Managing Information Resources: Information Systems Management in Practice 6E Mcnurlin & Sprague

Managing Information
Resources
Chapter 7
Information Systems Management In
Practice 6E
McNurlin & Sprague
PowerPoints prepared by Michael Matthew
Visiting Lecturer, GACC, Macquarie University – Sydney Australia
Chapter 7
• This chapter / lecture explores the management of data,
information, and knowledge
• It begins by identifying some problems in managing data, and

then surveys the evolution of database management systems,
including the next-generation systems
• It explores the various types of information that companies need
to manage as they treat information as an organizational
resource
• It concludes by discussing one of the most important issues
facing companies today: how to manage knowledge
• Case examples include Monsanto, Owens & Minor, HICSS
Personal Proceedings, Tapiola Insurance Group, Tennessee
Valley Authority, Eastman Chemical Company and Groove
Networks
7-2
©2006 Barbara C. McNurlin. Published by Pearson Education.
Today’s Lecture
• Introduction
• Managing Data
– The Three-Level Database Model
– Four Data Models
– Getting Corporate Data into Shape
• Managing Information
– Four Types of Information
– Data Warehouses
– Document Management
– Content Management
7-3
Introduction
• “Managing information resources” initially meant
managing data, first in files, then in corporate
databases which were:
– Well structured
– Carefully defined, and
– Controlled by IS department
• Next = expanded to include “information” (data with

meaning)
• Also = much talk of managing knowledge
• With the emergence of the Internet, talk has now
turned to managing content:
– Text, graphics, sound, video and animation
• Covered in this chapter and chapter 13
7-4
Introduction cont.
• Data vs. Information vs. Knowledge
– Data: facts devoid of meaning or intent
– Information: data in context
– Knowledge: information with direction or intent
• As the breadth of the kinds of information resources has

expanded, so has the job of managing them. The job may not
start in the IS department but it invariably ends up there
– PCs users used ‘alone’
• Needed to share files
• Version control, back-up etc.
– Web sites / content
• Initially created their own
• Need for recovery, version control
• Corporate consistency
– IS to the ‘rescue’
• Management procedures
• Discipline
• 7-5
Introduction cont.
• Corporate databases are still a (the?) major IS department
responsibility
– Sometimes housed in a variety of database models
– Production databases – transaction
– Data warehouses
– CRM
• Information in the form of documents (electronic or paper)

and Web content has exploded the size of databases
organizations now manage
• Knowledge management is becoming a key to exploiting
“intellectual assets”
• Information resources need to be well managed as
information becomes an important strategic resource
7-6
Managing Data
• Database management systems are the

main tool for managing computerized
corporate data
• They have been around since the 1960s

and are based on two major principles:
– A three- level conceptual model and
– Several alternative ‘data models’ for organizing
the data
7-7
Managing Data:
The Three-Level Database Model
See Figure 7-1
• Level 1 - The external, conceptual, or local level,
containing the various “user views” of the corporate
data that each application program uses
– Not concerned with how the data will be physically stored or
what data is used by other applications
• Level 2 - The logical or “enterprise data” level

– ‘Technical’ (human) view of the database = under control of the
DBAs
• Level 3 - The physical or storage level, specifying the

way the data is physically stored
– End user not concerned with all these ‘pointers and flags’ (how
the data is physically organized) = they are for use by the
DBMS
7-8
7-9
The Three-Level Database Model:
Advantages
• Level 2 absorbs changes made at Level 3 such

as using a new physical storage device
– Individual application programs in Level 1 do not
need to be changed when the physical layer
changes
• Data only needs to be stored once in Level 2,

and different programs can draw on it and vary
the relationships among the data
7-10
Managing Data:
Four Data Models
The second major concept in database management

is alternate ways to define relationships among data
• Hierarchical model: structures data so that each

element is subordinate to another in a strict
hierarchical manner
‒ Parent, child etc.
• Network model: allows each data item to have more

than one parent,
‒ Relationships stated by pointers stored with the data
7-11
Managing Data:
Four Data Models cont.
 Relational model: where the data is stored in tables.
– Eight relational operations can be performed on this data
• Select, Project, Join, Product, Intersection, Difference, Union, Division
• Microsoft Access
• Relational systems are not as efficient as hierarchical or

network database systems, but because relational systems
allow people to create relationships among data on the fly, they
are much more flexible
• First used to handle end user queries – they are now widely
used in high-volume transaction systems with huge files
• Hence, they have become the database technology of choice in

