Enterprise Information

Systems
Péter Halász - peter.halasz@live.com
Course structure
Week 1-8: Business processes and the corresponding data model
of a retail enterprise

Week 8-10: Operating an Enterprise Information System

Week 10-14: Integrating new technologies in Enterprise

Information Systems
Requirements
Attending the lectures is not mandatory but highly
recommended

Project work: essay and presentation(50% of signature)

Mid-term exam: around the 9th week (50% of signature)

Final grade: written exam

Project work
Research work in a related topic in pairs

Essay: 10-15 pages

Presentation: 8-10 minutes

Let’s start
The enterprise/business/company
A Business (also known as an enterprise, a company or a firm) is
an organizational entity involved in the provision of goods and
services to consumers.

A Company is a legal entity made up of an association of people,

be they natural, legal, or a mixture of both, for carrying on a
commercial or industrial enterprise.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company)
System
A system is a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an
interconnecting network; a complex whole.

An enterprise information system (EIS) is any kind of information system

which improves the functions of an enterprise business processes by
integration.

An enterprise information system is an organised system consisting of

data, processes and information. Its goal is supporting the enterprise to
reach its business goals.
The enterprise as a system
To enable more efficient and effective enterprise transformation,
the enterprise needs to be looked at “as a system,” rather than as
a collection of functions connected solely by information
systems and shared facilities. What distinguishes the design of
enterprise systems from product systems is the inclusion of
people as a component of the system, not merely as a
user/operator of the system.

(http://sebokwiki.org/wiki/The_Enterprise_as_a_System)
The enterprise as a system
Company
resources resources
Corporation
Enterprise
Business Organisation
Real
Operational
Economical
Open
Business connections
Customers Suppliers

Enterprise
Banks Government
Enterprise functions
Sales Procurement

Items & Stock Production

Finance HR
External information connections
Customers Suppliers

Enterprise
Banks Government
Customer information connections
Dataflow Direction
Advertisement, Catalogues
Customer’s Request for Quotation
Quotation to Customer
Customer’s Purchase Order
Acknowledgment of Customer’s PO
Delivery notification
Delivery Note
Outgoing invoice
Supplier information connections
Dataflow Direction
Advertisement, Catalogues
Request for Quotation from Supplier
Supplier’s Quotation
Purchase Order
Acknowledgment of PO
Delivery notification
Delivery Note
Incoming invoice
Bank information connections
Dataflow Direction
Transaction Order
Transaction Notification
Account Statement
Deposit Order
Etc.
Administration information connections
Dataflow Direction
Data Reporting
Tax Returns
Duns
Etc.
Process
● “A process is a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve
a particular end.”
Process
● Initial state -> desired end state
● Can be divided into tasks and subtasks
● Assign a responsible Step1 Responsible1

● BPR - Business Process Reengineering

○ Periodic audit Step2

○ Ensures efficiency
Responsible2
○ Simplifies
Step3
Goal - Process - Organization
Business goals

Business processes
(Series of controlled actions)

Organization
Business processes in the organization
Business
Process

Task1
Unit1

Organization Task2

Unit2
Task3
Information system and requirements
The information system is the organized system of information,
data, and processes. The purpose of an information system is the
expected and appropriate support for the organization to reach
its business goals.
Information system and requirements
The requirements against data by business processes:

The information is considered to be

● effective
○ relevant, consistent and available in the right time
● efficient
○ getting the information is done with optimal resource allocation
Information system and requirements
● confidential
○ protected against unauthorized access
● integrity
○ the information is accurate, full, according to the business
expectations
● available
○ can be accessed in the time of need
Information system and requirements
● compliant
○ fulfills the external (legal) business criteria
● reliable
○ supports the management with enough knowledge that, they can
fulfill their reporting duty
Information Technology (IT)
It refers to anything related to computing technology, such as
networking, hardware, software, the Internet, or the people that
work with these technologies.

(https://techterms.com/definition/it)
Classification of IT resources
● According to the Information Audit and Control Foundation
and the IT Governance Institute
○ Data
■ Every kind of data that can be found within the enterprise (paper-based,
digital, voice records, pictures, etc…)
○ Application systems
■ The automated and the manual processes altogether
○ Technology
■ Hardware, software, operating systems, database systems, networking
appliances
Classification of IT resources
● Facilities
○ Every service and equipment that supports the information
system
● People
○ The personnel; and their knowledge that they use to design,
implement, supervise and operate the information system
Enterprise assets
An asset is a resource with economic value that an individual,
corporation or country owns or controls with the expectation
that it will provide future benefit.

