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Kinds of Systems
Executive Support
Strategic planning
Plant opening/closing
Mgmt Reporting
EEO, OSHA, etc.
absenteeism by department
Decision Support
staffing (long and short term)
benefits planning
Transaction Processing
time and attendance
forms requests
benefits enrollment
Workflow
recruitment & hiring
performance appraisal
Transaction Processing
• Basic, routine requests
– Time & attendance records
– Benefits enrollment
• Normally done with a form
– Labor intensive & Error prone
• Automation of routine transactions provides
data that other processes can use
(informating HR work)
Management Reporting
• Basic, routine questions
– How many people work here?
– What are we paying them?
• Also need capability to generate “ad hoc”
reports to answer non-routine questions
• Client-server systems can enable more
flexible reporting by allowing users to
design their own reports
Workflow
• Most transactions require multiple steps
– Hiring is a classic example
• Where does the paperwork go next?
• Workflow systems expedite processing by
moving the “paperwork” from step to step
electronically
• Vision: the paperless office
Decision Support
• Algorithms can be used for routine
decisions
– daily/weekly/seasonal staffing levels)
• Analysis tools can be used to support nonroutine decisions
– When bargaining over wages or benefits, DSS
can help analyze true costs over time.
Enterprise Resource Planning
• Very popular category of software
– PeopleSoft, SAP, Oracle, Baan, JD Edwards,
etc.
• Objectives:
– integrate HR, financial and manufacturing data
into a single system
– Facilitate operations and decision-making
• Can be very complex: thousands of tables!
Special purpose systems
• Many other kinds of systems are available
– Job description writers
– Applicant &resume tracking
– Test administration
• Or you can write your own
• A constant issue: systems integration
(getting systems to work together)
What do systems do?
• Automating: replacing human work with
machines
– Generally aimed at cost reduction
• Informating: creating information as a by
product of work
– Feeds management decision making
– Can enhance effectiveness
• HR Systems can do either or both
What goes on in your PC?
Random Access Memory: RAM
Input Devices
Output Devices
• keyboards
• pens
• scanners
• bar code
• network
interface
• audio
interface
• video
interface
...
GET xxxx, R1
GET yyyy, R2
ADD R1, R2
PUT R0, zzzz
...
Disk Storage
Backup
Storage:
• tape
• optical
• screens
• printers
• network
interface
• audio
interface
• video
interface
What does the OS do?
• It talks to the little man!
• Multi-processing
– Can you print and edit at the same time?
– Which process gets the little man’s attention?
• Memory management
– Where is everything stored right now?
• Input/Output (I/O)
– Disk, keyboard, video, network, etc.
Systems have layers
End User SW (e.g., HR/Vantage)
Application SW
Network SW
Network
Operating system (I/O, process & memory mgmt)
Hardware (CPU, RAM, disk, etc.)
Examples of each layer
End User SW (e.g., HR/Vantage)
MS Access
TCP/IP
Operating system (Win98, Linux, MacOS, etc.)
Hardware (Pentium, PowerPC, etc.)
Internet
Client/Server Systems
• A way of distributing computing resources,
such as:
– Files -- data and programs
– Processing
– I/O devices (print, fax, etc.)
• Objective: To create flexible infrastructure
and provide information at your fingertips
Why is C/S so popular?
• Hoped-for benefits (pull)
– lower cost, greater IS value
– greater functionality & flexibility
– fits 1990s organizational paradigm
• Enabling technology available (push)
– Cheap, powerful hardware
– Relational database technology
– Network technology (the intranet)
Trend toward distributed resources
• 20 years ago
– Central mainframe running batch jobs
– Dumb terminals, but limited interactivity
• 10 years ago
– Central mainframe
– Mini- and micro-computers attached
• Recently
– Increased network capacity & cheap PCs
– 90% of corporate MIPS are on the desktop
What is a client?
• A process that interacts with the user to:
–
–
–
–
provide a user interface
formulate queries (for example)
communicate with server
analyze data returned from server
• Examples:
– WWW browsers like Netscape are clients
– E-mail readers like Eudora or MS Outlook
What is a server?
• A set of processes that:
– provides services to client(s)
– responds to requests (does not initiate)
– makes the system transparent to client
• Examples:
– Web servers respond to requests for web pages
– Also: File servers, email servers, print servers…
Client/Server Architecture
Client:
•HR/Vantage
•MS Access
•TCP/IP
•Win98
•Intel CPU
TCP/IP
Web Server?
Server:
•HR/Vantage
•MS Access
•TCP/IP
•WinNT
•Intel CPU
Database server?
A Few Examples
Clients:
•Wintel
•MacOS
•“Thin” client
There are many
more examples in
each category!!
TCP/IP
Web Servers
•Apache
•MS IIS
•Netscape
Servers:
•Unix/Linux
•WinNT
•AS/400
Databases
•Oracle
•Sybase
•SQL Server
Popular OS’s for Servers
• UNIX (2,575,347 Web pages…)
• LINUX (3,139,952 web pages…)
– http://www.redhat.com/ -- it’s free!
• Windows NT (1,781,753 Web pages…)
– SSC and SLIR servers run NT 4.0
• IBM AS/400 (545,150 pages. . .)
– http://www.as400.ibm.com/
HR & client server systems
• Most major HR applications use clientserver technology
– Data are centralized and can be shared
– Access and decision-making can be
decentralized
• Examples:
– open positions need to be posted everywhere
– Policies and procedures, benefits enrollment. . .
C/S systems are not simple
• Lots of pieces interacting
– Server platform, client platform, network ...
• Maintenance is expensive
• Security and control is always a concern
– Who should have access? To which data?
• HR requires excellent support from IS to
make these systems successful