Data

Data is defined as facts or figures, or information that's stored in or used by a

computer.
Data is fact (such as measurements or statistics) used as a basis for reasoning,
discussion, or calculation.
Data – a collection of facts (numbers, words, measurements, observations, etc)
that has been translated into a form that computers can process

Why data is important ?

1. Improve People’s Lives

Data will help you to improve quality of life for people you support: Improving
quality is first and foremost among the reasons why organizations should be
using data. By allowing you to measure and take action, an effective data
system can enable your organization to improve the quality of people’s lives.
2. Make Informed Decisions
Data = Knowledge. Good data provides indisputable evidence, while anecdotal
evidence, assumptions, or abstract observation might lead to wasted resources
due to taking action based on an incorrect conclusion.
3. Stop Molehills From Turning Into Mountains
Data allows you to monitor the health of important systems in your
organization: By utilizing data for quality monitoring, organizations are able to
respond to challenges before they become full-blown crisis. Effective quality
monitoring will allow your organization to be proactive rather than reactive and
will support the organization to maintain best practices over time.
4. Get The Results You Want
Data allows organizations to measure the effectiveness of a given strategy:
When strategies are put into place to overcome a challenge, collecting data will
allow you to determine how well your solution is performing, and whether or
not your approach needs to be tweaked or changed over the long-term.
5. Find Solutions To Problems
Data allows organizations to more effectively determine the cause of problems.
Data allows organizations to visualize relationships between what is happening
in different locations, departments, and systems. If the number of medication
errors has gone up, is there an issue such as staff turnover or vacancy rates that
may suggest a cause? Looking at these data points side-by-side allows us to
develop more accurate theories, and put into place more effective solutions.
6. Back Up Your Arguments
Data is a key component to systems advocacy. Utilizing data will help present a
strong argument for systems change. Whether you are advocating for increased
funding from public or private sources, or making the case for changes in
regulation, illustrating your argument through the use of data will allow you to
demonstrate why changes are needed.
7. Stop The Guessing Game
Data will help you explain (both good and bad) decisions to your stakeholders.
Whether or not your strategies and decisions have the outcome you anticipated,
you can be confident that you developed your approach based not upon guesses,
but good solid data.
8. Be Strategic In Your Approaches
Data increases efficiency. Effective data collection and analysis will allow you
to direct scarce resources where they are most needed. If an increase in
significant incidents is noted in a particular service area, this data can be
dissected further to determine whether the increase is widespread or isolated to
a particular site. If the issue is isolated, training, staffing, or other resources can
be deployed precisely where they are needed, as opposed to system-wide. Data
will also support organizations to determine which areas should take priority
over others.
9. Know What You Are Doing Well
Data allows you to replicate areas of strength across your organization. Data
analysis will support you to identify high-performing programs, service areas,
and people. Once you identify your high-performers, you can study them in
order to develop strategies to assist programs, service areas and people that are
low-performing.
10. Keep Track Of It All
Good data allows organizations to establish baselines, benchmarks, and goals to
keep moving forward. Because data allows you to measure, you will be able to
establish baselines, find benchmarks and set performance goals. A baseline is
what a certain area looks like before a particular solution is implemented.
Benchmarks establish where others are at in a similar demographic, such
as Personal Outcome Measures® national data. Collecting data will allow your
organization to set goals for performance and celebrate your successes when
they are achieved.
11. Make The Most Of Your Money
Funding is increasingly outcome and data-driven. With the shift from funding
that is based on services provided to funding that is based on outcomes
achieved, it is increasingly important for organizations to implement evidence-
based practice and develop systems to collect and analyze data.
12. Access The Resources Around You
Your organization probably already has most of the data and expertise you need
to begin analysis. Your HR office probably already tracks data regarding your
staff. You are probably already reporting data regarding incidents to your state
oversight agency. You probably have at least one person in your organization
who has experience with Excel. But, if you don’t do any of these things, there is
still hope! There are lots of free resources online that can get you started. Do a
web search for “how to analyze data” or “how to make a chart in Excel.”

Information
Data is like raw materials while the information is equivalent to the finished
goods produced after processing the raw material. The word information is used
commonly in our day to day working. In management information system,
information has a precise meaning and it is different from data.
 The information has a value in decision making while data does not
have.
 Information brings clarity and creates an intelligent human response in
the mind.

Information has certain characteristics

Improves representation of an entity.
Updates the level of knowledge.
Has a surprise value.
Reduces uncertainty.
Aids in decision making.
Definition of System
There are various definitions of the word system, but most of them seem to have
a common idea that suggests that a system is an orderly grouping of
interdependent components linked together according to a plan to achieve a
specific goal.
The word component may refer to physical parts, managerial steps (planning,
organizing, controlling) or a sub-system in a multi-level structure.
The component may be simple or complex, basic or advanced. They may be a
single computer with a keyboard, memory and printer or a series of intelligent
terminals linked to a mainframe. In either case, each component is part of the
total system and has to do its own share of work for the system to achieve the
desired goal.

Information System
An Information System can be defined technically as a set of interrelated
components that collect (or retrieve), process, store and distribute information to
support decision making and control in an organization.

