Information Management Requirements Research Articles

An accounting software selection checklist

Selection of an appropriate accounting software package can be complicated by the need to take into account various accounting, technical, management information, and control requirements. This article outlines a framework for evaluating accounting packages and discusses relevant considerations that are involved in choosing the “right one.” Also included is information on some of the more popular packages on the market.

The development of a prototype computerised management information system for a mixed enterprise farm

The design and implementation of a prototype computerised management information system for a large mixed enterprise farm is described. The prototype was developed for the 600-ha farm run by University College Dublin comprising dairy, beef, sheep, pigs and arable crop production. Each enterprise performs both as a commercial unit and a research and educational facility, and is managed by academic staff. A farm manager has operational control of the whole farm, and each enterprise is serviced centrally from a farm office. This paper outlines the major management information requirements on the farm and the information system developed to satisfy them. Specific methods for unifying common information processes and structures for recording and analysing research-oriented data are detailed. The system was coded in COBOL and implemented on a minicomputer on an experimental basis. An alternative approach using a network of microcomputers was explored by taking the information subsystem of one enterprise and using a microcomputer-based database software package, dBaseIII+, to implement the module design. It was concluded that for a mixed enterprise farm the best approach is to use microcomputer-based information systems for each enterprise, integrated via a network into an overall management system. The requirements of such a system and the potential for upgrading with other hardware and software are discussed.

The Strategic Implications Of Automation In Public Sector Human Resource Management

The proliferation of microcomputer based software now permits the partial automation of personnel operations. Future applications of information systems technology to public sector human resource management depend on a knowledge of public management information requirements and of the organizational effects of automating personnel operations. There is some possibility, however, that careful planning regarding the application of a rich store of personnel management software to work force information system development will pay divi dends in terms of effective human resource management.

Digital remote sensing for forestry: Requirements and capabilities, today and tomorrow

Abstract This paper reviews the current capability of digital remote sensing technology to satisfy the information requirements of forest managers. The discussion is organized with regard.to forest management information requirements rather than along technological lines. The promise of new airborne technologies to provide more detailed information is also discussed in the context of the information requirements, together with examples of encouraging results.

Considerations for Network Design for Water Quality and Quantity Surveys in Canada

Abstract A network of water quantity and/or quality stations is a composite of many different management information requirements. Conventionally, the objective of such stations has been to describe and quantify one or more of discharge, sediment flux, or water chemistry. This perspective is site-specific and descriptive. While quantity and quality surveying are usually separated, comprehensive water resource management is a composite activity involving the interrelationships amongst discharge, chemistry, biology, land use, etc.. The static and site-specific objectives of contemporary network stations fulfil limited management information requirements. Future network design should include a specific focus on functional behaviour of the watershed and its aquatic ecosystem. Behavioural data serve two contemporary objectives. One pertains to aquatic ecosystem management and/or protection. The second pertains to assessment of anthropogenic interventions within watersheds. The network requirements to meet these new information demands are examined in the context of conceptual, methodological and normative developments within the field of aquatic science and environmental assessment.

Approaches to End-User Computing: Service May Spell Success

The growth of end-user computing brings benefits and risks to organizations. The advantages and disadvantages of all techniques for providing end-user computing should be carefully evaluated before an approach is implemented. However, the service approach appears to provide the best combination of support and coordination. One implementation of this approach is an information center that is dedicated to supporting end-user computing and committed to meeting organizational requirements for information resource use and management.

Computer-Assisted Engineering Data Base

General capabilities of data base management technology are described. Information requirements posed by the space station life cycle are discussed, and it is asserted that data base management technology supporting engineering/manufacturing in a heterogeneous hardware/data base management system environment should be applied to meeting these requirements. Today’s commercial systems do not satisfy all of these requirements. The features of an R&D data base management system being developed to investigate data base management in the engineering/manufacturing environment are discussed. Features of this system represent only a partial solution to space station requirements. Areas where this system should be extended to meet full space station information management requirements are discussed.

A management strategy for information processing. 3—Management information requirements

In this, the third and final article in this series, the author examines the need for management to have access to ‘computing facilities’. He considers a middle road between the exercise of control and the flexible use of personal computers, and attempts to structure the basic needs of managers and professional staff for information Technology in its wider sense.

Project control and professional development

Existing DP management control systems often lead to project failure. The problem lies in the effective use of project control tools rather than in the nature of the tools themselves. The effective training and skill development of DP professionals will help to remedy this situation. Management information requirements for the implementation of a project control system are also discussed.

Assessing institutional performance in higher education: a managerial perspective

Although many institutions are expending considerable effort in attempts to assess institutional performance and to utilize the results in improving performance, there are many impediments to the success of these endeavours. These include conceptual problems with the notion of institutional performance, inadequacies in the current measurement techniques and judgement procedures, and the mis-match between the results produced and management's information requirements. Institutional management in higher education has unique characteristics which give rise to particular information needs. The existing approaches to institutional evaluation vary in their ability to provide information meeting management's requirements.

