BIS 16 End User Computing

Slide 16.
Chapter 16
End-user computing
Bocij, Chaffey, Greasley, Hickie, Business Information Systems, 3rd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2006
Slide 16.2
Learning objectives
After this lecture, you will be able to: define the range of services that must be delivered to support end-users effectively; distinguish between the general term end-user computing and the more specific end-user development; analyse the risks associated with pursuing end-user development of information systems as part of a companys IS strategy; recommend policies for the effective management of end-user computing within an organisation; recommend new information systems applications that could reasonably be developed by end-user staff within an organisation.
Slide 16.3
Management issues
Managerial issues involved with controlling the use of information systems by end-users include:
Assessing the emphasis to be placed on end-user software development activities. Providing a suitable support function to assist endusers in their use of computers. Ensuring the appropriate skill levels for end-users through staff development and training. Controlling the cost of end-user activities and support.
Slide 16.4
End-user computing
End-user computing (EUC): All uses of computers by business people who are not information systems professionals. End-user development (EUD): Systems development and programming undertaken by non-IS staff.
Slide 16.5
End-user IS services
End-user IS services: All services required to support end-users in running their PCs and developing and using applications 1. Provide a help-desk service. 2. Achieve standardisation of software. 3. Ensure network efficiency. 4. Provide training. 5. Delivering services to end-users cost-effectively.
Slide 16.6
Managing costs
The costs involved with running a help desk are indicated by the Help Desk Institute annual survey (2004) which shows that the median cost of an incident reported via phone is $20. E-mail and web self-service are lower at $16 and $5, but are still significant costs when multiplied across a large organization.
Slide 16.7
TCO
Total cost of ownership (TCO): TCO refers to the total cost for a company operating a computer. This includes not only the purchase or leasing cost but also the cost of all the services needed to support the end-user. TCO includes non-purchase costs such as:
the loss of productive work time when users are unable to use their computer; the loss of productive work time when someone is trying to fix a colleagues problem (this type of unofficial support can be very costly); the cost of consumables such as paper and toner for printing.
Slide 16.8
Figure 16.1 Breakdown of the total cost of ownership

Source: Gartner Group (1996).
Slide 16.9
Recommendations on reducing TCO

People training end-users and IT staff to make optimal use of cost-controlling processes and technologies. Processes automating some tasks and streamlining others, ranging from asset tracking to software updating. Technologies deploying information technologies that minimize and in some cases eliminate the widest range of labor-intensive tasks.
Slide 16.10
The Lois Franxhi case

Lois Franxhi, a 28-year-old IT manager who was sacked in July 1998 for making nearly 150 searches over four days in office hours for a holiday. As with many unfair dismissals, the case was not clearcut, with Mrs Franxhi claiming that the company sacked her because of sex discrimination she was pregnant at the time of the dismissal. The tribunal dismissed these claims, finding that the employee had lied about the use of the Internet, saying she had only used it for one lunchtime when, in fact, records showed that she had used it over four days.
Slide 16.11
Enabling employee access to the Internet
In this scenario, you are a senior manager at a B2B company who has just read the latest International Benchmarking study commissioned by the DTI () which presents data from different countries on Internet and e-mail access levels (Figs 16.2 and 16.3). Employee access to the Internet or e-mail for your company is limited. You want to remain competitive, but are concerned about the issues of staff time wasting indicated by an article you read in the Guardian and the cost and possible problems with employee relations of monitoring staff access. Questions Referring to Figures 16.2 and 16.3, prepare a list of advantages and disadvantages of enabling widespread employee access;
Slide 16.12
Figure 16.2 Average percentage of employees making daily use of e-mail

Source: DTI (2003).
Slide 16.13
Figure 16.3 Firms with Internet access

Source: DTI (2003).
Slide 16.14
Employee communications monitoring

Employee communications monitoring: Companies monitor staff e-mails and web sites they access Acceptable use policy: Statement of employee activities involving use of networked computers that are not considered acceptable by management Scanning software Identifies e-mail or web page access that breaches company guidelines or acceptable use policies Filtering software Software that blocks specified content or activities
Slide 16.15
End-user computing
The term end-user computing has different meanings according to the context in which it is used. The following statements could all refer to end-user computing: all tools by which non-data-processing staff handle their own problems without professional programmers; creative use of data processing by non-data-processing experts; complex computing by non-data-processing professionals to answer organisational information needs; non-technical end-users using user-friendly, fourth-generation languages (4GLs) and PCs to generate reports or build decision support systems; the use of computer hardware and software by people in organisations whose jobs are usually classified as net users of information systems rather than net developers of information systems.
Slide 16.16
Three main types of end-user computing

