Kinds of Systems

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Kinds of Systems
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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)

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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

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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

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Decision Support

• Algorithms can be used for routine decisions
• daily/weekly/seasonal staffing levels)
• Analysis tools can be used to support non-routine
  decisions
• When bargaining over wages or benefits, DSS can
  help analyze true costs over time.

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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!

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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)

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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

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What goes on in your PC?
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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 mans attention?
• Memory management
• Where is everything stored right now?
• Input/Output (I/O)
• Disk, keyboard, video, network, etc.

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Systems have layers
End User SW (e.g., HR/Vantage)
Application SW
Network SW
Operating system (I/O, process memory mgmt)
Hardware (CPU, RAM, disk, etc.)
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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.)
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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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Client/Server Architecture
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A Few Examples
There are many more examples in each category!!
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Popular OSs for Servers

• UNIX (2,575,347 Web pages)
• LINUX (3,139,952 web pages)
• http//www.redhat.com/ -- its 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/

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HR client server systems

• Most major HR applications use client-server
  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. . .

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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