Information and Decision Support Systems - Principles of Information Systems - page 404

Internet companies like Microsoft are developing systems that allow people to search the
Internet to get medical information, including lab tests, drug records, and X-rays, from dif-
ferent sources. Doctors use these systems to make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment from
remote locations.

Exception Reports
Exception reports are reports that are automatically produced when a situation is unusual
or requires management action. For example, a manager might set a parameter that generates
a report of all inventory items with fewer than the equivalent of five days of sales on hand.
This unusual situation requires prompt action to avoid running out of stock on the item.
The exception report generated by this parameter would contain only items with fewer than
five days of sales in inventory. Exception reports are used by businesses and nonprofit orga-
nizations. British Petroleum (BP), for example, uses a variety of data sources to get exception
reports about potential damage from hurricanes to their facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. 16
The company collects data from geospatial map Internet sites and its own company resources.
It then mashes up, or integrates, the different data sources into exception reports that show
the location of its oil facilities that may have been damaged from a hurricane or severe storm.
According to one company executive, “If there is any kind of damage after a storm, we want
to know about it very quickly.” Some companies, universities, and law enforcement agencies
use cell phones and text messages to send exception reports to employees, students, or neigh-
borhood residents. If a campus threat is detected or a crime committed, a text message can
be sent to students and staff with the details. The University of Texas, for example, sent a
text message to faculty, staff, and students about a potential ice storm, warning them that
the university would be closed the next day and to stay home. 17 The next day, there were
almost no students at the university, and no storm-related injuries were reported on cam-
pus. After police in the Netherlands sent a text message to neighborhood residents about a
stolen boat, a resident called to say that she found a boat that met the description of the text
message. 18 The police found the boat and arrested the criminal.
As with key-indicator reports, exception reports are most often used to monitor aspects
important to an organization's success. In general, when an exception report is produced, a
manager or executive takes action. Parameters, or trigger points , for an exception report should
be set carefully. Trigger points that are set too low might result in too many exception reports;
trigger points that are too high could mean that problems requiring action are overlooked.
For example, if a manager wants a report that contains all projects over budget by $100 or
more, the system might retrieve almost every company project. The $100 trigger point is
probably too low. A trigger point of $10,000 might be more appropriate.

exception report
A report automatically produced
when a situation is unusual or
requires management action.

Drill-Down Reports
Drill-down reports provide increasingly detailed data about a situation. Using these reports,
analysts can see data at a high level first (such as sales for the entire company), then at a more
detailed level (such as the sales for one department of the company), and then at a very detailed
level (such as sales for one sales representative). Boehringer Ingelheim ( www.boehringer-
ingelheim.com/corporate/home/home.asp ), a large German drug company with over $7 billion
in revenues and thousands of employees in 60 countries, uses a variety of drill-down reports
so it can respond rapidly to changing market conditions. Managers can drill down into more
levels of detail to individual transactions if they want. Companies and organizations of all
sizes and types use drill-down reports. 19 The military, for example, is using software from
Business Objects to determine if a defective battery could explode and damage or destroy
military vehicles. According to an Army spokesman, “We can drill down, go into every con-
tract we ordered that battery on … and get them away from units so no one will get hurt.”

drill-down report
A report providing increasingly
detailed data about a situation.

Characteristics of a Management Information System
Scheduled, key-indicator, demand, exception, and drill-down reports have all helped man-
agers and executives make better, more timely decisions. In general, MISs perform the
following functions:
•

Provide reports with fixed and standard formats

•

Produce hard-copy and soft-copy reports