Slide 16.1
Chapter 16
End-user computing – providing
end-user services
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
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 company’s 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.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.3
Management issues
• Managerial issues involved in controlling the use of
information systems by end-users include the
following:
– 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.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
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.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
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. Deliver services to end-users cost-effectively.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.6
Managing costs
• The costs involved in running a help desk are
indicated by the Help Desk Institute annual
survey (2010) which shows that the median cost
of an incident reported via phone is $20.
• E-mail and chat is lower at $15, but are still
significant costs when multiplied across a large
organisation.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
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 colleague’s problem (this type of
unofficial support can be very costly);
– the cost of consumables such as paper and toner
for printing.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.8
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 minimise and in some cases eliminate the widest
range of labor-intensive tasks.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.9
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 the 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.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.10
End-user computing
• The term end-user computing (EUC) 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 users of
information systems rather than developers of information
systems.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.11
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.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.12
Different types of end-user personnel. Updated descriptions based on
original classes of Rockart and Flannery (1983)
Table 16.1
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.13
The IT help desk
• Help desk: A central facility in an organisation
which provides end-user help-desk services such
as phone support for trouble-shooting end-user
software and hardware problems, training,
guidance on end-user development and
management of user information.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.14
Roles of IT help desk
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Help-desk support for user problems: Support can be offered via a number
of routes, including telephone, e-mail, instant messaging and in person.
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 help-desk 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.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.15
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 helpdesk staff through the process of solving the problem.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.16
Help-desk technologies (Continued)
• 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 16.1.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.17
Figure 16.1
Workflow system from TIBCO Software being used to prioritise support
calls
Source: TIBCO Software screenshot.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.18
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.’
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.19
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
flyer 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 Filemaker, or visual programming environments
such as Microsoft Visual Studio or Embarcadero Delphi.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.20
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.
• 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.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.21
A model of IS success that can be applied to end-user developed
applications
Figure 16.3
Source: Reprinted by permission, DeLone, W. and McLean, E. ‘Information system success: The quest for the dependent variable’, Information Systems Research, 3, 1, 1992.
Copyright 1992, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), 7240 Parkway Drive, Suite 310, Hanover, MD 21076 USA.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.22
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 are developed that may be of
importance to a department. 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.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.23
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.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.24
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.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015
Slide 16.25
EUD control approaches (Continued)
• 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-user-developed
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 have 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.
Bocij, Greasley and Hickie, Business Information Systems PowerPoints on the Web, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2015