An Executive Support System (ESS) is software that analyzes enterprise data and presents it to executives in accessible reports. This helps executives make decisions by streamlining access to key performance indicators from across departments. Rather than manually compiling spreadsheets, an ESS integrates data, detects patterns, and alerts executives to opportunities or problems. When an ESS is not used, executives have to manually gather and analyze information from different sources to make reactive decisions, whereas an ESS supports proactive decision-making.

1. Executive Support
System
(Executive Information System)

2. Scenario
How do you make
business decisions?

3. Scenario
If you’re like most executives, then you
probably have one of those enormous Excel
spreadsheets, a dozen tabs wide, with data
from various departments.

4. Scenario
• It is painstaking to build and update a spreadsheet with figures from every
department of your organization.
• The data always needs to fit together nicely and there is a high risk for
human error.
• Even if all the numbers are keyed in correctly, when analyzing the data,
the sharpest CEO will often miss a reoccurring pattern or red flag amongst
their KPIs.
• The opportunity costs of this kind of manual process are also staggering.
• Crunching numbers in spreadsheets leaves executives, or the staff
developing these reports, with very little time and energy to then analyze
that data and create forecasts that positively influence business decisions.

5. Definition
• ESS is also known as Executive Information System
(EIS).
• An Executive Support System (ESS) is software that
allows users to transform enterprise data into
quickly accessible and executive-level reports, such
as those used by billing, accounting and staffing
departments. An ESS enhances decision making for
executives.

6. Cont……
 ESS provides a signal of problem that indicate strategic threat/opportunity
 This system helps in taking unstructured decision
 It helps senior managers to monitor organizational performance, track
activities of competitor, spot problems, identify opportunities and forecast
trends.

7. Cont….
 Executive information system combine features of MIS and DSS. It provide
executives information about critical success factor. CSF are factor essential
for success of organization. A retail store may compare sales on basis of online
sales vs traditional sales.
 It protects executive from information overload. This is done by providing
drill down facility to executives. Drill down means going into detail of a
particular highlighted area. E.g. instead of closing stock we may drill down to
opening stock, sales , good return etc.
 Other information areas of EIS are exception reporting and trend analysis

8. Cont….
 The major challenge is integrating different system so executive may get
relevant information

 ESS provides very easy to use modelling and analysis tools and graphical
interface which do not need heavy experience in the IT field.

9. Components
Hardware Software
User InterfaceTelecommunication

10. Architecture of ESS
OLAP DATA

11. Where is ESS?

12. Range of ESS
ESS mainly deals with data related to key
departments like billing, accounting,
scheduling, staffing etc. In addition to
providing quick access to the data, ESS also
acts as an analysis tool and provides good
understanding of the various possible
outcomes depending upon the changes in
input data.

13. Range(Cont’d)
ESS thus saves valuable time of the executives in
digging the huge pile of information to identify
the critical data and helps them spend more
time on brainstorming and decision making by
providing only the required data. ESS can be
used to view and analyse both the present data
and predicted future data.

14. (Range)Cont’d
ESS can be customized to suite the user
requirements and its functioning is solely
dependent on the skills of the developer.

15. Features
• Contemporary ESS bring together data from all parts of the
firm and enable managers to select, access, and tailor them
as needed using easy-to-use desktop analytical tools and
online data displays.
• Through their ESS, many managers have access to public data,
such as news services, financial market databases, and
economic information.
• ESS has the ability to drill down, moving from a piece of
summary data to lower and lower levels of detail.
• Well-designed ESS also has some facility for environmental
scanning.

16. • A key information requirement of
managers at the strategic level is the
ability to detect signals of problems in
the organizational environment that
indicate strategic threats and
opportunities.
• Ability to analyze, compares, and
highlight trends.
Features()Cont’d

17. Advantages
• Improved personal efficiency
• Increased organizational control
• Competitive advantage over competitors
• Automation of the managerial processes.

18. If there is no ESS/EIS?
Without ESS: A Re-Active Business Decision
• A CEO receives a call from an online advertising company
offering an incredible rate on pay-per-click ads, but for a
limited time.
• Now it’s up to the CEO to quickly figure out which products
will yield the most return on the advertising investment.
• First the executive logs into an online advertising dashboard
to compare costs, response rates and return from previous
campaigns.
• Then he gets on the phone with a warehouse account
manager, or logs into an inventory management database.

19. • From the warehouse, he finds out the cost to ship
each product, the list price of each product and
which products have been sitting on the shelves the
longest or accruing the most storage fees.
• With all of this data and information in place, the
executive can figure out which product will likely
yield the highest return and finally respond to the
advertising offer before the deadline expires.
If there is no ESS/EIS?

20. What will happen when we use ESS/EIS
inside an organization?
With ESS: A Pro-Active Business Decision
• The ESS sends an alert to the company CEO that product “X” was stored
for “X” number of days, or that the warehouse storage costs for product
“X” have exceeded a certain total dollar amount.
• Working from that report, the executive alerts his sales and marketing
employees to research the most cost-effective ways to move product “X”
off the shelves.
• Here the CEO is not scrambling to reply to an outside call from an
advertising company
• The ESS alert put him in the driver’s seat and gave the sales and marketing
team lead time to find the best

21. Screenshots

22. Screenshots(Cont’d)

23. Future of ESS
• Toolbox for customized systems
• Multimedia support
• Better access (via PDFs and cell phones)
• Virtual Reality and 3-D Image Displays
• Merging of analytical systems (OLAP /
multidimensional analysis)) with desktop publishing
• Client/server architecture
• Web-enabled EIS
• Automated support and intelligent assistance
• Integration of EIS and Group Support Systems
• Global EIS
• Integration and deployment with ERP products

24. Summary
• Executive Support Systems meet the needs of
corporate executives by providing them with vast
amounts of Information quickly and in graphical form
to help them make effective decisions.
• ESS must be flexible, easy to use, and contain both
internal and external sources of information.