The development of modern information system is a complex process. It needs

knowledge, skills and technology in almost all the disciplines. The developer
the designer and the user must be knowledgeable in their respective area of
function and responsibilities. An information system are being demanded for
on-line real time usage in business management.
Information System handles the flow and maintenance of information that
supports a business or some other operation. It contains information about
significant people, places and things within the organization or in the
environment surrounding it.

Types of Information Systems

The type of information system that a user uses depends on their level in an
organization. The following diagram shows the three major levels of users in an
organization and the type of information system that they use.
Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

This type of information system is used to record the day to day transactions of
a business. An example of a Transaction Processing System is a Point of Sale
(POS) system. A POS system is used to record the daily sales.

Management Information Systems (MIS)

Management Information Systems abbreviated as MIS, are used to guide tactic

managers to make semi-structured decisions. The output from the transaction
processing system is used as input to the MIS system.

Decision Support Systems (DSS)

Decision support systems are used by top level managers to make semi-
structured decisions. The output from the Management Information System is
used as input to the decision support system.DSS systems also get data input
from external sources such as current market forces, competition, etc.
Knowledge
There are different views on the meaning of "knowledge". Even educators often
have various and different opinions on the definition of knowledge. The
following definitions of knowledge have been taken from two well-known
English dictionaries:
"Facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the
theoretical or practical understanding of a subject."
- Oxford Dictionary (Links to an external site.)
"The fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through
experience or association; acquaintance with or understanding of a science, art,
or technique."
- Merriam-Webster Dictiona

According to Webster's Dictionary, knowledge is "the fact or condition of

knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association".
In practice, though, there are many possible, equally plausible definitions of
knowledge. A frequently used definition of knowledge is "the ideas or
understandings which an entity possesses that are used to take effective action
to achieve the entity's goal(s). This knowledge is specific to the entity which
created it."

An understanding of knowledge requires some grasp of its relationship to

information. In everyday language, it has long been the practice to distinguish
between information — data arranged in meaningful patterns — and knowledge
— which has historically been regarded as something that is believed, that is
true (for pragmatic knowledge, that works) and that is reliable.

In assessing attempts to define knowledge it can be helpful to remember that the

human mind has often been seen as capable of two kinds of knowledge — the
rational and the intuitive.

Of course, there are many other definitions of knowledge. However, as you may
have noticed, there seems to be a common theme: that experience or the act of
becoming acquainted with the information or skills is required in order to
understand it.
In other words, it takes time and effort to acquire knowledge - like the time and
effort you are taking right now to learn about learning online!
Types of Knowledge
Of course, there is more to the subject of knowledge than the dictionary
provides. For example, many people believe that there are different types of
knowledge which take different levels of effort to achieve. Again, there are
various opinions about the classification of these different types of knowledge.
One opinion by E. Gagne (1985) suggests the following types of knowledge.

 Declarative knowledge: A type of knowledge where a person can

remember, recognize, or state information in his or her own words.
For example, a person is able to list the capital city of some US states,
spell a word correctly, remember and recite a poem or story, and so
on.

 Concepts and Principles: Conceptual knowledge occurs when a

person understands how information is organized or classified.
Concepts can be further divided into concrete or defined categories.
Examples of a concrete concept include the ability to classify new
items by their colour, sound, smell, etc. A defined concept, on the
other hand, is the ability to use a set of characteristics in order to
classify an idea; for example, is something a "democracy" or is
something a certain "type of chemical"?
 Principle knowledge is where a person understands relationships
between ideas or concepts which they use to predict, explain or
control circumstances. This type of knowledge is also called
"relational" knowledge. This is the type of knowledge that applies
to "if-then" relationships. A couple of examples might include:
o If you heat gas, then it expands.
o If you exercise regularly, then you will tend to become more
physically fit.

 Procedural knowledge: Procedural knowledge refers to

understanding the order or procedure in which certain steps should be
taken. Examples of procedural knowledge could include: knowing
how to complete a multi-step math equation in the proper order,
knowing the process for operating a piece of machinery, or knowing
how to perform certain tasks at one's job.
Information As A Strategic Asset
Information is everywhere – in emails, databases, phones, websites, documents
and reports. Managed properly, information is not only a strategic asset for a
business, but it can also guide future innovation. Yet, with so much information
available, how do you determine what is useful and what isn’t?

Who are your customers? Who might become your customers? This information
is a competitive weapon – never forget! Yet, ironically, the rapid flow of data
has actually resulted in many organisations losing control over the quality of
their information – and it’s not a situation that is likely to reverse itself.

All information is valuable, context is the important factor in any discussion

regarding its value as a commodity. In other words, information must be
relevant. But relevance on its own is only part of the story. Information is only a
valuable commodity if it can be used effectively.

One of the prime challenges facing modern businesses is obtaining quality data
from the large amount of data available – data on which businesses can take
decisions, because it is both relevant and can be extracted effectively. However,
there are two more requirements that are necessary to turn data into gold dust –
accuracy and trustworthiness.

