Strout & Skeels, Inc.
Automating For Efficient Management
The key to success for business in the current environment is the vigilant search for new
ways of improving efficiency and saving money. One of the most important paths toward
realizing economies is the implementation of management systems which are designed to provide
quick and clear access to information. A critical competitive edge can be gained by
organizations which move toward programs designed to provide such information in the context
of supporting normal business functions.
Over the years with the growing use of computers in business, standard procedures of
channeling information from middle management to the executive level have been established.
These procedures include the usual periodical reports and analyses which are compiled for
the executive in order to give a clear understanding of how the company is doing, and a
planning base for needed projections. This relatively rigid pre-programmed method is
designed to supply beneficial data in the simplest form possible, and can give the executive
a broad base of useful information. This framework, however, often proves excessively rigid
to provide a useful analytical view of information.
Computerization of information is introduced into organizations at various levels, some
explicitly connected, many not. The result is that information is dispersed to provide
support for specific functions. This is good so far as it goes, but is inadequate for
comprehensive management analysis.
Dispersed systems generate such an immense amount of data that a return in digestible form
is impracticable, though it may be condensed and passed backed through the established canned
reports. Though the standard management reporting process serves a number of needs, it does
not deal with the critical problem of uncertainty; what is needed most may not be in the
canned reports, and may not in fact be obvious until free access to and across various
information sets is available. When a discrepancy, curiosity, flaw or inconsistency occurs
or a specific problem must be dealt with, the process of obtaining useful information must be
relatively quick and inexpensive, or the systems which provide it will not be used to full
capacity. Modern management programs must overcome this impediment by providing all-level
information availability with immediate analytical access to a broad and comprehensive set
of management information.
INFORMATION PHILOSOPHY
An executive does not have time to review or absorb all the specifics of any given project,
but if factors arise which offer a positive business opportunity or which threaten to
undermine an important business objective, management should be able to focus on relevant
information quickly. The systems should serve to manage key information concerning persons,
organizations, events and finances, and providing a management information repository which
has access to information from other systems, as needed, and which can provide answers to
managers, as required.
Quick and practical availability of information avoids the crisis-driven paradigm, where
management responds only to problems, dropping, or not recognizing, queries in the
realization that the question will be outmoded by the time it can be answered. This thicket
of delay and confusion is avoided if the systems can provide an immediate and direct
connection to databases designed for query and analysis which are based on original data
sources. Management is able to obtain results from any relevant data, whether broad or
precise, which is made permanently available, while the employee's daily routine continues
undisturbed. This system saves time by making query and analysis within the management
system top priority by design.
The key to information value is time. Management should have all the angles of information
covered in a comprehensive manner, and always have pertinent and relevant data available on
a timely basis. A properly designed system establishes for management a clear and direct
path to desired knowledge, giving them more time for creative thought processes and a greater
sense of how to drive the corporate system, while avoiding confusion and irrelevancy.
Better decision making is an inevitable result.
