End User Computing (TQM)

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Bocij, Chaffey, Greasley, Hickie, Business Information Systems, 3rd Edition © Pearson Education Limited 2006

Chapter 16

End-user computing

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Learning objectives• After this lecture, you will be able to:• define the range of services that must be delivered to support

end-users effectively;• distinguish between the general term end-user computing and

the more specific end-user development;• analyse the risks associated with pursuing end-user

development of information systems as part of a company’s IS strategy;

• recommend policies for the effective management of end-user computing within an organisation;

• recommend new information systems applications that could reasonably be developed by end-user staff within an organisation.

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Management issues

• Managerial issues involved with controlling the use of information systems by end-users include:– Assessing the emphasis to be placed on end-user

software development activities.– Providing a suitable support function to assist end-

users in their use of computers.– Ensuring the appropriate skill levels for end-users

through staff development and training.– Controlling the cost of end-user activities and support.

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End-user computing

• End-user computing (EUC): All uses of computers by business people who are not information systems professionals.

• End-user development (EUD): Systems development and programming undertaken by non-IS staff.

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End-user IS services

• End-user IS services: All services required to support end-users in running their PCs and developing and using applications

1. Provide a help-desk service.

2. Achieve standardisation of software.

3. Ensure network efficiency.

4. Provide training.

5. Delivering services to end-users cost-effectively.

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Managing costs

• The costs involved with running a help desk are indicated by the Help Desk Institute annual survey (2004) which shows that the median cost of an incident reported via phone is $20.

• E-mail and web self-service are lower at $16 and $5, but are still significant costs when multiplied across a large organization.

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TCO• Total cost of ownership (TCO): TCO refers to the

total cost for a company operating a computer. This includes not only the purchase or leasing cost but also the cost of all the services needed to support the end-user.

• TCO includes non-purchase costs such as:– the loss of productive work time when users are unable

to use their computer;– the loss of productive work time when someone is

trying to fix a colleague’s problem (this type of unofficial support can be very costly);

– the cost of consumables such as paper and toner for printing.

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Figure 16.1 Breakdown of the total cost of ownershipSource: Gartner Group (1996).

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Recommendations on reducing TCO

• People – training end-users and IT staff to make optimal use of cost-controlling processes and technologies.

• Processes – automating some tasks and streamlining others, ranging from asset tracking to software updating.

• Technologies – deploying information technologies that minimize and in some cases eliminate the widest range of labor-intensive tasks.

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The Lois Franxhi case

• Lois Franxhi, a 28-year-old IT manager who was sacked in July 1998 for making nearly 150 searches over four days in office hours for a holiday.

• As with many unfair dismissals, the case was not clearcut, with Mrs Franxhi claiming that the company sacked her because of sex discrimination – she was pregnant at the time of the dismissal.

• The tribunal dismissed these claims, finding that the employee had lied about the use of the Internet, saying she had only used it for one lunchtime when, in fact, records showed that she had used it over four days.

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Enabling employee access to the Internet

• In this scenario, you are a senior manager at a B2B company who has just read the latest International Benchmarking study commissioned by the DTI () which presents data from different countries on Internet and e-mail access levels (Figs 16.2 and 16.3). Employee access to the Internet or e-mail for your company is limited. You want to remain competitive, but are concerned about the issues of staff time wasting indicated by an article you read in the Guardian and the cost and possible problems with employee relations of monitoring staff access.

Questions• Referring to Figures 16.2 and 16.3,• prepare a list of advantages and disadvantages of enabling

widespread employee access;

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Figure 16.2 Average percentage of employees making daily use of e-mailSource: DTI (2003).

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Figure 16.3 Firms with Internet accessSource: DTI (2003).

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Employee communications monitoring• Employee communications monitoring:

Companies monitor staff e-mails and web sites they access

• Acceptable use policy: Statement of employee activities involving use of networked computers that are not considered acceptable by management

• Scanning software• Identifies e-mail or web page access that breaches

company guidelines or acceptable use policies• Filtering software• Software that blocks specified content or activities

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End-user computing• The term end-user computing has different meanings according

to the context in which it is used. The following statements could all refer to end-user computing:– all tools by which non-data-processing staff handle their own

problems without professional programmers;– creative use of data processing by non-data-processing experts;– complex computing by non-data-processing professionals to

answer organisational information needs;– non-technical end-users using user-friendly, fourth-generation

languages (4GLs) and PCs to generate reports or build decision support systems;

– the use of computer hardware and software by people in organisations whose jobs are usually classified as net users of information systems rather than net developers of information systems.

