Business and information systems

Citation

Rudall, B.H. (1998), "Business and information systems", Kybernetes, Vol. 27 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.1998.06727haa.005

Business and information systems

Business and information systems

Business processes and information systems

Studies in the UK have been concerned with co-evolving business processes and information technology systems. Part of the business process change (SEBPC) programme, it involves projects that seek to apply complexity theories from the natural sciences to the development of business information systems.

This one-year SEBPC feasibility study gained important insights into why IT systems have diverged from actual business processes. The study, which was completed earlier this year was carried out by the Organisational Complexity Research Group (OCRG) in the UK's London School of Economics (LSE) Information Systems Department.

OCRG's head, Eve Mitleton-Kelly says that the study:

... points strongly to promising new ways of thinking about the IT legacy problems created when business and information systems evolve along divergent paths.

For example, complexity ideas suggest that a key aim should be to seek the "co-evolution" of business and information systems. This would ensure close-coupling between the domains. Changes in one will then affect, and be affected by, all related entities in their common environment.

Companies working with these theories have become aware of the need to develop skills which can identify new properties as they emerge.

This could be of great value in overcoming the IT legacy problem.

It is accepted that co-evolution is one of the key complexity understandings derived from research in biology, chemistry, evolution and physics. Another is the notion of the unpredictable "emergence" of novel qualities, or patterns, from the multiplicity of inter-relations between entities in a system.

A report on the study and the SEBPC research initiative says that:

The OCRG is not just trying to map findings from complexity science onto the way in which organisations work. Instead, it is using generic complexity characteristics as a starting point for studying organisations as complex social systems. Over the next three years, a second phase of the SEBPC research will refine OCRG's theory of organisational complexity, including the development of models and tools to promote co-evolution and to identify patterns of emergence.

This work will be assisted by the close relations established between the OCRG and Santa Fe Institute (SFI) in the USA, where many complexity theories originated. One of the first members of the SFI, evolutionary biologist Professor Stuart Kauffman of Bios, will assist the OCRG to create a model based on his pioneering complexity work.

The model will be tested in conjunction with Citibank (London, UK), as part of its enthusiastic support for the project. Liz Kaufman, Citibank's senior technology officer, comments: "Like any information-based business, Citibank faces the challenge of maintaining current systems while positioning for the future. LSE is helping us develop a co-evolutionary strategy for absorbing the unprecedented rate of technology, product, service and legal change driving us in today's global financial market".

Collaboration with the Organisational Complexity Research Group comes from among others: Glaxo Wellcome, British Telecom, and the Defence Evaluation Research Agency of the UK.

Cyberneticians and systemists interested in co-operating or wishing to make further contacts on this endeavour of organisational complexity research can access LSE Complexity Research at www.lse.ac.uk/lse/complex.

Personnel and systems users and management information

More than 75 per cent of respondents to the latest survey of computerised personnel systems users would like to use their systems for management information, not just basic administrative tasks. Unfortunately, more than half rated their systems as no better than "fair" in performing these tasks.

This gap between what personnel managers can do and what they want to do is revealed in the 1998 Computers in Personnel annual survey, carried out by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES)[1] and the Institute of Personnel and Development (IPD)[2]. Despite the gap between the wish and the fulfilment, personnel systems are getting better. The most significant factor affecting users' attitudes towards their systems is the length of time they have had them. Those with systems installed for under three years are far happier with them. Fifty per cent of users with older systems intend to replace them in the next 24 months, driven mainly by the need for better reporting facilities, improved overall performance and the need to integrate with other business systems.

User friendliness is top of the list, closely followed by flexible reporting facilities, reliability and support services. Not surprisingly, Microsoft Windows is an expected standard (and networked PCs dominate), along with the ability to customise system features, and flexible use, while retaining an upgrade path.

No doubt with the prevalence of Windows standard "office suites" (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations/graphics) users who are familiar with the graphical user interface find it easier to learn, use and explore the potential of professional systems that follow the standard through. This will not let suppliers off the hook: 90 per cent of buyers rate a good support service as an important feature in their decision making.

Newer systems that adopt shared standards are becoming better placed to become integrated into wider business systems, but are still criticised for not really meeting users' needs. Nevertheless, users also admit to continued failure to play their part in making integration happen. While maintaining that systems do not meet their needs, users replied that despite good intentions, they are not using their systems to anything like their full potential.

What is new from this year's Computers in Personnel survey is the degree to which personnel technology is reaching out to the Internet, and onto organisational intranets. Recruitment is the big attractor, along with communication with distant employees. E-mail is used by three-quarters of personnel users, bringing (for some) problems with unsolicited or unwantede-mail.

Two burning issues are Year 2000 compliance and the new data protection legislation. The former appears to be attracting part of organisations' IT budgets, in some cases diverting funds from preferred projects. Regarding data protection, users seem unsure whether they are ready or not.

The annual independent Computers in Personnel survey was issued in February 1998. The response rate this year was 20 per cent, with 635 responses.

For further information about this survey and similar work, please contact Dilys Robinson at IES on (UK) 01273 686751, or Angela Edward at IPD on (UK) 0181 263 3289.

Notes

1. 1.

   Institute for Employment Studies (IES). President, Peter Salsbury; Director, Richard Pearson, Mantel Building, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RF, UK. Tel: 01273 686751; Fax: 01273 690430; Web: www.employment-studies.co.uk

2. 2.

   Institute of Personnel and Development (IPD). President, Sir Michael Bett CBE; Director General, Geoffrey Armstrong CBE. Contact: IPD House, Camp Road, London SW19 4UX, UK. Tel: 0181 263 3240/51/3365; Fax: 0181 263 3244; Web: http://www.ipd.co.uk