The three main types of end-user computing can be defined as:
end-user-developed computer-based information systems for personal, departmental or organisation-wide use, where the end-user is a non-IT professional; end-user control of which hardware and package applications are purchased for use in their department; end-user use of existing information systems.
Slide 16.17
Table 16.1 Different types of end user personnel. Updated descriptions based on original classes of Rockart and Flannery (1983).
Class Term
1 Non-programming end users -
Description
These are users of software developed by others These are users who use more sophisticated functions of a package, such as formulas and macros in a spreadsheet such as Excel
Command-level end-users (power users)
Programming level end-users -
Here users write their own functions using add - on application languages such as Visual Basic for Applications
Functional support personnel (business analysts and developers)
These are support staff who work in one area of the business to provide enduser development and support
End-user computing support personnel (help desk staff) -
These are the support staff who exist to troubleshoot hardware and software problems that are encountered by users in Classes 1 to 3
Data-processing programmers (application developers)
This type of programming staff has traditionally worked on company operational or reporting systems
Slide 16.18
The IT help desk

Help desk: A central facility in an organisation which provides end-user help-desk services such as phone support for troubleshooting end-user software and hardware problems, training, guidance on end-user development and management of user information.
Slide 16.19
Roles of IT Help desk

Help-desk support for user problems: The Mini Case Study Press delete for IT time wasters shows the type of problem that commonly occurs and how the cost of support can potentially be reduced through education. Advice on software purchase: This ensures that the software is suitable for its purpose and is compatible with hardware, other software and company purchasing schemes. Advice on hardware purchase: This will usually be a centralised standard, again to take advantage of discounts and limiting support contracts. Advice on how end-user development should be approached: The support person will suggest the best approaches for developing software, such as following the main parts of the lifecycle. These can be defined through more detailed training. Application development: For larger systems, the IC staff may be involved in performing the systems analysis and design or more difficult aspects of the programming. Training: In particular, on packages or development techniques. Data management: Management and supply of data to end-users or explanations of formats used.
Slide 16.20
Press delete for IT time waster

The results reveal the following top 5 IT time-wasting problems:
Why isnt my monitor working? My printers jammed can you make it print properly? Why cant I send any more e-mails? Please could you format this for me? Why wont it let me save onto a floppy disk?
Problems such as these are usually easily solved and 86% of the time they dont require IT support. However, 64% of IT professionals are surprised at how often they are called out to look at broken monitors only to find they arent plugged in, 52% claim that they are regularly asked to un-block paper jams in printers and 54% are often asked to change toners!
Slide 16.21
Help-desk technologies
Asset management software: Help-desk staff need to know the technical details of the systems being used in the company and the software loaded on them. This is achieved by asset management software such as Microsoft Systems Management server. This can also distribute new software automatically. Computer telephony integration (CTI): CTI gives automatic phone number identification and the system will then load up the details of the computer, its current user and configuration. This allows first-tier calls to be answered much faster. Case-based reasoning: These systems use artificial intelligence techniques (Chapter 6) to guide the user or staff through the process of solving the problem. Web-based intranet access: Users can access frequently asked questions, send an e-mail or type in keywords describing their problems. Problems solved this way will save help-desk staff the time spent dealing with straightforward queries. Workflow: Workflow systems can be used to prioritise user queries and assign them to the staff best placed to deal with them. An example of a workflow queue used in a help desk is shown in Figure 16.4.
Slide 16.22
Figure 16.4 Workflow system from Staffware being used to prioritise support calls
Slide 16.23
End-user development
End-user development of applications represents a major trend in the use of information technology in organisations. McGill et al. (2003) explain that:
User-developed applications (UDAs) are computer based applications for which non-information systems professionals assume primary development responsibility. They support decision making and organizational processes in the majority of Organizations
Slide 16.24
Typical EUD applications