When using data to make a business decision, managers must be sure the
information at their disposal is both accurate and trustworthy. Without reliable
information, the decision-making process can be badly hampered and an
informed decision impossible to make. That is why in any organisation still
using legacy systems or old databases, there can often be integration problems
with new systems or technology, resulting in problems with data consistency
and transparency. Where a business is geographically dispersed, with servers
hosted in different locations, or a business has a network of applications, there
can also be the obstacle of replicating data across the network.

In short, without effective management of information the result can be

information chaos.

To overcome these challenges and achieve operational performance, it is vital to

ensure that the information at your disposal is converted into a strategic asset.
And to do this, it is important to ensure that your I.T. infrastructure is tailored to
your organisation, and able to meet your organisation’s needs for customer
relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), business
intelligence (BI), data warehousing, data migration and replication.
Information On Demand
For information to be used effectively – and therefore to maximise its strategic
value – it must be available as a shared, easily accessible service within an
organisation. This means updating your old database system. When done
properly the cost of installing a new system can be very minor compared to the
business gains that can be had, and which include:

 Transforming core processes across your business because of a free flow

of information.
 Serving your customers better because of your organisation’s increased
understanding of their needs, thanks to the accessibility of relevant data.
 Better productivity because of better-informed decision making.
 Streamlined decision-making because of the improved management of
information over the course of its lifetime.
 Quicker adaptation to changing market conditions based on accurate
information.
 Making new or innovative connections from the insights gained from the
accurate information.
 Timely response to fluctuations in financial risk, profitability and other
critical business processes requiring prompt action.

Where information is acquired from many sources, efficient handling is of

paramount importance. This means finding software solutions that ensure data
integration and quality.

Quality information means access to accurate data – to gain the critical insights
necessary to drive business goals and performance optimisation. This in turn
provides insight which can be turned into competitive advantage.

Custom Software
The first step to ensuring your information becomes a strategic asset is to have
your business infrastructure and data requirements assessed. If you don’t
possess the technical skills in-house, outsource your requirements to an I.T.
consultancy with a proven track record of developing bespoke systems for
similar-sized organisations, and who is therefore familiar with the issues
involved.

As a minimum, look for a technical consultancy service which includes:

 Creation of specifications and design documents for new software

development projects.
 Development reviews – to establish whether a development project is on
the right track.
  Design and Technology reviews – to confirm that a project has the correct
architecture and design, perhaps prior to investment.

Once you have a clearer idea of what’s needed to achieve your business
objectives, you’ll find that a development plan is much easier to draft – again, a
good consultancy will be glad to help.

Given that information management for your business is directly linked to

flexibility, speed of response, customer satisfaction – and ultimately survival,
the importance of investing in a tailored solution cannot be over-stated. And if
cost seems to be an issue, just remember that your investment in a custom
software solution will eventually pay for itself and reap rich dividends into the
bargain.

Use of Information for Competitive Advantage

Information and its use has become the competitive advantage of today’s
world. The efficiency with which a firm manages its information determines its
success in the marketplace. This enormous power of information unleashed in
today’s world has brought down reaction times for decision-making of
managers, made customers more aware, competitors more efficient and
regulators more alert.
Today, one can no longer hide behind excuses of ‘plausible deniability’. These
changes have resulted in a change in mindset of managers and have
transformed the way business is conducted. Management of information itself
has become a key success factor for firms. However, information is not to be
seen in isolation. Information in the current competitive business environment
is available to business firms in a computerized environment. Computerization
is required to make the information supplied to be timely and accurate, which
are critical factors for success in these competitive times.
Hence, the study of information management entails an understanding of
information and communication technology also. However, information
management is a distinct subject not related (other than the practical
considerations of providing the output information timely and accurately) to
information and communication technology. Let us now delve deeper into the
subject to get a clear understanding of the basic concepts that drive
management information systems.
As is clear, the advantage that a modern corporate house enjoys can be traced
to its management of information. If the business house cannot manage its
information, then it is likely that it will not have any competitive advantage.
Typically an organization can develop competitive advantage if it can, does or
have what others can’t, do or have. In modern times, the advantages on account
of raw materials, technological edge, etc., is being neutralized by the forces of
modern business. The last frontier so to say is information management.
Companies that have managed to do it successfully like Dell, Google, etc.,
have generated an unparalleled competitive advantage as their reaction time to
changes in the market and/or competition is much less and hence, they can shift
business gears faster than their competitors and hence the advantage.
Competitive advantage through managing information can accrue to an
organization if it:

 Manages information to reduce reaction time for change

 Managing information makes the organization efficient
 Information management leads to insights into the business that the
competitors cannot have

 Information management is used for predictive analysis so that the

organization is one step ahead of competition.

This competitive advantage gained by managing information also requires

changes in organization cultures. Companies need to create a culture of
information based management and decision-making to take advantage of the
opportunities of information management. This is a challenge, as installing an
organizational culture is not as straightforward as installing an information
management system. It is a process that takes a lot of time.

Business Intelligence and Analytics

Business intelligence and analytics are data management solutions implemented
in companies and enterprises to collect historical and present data, while using
statistics and software to analyze raw information, and deliver insights for
making better future decisions.

