ially, the success of executive information systems was dependent on the willingness of the executives to use the computer at all; today, the success depends on the accessibility of company and industry data, with the data contributed by, and accessed by, the various subsystems of the organization.
Originally, executive information systems presented data about a company's performance up to a particular point in time. At that point, the systems provided little more than the executive could obtain from the information system itself. Data about sales to date (marketing, manufacturing and finance subsystems), profitability (finance subsystem), collections (accounts receivable subsystem) and other traditional business information was made available, and could even be presented in chart form.
As technology progressed, however, so did executive information systems. Recognizing that strategic decision makers need tools which go well beyond merely reporting w
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