What Exactly Is An 'Enterprise Information System' PDF

**WHAT EXACTLY [IS] AN 'ENTERPRISE INFORMATION SYSTEM'?** Imagine a cave filled with one hundred statues of all shapes and sizes. Nothing ever changes in this cave. The statues have NO goals, and they don't EVER do anything. Except for a wind that blows into the cave from time to time, we're lookin...

**WHAT EXACTLY [IS] AN 'ENTERPRISE INFORMATION SYSTEM'?** Imagine a cave filled with one hundred statues of all shapes and sizes. Nothing ever changes in this cave. The statues have NO goals, and they don't EVER do anything. Except for a wind that blows into the cave from time to time, we're looking at a very static environment. The type of environment that does not HAVE -- nor NEED -- an information system. Now, let's mix things up a little bit. We'll replace the cave with a building. And THEN, we'll replace the hundred statues with one hundred human beings. Abracadabra! We'll also give these hundred human beings a mutual goal. It might be "earn a million euro", or "save the planet", or "fly to Mars". It doesn't matter what the goal is, as long as it unites the hundred people. In fact, the goal I'M going to assign to this Group with my magic wand is: "Build a two-story house within two years". How do groups of human beings strive towards ANY goal? Well most of the time, they'll begin by COMMUNICATING with each other. After they've generated a first few set of ideas, they'll also start communicating with people outSIDE of the Group. Maybe because they need specific information that they don't HAVE yet. Or because they want to transmit information to OTHER stakeholders that are important to their goal. In theory, our Group could carry out all this communication without ANY types of rules or guidelines. But if they DO this, then the Group is probably going to move towards its goal incredibly slowly -- if at ALL. The reason is all the 'white NOISE' that will arise. With no guidelines or standards, it's quite possible that for EVERY sentence of information that is GOAL-relevant, twenty-FIVE sentences that are NOT goal-relevant will also pop up. And what's more: there will be no guidelines on WHO to say these 25 sentences to. So it's quite probable that most of the Group's communication will be addressed to the WRONG Group members. That's a homegrown recipe for lots and lots of waiting and confusion. Since our Group is clever, it decides to set a few communication standards. First of all, it identifies ALL the communication that is relevant to its goal of building a house. And by the way, from now on I'm going to start saying "INFORMATION" instead of "communication". Because when you think about it, what the Group REALLY needs in order to reach its goal is information. The "communication" is simply the PACKAGING that this information comes in. So what types of information play a ROLE in building a house? Probably things like 'construction blue prints', 'building material requirements', 'building material PRICES', 'LEGAL requirements', 'contact details of suppliers', 'TIME and DATE Availability of each of our Group members', etcetera. If we wanted to, we could probably extend this list to THOUSANDS of pieces of information. Which the Group DOES, by the way. So now that the Group has an understanding of the TYPES of information it will need in order to reach its goal, it becomes a LOT easier to filter out information that is RELEVANT to the goal from information that ISN'T. That's already a huge accomplishment in itself. But the Group goes a few steps further. It decides on how information that the Group doesn't HAVE yet will be **collected** from the outside world -- and by WHOM. And let's be honest: in our daily lives, we don't ONLY get information from the rest of the world that we've actively looked for: we ALSO receive lots and lots of information PASSIVELY that we never ever asked for. In emails, in phone calls, in media articles, at meetings, on advertising banners that we see while we're looking out the window of a bus, and so on. So the Group decides on how to filter all this incoming information in a way that highlights THAT subset of information that actually MATTERS to the Group's goal. Now that the Group has made decisions on how and what information will flow INTO the Group, it makes decisions on what to DO with this information. As a starting point, it wants to STORE all this information somewhere, so that it's not forgotten. And since our Group has no computers, it decides that all incoming information that is GOAL-relevant will be written down on individual pieces of paper. After, these pieces of paper will be stored in various folders. And each folder will be dedicated to a specific function that is needed in order to build a house. So far, so good. But how will all this information be **SHARED**? THAT'S something the Group gives thought to, as well. For example, will all hundred members of the Group EACH have access to absolutely ALL the information that's stored in the folders? Or will SPECIFIC members of the Group be given access to specific TYPES of information? And connected with this: how will the information in the folders be made available to Group members? Will it simply be a matter of looking through all the folders whenever you need something? OR will there be a system where -- whenever a person needs a specific type of information -- they simply ASK for it, and THEN a 'Folder Specialist' finds what they're looking for? This might save time, because the Folder Specialist will immediately know where to look for the information, whereas the