Information Systems: EDP, ERP, CRM, MIS, ES, DSS, EIS, and BI
EDP, ERP, OAS: Output Results and Operational Involvement
Electronic Data Processing (EDP), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Office Automation Systems (OAS) are able to produce output results, whether they are the result of online consultations or the programming of periodic reports. Also, they imply a great involvement of the core operation workers. Their effectiveness will depend on the level of training of the employee in charge of data entry, the periodicity of such entry, and the discipline of use.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management Systems
The search for maximum satisfaction, loyalty, and lasting relationships with customers is one of the main concerns of companies, and success in this is very valuable. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems provide companies with relevant and timely information on how to relate to their customers from a multifaceted perspective. CRM systems not only collect data through the different channels of communication with customers but also provide information on different dimensions: sales, customer service, and marketing.
Components of CRM Systems
- Sales Force Automation (SFA): Helps employees increase their productivity by focusing sales efforts on the most profitable customers or those most likely to make the purchase.
- Customer Service Department: Provides relevant information to improve customer service.
- Marketing: Facilitates the design of customer-specific plans and the announcement of direct marketing initiatives to be used with each customer.
Benefits of CRM
- Speed up the relationship between the company and the client.
- Increase customer satisfaction.
- Reduce the costs of marketing campaigns, making them more direct and effective.
- Increase the productivity of the commercials.
- Reduce customer search and retention costs.
- Increase sales revenue.
- Reduce the rate of cancellation or loss of customers.
MIS: Management Information Systems
Management Information Systems (MIS) emerged in the seventies. These systems gather information for the planning, control, and coordination of an organization’s operations at a tactical level. There will be different MIS in the company, each one focused on a functional or departmental area of the company, such as a financial MIS, a marketing MIS, a production MIS, a human resources MIS, etc. Ideally, they should be integrated.
Structure of the MIS
The structure of the MIS is divided into three parts:
- Data Entry: Operational data of the organization or other subsystems, including external data. Data entries from systems such as EDP and ERP.
- Database: Different from those of transactional systems (EDP and ERP). It’s integrated, non-volatile, historical data.
- Information Output: These can be predefined periodic reports, special (ad hoc) reports, or one-off queries.
ES: Expert Systems
An Expert System (ES) is a computer system based on the use of artificial intelligence, which simulates the reasoning process of a human expert when solving specific problems of an unstructured nature, or for which judgment and experience are required. To do this, they use a special type of knowledge coding based on production rules or expert rules. The rules are combined in some deductive or inductive inference process by means of a so-called inference engine, which finally extracts all the conclusions of the process and provides the diagnosis and solution of the problem. They are used in various fields, such as medicine, geology, banking, and insurance, etc. They provide the knowledge and experience of a specialist (internal or external) at the time, level, and place of the organization where the problem appears.
DSS: Decision Support Systems
Decision Support Systems (DSS) are designed to provide decision-makers with the information they need to make quality decisions in a shorter time. Some systems provide greater added value by supporting all stages of the decision-making process: intelligence, design (of alternatives), selection, and review. Information analysis-oriented decision support systems allow the decision-maker to investigate the problem and test action alternatives interactively during the decision-making process. This interaction between the user and the system leads to an iterative (learning) process, where the output results of a given query influence the formulation of the next one and so on.
EIS: Executive Information Systems
Executive Information Systems (EIS) are programs based on the type of DSS software, which provide senior management with relevant information on the overall performance of the company and the situation of its environment. The strategic nature of executive decisions and unstructured information is the main difference with other systems, such as DSS or MIS. The EIS accesses, extracts, filters, organizes, and stores, in an automatic and predefined way, the information that a particular executive needs, creating a customized database. Thanks to the EIS, the decision-maker at the highest levels of the organization has at his disposal the status of the key business indicators in a consolidated way and in real-time. The EIS is fed by data from the company itself, from customers, suppliers, or even from other companies in the sector (published data).
BI: Business Intelligence
The term Business Intelligence (BI) refers to the use of tools and data in a company to facilitate high-level decision-making. It encompasses understanding the current functioning of the company, as well as anticipating future events, with the aim of providing knowledge to support business decisions. BI transforms data into information and information into knowledge by optimizing the decision-making process. BI collects information from different departments with the aim of integrating and optimizing the company’s information. ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) tools and techniques are used to extract data from various ERP and EDP sources, mainly in addition to external databases, and to debug and prepare it.