The urgency of the problem under investigation due to constant changes in the external business environment requires organizations to establish a mechanism to manage change and increase the impact of these changes. The purpose of the article is to analyze the change management concepts and their applicability in the strategically important…

Deloitte Consulting LLP conducted a review of publicly available data sources with the goal of identifying the pre- and post-award systems used in higher education. The number and type of pre- and post-award systems identified not only show that higher education institutions (HEIs) use a variety of methods to facilitate research activities, but…

The everyday operations of a school district depend on a network of people, including students, teachers, staff, and administrators. However, the ancillary services staff are really responsible for making the school day run smoothly. They are often the first employees that students see in the morning, either on the school bus or in the cafeteria,…

This article presents an example of the ways in which many large districts are working to dispel long-held myths about inefficient and unresponsive operations, particularly in operational areas, such as transportation, purchasing, food services, and information technology (IT). Determined to improve both academically and operationally, leaders in…

The scope of institutional research (IR) undertaken in Australasian universities is progressively expanding. A traditional focus on student life cycle elements such as enrolment, retention and satisfaction has been complemented for some years now by other areas of focus including research performance and community engagement. More recently,…

This teaching case documents an actual case of process execution and failure. The case is useful in MIS introductory courses seeking to demonstrate the interdependencies within a business process, and the concept of cascading failure at the process level. This case demonstrates benefits and potential problems with information technology systems,…

In this dissertation we develop a framework that combines data mining, statistics and operations research methods for improving real-time decision support systems in healthcare. Our approach consists of three main concepts: data gathering and preprocessing, modeling, and deployment. We introduce the notion of offline and semi-offline modeling to…

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software does what school leaders have always wanted their computer systems to do: It sees all. By integrating every IT application an organization has--from purchasing and inventory control to payroll--ERPs create a single unified system. Not only does this give IT managers a holistic view to what is happening…

Implementing a complex business intelligence (BI) system at a small school or one with limited resources can seem daunting. For small to midsize schools and community colleges, a strategic BI initiative may still be an elusive goal. This article discusses how schools with limited resources are making the dream a reality.

The purpose of this article is to improve our understanding of data-driven decision-making strategies that are initiated at the district or system level. We apply principal-agent theory to the analysis of qualitative data gathered in a case study of 4 urban school systems. Our findings suggest educators at the school level need not only systemic…

This chapter highlights some important themes from the previous chapters in this volume that will assist institutional research professionals and other higher education leaders interested in expanding use of facilities data in planning and decision making: (1) What you don't know can hurt you; (2) Operational systems are not designed to support ad…

Following a review of the contributions of computers and managerial science/operations research to the management of libraries, this paper introduces the concept of decision support systems. DSS, a blending of these techniques, can lead to more effective decisions by library managers. A case study of the utilization of a DSS in the budgeting…

Presents a mathematical model for simulating a newspaper financial system. Includes the effects of advertising and circulation for predicting advertising linage as a function of population, income, and advertising rate. (RL)

Management information systems have developed more rapidly than most innovations. In a relatively short period of time, the art has progressed from primitive routine clerical and accounting systems to elaborate management decisionmaking systems. Growing pains accompanied the rapid development and brought along many problems and critics. The…

Considers two aspects of design and performance evaluation of information systems: initiation, planning, development, and testing of new systems, to include modification of existing structures; and appraisals and measurement of operational systems and components. A taxonomy of information systems provides a basis for organized evaluation of system…