IS has long been used to gather and store information to produce specific reports for workers, and to produce aggregate reports for managers.
However, senior managers rarely use these systems directly, and often find the aggregate information to be of lithe use without the ability to explore underlying details.
An Executive Information System (EIS) is a tool that provides direct on-line access to relevant information in a useful and navigable format.
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Relevant information that is timely, accurate, and actionable and relates to key aspects of a business is of particular interest to managers.
The useful and navigable format of the system is specifically designed to be used by individuals with limited time, limited keyboarding skills, and little direct experience with computers.
An EIS is easy to navigate so that managers can identify broad strategic issues, and then explore the information to find the root causes of those issues.
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EIS differ from traditional IS in the following ways:
a. Specifically tailored to cater to an executive’s information needs
b. Ability to access data about specific issues and problems as well as aggregate reports
c. Provide extensive on-line analysis tools including trend analysis, exception reporting and “drill-down” capability
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d. Access a broad range of internal and external data
e. Ease of usage
f. Graphical representation of information
The primary purpose of an EIS is to support managerial learning about an organization, its work processes, and its interaction with the external environment. A secondary purpose for an EIS is to allow timely access to information.
Using traditional methods, by the time the answer is produced, the context of the question may be lost, and the learning cycles will not continue. A third purpose of an EIS is commonly misperceived.
An EIS has a powerful ability to direct management attention to specific areas of the organization or specific business problems. The key features are as summarized below:
a. Provides information for long-term decision-making.
b. Provides aggregate information.
c. Facilitates trend analyses.
d. Monitors internal and external events and resources.
e. Used at executive level.