Discussion of Comparative Values of Information Structures

Abstract

An examination of business information systems must recognize the essential position that these systems occupy in linking the firm's decisionmaking processes with its internal and external environment. If one accepts a premise that the primary objective of such systems is to maximize the effectiveness of the decisions being made, it then follows that considerable attention must be placed upon determining the extent to which they facilitate determining and then achieving optimal operating conditions. Developments during the last decade have had a major impact the design of information systems. Advances in operations research have provided an increased capability for formalizing decision models, as well as an added ability to identify optimal operating conditions, relevant variables, and the sensitivity of the models to parameter variations. Similarly, advances in computer technology have often moved the decision-maker closer to the events, providing an increased capability for on request reporting, together with report formats that are more closely related to the decisions at hand-essentially customized realtime