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Three main types of end-user computing

• The three main types of end-user computing can be defined as:– end-user-developed computer-based information

systems for personal, departmental or organisation-wide use, where the end-user is a non-IT professional;

– end-user control of which hardware and package applications are purchased for use in their department;

– end-user use of existing information systems.

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Table 16.1 Different types of end-user personnel. Updated descriptions based on

original classes of Rockart and Flannery (1983).

Class Term Description

1 Non-programming end-users These are users of software developed by others

2 Command-level end-users These are users who use more sophisticated

(power users) functions of a package, such as formulas and

macros in a spreadsheet such as Excel

3 Programming-level end-users Here users write their own functions using add -on

application languages such as Visual Basic for

Applications

4 Functional support personnel These are support staff who work in one area of

(business analysts and developers) the business to provide end-user development

and support

5 End-user computing support These are the support staff who exist to

personnel (help-desk staff) troubleshoot hardware and software problems that

are encountered by users in Classes 1 to 3

6 Data-processing programmers This type of programming staff has traditionally

(application developers) worked on company operational or reporting

systems

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The IT help desk

• Help desk: A central facility in an organisation which provides end-user help-desk services such as phone support for troubleshooting end-user software and hardware problems, training, guidance on end-user development and management of user information.

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Roles of IT Help desk• Help-desk support for user problems: The Mini Case Study ‘Press delete for

IT time wasters’ shows the type of problem that commonly occurs and how the cost of support can potentially be reduced through education.

• Advice on software purchase: This ensures that the software is suitable for its purpose and is compatible with hardware, other software and company purchasing schemes.

• Advice on hardware purchase: This will usually be a centralised standard, again to take advantage of discounts and limiting support contracts.

• Advice on how end-user development should be approached: The support person will suggest the best approaches for developing software, such as following the main parts of the lifecycle. These can be defined through more detailed training.

• Application development: For larger systems, the IC staff may be involved in performing the systems analysis and design or more difficult aspects of the programming.

• Training: In particular, on packages or development techniques.• Data management: Management and supply of data to end-users or

explanations of formats used.

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Press delete for IT time waster• The results reveal the following top 5 IT time-wasting problems:

– Why isn’t my monitor working? – My printer’s jammed – can you make it print properly? – Why can’t I send any more e-mails? – Please could you format this for me? – Why won’t it let me save onto a floppy disk?

• Problems such as these are usually easily solved and 86% of the time they don’t require IT support.

• However, 64% of IT professionals are surprised at how often they are called out to look at ‘broken’ monitors only to find they aren’t plugged in, 52% claim that they are regularly asked to un-block paper jams in printers and 54% are often asked to change toners!

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Help-desk technologies• Asset management software: Help-desk staff need to know the technical

details of the systems being used in the company and the software loaded on them. This is achieved by asset management software such as Microsoft Systems Management server. This can also distribute new software automatically.

• Computer telephony integration (CTI): CTI gives automatic phone number identification and the system will then load up the details of the computer, its current user and configuration. This allows first-tier calls to be answered much faster.

• Case-based reasoning: These systems use artificial intelligence techniques (Chapter 6) to guide the user or staff through the process of solving the problem.

• Web-based intranet access: Users can access frequently asked questions, send an e-mail or type in keywords describing their problems. Problems solved this way will save help-desk staff the time spent dealing with straightforward queries.

• Workflow: Workflow systems can be used to prioritise user queries and assign them to the staff best placed to deal with them. An example of a workflow queue used in a help desk is shown in Figure 16.4.

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Figure 16.4 Workflow system from Staffware being used to prioritise support calls

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End-user development• End-user development of applications represents a

major trend in the use of information technology in organisations.

