ation of computer information systems thus:
At the operational or operating (lowest) management decision-making level, information is required to maintain business records and to facilitate the flow of work in a company. The type of CIS support needed is a transaction processing system...At the tactical or controlling (middle) management decision-making level, information is required to compare results of operations with plans and to adjust plans or operations accordingly. The type of CIS support needed is a management information system (MIS)...At the strategic or planning (top) management decision-making level, information is required to take long-term policy decisions and to plan for future commitment of a company's resources. The type of CIS support needed is Decision Support System (DSS)." Current problems: "Traditional programming requires a highly systematic approach to ensure that the proper instructions are combined with the correct control logic to fabricate usable processing components...A consequence of using traditional programming language is that the functioning systems can be extremely difficult to change...A final problem inherent in traditional systems development life cycle is the language barrier...".
As a result of some of these problems, if SIS executives are to have at their disposal those data which they perceive as necessary to the planning decision-making process, they cannot leave the selection of these data to the operational or tactical levels. What is called for, according to most studies, is a conceptual apprehension of all data as provided through an Integrated Information System (IIS).
Battaglia (1991) stresses that American business is awakening to the fact that "corporate success depends not only on profits, but also on the company's ability to satisfy its customers." The U.S. automobile industry, for instance, is finally come to grips with this apparently novel idea. "One of the primary me...