Both terms provide insights into the business operation and future decisions,
but it comes down to the differences into how they do it and what information
exactly do they provide.

It seems clear that there isn’t one standard “correct” definition of the differences
between the two terms. The varying opinions given by the experts is evidence of
that. So, instead of trying to find the “right” answer, let’s find a useful
distinction between the two that can be used simply and clearly to help you in
your work. The most straightforward and useful difference between business
intelligence and data analytics boils down to two factors:

1. What direction in time are we facing; the past or the future?

2. Are we concerned with what happened, how it happened, or why it
happened?

Keeping in mind that this is all a matter of opinion, here simplified definitions
of business intelligence vs business analytics.

Business intelligence – Deals with what happened in the past and how it
happened leading up to the present moment. It identifies big trends and patterns
without digging too much into the why’s or predicting the future.

Business analytics – Deals with the why’s of what happened in the past. It
breaks down contributing factors and causality. It also uses these why’s to make
predictions of what will happen in the future.

Business Intelligence vs Business Analytics As Seen Through Football

Let’s say you’re on the coaching staff of a football team and you want to review
the most recent game. You do this to see how you can fix your errors and
replicate your successes.

Using our previous definitions, BI would be the process of identifying all the
statistics and plays that led to your team winning. It would identify that you
kept possession of the ball for much longer than your opponents. It would also
identify the trend that your right side of the field was instrumental in retaining
possession through excellent passing.

Business analytics would be more concerned with why you had possession of
the ball for longer than your opponent and why your right side of the field did
so well at passing.
Was it because:

 Your opponent’s defenders on that side were weaker players than their
defenders on the other?
 Your right-side players had been putting in more time on the field
together then your left side?
 One of your players on the right was simply having a phenomenal
performance which carried over to the rest of that side?

These questions are important. They allow you to figure out how you can
replicate your success, or prevent your failure in the future. Asking the right
business intelligence questions will lead you to better analytics. While using
a business dashboard, all the insights can be simplified into a single place,
making the time for meaningful decisions much faster. But first, we need to
analyze the difference more, as that will help us to understand what to do in a
company’s operation process, and how to chose the best tool to manage your
insights.

Without further ado, let’s dive deeper into the difference between business
intelligence and data analytics. In order to do so, we need to examine the
distinction between correlation and causation.

How Does This Apply To Business?

Can you understand the factors that are causing your business success or failure
rather than just the factors that are associated with your business success or
failure? If so, it’s much more likely that you will be able to predict the future in
your marketplace and act accordingly. However, it’s important to note that you
need to know what’s correlated with something before you can know causation.

In other words, you need to know what happened and how it happened (BI)
before you have the ability to say why things happened (BA) with any
reasonable degree of certainty.

That is the difference between business intelligence and analytics, and that’s
why both of them are crucial. They fit together like two pieces of a jigsaw
puzzle – a puzzle that helps your business to be more profitable. It is of crucial
importance to define and use KPI examples that will help to establish a business
goal and execute the correlation and causation of business analytics vs business
intelligence. While it may sound complicated at the beginning, the more you dig
deeper with a data analysis tool, the more sense it will make to establish
qualified insights and make better decisions. That is all about: the difference
between business intelligence and business analytics is important to understand
because it helps to prepare a company for adjusting its operations into a cost-
effective and insightful way. Using both into the process of creating a
successful business intelligence strategy, will only make a company more
competitive on the market.

Use-Case Scenarios

Examples, illustrating the difference between business intelligence and business

analytics.

Let’s say you work for a marketing firm that uses both business intelligence and
analytics to help large e-commerce companies launch new products. In order to
understand what new products would be most likely to succeed (analytics), you
would need to figure out:

 What products had been most successful in the past (BI)

 The seasonal trends that had influenced success for past launches (BI)
 Why customers bought the past successful products (BA)

For example, let’s say that your hypothetical e-commerce store sold boutique
women’s fashion. You will need to work with your retail analytics to
understand what products will work.

First, you would examine what categories of clothing are driving the most
profits. Then, you can examine what times in the year those successful products
had been launched. Finally, you could do a series of in-depth customer
interviews in order to figure out why customers liked those pieces or categories
more than the others.

If you did enough market research, and you had a large enough sample size, you
should be able to predict with a great deal of accuracy which new products
would be likely to succeed.

This could lead to surprises in the way that you think about your products
because your customers often have a very different way of looking at your
products than you do.
BI and Analytics Dismantle Assumptions

For example, maybe your assumption was that your customers mainly cared
about the price point of your garments.

After your research, however, you found your customers were actually willing
to spend more on your products if you emphasized your humane sourcing
practices, such as not utilizing sweatshops.

Then, your focus would be on continuing to use that positioning in your

marketing messages as opposed to worrying about the price points of your
garments so much when doing a product launch.

The above example illustrates one of the fundamental important points of

business intelligence and analytics. Your assumptions about your company,
your customers, your marketplace, and your products, are often flat out wrong –
or at the very least, incomplete. After asking the right questions, analytics are
here to help – whichever your industry or sector, be it healthcare
analytics or financial business intelligence, you need to use both BI and BA for
success.