today’s systems
– Also = largely due to decrease in costs of technology: processing
and disk storage
7-12
Managing Data:
 Object model: can be used to store any type of data, whether a:
– Traditional name or address,
– An entire spreadsheet,
– A video clip,
– A voice annotation,
– A photograph, or
– A segment of music
• The tenets of objects have become increasingly important in the

world of computing
– E.g. Web Services because the XML modules utilize object principles
• Typical, yet complex database applications that may require

objects:
– CAD for a large office building
– Large retail chains record every product code scanned
– Insurance policy files e.g. claim forms, images, video etc.
7-13
Managing Data:
• Object models retain traditional DBMS features
including:
– End user tools
– High level Query languages
– Concurrency control
– Recovery
– Ability to handle huge amounts of data
• Include two other major concepts

– Object management
 Management of complex kinds of data such as multimedia and
procedures
– Knowledge management
 Management of large numbers of complex rules for reasoning and
maintaining integrity constraints between data
7-14
Managing Data:
• Finally, security is of major importance in
today’s DBMSs
– Problem = compounded by distributed,
heterogeneous Internet-linked databases
• Companies may want to permit access to some

portions of their databases whilst restricting
other portions
– This selective accessibility requires reliably
authenticating ‘users’
• Unless security and integrity are strictly
enforced, users will not be able to (fully) trust
the systems
7-15
Managing Data
Getting Corporate Data
into Shape
7-16
Getting Corporate Data into Shape
• In the midst of this growing richness of data and
information, companies are still struggling to get their
internal alphanumeric data under control
• The installation of company-wide software packages

such as SAP, enterprise data warehouses, and
intranets has once again brought to the fore the
problems of “dirty data”
– Data from different databases that has:
• Different names
• Uses different time frames, or
• That otherwise does not match
• Attempts to get under control go back a long way:
– Late ’60s / early ’70s = DBMS
– Then = the still evolving and important role of “data
administration:
• Managing all the computerized data resources of a company
7-17
Getting Corporate Data into Shape:
The Problem: Inconsistent Data Definitions
• Problem: data definitions incompatible from:
– Application to application
– Department to department
– Site to site, and
– Division to division
• Reason: to get application systems up and running

quickly, system designers sought data from the
cheapest source or politically expedient source
• Result: different files with:
– Different names for same data, and
– Same name for different data etc.
7-18
The Problem: Inconsistent Data Definitions cont.
• Account Number
• AcctNum
• AcctNumb
• Acct#
• A/CNum
• Note: people (in the majority of cases) weren’t

stupid
– They never dreamt their files / databases etc. would be
used in this manner
– Historical ‘stand alone’ computing
• Information collation, use, communication etc. = never
thought possible
7-19
The Role of Data Administration
• The use of DBMS - database management
software, reduced, to some extent, the
problems of inconsistent and redundant data
in organizations
– However merely installing & running a DBMS is not
sufficient to manage data as a corporate resource
• Database administration: concentrates on

administering databases and the software that
manages them
7-20
The Role of Data Administration cont.
• Data administration is broader:

– To determine what data is being used outside the
organizational unit that creates it
– Whenever data crosses organizational boundaries,
its definition and format need to be standardized
• Data dictionaries are the main tools by which

data administrators control standard data
definitions
7-21
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
• To bring order to the data mess, data administration

has four main functions:
1. Clean up the data definitions
2. Control shared data
3. Manage data distribution, and
4. Maintain data quality
• Interestingly, many companies really did not take

these four jobs seriously until the mid 1990s, when
they needed consistent data to install a company-
wide ERP package
• ERP provided the means to consolidate data to give
management a corporate-wide view of operations
– E.g. MeadWestVaco (Chapter 1)
7-22
Monsanto
Case Example: Managing Corporate Data / ERP
• Monsanto case study to illustrate one company’s
success in getting its corporate data in shape
• Monsanto is a provider of agricultural products,
pharmaceuticals, food ingredients, and chemicals.
50% revenues outside USA, it is decentralized
• Monsanto established three large enterprise wide