• McGill et al. (2003) explain that: ‘User-developed applications (UDAs) are computer

based applications for which non-information systems professionals assume primary development responsibility.

They support decision making and organizational processes in the majority of Organizations’

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Typical EUD applications• Reports from a corporate database using standard enquiries defined

by the IS/IT function• Simple ad hoc queries to databases defined by the user. For someone

in an airline, for example, these might include access to a frequent flier database, customer reservation system or crew rostering system to monitor performance of each

• What-if? analysis using tools such as spreadsheet models or more specialised tools such as risk or financial management packages or business intelligence software, used for monitoring sales and marketing performance of information stored in a data warehouse

• Writing company information for a company intranet• Development of applications such as a job costing tool or production

scheduling system, using easy-to-use, high-level tools such as application generators, PC database management systems such as Microsoft Access or Borland or visual programming environments such as Microsoft Visual Basic, Borland Delphi, Powerbuilder or Centura.

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Reasons for growth of EUD• Applications backlog: The demand for new applications by users

exceeds the capacity of the IS department or IS outsourcing company to develop them.

• Improved toolsets such as Visual Basic for Applications• The desire by users to query and analyse data and generate reports

from information stored on databases available across the corporate network

• A trend to decentralisation of computing to user departments for systems to support departmental activities

• Reduced expense of application development when conducted by end-users (from departmental rather than information systems budget)

• Better fit between end-user-developed software and their requirements (since no requirements translation is needed between the users and third-party developers). End-users are also less likely to ‘over-engineer’ a solution to a basic problem than an IS professional who will want to treat every problem with rigour.

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Figure 16.6 A model of IS success that can be applied to end-user developed applications Source: Reprinted by permission, DeLone, W. and McLean, E. ‘Information system success: The quest for the dependent Variable’, Information System Research, 3(1), 1992. Copyright 1992, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), 7240 Parkway Drive, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com: office:smarttags” />Suite 310, Honover, MD 21076 USA.

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Stages of development of EUD• Isolation: A few scattered pioneers of EUD develop small-scale business

tools within their area. Initially, little support from central IS.• Standalone: Larger-scale applications that may be of importance to a

department are developed. At this stage, an information centre may be developed to support an increase in demand for user computing services.

• Manual integration: Here, different end-user applications need to exchange data. This happens through manual intervention, with files being transferred by floppy disk or across the network or even with rekeying of information. Information centre development has continued to support the needs of these larger-scale applications by providing training and skills and specifying standards for hardware, software and the development process.

• Automated integration: Users start to link into corporate applications to gain seamless access to information.

• Distributed integration: At this stage of development, there is a good level of integration between different end-user applications and corporate systems. Good standards of metadata (or data describing data in a data dictionary) are required to help achieve this.

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Risks of EUD

• Using information that is out of date• Information requires export from other information

systems before it can be analysed by the end-user application

• Corruption of centrally held data by uploading erroneous data

• Development of insecure systems without password control that are vulnerable to accidental and deliberate damage.

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EUD control approaches• Training: Provision of relevant training courses both in how to program and in how to

approach systems development in a structured way (the second of these is often omitted). This happened at the Open University, where many of the end-users wanted to omit the analysis course.

• Suitability review: Authorisation of major end-user new developments by business and IS managers to check that they are necessary (this should not be necessary for smaller-scale developments since otherwise creativity may be stifled).

• Standards for development: Such standards will recommend that documentation and structured testing of all user-developed software occurs. Detailed standards might include clear data definitions, validation rules, backup and recovery routines and security measures.

• Guidance from end-user support personnel: IC or help-desk staff can provide training in techniques used to develop software.

• Software and data audits: Regular audits of software produced by end-users should occur for data and application quality. There is an apocryphal story of a company that had an end-user-developed spreadsheet for making investment decisions which had an error in a formula that lost the company millions of pounds each year!

• Ensuring corporate data security: Ensure that users are not permitted to enter data directly into central databases except via applications especially written for the purpose by the IS department which has the necessary validation rules to ensure data quality. For analysis of corporate data, data should regularly be downloaded from the central database to the PC for analysis, where they can be analysed without causing performance problems to the corporate system.

End User Computing (TQM)

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