Decision Support System (DSS)

A decision support system (DSS) is an information system that aids a business
in decision-making activities that require judgment, determination, and a
sequence of actions. The information system assists the mid- and high-level
management of an organization by analyzing huge volumes of unstructured data
and accumulating information that can help to solve problems and help in
decision-making. A DSS is either human-powered, automated, or a combination
of both.
Purpose of a Decision Support System

A decision support system produces detailed information reports by gathering

and analyzing data. Hence, a DSS is different from a normal operations
application, whose goal is to collect data and not analyze it.

In an organization, a DSS is used by the planning departments – such as the

operations department – which collects data and creates a report that can be
used by managers for decision-making. Mainly, a DSS is used in sales
projection, for inventory and operations-related data, and to present information
to customers in an easy-to-understand manner.

Theoretically, a DSS can be employed in various knowledge domains from an

organization to forest management and the medical field. One of the main
applications of a DSS in an organization is real-time reporting. It can be very
helpful for organizations that take part in just-in-time (JIT) inventory
management.

In a JIT inventory system, the organization requires real-time data of their

inventory levels to place orders “just in time” to prevent delays in production
and cause a negative domino effect. Therefore, a DSS is more tailored to the
individual or organization that is making the decision rather than a traditional
system.

Components of a Decision Support System

The three main components of a DSS framework are:

1. Model Management System

The model management system stores models that managers can use in their
decision-making. The models are used in decision-making regarding the
financial health of the organization and forecasting demand for a good or
service.

2. User Interface

The user interface includes tools that help the end-user of a DSS to navigate
through the system.

3. Knowledge Base
The knowledge base includes information from internal sources (information
collected in a transaction process system) and external sources (newspapers and
online databases).

Types of Decision Support Systems

 Communication-driven: Allows companies to support tasks that require

more than one person to work on the task. It includes integrated tools
such as Microsoft SharePoint Workspace and Google Docs.
 Model-driven: Allows access to and the management of financial,
organizational, and statistical models. Data is collected, and parameters
are determined using the information provided by users. The information
is created into a decision-making model to analyze situations. An
example of a model-driven DSS is Dicodess – an open-source model-
driven DSS.
 Knowledge-driven: Provides factual and specialized solutions to
situations by using stored facts, procedures, rules, or interactive decision-
making structures like flowcharts.
 Document-driven: Manages unstructured information in different
electronic formats.
 Data-driven: Helps companies to store and analyze internal and external
data.

Advantages of a Decision Support System

 A decision support system increases the speed and efficiency of decision-

making activities. It is possible, as a DSS can collect and analyze real-
time data.
  It promotes training within the organization, as specific skills must be
developed to implement and run a DSS within an organization.
 It automates monotonous managerial processes, which means more of the
manager’s time can be spent on decision-making
 It improves interpersonal communication within the organization.

Disadvantages of a Decision Support System

 The cost to develop and implement a DSS is a huge capital investment,

which makes it less accessible to smaller organizations.
 A company can develop a dependence on a DSS, as it is integrated into
daily decision-making processes to improve efficiency and speed.
However, managers tend to rely on the system too much, which takes
away the subjectivity aspect of decision-making.
 A DSS may lead to information overload because an information system
tends to consider all aspects of a problem. It creates a dilemma for end-
users, as they are left with multiple choices.
 Implementation of a DSS can cause fear and backlash from lower-level
employees. It is because many of them are not comfortable with new
technology and are afraid of losing their jobs to technology.

Executive Information System (EIS)

An Executive Information System (EIS) is a kind of decision support system
(DSS) used in organizations to help executives in decision making. It does so by
providing easy access to important data needed in an organization to achieve
strategic goals. An EIS usually has graphical displays on a user-friendly
interface.

Executive information systems can be used for monitoring company

performance in many different types of organizations as well as for identifying
opportunities and problems.

Early executive information systems were developed on mainframe computers

as computer-based programs to provide the description, sales performance
and/or market research data for senior executives of a company. Executives,
however, were not all literate or confident about the computers. Also, EIS data
endorsed only executive-level decisions that did not necessarily support the
entire company or enterprise.

Current EIS data is available on local area networks (LANs) throughout the
company or enterprise, facilitated by personal computers and workstations.
Employees can access company data to help make decisions in their
workplaces, departments, divisions, etc. This enables employees to provide
relevant information and ideas above and below the level of their company.

Executive support systems are intended to be used directly by senior managers

to support unscheduled strategic management decisions. Often such information
is external, unstructured and even uncertain. Often, the exact scope and context
of such information are not known in advance.

This information is based on data,

 Business intelligence
 Financial intelligence
 Data with technology support to analyze

Executive Information System-Key Characteristics

The below mentioned figure describes about key characterisitics of EIS,

 Detailed data – EIS provides absolute data from its existing database.
 Integrate external and internal data – EIS integrates integrate external
and internal data. The external data collected from various sources.
 Presenting information – EIS represents available data in graphical
form which helps to analyze it easily.
  Trend analysis – EIS helps executives of the organizations to data
prediction based on trend data.
 Easy to use – It is a very simplest system to use.