IT projects:
1. To redevelop operational and financial transaction
systems using SAP
2. To develop a knowledge-management architecture,
including data warehousing, and
3. To link transaction and decision support systems via
common master data, known as enterprise reference
data (ERD)
7-23
7-24
Monsanto
Case Example: Managing Corporate Data / ERP cont.
• Monsanto is too large and complex to operate SAP

as a single installation
– They have created a distributed SAP architecture
– With separate instances of SAP for reference data, finance,
and operations in each business unit
 The master reference data integrates these distributed
components
• To convert SAP data to knowledge, Monsanto uses

data warehouses
– The sole source of master data is the ERD, but the data
can be distributed wherever they are needed
• To get corporate data in shape, Monsanto created a
department called ERD Stewardship to set data
standards and enforce quality—hence its nickname,
“the data police.”
– Independent of MIS
7-25
Monsanto
Case Example: Managing Corporate Data / ERP cont.
• Another newly created function is entity specialists =

managers with the greatest stake in the quality of
data
• Also, data managers who now adhere to the new
ERD rules
– This has led to a cultural change: The idea of “tweaking” a
system to fix a local discrepancy, formerly common, can
now cause a major disruption in operations or a bad
decision based on faulty data
• Getting the data in shape was a huge undertaking,
but it has made the company more flexible
• Monsanto is already reaping bottom-line benefits
from better integration and greater flexibility
7-26
• Once enterprises get their data into shape, that
data can more easily be turned into information
“Information is power.”
“We are in the Information Age.”
• These and similar statements would lead you to
believe that managing information is a key
corporate activity
– Technology = infrastructure;
– Asset = information that runs on that infrastructure
• It also raises a number of management issues

7-27
Four Types of Information
• In Figure 7-3 we looked at a matrix

representing the full scope of data information
resources:
• Internal record-based information, such as
those found in databases
– Which we discussed in detail but there are others:
• Internal document-based information, such as
reports, opinions, e-mails and proposals. Pertains
to concepts: ideas, thoughts, etc.
• External/record-based information, such as
acquisition from external databases.
• External/document-based: WWW
7-28
7-29
7-30
Four Types of Information cont.
• Internal record-based information was the original focus of IS
departments because it is the type of information that computer
applications generate and manage easily
• External record-based = accessible via Internet or public
databases
– Including subscription
• Until recently = little attention to internal and external document-
based information because it was so difficult to manipulate in
computers
– Intranets changed this
– Documents = integral part of information on these sites
• Responsibility = now on IS, even if just for technical issues
• Four areas were responsibility of different areas but now IS is
likely to be involved in some way
7-31
7-32
Data Warehouses
• Data warehouse: Houses data used to make

decisions
– This data is obtained periodically from transaction databases
– The warehouse provides a snapshot of a situation at a
specific time
• Data warehouses differ from operational databases in that they

do not house data used to process daily transactions
– Operational databases have the latest data
– Data warehouses = not so ‘time critical’
– Like ERP systems, they, too, spurred getting record-based data into
shape
• The most common data warehoused are customer data, used to

discover how to more effectively market to current customers as
well as non-customers with the same characteristics
7-33
Data Warehouses cont.
• The simplest (MIS) tools generate

perforated reports or permit ad hoc queries
• Warehouses are reaching beyond reporting

internal data
– They are being combined with purchased data,
such as demographic data, late breaking news
and even weather reports, to uncover trends or
correlations that competitors might not spot
– To give a company a competitive edge
7-34
Key Concepts:
• Metadata: The part of the warehouse that defines the data. Metadata
means “data about data.”
– Metadata explains the meaning of each data element, how each element
relates to each other, etc.
– It sets the standard – without it data from different legacy systems cannot
be reconciled, so the data will not be “clean”
• Quality data: Is the cleaning process to adhere to metadata standards
– The older the data the more suspect its quality
• Data marts: Is a subset of data pulled off the warehouse for a specific
group of users
– In the early 1990s, one huge warehouse was envisaged, but proved un-
practical due to long search times and large cost factors
7-35
5 Steps in a Data Warehousing Project:

1. Define the business uses of the data
2. Create the data model for the warehouse
• i.e. defining the relationships between the data elements
3. Cleanse the data
4. Select the user tools
• Consider the users point of view by selecting the tools they will use
& then training them on tool use
 Monitor usage and system performance
• Data warehouses are seen as strategic assets that can yield new
insights into customer behavior, internal operations, product mixes
and the like
• But to gain the benefits, companies must take the step of
reconciling data from numerous legacy systems
– = Make sure the data is ‘right’ 7-36
OWENS & MINOR
Case Example: Data Warehousing
• Illustrates numerous ways O&M are using

its data for competitive advantage
• Includes us of
– ERP
– Data warehousing
– Web
• Not only for internal use but as the basis for
new revenue-generating services to
customers and suppliers
• Shows how innovative companies can use
advanced information management
technologies
7-37
OWENS & MINOR
Case Example: Data Warehousing cont.
• This distributor of name-brand medical and surgical supplies
uses ERP, data warehousing, and the Web
– Not only for internal use of data
– But as the basis for new revenue-generating services to
customers and suppliers
• It is using its data for competitive advantage

– It augmented its ERP system to automate order forecasting,
which:
 Improved inventory turns
 Lowered ordering rates from five-times-a-week to once-a-week, and
 Improved customer service
– It implemented an Internet-based inventory management
system so that customers could order over the Internet, even
using handheld devices
– It even offered access to its data warehouse and decision
support software to customers and suppliers who use the data
to run their businesses
7-38
OWENS & MINOR
Case Example: Data Warehousing cont.
• Delivering this information over the Web has:

– Strengthened its relationships with trading
partners
– Given it a market-leading feature to entice
new customers, and
– Turned the data warehouse into a new
source of revenue
• When the system was rolled out, it was the
first “e-business intelligence application” in the
medical and surgical supply distribution
industry
• As a result, O&M has become an important
“infomediary” in its industry
7-39
Document Management
• Even in today’s Internet-rich world, paper still plays a major role
in most enterprises
• There is also a need to move seamlessly between digital and
printed versions of documents; hence, the importance of
document management
• The field of electronic document management (EDM) uses new
technologies to manage information resources that do not fit
easily into traditional databases
• EDM addresses organizing and managing conceptual,
descriptive, and ambiguous multimedia content.
• Applying technology to process traditional documents makes a
major change in what documents can accomplish in
organizations
7-40
Document Management cont.
• It is hard to think of anything more pervasive and
fundamental to an organization than documents
– The impact of applying emerging technologies to document
management is potentially significant
– EDM contributes to business process redesign
• Numerous EDM applications generate value. The
‘Big 3’ are:
1. To improve the publishing process
2. To support organizational processes
3. To support communications among people and groups
• The concept of just-in-time (printing, publishing and

forms processing) pervades the design philosophy
in all three areas
7-41
Document Management:
Improving the Publishing Process
• Technology enables a major restructuring of the
process of publishing and distributing paper
documents
• Traditional Process – designed primarily for high
volume and high quality documents – shown in
Figure 7-6
• Process has inefficiencies:
– Infrequent long print run requires storing
documents which become obsolete between
runs
– 60% of the total cost of delivering theses
documents is in storage & transportation 7-42
7-43
Improving the Publishing Process cont.
• Figure 7-7 shows the steps in the revised

publishing/distribution process using newer
technologies
– Documents are stored electronically, shipped over
a network, and printed when they are needed
• The major benefits result from reducing

obsolescence, eliminating warehouse costs &
reducing or eliminating delivery time
7-44
7-45
HICSS PERSONAL PROCEEDINGS
Case Example – EDM: Improving the Publishing Process
Hawaii International Conference – System Sciences:
• Decided to produce a paper book of abstracts, with a

CD ROM of the full papers
• Many participants wanted to see the full papers at the
conference
• A month before the proceedings participants can use a

Web site to choose 20 papers they would like to have
in their personal paper proceedings
• Additional papers can be printed individually using a
“print on demand” service
– For a ‘nominal’ fee
7-46
Supporting Communication Among People and Groups
• The value of documents is that they

transfer information across time and space
– Internet can help but often still rely on ‘paper’
documents
• EDM can be used to facilitate such

communications among people and groups
7-47
TAPIOLA INSURANCE GROUP
Case Example – EDM: Supporting Communications
Among People and Groups
• Tapiola Group offered 150 kinds of

insurance policies with 300 different
insurance policy forms
– All preprinted by an outside print shop
• Reprinting new forms often took weeks

– Which represents possible loss of revenue
7-48
Among People and Groups cont.
Document Processing Goals