average Group member won't. Let's say the Group chooses the second option. They assign one person to be the 'Folder Specialist'. And whenever anybody else needs information, they have to make a request to the Folder Specialist. How will the Folder Specialist pass on the information that they find? Will they simply forward it to EVERYONE in the Group -- even to the people that don't NEED this particular piece of information? THAT would probably get very irritating for people who are working on entirely different tasks. So maybe it would be better to set up a few guidelines that specify WHO gets what TYPES of information. Sometimes information that was stored in the past is used to create brand new information. Or it needs to be modified. For example, the Group knows that it will need 100,000 bricks to build the house. It ALSO knows that each brick will currently cost 70 cents. It combines this information and calculates that the total costs for all the bricks needed will be around 70,000 euro. And of course, It's going to store this NEW information on a piece of paper and place it in the appropriate folder. But who will be RESPONSIBLE for creating new information like this internally? And HOW and WHERE will it be stored? These are all also decisions that the Group has to make. Let's move on to a final area. Our Group has made wise decisions on how to collect, filter, store, and use information that is relevant to its goal. But that's not enough. Frequently, members of the Group will have to pass ON information to the outside world again. For example, if the Group appoints an external architect and building contractor, it will have to give them regular updates on the Group's wishes and decisions. Similarly, ANYBODY that builds a house will need the permission of various local government agencies. And these government agencies will need REGULAR information related to the progress in the house building process. Once again, it's probably not the best idea to pass on EVERY single piece of information the Group has stored in its folders to every single person or organization in the OUTSIDE world. So the Group wisely decides upon guidelines and procedures related to WHO will pass WHAT types of information to WHOM -- and HOW! Whether the Group is aware of it or not, by deciding on all these guidelines, rules, procedures, and protocols, it has just designed an "Enterprise Information System". An Enterprise Information System is basically the sum of all the rules and resources that determine how information flows INTO an organization, how it is stored and USED by that organization, and how it flows back OUT of the organization. So if we think about it a little bit, an Enterprise Information System needs to include the following five components: It begins with the rules, guidelines, and protocols concerning information flow that an organization has decided upon -- so basically, everything we've just talked about in this video. Second, it includes all the information -- or 'data' -- that is collected, stored, used, and disseminated by the organization. Third, it includes all the human BEINGS that are involved in collecting, storing, using, and/or disseminating the organization's information. Fourth, an Enterprise Information System consists of all the hardware that is needed to collect, store, use, and/or disseminate the organization's information. Being that we live in the 21^st^ Century, we automatically associate "hardware" with computers or other digital devices. But that doesn't NEED to be the case. In our GROUP'S example, the most important hardware were the folders, papers, and pencils, that were used to store data. And this has been true for the vast majority of human civilization. Even the earliest Sumerian merchants had their own Information Systems. And these information systems included hardware. This hardware took the form of sticks and CLAY tablets, but it was hardware nonetheless. So when you think of your organization's OWN information system, don't limit yourself to ONLY the high-tech elements. More often than you might think, Enterprise Information Systems involve a lot of very LOW-tech hardware. Even in the 21^st^ Century. Fifth and last, a modern-day Enterprise Information system consists of all the **SOFTWARE** an organization uses to collect, store, use, and disseminate the organization's information. And unlike hardware, this really IS a purely digital component of an information system. In closing, I'd like to emphasize YOUR role in your organization's Information System. The way that we've just DESCRIBED an Enterprise Information System, you might think that it's created purely "Top Down" by the CEO or the general manager of your organization. And I'm sure that's the way they'd LIKE it to be, too. But the REALITY is that the Top Management can only design the overall STRUCTURE of an Information System. The ones that really bring it to LIFE are the employees of the organization, with THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of little decisions that they make regarding information every single day. So don't underestimate your OWN role in this. An Enterprise Information System is a living, breathing entity, and it's shaped EVERY day by every single employee that that COLLECTS information, FILTERS incoming information, STORES information, USES information or passes ON information. And you can either do this WISELY -- so in a way that promotes your organization's overall mission, business model, and goals -- or you can do it unwisely. Think about THAT the next time you click on a "send" button!