Advantages of EIS

 Trend Analysis
 Improvement of corporate performance in the marketplace
 Development of managerial leadership skills
 Improves decision-making
 Simple to use by senior executives
 Better reporting method
 Improved office efficiency

Disadvantage of EIS

 Due to technical functions, not to easy to use by everyone

 Executives may encounter overload of information
 Difficult to manage database due to the large size of data
 Excessive costs for small business organizations

Executive support system

Executive support systems are intended to be used by the senior managers
directly to provide support to non-programmed decisions in strategic
management.
These information are often external, unstructured and even uncertain. Exact
scope and context of such information is often not known beforehand.
This information is intelligence based −

 Market intelligence
 Investment intelligence
 Technology intelligence

Examples of Intelligent Information

Following are some examples of intelligent information, which is often the

source of an ESS −

 External databases
 Technology reports like patent records etc.
  Technical reports from consultants
 Market reports
 Confidential information about competitors
 Speculative information like market conditions
 Government policies
 Financial reports and information

Features of Executive Information System

Advantages of ESS

 Easy for upper level executive to use

 Ability to analyze trends
 Augmentation of managers' leadership capabilities
 Enhance personal thinking and decision-making
 Contribution to strategic control flexibility
 Enhance organizational competitiveness in the market place
 Instruments of change
  Increased executive time horizons.
 Better reporting system
 Improved mental model of business executive
 Help improve consensus building and communication
 Improve office automation
 Reduce time for finding information
 Early identification of company performance
 Detail examination of critical success factor
 Better understanding
 Time management
 Increased communication capacity and quality

Disadvantage of ESS

 Functions are limited

 Hard to quantify benefits
 Executive may encounter information overload
 System may become slow
 Difficult to keep current data
 May lead to less reliable and insecure data
 Excessive cost for small company

Geographic Information System

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a system designed to capture, store,
manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographical data. The
key word to this technology is Geography – this means that some portion of the
data is spatial. In other words, data that is in some way referenced to locations
on the earth.
Coupled with this data is usually tabular data known as attribute data. Attribute
data can be generally defined as additional information about each of the spatial
features. An example of this would-be schools. The actual location of the
schools is the spatial data. Additional data such as the school name, level of
education taught, student capacity would make up the attribute data.
It is the partnership of these two data types that enables GIS to be such an
effective problem-solving tool through spatial analysis.
GIS is more than just software. People and methods are combined with
geospatial software and tools, to enable spatial analysis, manage large datasets,
and display information in a map/graphical form.

What can we do with GIS?

GIS can be used as tool in both problem solving and decision making processes,
as well as for visualization of data in a spatial environment. Geospatial data can
be analyzed to determine (1) the location of features and relationships to other
features, (2) where the most and/or least of some feature exists, (3) the density
of features in a given space, (4) what is happening inside an area of interest
(AOI), (5) what is happening nearby some feature or phenomenon, and (6) and
how a specific area has changed over time (and in what way).

1. Mapping where things are. We can map the spatial location of real-world
features and visualize the spatial relationships among them. Example: below we
see a map of frac sand mine locations and sandstone areas in Wisconsin. We
can see visual patterns in the data by determining that frac sand mining activity
occurs in a region with a specific type of geology.

2. Mapping quantities. People map quantities, such as where the most and
least are, to find places that meet their criteria or to see the relationships
between places.
Example: below is a map of cemetery locations in Wisconsin. The map shows
the cemetery locations as dots (dot density) and each county is color coded to
show where the most and least are (lighter blue means fewer cemeteries).
3. Mapping densities. Sometimes it is more important to map concentrations,
or a quantity normalized by area or total number. Example: Below we have
mapped the population density of Manhattan (total population counts
normalized by the area in sq. miles of census tracts.)

4. Finding what is inside. We can use GIS to determine what is happening or

what features are located inside a specific area/region. We can determine the
characteristics of "inside" by creating specific criteria to define an area of
interest (AOI). Example: below is a map showing a flood event and the tax
parcels and buildings in the floodway. We can use tools like CLIP to determine
which parcels fall inside the flood event. Further, we can use attributes of the
parcels to determine potential costs of property damage.

5. Finding what is nearby. We can find out what is happening within a set
distance of a feature or event by mapping what is nearby using geoprocessing
tools like BUFFER. Example: below we see a map of drive times from a central
location in the City of Madison, WI. We can use streets as a network and add
specific criteria like speed limit and intersection controls to determine how far a
driver can typically get in 5, 10, or 15 minutes. (Map courtesy of UW
Extension)
6. Mapping change. We can map the change in a specific geographic area to
anticipate future conditions, decide on a course of action, or to evaluate the
results of an action or policy. Example: below we see land use maps of
Barnstable, MA showing changes in residential development from 1951 to
1999. The dark green shows forest, while bright yellow shows residential
development. Applications like this can help inform community planning
processes and policies.