Data Structures for Integrating Quality and Cost Factors in a Foodservice Operation

The information requirements for proper management of product quality and safety in a foodservice call for organization and manipulation of large amounts of data. This requires a structural organization to the data, which has large capacity while simultaneously being flexible enough to rapidly deliver information developed from the data. A matrix data structure meets these requirements and conveniently integrates new procedures and new products into a well - structured management information system. Such a structure is a convenient computational device, especially when implemented on a computer, and can be used for immediate feedback of information to the manager. Product quality and safety management requires that these functions be integrated into such a system and related to cost. Only in this way will the resource utilization impact of these control functions on the overall foodservice operation be apparent. Although in this paper the data structures are applied to foodservice operations, other applications are possible. In particular, dairy processing operations, meat and other food processing operations as well as food distribution systems, could all benefit from applications of such structures.

A Microcomputer Based Park Resources Management System for Glacier National Park

The primary objective of this project is to assess the computing needs of the Glacier National Park and to make recommendations with respect to the management of park resources. As originally proposed, one of the principal objectives was to consult with the park service and to suggest alternatives for hardware configurations that would meet the ever increasing information management requirements of Glacier National Park. Before the initial meeting between the principal investigator and park service personnel, however, a Datapoint minicomputer was selected by the regional office in Denver for use by Glacier as well as other parks within the area. Thus, the objectives to be attained by this and subsequent reports will deal primarily with the uses to which the newly acquired hardware can be put as well as suggesting methods of operation and additional hardware which would enhance information processing at Glacier National Park.

Planning, Critical Success Factors, and Management's Information Requirements

Focusing on a manager's goals and critical success factors has been advocated as an approach to defining senior and middle managers' information requirements. In this article a field study is described in which the planning processes in a corporation were used as a mechanism for identifying goals, critical success factors and performance measures and standards, i.e., information requirements for managerial control. A general approach generated from the field study is described and the advantages and disadvantages of the approach are analyzed.

Management information requirements assessment

No abstract available.

The next decade of logistics research

AbstractPathbreaking logistics research over the next 10 years will focus on systems problems. Whereas past research generally has taken a “bottom‐up” approach, future investigations are likely to pursue a “top‐down” philosophy. Specifically, attention will concentrate on diagnosis of systems' improvement potentials; easy‐to‐use analytic approaches, inherently approximative, will be devised for quickly ascertaining whether a complex operating system can be substantially and effectively improved. Theories to assist in overall systems design, particularly the setting of boundaries and buffers among systems components, will be developed. At the same time, techniques for accurately forecasting future systems performance will be investigated.Underlying such research will be efforts to gain better understanding of management information requirements, including approaches for monitoring systems performance and providing early warning detection of systems degradation Improved management information systems will have to be coupled with appropriate design of managerial organizations and assignment of decision making responsibilities. Important avenues of research will he development of robust approaches, that is, both mathematical techniques and organizational approaches that are not too adversely affected by limited data, a changing environment, and human frailly.Finally, critical research will be directed at the implementation process, especially the interaction among initiation, design, testing and ultimate adoptionThis prognosis will explore the above themes in the context of large‐scale, complex systems. The decision areas will encompass inventory replenishment, multiechelon hierarchies for stockage and maintenance, procurement, transportation, scheduling, facilities planning, budgeting, reliability and personnel management.

Local Government Information Services

Outlines factors leading to an increase in the information requirements of local government managers. Current research into these needs and examples of existing services for local government officers are described, particularly that of the GLC Intelligence Unit's Research Library. Looks at future cooperative developments in information provision in London local government and comments on the role of the library profession as a whole in the field of local government information.

Management Information Systems in Insurance

This paper begins by drawing a distinction between an "efficiency"> approach to the design of an information system and an "effectiveness" or decision-oriented approach, arguing for the latter. The argument leads to the development of a taxonomy of information systems based on the aspects of the decision-making process which are incorporated within the information system itself and those which are left for the management role to perform. Four classes of information systems are thereby specifieddatabank, predictive, decision-making and action-taking. Illustrations from the insurance field are given for each. Since the underlying assumptions of an information system are critical, a fifth system-the systemic information system-is proposed for exposing and examining assumptions. To be worthy of its name, a management information system must supply the basic information needed by managers for making decisions. The more closely the information provided is attuned to the decision-maker's needs, the better the decisions that will be made. This means that the designer of an information system must carefully analyze both the decision processes as well as existing information flows. For, in a management information system, the two are essentially inseparable. Unfortunately, the approach used most frequently by designers of insurance information systems has been to concentrate on making the existing system more efficient by studying existing forms, files, reports, and procedures and then determining ways in which they might be simplified, expanded, integrated (autoRichard 0. Mason, Ph.D., is Acting Associate Professor of Information Systems in U.C.L.A. Alfred E. Hofflander, Ph.D., C.L.U., C.P.C.U., is Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Management in U.C.L.A. This paper was presented at the 1971 Annual Meeting of A.R.I.A. mated), and improved.' Sometimes useful and economical results can be realized from this kind of study; but they are generally in the area of increased efficiency of data flows or reduction in clerical staff,2 not in improved quality of decisions made. By way of contrast, the decision-oriented approach begins with the identification of the organization's managers and the decisions they must make. Using this approach, the designer3 starts by examining the action alternatives available to the manager and the criteria for choosing from among them. Management information requirements are then specified by determining the kinds of predictions, forecasts, inferences, and measurements re1 For example, see George E. Helehanty, "Computers and Organization Structure in Life Insurance Firms," (Myers, ed.), The Impact of Computers on Management (Cambridge, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press, 1968).