• Investigate alternate way to print policies &
statements
– Goals:
2. Reduce costs
3. Stop using preprinted forms
4. Give Tapiola marketing people new ways to
advertise insurance products
5. To make Tapiola “the most personal insurance
company in Finland”
7-49
Centralized Solution
• Switched to plain paper printers from Rank
Xerox
• Products for electronic document processing
– document can included text, data, image &
graphics
Conversion of the output equipment took 15

months = reduce 300 preprinted forms to 4
7-50
Decentralized Expansion
• Document processing conversion – one part of the effort
to improve & humanize their customer correspondence
• Moved much of the printing of customer
correspondence to their 62 branch offices
• Mission accomplished:
– $$$ 
– Tapiola is seen by Finland citizens as a dynamic company - &
have the best reputation among young people of all insurance
groups
7-51
Supporting Organizational Processes
• Documents are still the vehicle for accomplishing

most processes in organizations
– Many such = “Workflow systems” – heavily based on the
physical circulation of paper forms
• The use of technology to support processes

generates significant value in reducing physical space
for handling forms, faster routing of forms, and
managing and tracking forms flow & workload
• In addition to improving transaction-oriented business

processes with EDM, many organizations are
improving the management processes of reporting,
control, decision making, and problem solving as well
7-52
TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY
Case Example: EDM: Supporting Organizational
Processes
• Largest supplier of power in US

• Revamped maintenance management system
– System relies on documents such as manuals, drawing &
work instructions that are regulated by the government
• Analyzed & charted existing work processes,

determined which improvements were most needed
• Investigate how to do so and discovered work
orders were inextricably linked to document
workflow & the ways procedures were managed
7-53
TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY
Case Example: EDM: Supporting Organizational
Processes cont.
• New process – electronically combined maintenance orders in one

system with procedural document management in another system, &
eliminated a number of existing systems that didn’t talk to one another
– Maintenance workers can now access documentation on equipment, parts
and records as well as work instructions from desktop machines
– Work orders are generated electronically and then routed for approval with the
most current drawings and procedures attached
• The system has been successful – BUT – the team underestimated the
change management effort needed
– Including bringing many employees up to speed on using computers
• Labor savings were large

– The average amount of human time spent processing a work order has
decreased by almost half from 39 hours to 23 hours
• Improved document management system is contributing to knowledge

management
7-54
Content Management
• Corporate intranets now house documents that were

previously paper-based
• A major reason content has become important to
CIOs is because it is a core management discipline
underlying online business
– Without production-level Web content, management
processes, and technologies, large-scale e-business is not
possible
– Use of XML moves Web content from being in a human-only
readable format to being in a computer-readable format
– Thus, the content can be passed to back-end transaction
processing systems and cause an action to take place
• Content is no longer static; it is active 7-55
Content Management cont.
• To create a content management

strategy, companies need to understand
the three phases of the content
management life cycle:
– Managing Content Creation and Acquisition
– Content Administration and Safeguarding
– Content Deployment and Presentation
7-56
7-57
Content Management:
Managing Content Creation and Acquisition
• Content creation and acquisition need to
focus on creating content quality
– That’s why it might be wise to buy some content
from specialists – which is called syndicated
content – rather than create it in-house
• The best organizational structure is to

distribute content creation and maintenance to
content-expert employees
– But to avoid anarchy, these dispersed experts
should be directed centrally, and use centrally-
created formats and an automated workflow
system that moves their work along 7-58
Content Management:
Content Administration and Safeguarding
• The emphasis in this phase, like any

operational phase, is efficiency
– Goal = achieve the most with the least effort
• Content management tools can be used
to identify types of content and the
business rules that apply to each type
• Whereas content creation should be
distributed, content administration should
be centralized
7-59
Content Management:
Content Deployment and Presentation
• The emphasis in this phase should be effectiveness:
– Presenting the content so that it:
• Attracts visitors
• Allows them to navigate the site easily, and
• Leads them to the desired actions
• Because this phase can determine the success of a firm’s e-

commerce efforts, it’s best to design a Website beginning with
this phase
– Then move on to ensuring content quality and processing efficiency
– Eastman-Kodak case: moving from an ‘inside-out’ view to taking its
customers point of view
• Today most Web sites need certain features to attract and keep
visitors. Two of the most important are:
1. Personalization = allowing visitors to customize how they view the
page
2. Localization = tailoring a site to a culture, market or locale
7-60
EASTMAN CHEMICAL COMPANY
Case Example: Content Management
• This global manufacturer of chemicals had a