GIS/Geospatial Data Formats

Expert systems (ES) and Knowledge Based Expert
System
Expert Systems
The expert systems are the computer applications developed to solve complex
problems in a particular domain, at the level of extra-ordinary human
intelligence and expertise.
Characteristics of Expert Systems

 High performance
 Understandable
 Reliable
 Highly responsive

Capabilities of Expert Systems

The expert systems are capable of −

 Advising
 Instructing and assisting human in decision making
 Demonstrating
 Deriving a solution
 Diagnosing
 Explaining
 Interpreting input
 Predicting results
 Justifying the conclusion
 Suggesting alternative options to a problem
They are incapable of −

 Substituting human decision makers

 Possessing human capabilities
 Producing accurate output for inadequate knowledge base
 Refining their own knowledge

Components of Expert Systems

The components of ES include −

  Knowledge Base
 Inference Engine
 User Interface

Knowledge Base

It contains domain-specific and high-quality knowledge.

Knowledge is required to exhibit intelligence. The success of any ES majorly
depends upon the collection of highly accurate and precise knowledge.
What is Knowledge?
The data is collection of facts. The information is organized as data and facts
about the task domain. Data, information, and past experience combined
together are termed as knowledge.
Components of Knowledge Base
The knowledge base of an ES is a store of both, factual and heuristic
knowledge.
 Factual Knowledge − It is the information widely accepted by the
Knowledge Engineers and scholars in the task domain.
 Heuristic Knowledge − It is about practice, accurate judgement, one’s
ability of evaluation, and guessing.
Knowledge representation
It is the method used to organize and formalize the knowledge in the
knowledge base. It is in the form of IF-THEN-ELSE rules.
Knowledge Acquisition
The success of any expert system majorly depends on the quality,
completeness, and accuracy of the information stored in the knowledge base.
The knowledge base is formed by readings from various experts, scholars, and
the Knowledge Engineers. The knowledge engineer is a person with the
qualities of empathy, quick learning, and case analyzing skills.
He acquires information from subject expert by recording, interviewing, and
observing him at work, etc. He then categorizes and organizes the information
in a meaningful way, in the form of IF-THEN-ELSE rules, to be used by
interference machine. The knowledge engineer also monitors the development
of the ES.

Inference Engine

Use of efficient procedures and rules by the Inference Engine is essential in

deducting a correct, flawless solution.
In case of knowledge-based ES, the Inference Engine acquires and manipulates
the knowledge from the knowledge base to arrive at a particular solution.
In case of rule based ES, it −
 Applies rules repeatedly to the facts, which are obtained from earlier rule
application.
 Adds new knowledge into the knowledge base if required.
 Resolves rules conflict when multiple rules are applicable to a particular
case.
To recommend a solution, the Inference Engine uses the following strategies −

 Forward Chaining
 Backward Chaining
Forward Chaining
It is a strategy of an expert system to answer the question, “What can happen
next?”
Here, the Inference Engine follows the chain of conditions and derivations and
finally deduces the outcome. It considers all the facts and rules, and sorts them
before concluding to a solution.
This strategy is followed for working on conclusion, result, or effect. For
example, prediction of share market status as an effect of changes in interest
rates.
Backward Chaining
With this strategy, an expert system finds out the answer to the question, “Why
this happened?”
On the basis of what has already happened, the Inference Engine tries to find
out which conditions could have happened in the past for this result. This
strategy is followed for finding out cause or reason. For example, diagnosis of
blood cancer in humans.

User Interface

User interface provides interaction between user of the ES and the ES itself. It
is generally Natural Language Processing so as to be used by the user who is
well-versed in the task domain. The user of the ES need not be necessarily an
expert in Artificial Intelligence.
It explains how the ES has arrived at a particular recommendation. The
explanation may appear in the following forms −

 Natural language displayed on screen.

 Verbal narrations in natural language.
 Listing of rule numbers displayed on the screen.
The user interface makes it easy to trace the credibility of the deductions.
Requirements of Efficient ES User Interface
 It should help users to accomplish their goals in shortest possible way.
 It should be designed to work for user’s existing or desired work
practices.
 Its technology should be adaptable to user’s requirements; not the other
way round.
 It should make efficient use of user input.

Expert Systems Limitations

No technology can offer easy and complete solution. Large systems are costly,
require significant development time, and computer resources. ESs have their
limitations which include −

 Limitations of the technology

 Difficult knowledge acquisition
 ES are difficult to maintain
 High development costs

Applications of Expert System

The following table shows where ES can be applied.

Application Description

Design Domain Camera lens design, automobile design.

Diagnosis Systems to deduce cause of disease from

Medical Domain observed data, conduction medical operations on
humans.

Comparing data continuously with observed system

Monitoring Systems or with prescribed behavior such as leakage
monitoring in long petroleum pipeline.

Process Control
Controlling a physical process based on monitoring.
Systems

Knowledge Domain Finding out faults in vehicles, computers.

Finance/Commerce Detection of possible fraud, suspicious transactions,

stock market trading, Airline scheduling, cargo
 scheduling.

