EIS vendors looking beyond the corner office user - executive information systems vendors try to broaden systems' appeal across management levels - includes related article on EIS market - Client/Server Computing Edition

Software Magazine, Nov 15, 1993 by Paul Korzeniowski

SUPPLIERS TARGET ALL MANAGEMENT LEVELS WITH ENHANCED SUPPORT, UNIX OFFERINGS; BAY STATE GAS PLANS TO TRIPLE EIS USER BASE

Corporations generate thousands, millions, and in some cases billions of pieces of information. Financial data sits in one database management system (DBMS). Sales information resides in a separate location. Manufacturing data is stored in a third place. Unfortunately, the data is often of limited value because users at all levels of the organization cannot easily access an tinker with it.

Executive information systems (EISs) have been trying to solce the problem for several years. While the tools have made it simpler for many users to manipulate information, nagging questions remain as to whether EISs can deliver on their promises.

Originally, vendors developed EISs to present pertinent information to top-level executives. In many cases, though, top executives do not know how to use PCs and thus take only cursory looks at the data. Because many are not interested in gaining that expertise, executive-only EISs are often under-used.

"Executives seem to look at information for half an hour so each morning," said Robert Schmidt, manager of data processing at The Toledo Hospital Inc. in Ohio. "A lot of information is available [via the EIS], but it seems they do not know how to fully exploit it."

Vendors, recognizing this, have been trying to broaden the appeal -- and the customer base -- of EISs. "To succeed, an EIS has to penetrate all levels of management, not just the top. If information is not accessible to all managers, then it has limited appeal," said Brian Hartlen, director of EIS marketing at Comshare INc. in Ann Arbor, Mich.

EIS suppliers are also enhancing their products with support for various PC operating system standards, such as REdmond, Wash.,-based Micrsoft Corp.'s. Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). The goal is to enable users to more easily move EIS data into other applications. Also, vendors are porting their packages to more client operating systems with Unix, an area of recent interest.

Even though EISs may not be meeting all expectations, the market for those tools is growing. Clare Gillan, director of applications at International Data Corp. (IDC), a Framingham, Mas., market research firm, defines EIS tools as a subset in the broad category of enduser data access (EUDA) software. IDC estimated that the worldwide EIS market is growing at a rate of about 20% per year. In 1992 companies spent $125 million on EIS products, according to IDC.

One leading EIS supplier is Comshare. IDC estimated that the company, founded in 1966, accounts for approximately half of the revenue in the EIS market.

Comshare's main product is Commander, which began shipping 1987. Commander runs on a variety of client operating systems, including Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Computer Inc. Macintoshes, IBM's OS/2, and Microft's MS-DOS and Windows. "During the past 18 months, organizations asked us for support of a wider variety of desktop operating systems," noted Comshare's Hartlen. "We are trying to meet that request."

One company that has been Commander for five years is Cibavision Inc., in Atlanta. The firm pruchased an EIS because it wanted an easy way to present financial, sales and marketing data to top executives.

James Ritter, group strategies system manager, said the company selected Commander after evaluating products from Easel Corp., based in Burlington, Mass.; Pilot Software Inc., Boston; and SAS Institute Inc., located in Cary, N.C. Ritter capabilities and simpler appliaction development features than competitive products.

After marketing with a pilot application, use of the EIS had grown from 19 to more than 120 users. The applications support a range of activities, including tracking the cost of manufacturing and examining the performance of divisional marketing plans.

Cibavision is satisfied with the product, but Ritter noted one limitation with its data modeling features. "We have one application that is large and complex," he explained. "Right now, we can only work with 8 million cells, which is not big enough for us. We would prefer it if the software could work with 64 million cells."

Another vendor that has been in the EIS business for some time is IRI Software, located in Waltham, Mass., part of Information Resources INc., Chicago. IRI Software's Express/EIS includes a multidimensional relational DBMS, which enables users to correlate information from a number of departments. Currently, the software runs on Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system and the Solaris operating system from SunSoft Inc., a sunsidiary of Sun Microsystems Inc., Mountain View, Calif.

IRI Software's multidimensional capabilities swayed Cigna HealthCare, based in Hartford, Conn., to switch from Comshare's EIS to Express/EIS, which Cigna inherited from an acquisition.

Cigna began looking for an EIS in 1990. The company wanted to provide customers with a tool so they could more easily examine their heaslth care benefits, said Bob McCarthy, director of health care decesion support. After examining EISs from Comshare and Pilot, Cigna selected Comshare's Commander because it operated either in conjunction with mainframe software or as a standalone system.