping loosely coupled services within an alignment layer provides the necessary flexibility. Two typical changes in financial accounting and management accounting processes at a telecom company provided an opportunity to evaluate the reworked architecture. Finally, the lessons learned helped us in two ways: providing concrete starting points for integrating service orientation into EIS architecture design and arguing for the reworked architecture on hand.

A Self-Service MSS Design from a New-Generation Manager Perspective

More and more digital natives are populating the management levels of organizations. As such managers have higher expectations toward information systems (IS) accommodating their user self-service preferences, a more business-driven requirements analysis for management support systems (MSS) plays an increasingly dominant role. The objective of this paper is to develop both a set of MSS requirements that is more business-driven than the state of the art and—applying this approach—initial design guidelines for a new self-service MSS design. We demonstrate utility with a single-case study, evaluate our approach against the state of the art, and propose avenues for future research. The findings should lead to a better MSS design and be applicable to other IS domains as well.

Applicability of Environmental Scanning Systems: A Systematic List Approach to Requirements Criteria

The increasing volatility of their companies’ environment is a growing concern for executives. Environmental scanning systems should enable them to focus earlier on emerging threats and opportunities. A lack of applicability means that concepts often go unused in practice. But what does applicability mean for environmental scanning systems design? Adhering to the design science paradigm, this article contributes to better information systems (IS) design by developing a systematic list approach to requirements criteria that specify the applicability of environmental scanning systems. The criteria are derived from the principle of economic efficiency, use findings from the absorptive capacity theory, and can be applied to both evaluate existing environmental scanning systems and develop a new, more applicable generation. The findings should also be applicable to other IS domains.