Expert System Technology

There are several levels of ES technologies available. Expert systems

technologies include −
 Expert System Development Environment − The ES development
environment includes hardware and tools. They are −
o Workstations, minicomputers, mainframes.
o High level Symbolic Programming Languages such
as LISt Programming (LISP) and PROgrammation en LOGique
(PROLOG).
o Large databases.
 Tools − They reduce the effort and cost involved in developing an expert
system to large extent.
o Powerful editors and debugging tools with multi-windows.
o They provide rapid prototyping
o Have Inbuilt definitions of model, knowledge representation, and
inference design.
 Shells − A shell is nothing but an expert system without knowledge base.
A shell provides the developers with knowledge acquisition, inference
engine, user interface, and explanation facility. For example, few shells
are given below −
o Java Expert System Shell (JESS) that provides fully developed
Java API for creating an expert system.
o Vidwan, a shell developed at the National Centre for Software
Technology, Mumbai in 1993. It enables knowledge encoding in
the form of IF-THEN rules.

Benefits of Expert Systems

 Availability − They are easily available due to mass production of

software.
 Less Production Cost − Production cost is reasonable. This makes them
affordable.
 Speed − They offer great speed. They reduce the amount of work an
individual puts in.
 Less Error Rate − Error rate is low as compared to human errors.
 Reducing Risk − They can work in the environment dangerous to
humans.
 Steady response − They work steadily without getting motional, tensed
or fatigued.
Artificial Intelligence
According to the father of Artificial Intelligence, John McCarthy, it is “The
science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent
computer programs”.
Artificial Intelligence is a way of making a computer, a computer-controlled
robot, or a software think intelligently, in the similar manner the intelligent
humans think.
AI is accomplished by studying how human brain thinks, and how humans
learn, decide, and work while trying to solve a problem, and then using the
outcomes of this study as a basis of developing intelligent software and
systems.

Philosophy of AI

While exploiting the power of the computer systems, the curiosity of human,
lead him to wonder, “Can a machine think and behave like humans do?”
Thus, the development of AI started with the intention of creating similar
intelligence in machines that we find and regard high in humans.

Goals of AI

 To Create Expert Systems − The systems which exhibit intelligent

behavior, learn, demonstrate, explain, and advice its users.
 To Implement Human Intelligence in Machines − Creating systems
that understand, think, learn, and behave like humans.

What Contributes to AI?

Artificial intelligence is a science and technology based on disciplines such as

Computer Science, Biology, Psychology, Linguistics, Mathematics, and
Engineering. A major thrust of AI is in the development of computer functions
associated with human intelligence, such as reasoning, learning, and problem
solving.
Out of the following areas, one or multiple areas can contribute to build an
intelligent system.
Programming Without and With AI

The programming without and with AI is different in following ways −

Programming Without AI Programming With AI

A computer program without AI can A computer program with AI can answer

answer the specific questions it is the generic questions it is meant to solve.
meant to solve.

AI programs can absorb new

modifications by putting highly
Modification in the program leads to independent pieces of information
change in its structure. together. Hence you can modify even a
minute piece of information of program
without affecting its structure.

Modification is not quick and easy. Quick and Easy program modification.
 It may lead to affecting the program
adversely.

What is AI Technique?

In the real world, the knowledge has some unwelcomed properties −

 Its volume is huge, next to unimaginable.

 It is not well-organized or well-formatted.
 It keeps changing constantly.
AI Technique is a manner to organize and use the knowledge efficiently in
such a way that −

 It should be perceivable by the people who provide it.

 It should be easily modifiable to correct errors.
 It should be useful in many situations though it is incomplete or
inaccurate.
AI techniques elevate the speed of execution of the complex program it is
equipped with.

Applications of AI

AI has been dominant in various fields such as −

 Gaming − AI plays crucial role in strategic games such as chess, poker,
tic-tac-toe, etc., where machine can think of large number of possible
positions based on heuristic knowledge.
 Natural Language Processing − It is possible to interact with the
computer that understands natural language spoken by humans.
 Expert Systems − There are some applications which integrate machine,
software, and special information to impart reasoning and advising. They
provide explanation and advice to the users.
 Vision Systems − These systems understand, interpret, and comprehend
visual input on the computer. For example,
o A spying aeroplane takes photographs, which are used to figure
out spatial information or map of the areas.
o Doctors use clinical expert system to diagnose the patient.
o Police use computer software that can recognize the face of
criminal with the stored portrait made by forensic artist.
 Speech Recognition − Some intelligent systems are capable of hearing
and comprehending the language in terms of sentences and their
meanings while a human talks to it. It can handle different accents, slang
words, noise in the background, change in human’s noise due to cold,
etc.
 Handwriting Recognition − The handwriting recognition software reads
the text written on paper by a pen or on screen by a stylus. It can
recognize the shapes of the letters and convert it into editable text.
 Intelligent Robots − Robots are able to perform the tasks given by a
human. They have sensors to detect physical data from the real world
such as light, heat, temperature, movement, sound, bump, and pressure.
They have efficient processors, multiple sensors and huge memory, to
exhibit intelligence. In addition, they are capable of learning from their
mistakes and they can adapt to the new environment.