Website in 1994
• It redesigned the site in 1999 to become more
customer-focused and to launch a major e-
commerce program
• Eastman changed the Website structure from

presenting an inside-out view (based on its
corporate structure) to presenting an outside-in view
(with sections devoted to the markets the company
serves)
• Eastman selected a content management product to
create pre-approved templates for employees to use
7-61
EASTMAN CHEMICAL COMPANY
Case Example: Content Management cont.
• The benefits of the redesign were far greater
than expected
• Today, traffic has tripled (more than 50
percent from outside the United States) and
70 percent of the hits are in the market
sectors, where Eastman sells its products
• Customers report that the online availability
of technical data has significantly
accelerated their internal decision-making
processes
• It’s now working on globalizing and
personalizing the site even more
7-62
Content Management:
Managing Blogs
• Blog = short for “Web Log”
– Web site where an individual makes intermittent
Web postings – an online journal
• Powerful tools
– Compete with major media
– Influence on e.g. politics and company policy
• 2004 U.S. elections
• Some forward thinking companies have
recognized the power of this immediate form
of publishing and communication
– Used for crisis management?
– Employees need to be careful else = trouble
– Opportunities and challenges for organizations
7-63
GROOVE NETWORKS
Case Example: Managing blogs
• Views personal websites and blogs positively

• Has issued Employee Guidelines for Personal
Website and Weblogs
– Make it clear to readers that the views you express are
yours and not necessarily those of the company
– Take care not to disclose any confidential information
• Company
• Third party
– Since your site is a public space, be respectful to
• Company
• Our employees
• Our customers etc.
– ….Finally, the company may request that you temporarily
confine your commentary to topics unrelated to the company
7-64
Conclusion
• The job of managing information resources is
widening significantly
• Not only must IS departments get corporate
data in shape, but they also need to create and
build an infrastructure for managing the full
range of information types
• In some ways, the Internet helps because it
gives companies an easily accessible place to
store information
• On the other hand, the Internet has also
contributed mightily to the information glut we
all face
7-65

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Managing Information

• It begins by identifying some problems in managing data, and

• Next = expanded to include “information” (data with

• As the breadth of the kinds of information resources has

• Information in the form of documents (electronic or paper)

• Database management systems are the

• They have been around since the 1960s

• Level 2 - The logical or “enterprise data” level

• Level 3 - The physical or storage level, specifying the

• Level 2 absorbs changes made at Level 3 such

• Data only needs to be stored once in Level 2,

The second major concept in database management

• Hierarchical model: structures data so that each

• Network model: allows each data item to have more

• Relational systems are not as efficient as hierarchical or

• Hence, they have become the database technology of choice in

• The tenets of objects have become increasingly important in the

• Typical, yet complex database applications that may require

• Include two other major concepts

• Companies may want to permit access to some

• The installation of company-wide software packages

• Reason: to get application systems up and running

• Note: people (in the majority of cases) weren’t

• Database administration: concentrates on

• Data administration is broader:

• Data dictionaries are the main tools by which

• To bring order to the data mess, data administration

• Interestingly, many companies really did not take

• Monsanto established three large enterprise wide

• Monsanto is too large and complex to operate SAP

• To convert SAP data to knowledge, Monsanto uses

• Another newly created function is entity specialists =

• It also raises a number of management issues

• In Figure 7-3 we looked at a matrix

• Data warehouse: Houses data used to make

• Data warehouses differ from operational databases in that they

• The most common data warehoused are customer data, used to

• The simplest (MIS) tools generate

• Warehouses are reaching beyond reporting

5 Steps in a Data Warehousing Project:

• Illustrates numerous ways O&M are using

• It is using its data for competitive advantage

• Delivering this information over the Web has:

• The concept of just-in-time (printing, publishing and

• Figure 7-7 shows the steps in the revised

• The major benefits result from reducing

Hawaii International Conference – System Sciences:

• Decided to produce a paper book of abstracts, with a

• A month before the proceedings participants can use a

• The value of documents is that they

• EDM can be used to facilitate such

• Tapiola Group offered 150 kinds of

• Reprinting new forms often took weeks

Document Processing Goals

Conversion of the output equipment took 15

• Documents are still the vehicle for accomplishing

• The use of technology to support processes

• In addition to improving transaction-oriented business

• Largest supplier of power in US

• Analyzed & charted existing work processes,

• New process – electronically combined maintenance orders in one

• Labor savings were large