Kinds of Systems

Mgmt ReportingEEO, OSHA, etc. absenteeism by department

Decision Support staffing (long and short term) benefits planning

Workflow recruitment & hiring performance appraisal

Transaction Processingtime and attendance forms requests benefits enrollment

Executive SupportStrategic planningPlant opening/closing

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 non-routine 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

Backup Storage: • tape • optical

Input Devices • keyboards • pens • scanners • bar code • network

interface • audio

interface • video

interface

Output Devices • screens • printers • network

interface • audio

interface • video

interface

Disk Storage

. . . GET xxxx, R1 GET yyyy, R2 ADD R1, R2 PUT R0, zzzz . . .

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

Hardware (CPU, RAM, disk, etc.)

Operating system (I/O, process & memory mgmt)

Application SW Network SW Network

End User SW (e.g., HR/Vantage)

Examples of each layer

Hardware (Pentium, PowerPC, etc.)

Operating system (Win98, Linux, MacOS, etc.)

MS Access TCP/IP Internet

End User SW (e.g., HR/Vantage)

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

Server:•HR/Vantage•MS Access•TCP/IP•WinNT•Intel CPU

Database server?Web Server?

A Few Examples

Clients:•Wintel•MacOS•“Thin” client

TCP/IP

Servers:•Unix/Linux•WinNT•AS/400

Databases•Oracle•Sybase•SQL Server

Web Servers•Apache•MS IIS•Netscape

There are many more examples in each category!!

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 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. . .

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