Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Operations research or analysis
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-01
2002-02-12
Hafiz, Tariq R. (Department: 2163)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Operations research or analysis
C705S014270
Reexamination Certificate
active
06347303
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to a method of evaluating the effects of a system for enhancing the business processing ability of a human and proposing a system configuration suitable to a business process and a (support) tool based on the method. More particularly, the invention relates to a system configuration evaluation and proposal supporting method of supporting a preliminary estimation of the effects of a system and a configuration proposal at a planning stage of construction/improvement of an information system, an SI (System Integration) support tool based on the method, a method of evaluating a functional suitability between a business process and an information system, and method and tool for proposing a system configuration based on the evaluation method.
2. Description of the Related Art
At the planning stage of construction/improvement of an information system, a system configuration evaluation/proposal supporting method for supporting preliminary estimation of the effects of a system and the configuration proposal and an SI (System Integration) support tool based on the method are necessary. Specifically, in a system improvement proposal, that is, system configuration proposal such as fitting, expansion, and shift of an existing system based on a business process analysis at a planning stage of an information system in an information system department of a company or the like, or in a system proposal when a solution provider provides consultation on configuration or an SI service for an information system based on a business process analysis to a customer, especially, consultation on configuration or an SI service not only for a conventional system for realizing rationalization and reduction in the number of workers by automatization but also for a business supporting type information system for realizing improvement in the performance of a business process using groupware, intranet/internet, CTI (Computer Telephony Integration), and the like, in order to support the introduction and proposal of an information system configuration having high investment effects by selecting and combining platforms and tools adapted to a business process whose configuration is to be proposed and the ability of a person in charge of the business from platform and tool groups having various functions, a method of evaluating the functional suitability between the business process and the information system and a system configuration proposal support tool based on the method are necessary.
In order to support the work at the planning stage of the configuration/improvement of an information system, various system planning methods and supporting tools are conventionally used, especially, the technique for supporting analysis and evaluation of a process by modelling a business process to be systemized as a process map by the expression of a hierarchical flowchart or network to simulate response time throughput, costs, and the like of the process has been proposed. The technique is described in literature such as “.,IEEE transactions on systems, man and cybernetics”, Vol. 26, No. 5, September, pp 572-582, 1996 and “Workgroup Computing Report”, Vol. 18, No. 6, pp 3-15, 1996. The technique for supporting an upstream design process of the system from a business process definition is described in “Nikkei BP, An introduction to CIS database design”, June, 1996. Further, the technique for evaluating the suitability of the function provided by a simulator to a task carried out by a driver during driving in an educational scene by using fuzzy relationship in order to support the design of the simulator for safety driving education of a vehicle, a two-wheeled vehicle, and the like is described in “IATSS Research”, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1993.
The conventional techniques for supporting the analysis/evaluation of the business process or upstream design, however, perform quantitative evaluation of response time, throughput, costs, and the like by paying attention to only the evaluation of the configuration of a process or the process itself and do not analyze/evaluate influences on an information system as a means for executing the process and the process of the human processing ability. That is, in order to realize the present business process, it is indispensable to support the information technique and information system. However, there is no means for evaluating what effects supposed to be obtained by executing which support of arrangement of human resources and computerization to which part of the process and for evaluating if the support is sufficient. Consequently, even if a bottleneck on the process is found and the configuration of the process can be improved or reformed, association to a specific realization means depends on the ability of a person who analyzes and designs. It is therefore difficult to perform proper association and a work load is heavy.
In the association, from the necessity of a computerization support which can immediately deal with a change in a business strategy, present information systems are not developed as a ready-made product but rather a flexible system is constructed by combining a plurality of general tools as components. It is, however, difficult to effectively and efficiently select tools suited to a business process from a group of candidate tools having various features. Especially, in a future business environment which requires provision of original items and service oriented to a customer, competitiveness largely depends on a value obtained from a knowledgeable worker and depends on how successfully a system using groupware and intranet/internet for effectively supporting business communication, coordination, and collaboration of the workers can be realized.
The trend is being shifted from the conventional computerization support for rationalization and reduction in the number of workers by automatization to the computerization support for improving the business processing ability of a worker. It is therefore an important subject to evaluate the suitability among the process, the ability of the worker, and the information system and to configure a system on the basis of the evaluation.
According to the conventional techniques, since the support is insufficient and the techniques are not suitable for an effect evaluation of a new type of computerization support, there are problems such that information investment effects cannot be seen and it is difficult to perform effective tool selection, system configuration, and optimum arrangement of human resources.
On the other hand, the conventional technique of the simulator design support can evaluate the suitability between the task and system providing function. Since a system called a simulator for simulating a substance is used, necessary, support functional items can be presumed and evaluation regarding the functional items can be performed. The technique has, however, a problem such that the technique cannot be sufficiently applied to an object which requires one to systematically add new necessary functions having support effects like a case of evaluating a system in which although components of utilized tools exist, information, such as an information system configuration and arrangement of human resources for supporting a business process, does not exist.
That is, since the conventional system planning method and support tools are used to plan a system for rationalization and reduction in the number of workers by automatization, the method and tools cannot evaluate the effects and suitability of computerization support with respect to a support for planning of a support type information system at present and for improving the business processing ability using groupware and the like in the future. As a result, there is a problem such that the information investment effects do not appear, and it is difficult to effectively and efficiently select the tools and components of the system configuration elements suitable for the business process and to configure
Matsui Susumu
Nagai Yasuhiko
Nakayama Yoshiyuki
Antonelli, Terry,Stout & Kraus, LLP
Hafiz Tariq R.
Robertson D.
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