(http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/asset.asp)
Enterprise assets
● Financial
● Stock
● Properties
● Tangible
● Intangible
● Etc.
Enterprise asset management
Enterprise asset management (EAM) is the optimal lifecycle
management of the physical assets of an organization.
Data in the system
● Due to the high number of data, developing a good data
model is a crucial step while designing an EIS.
○ What must be stored?
○ What are the relations between the tables?
○ Redundancy?
○ How to choose the identifiers?
Data vs Information
Data are simply facts or figures — bits of information, but not information itself.
When data are processed, interpreted, organized, structured or presented so as
to make them meaningful or useful, they are called information. Information
provides context for data.

Sales figures of Hello

Kitty toilet seat

2013 564

2014 795

2015 1247

2016 1957
Redundancy
Data redundancy is a condition created within a database or data
storage technology in which the same piece of data is held in two
separate places. This can mean two different fields within a
single database, or two different spots in multiple software
environments or platforms.
Redundancy
● +
○ Safer data storage
○ Backup
● -
○ Consistency problems
○ More space required for storage
Redundant data storage
Name Country City

Jack Hungary Budapest

Robert Italy Milan

Carl Spain Barcelona

William Italy Milan

Data table structure

Name

Country

City
Normalized (non-redundant) data
storage
Name
Country City
Jack
Hungary Budapest
Robert
Italy Milan
Carl
Spain Barcelona
William Data table structure

Country
Name
City
Identifiers in the system
● Requirements
○ Mutual and clear relation
○ Extensible: easy to add more
○ Unified across the whole system
○ Minimum length
○ Should be human readable
○ Possibility for grouping
Classification of identifiers
● By Keyset
○ Numeric 100321
○ Alphabetical John Doe
○ Alphanumeric JD22
○ Graphical (icons) ☎✓✗
Classification of identifiers
● By structure
○ Sequential 0001, 0002, …
○ Decimal places AAABBCCCCC
○ Mixed (prefix/suffix) ABC0001XY
Process of creating identifiers
1. Finding system elements to be identified
○ Customers, suppliers
○ Quotations, orders
○ Invoices, delivery notes, etc...
2. Choosing properties to include
3. Creating the identifier
4. Applying the identifiers
5. Documentation
Identifier uniqueness
Storing the last used (or next) identifier is a good practice

Identifier Last value

Customer C010099

Invoice IN2016/502769

Item I123A
Customers
The customers (clients, buyers) are the ones who purchases our
goods.

To maintain a good relationship with our customers it’s essential

to store as much data as we can about them. (Targeted ads,
special offers according to their preferences)
Customer processes
● Add
● Modify
● Query
● Search
● Delete

SCRUD (Search, Create, Read, Update, Delete)

Customer processes
● Adding a new customer
○ When is it necessary?
○ What is the minimum data?
○ How to avoid duplication?
○ How to eliminate input mistakes?
Customer processes
● Modifying customer data
○ Permissions?
○ Non-modifiable data
● Deleting a customer
○ When?
○ How?
Customer data model
Customer bank
transactions
Address person
Contact
Customer
Customer ID
Customer ID
ID
Bank
Year Name
ZIP Code
Name
Name
Sum ofnumber
Account
Country
Phone transactions
ID
Solvency
City address
Email
Usual payment type
Address
Post
Usual payment due date

Group code
 Customer transactions

Customer data model Customer ID

Year
Customer Sum of transactions Contact person
ID Customer ID

Name Name
Address
Solvency Phone number
Customer ID
Usual payment type Email address
ZIP Code Customer bank
Usual payment due date Post
Country Customer ID
Group code
City Bank Name

Address Account ID
Conclusion
● Enterprise as system
● Internal and external connections
● Goals to be defined
● Processes to be defined
● Lots of requirements
● Data is crucial
Thank you for your attention
peter.halasz@live.com
Example questions
● What is an Enterprise Information System?
● What are the four main external parties connected to an EIS?
● What enterprise functions can be covered with an EIS?
● What is BPR?
● What is the difference between data and information?
● What is redundancy? Why is it good or bad?
● How would you store customer data?