Kinds of Systems Mgmt Reporting EEO, OSHA, etc. absenteeism by department Decision Support staffing (long and short term) benefits planning Workflow recruitment & hiring performance appraisal Transaction Processing time and attendance forms requests benefits enrollment Executive Support Strategic planning Plant opening/closing

Transaction Processing Basic, routine requests –Time & attendance records –Benefits enrollment Normally done with a form –Labor intensive & Error prone Automation of routine transactions provides data that other processes can use (informating HR work)

Management Reporting Basic, routine questions –How many people work here? –What are we paying them? Also need capability to generate “ad hoc” reports to answer non-routine questions Client-server systems can enable more flexible reporting by allowing users to design their own reports

Workflow Most transactions require multiple steps –Hiring is a classic example Where does the paperwork go next? Workflow systems expedite processing by moving the “paperwork” from step to step electronically Vision: the paperless office

Decision Support Algorithms can be used for routine decisions –daily/weekly/seasonal staffing levels) Analysis tools can be used to support non- routine decisions –When bargaining over wages or benefits, DSS can help analyze true costs over time.

Enterprise Resource Planning Very popular category of software –PeopleSoft, SAP, Oracle, Baan, JD Edwards, etc. Objectives: – integrate HR, financial and manufacturing data into a single system –Facilitate operations and decision-making Can be very complex: thousands of tables!

Special purpose systems Many other kinds of systems are available –Job description writers –Applicant &resume tracking –Test administration Or you can write your own A constant issue: systems integration (getting systems to work together)

What do systems do? Automating: replacing human work with machines –Generally aimed at cost reduction Informating: creating information as a by product of work –Feeds management decision making –Can enhance effectiveness HR Systems can do either or both

What goes on in your PC?

What does the OS do? It talks to the little man! Multi-processing –Can you print and edit at the same time? –Which process gets the little man’s attention? Memory management –Where is everything stored right now? Input/Output (I/O) –Disk, keyboard, video, network, etc.

Systems have layers Hardware (CPU, RAM, disk, etc.) Operating system (I/O, process & memory mgmt) Application SWNetwork SW Network End User SW (e.g., HR/Vantage)

Examples of each layer Hardware (Pentium, PowerPC, etc.) Operating system (Win98, Linux, MacOS, etc.) MS AccessTCP/IP Internet End User SW (e.g., HR/Vantage)

Client/Server Systems A way of distributing computing resources, such as: –Files -- data and programs –Processing –I/O devices (print, fax, etc.) Objective: To create flexible infrastructure and provide information at your fingertips

Why is C/S so popular? Hoped-for benefits (pull) –lower cost, greater IS value –greater functionality & flexibility –fits 1990s organizational paradigm Enabling technology available (push) –Cheap, powerful hardware –Relational database technology –Network technology (the intranet)

Trend toward distributed resources 20 years ago –Central mainframe running batch jobs –Dumb terminals, but limited interactivity 10 years ago –Central mainframe –Mini- and micro-computers attached Recently –Increased network capacity & cheap PCs –90% of corporate MIPS are on the desktop

What is a client? A process that interacts with the user to: –provide a user interface –formulate queries (for example) –communicate with server –analyze data returned from server Examples: –WWW browsers like Netscape are clients – readers like Eudora or MS Outlook

What is a server? A set of processes that: –provides services to client(s) –responds to requests (does not initiate) –makes the system transparent to client Examples: –Web servers respond to requests for web pages –Also: File servers, servers, print servers…

Client/Server Architecture Client: HR/Vantage MS Access TCP/IP Win98 Intel CPU TCP/IP Server: HR/Vantage MS Access TCP/IP WinNT Intel CPU Database server? Web Server?

A Few Examples Clients: Wintel MacOS “Thin” client TCP/IP Servers: Unix/Linux WinNT AS/400 Databases Oracle Sybase SQL Server Web Servers Apache MS IIS Netscape There are many more examples in each category!!

Popular OS’s for Servers UNIX (2,575,347 Web pages…) LINUX (3,139,952 web pages…) – -- it’s free! Windows NT (1,781,753 Web pages…) –SSC and SLIR servers run NT 4.0 IBM AS/400 (545,150 pages...) –

HR & client server systems Most major HR applications use client- server technology –Data are centralized and can be shared –Access and decision-making can be decentralized Examples: –open positions need to be posted everywhere –Policies and procedures, benefits enrollment...

C/S systems are not simple Lots of pieces interacting –Server platform, client platform, network... Maintenance is expensive Security and control is always a concern –Who should have access? To which data? HR requires excellent support from IS to make these systems successful