Enterprise Business Processes and Reporting (IS 6214) MBS MIMAS 2009 / th September 2010 Fergal Carton Business Information Systems

Last week Defined enterprise: any large organisation Enterprise systems: centralised IS –DMIS for marks at UCC –PAC for postgraduate applications –Customer database Accounting is about control –Income versus expenditure Enterprise systems give visibility->control Definition of a process, especially administrative Too much paper usually means inefficiency Being a good MIMAS analyst = a detective

Why is Excel used so much? Too much data on standard reports –Too many columns –Too difficult to read –Headings not easy to understand People like being able to manipulate data –Clean it up to focus on required data –Present data in a favourable way Ownership of data

How can we live with bad data? 20% of contacts on our phones are wrong –Old numbers (50%) –Redundant (15%) Same name and / or number more than once –Wrong (3%) –Short (32%)

Why does data go wrong? Redundant –Contact changes number, don’t delete old one –Business card received and saved –Different numbers for same contact (home, mobile, work) –… Use of abbreviations for long names –Don’t know full name –Don’t have time to take full name –Don’t have space to record full name –Name recorded with associated context eg. location –… Redundant names (event related) –Useful at that point in time

Data maintenance is a process Maintenance required to avoid bad data –Penalty is efficiency of communication Clean data requires a review process In business delays incurred due to bad data could cost money –Examples? Homework: –draw a data clean-up process for your contacts

A process requires … Someone to carry it out … Some parameters … Some master data … Some communication … Some deadlines …

Sample processes … Registering as a student Buying and using top-up credit for phone Registering as a user for on-line services Getting educated Moving house …

Good and bad processes Paper based Slow Inefficient Poor customer service Poor quality products Expensive

A bad process

A very bad process!

Can technology help? Virtual not paper, but access? Instantaneous, when system is up! Very efficient, can store data and use triggers Requires greater data integrity Creates reliance on skills Expensive?

In class exercise Pick a business idea Describe customer requirements How these requirements can be met? What processes will the business need? What are the characteristics of a process?

Other issues Meet Pat and Liz (BIS technical support) –11.20 in Lab –Network logons, addresses etc. Class rep election (Michelle)