Reports from a corporate database using standard enquiries defined by the IS/IT function Simple ad hoc queries to databases defined by the user. For someone in an airline, for example, these might include access to a frequent flier database, customer reservation system or crew rostering system to monitor performance of each What-if? analysis using tools such as spreadsheet models or more specialised tools such as risk or financial management packages or business intelligence software, used for monitoring sales and marketing performance of information stored in a data warehouse Writing company information for a company intranet Development of applications such as a job costing tool or production scheduling system, using easy-to-use, high-level tools such as application generators, PC database management systems such as Microsoft Access or Borland or visual programming environments such as Microsoft Visual Basic, Borland Delphi, Powerbuilder or Centura.
Slide 16.25
Reasons for growth of EUD

Applications backlog: The demand for new applications by users exceeds the capacity of the IS department or IS outsourcing company to develop them. Improved toolsets such as Visual Basic for Applications The desire by users to query and analyse data and generate reports from information stored on databases available across the corporate network A trend to decentralisation of computing to user departments for systems to support departmental activities Reduced expense of application development when conducted by end-users (from departmental rather than information systems budget) Better fit between end-user-developed software and their requirements (since no requirements translation is needed between the users and third-party developers). End-users are also less likely to over-engineer a solution to a basic problem than an IS professional who will want to treat every problem with rigour.
Slide 16.26
Figure 16.6 A model of IS success that can be applied to end-user developed applications
Source: Reprinted by permission, DeLone, W. and McLean, E. Information system success: The quest for the dependent Variable, Information System Research, 3(1), 1992. Copyright 1992, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), 7240 Parkway Drive, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = urn:schemas-microsoft-com: office:smarttags />Suite 310, Honover, MD 21076 USA. Bocij, Chaffey, Greasley, Hickie, Business Information Systems, 3rd Edition Pearson Education Limited 2006
Slide 16.27
Stages of development of EUD
Isolation: A few scattered pioneers of EUD develop small-scale business tools within their area. Initially, little support from central IS. Standalone: Larger-scale applications that may be of importance to a department are developed. At this stage, an information centre may be developed to support an increase in demand for user computing services. Manual integration: Here, different end-user applications need to exchange data. This happens through manual intervention, with files being transferred by floppy disk or across the network or even with rekeying of information. Information centre development has continued to support the needs of these larger-scale applications by providing training and skills and specifying standards for hardware, software and the development process. Automated integration: Users start to link into corporate applications to gain seamless access to information. Distributed integration: At this stage of development, there is a good level of integration between different end-user applications and corporate systems. Good standards of metadata (or data describing data in a data dictionary) are required to help achieve this.
Slide 16.28
Risks of EUD
Using information that is out of date Information requires export from other information systems before it can be analysed by the end-user application Corruption of centrally held data by uploading erroneous data Development of insecure systems without password control that are vulnerable to accidental and deliberate damage.
Slide 16.29
EUD control approaches

Training: Provision of relevant training courses both in how to program and in how to approach systems development in a structured way (the second of these is often omitted). This happened at the Open University, where many of the end-users wanted to omit the analysis course. Suitability review: Authorisation of major end-user new developments by business and IS managers to check that they are necessary (this should not be necessary for smaller-scale developments since otherwise creativity may be stifled). Standards for development: Such standards will recommend that documentation and structured testing of all user-developed software occurs. Detailed standards might include clear data definitions, validation rules, backup and recovery routines and security measures. Guidance from end-user support personnel: IC or help-desk staff can provide training in techniques used to develop software. Software and data audits: Regular audits of software produced by end-users should occur for data and application quality. There is an apocryphal story of a company that had an end-userdeveloped spreadsheet for making investment decisions which had an error in a formula that lost the company millions of pounds each year! Ensuring corporate data security: Ensure that users are not permitted to enter data directly into central databases except via applications especially written for the purpose by the IS department which has the necessary validation rules to ensure data quality. For analysis of corporate data, data should regularly be downloaded from the central database to the PC for analysis, where they can be analysed without causing performance problems to the corporate system.

BIS 16 End User Computing

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Slide 16.

Figure 16.1 Breakdown of the total cost of ownership

Recommendations on reducing TCO

The Lois Franxhi case

Enabling employee access to the Internet

Figure 16.2 Average percentage of employees making daily use of e-mail

Figure 16.3 Firms with Internet access

Employee communications monitoring

Three main types of end-user computing

Command-level end-users (power users)

Programming level end-users -

Functional support personnel (business analysts and developers)

End-user computing support personnel (help desk staff) -

Data-processing programmers (application developers)

The IT help desk

Roles of IT Help desk

Press delete for IT time waster

Typical EUD applications

Reasons for growth of EUD

Stages of development of EUD

EUD control approaches

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