Executive information systems

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Assessing EIS Benefits: A Survey of Current Practices

In order to explore what benefits are being realized from executive information systems (EISs), the kinds of benefit/cost analyses being performed, and the factors that affect whether and how a benefit/cost analysis is conducted, mail survey data were collected from 72 organizations, followed up by 16 telephone interviews. Prior to and after the development of the EISs, the most highly rated benefits were faster access to information, more timely information, and improved presentation of data. The lowest rated were better environmental scanning and support for downsizing the organization. In virtually all cases, the level of benefits realized was less than what was expected, with the largest gap involving those benefits associated with improving executive performance. When conducting a benefit/cost analysis prior to implementing an EIS, most organizations determine the expected costs and an intuitive feeling for the benefits. After implementation, fewer organizations quantify the benefits and costs. A number of factors affect EIS benefit/cost analyses, including the position of the executive sponsor, the cost of the system, the obvious benefits, turnover of the executive sponsor, and difficult economic times

Space augmentation of military high-level waste disposal

Space disposal of selected components of military high-level waste (HLW) is considered. This disposal option offers the promise of eliminating the long-lived radionuclides in military HLW from the earth. A space mission which meets the dual requirements of long-term orbital stability and a maximum of one space shuttle launch per week over a period of 20-40 years, is a heliocentric orbit about halfway between the orbits of earth and Venus. Space disposal of high-level radioactive waste is characterized by long-term predictability and short-term uncertainties which must be reduced to acceptably low levels. For example, failure of either the Orbit Transfer Vehicle after leaving low earth orbit, or the storable propellant stage failure at perihelion would leave the nuclear waste package in an unplanned and potentially unstable orbit. Since potential earth reencounter and subsequent burn-up in the earth's atmosphere is unacceptable, a deep space rendezvous, docking, and retrieval capability must be developed

Information requirements of a global EIS: An exploratory macro assessment

Rapid changes in the world economy and politics have accelerated the drive of businesses into international expansion. Information technology (IT) has made an important contribution in both the facilitation and the driving of a global business. As a result of globalization, senior executives in corporations need the ability to monitor important global information in order to spot problems as well as identify opportunities anywhere in the world. The current executive information systems (EISs) that are receiving heightened attention by both executives and researchers are largely domestic in nature. This paper argues that future executive information systems would have to be increasingly global in scope and would be vital for conducting global business. We call such systems global EISs. An exploratory study has been conducted which identifies, in macro categories, the types of information required by executives in a global EIS, the current level of use of such information, and the sources of such information

Particle Swarm Optimized Autonomous Learning Fuzzy System

The antecedent and consequent parts of a first-order evolving intelligent system (EIS) determine the validity of the learning results and overall system performance. Nonetheless, the state-of-the-art techniques mostly stress on the novelty from the system identification point of view but pay less attention to the optimality of the learned parameters. Using the recently introduced autonomous learning multiple model (ALMMo) system as the implementation basis, this paper introduces a particles warm-based approach for EIS optimization. The proposed approach is able to simultaneously optimize the antecedent and consequent parameters of ALMMo and effectively enhance the system performance by iteratively searching for optimal solutions in the problem spaces. In addition, the proposed optimization approach does not adversely influence the “one pass” learning ability of ALMMo. Once the optimization process is complete, ALMMo can continue to learn from new data to incorporate unseen data patterns recursively without a full retraining. Experimental studies with a number of real-world benchmark problems validate the proposed concept and general principles. It is also verified that the proposed optimization approach can be applied to other types of EISs with similar operating mechanisms

Grouping EIS Benefits: An Optimal Clustering Approach

Executive Information Systems (EISs) emerged in the late 1970s to meet the information needs of senior executives. Leading EIS research indicates three major groupings of EIS benefits: (1) Information delivery, i.e., providing more timely, accurate, relevant, and concise information; (2) Task improvement, i.e., improving the efficiency and effectiveness of executives; and (3) Supporting the accomplishment of strategic business objectives (Wallis 1989; Volonio and Watson 1990; Houdeshel and Watson 1987). Mintzberg (1975, 1980) classifies managerial activities into three broad groups -interpersonal roles, informational roles, and decisional roles. McLeod and Jones (1986) suggest that an EIS can be a valued tool if: it can provide and integrate external and internal information; it can offer information with richness (e.g. soft, human, contextual information to enhance hard information); and it can overcome problems typical of traditional MIS hard copy reports by providing accurate, timely, concise and relevant information (Watson, Rainer and Houdeshel 1992). According to Mintzberg (1975), managers use information in four decision roles: resource allocation (e.g. budgetary allocation), disturbance handler, entrepreneur and negotiator. An effective EIS primarily supports disturbance handling and entrepreneurial activity, and to a lesserextent resource allocation (McLeod and Jones 1986). Though prior research alludes to major managerial roles and/or activities, very little research explores grouping of EIS benefits and the implications of such groupings. The purpose of this study is to explore whether there are more than the three broad categories of EIS benefits found in the literature. Secondly, we identify the specific benefits within each category. We also tentatively confirm that these broad categories of benefits support the major roles of managers as specified by Mintzberg (1975, 1980). The findings of this study should be significant considering the fact that the success of an EIS is vital to the organization that has or plans to develop one. To gain insights to these questions, data were obtained from questionnaires sent to organizations that use EIS. The details of the study method and findings are discussed next

Towards a new European Global Security Strategy: challenges and Opportunities

This report briefly examines the interplay between the European security strategic vision and capabilities, its institutional architecture and policy implementation practices, with a particular focus on the EU consular affairs, EU democracy promotion and EU engagement in frozen conflicts under the Neighbourhood Policy (Appendices 1-3). This report contends that in order for the EU to develop an effective and sustainable global security strategy, it first, has to reconcile the vision of its strategic priorities within its inter- and intra-institutional settings. Second, a serious effort is required to develop an integrated view on European security, which does not only focus on the internal dimensions of the EU Security strategy (capabilities), but also equally draws on its external aspects - a genuinely inclusive approach that would blur internal and external dimensions of security. For this to succeed a deeper understanding of a partnership-building process (especially of strategic partnership) is needed. Finally, while legitimation of the new security vision is essential within the EU, a greater emphasis should be placed on its external environment, which must not only include a cross-cutting approach to multiple policy instruments as suggested by the EEAs, but more essentially, their connection with the interests and needs of third parties. Case-studies in appendices elaborate further on some specific aspects of the EU security within the eastern neighbourhood context