The infusion of expert systems in banking: An exploratory study

Numerous studies can be found on expert systems (ES) as a specific IT in the literature. However, their focus has been mainly on system development from a technical perspective. Based on an empirical study on expert systems diffusion in 20 British banking organizations, this paper reports the findings from the study. The study finds that ES infusion concentrated in specific processes that require extensive knowledge in banking. There is a strong organizational perspective towards expert systems development in these banking organizations rather than the technical perspective. ES diffusion and top management commitment are closely associated. The existence of IT strategy aligned with business strategy (and/or with an A1 element within it) is not a good predictor for ES adoptions. Three cases of expert systems applications in banking are given in the paper. These results are useful for practitioners in managing their intelligent systems projects and researchers for further studies in this area.     

A Guide to Selecting Expert Systems Applications

In recent years, expert systems technology has been recognized as a way of improving managerial and organizational effectiveness. Most of the related literature available has been introductory in nature or has focused on only one aspect of expert systems development. This article presents a more global organizational view of expert systems to help MIS managers select the most appropriate expert systems applications for their organization     

A cost-reducing question-selection algorithm for propositional knowledge-based systems

In many applications of knowledge-based systems, initially given data are often not sufficient to reach a conclusion and more data are needed. A question-selection algorithm is to identify missing information and select proper questions to ask. We present a question-selection algorithm for propositional knowledge-based systems, which aims at asking more relevant and less expensive questions. Comparing to those algorithms currently used in many expert systems, the new algorithm is capable of reaching a conclusion more economically in our computational experiments. AMS subject classification 03B05, 68T20, 68T15     

Expert systems and organizations: Predictions and evidence

Expert systems have recently become more commonplace in the United States workplace. Although little is known about the impacts of expert systems in the workplace, many predictions about the nature of these impacts, and the effects of expert systems generally, have been made. We examine some of these predictions, noting that they are very similar to predictions made about the effects of conventional data processing in organizations. We examine how most of the predictions about data processing have been shown to be unfounded, based on empirical research. We also show, using the limited empirical evidence available relating to expert systems and their organizational effects, that most of the predictions made about them are also unfounded.     

The past recaptured: in search of lost paradigms

In the mid 1980s, a cluster of HF professionals described a new paradigm in which technology would be designed for a better fit not just with individual users but also with organizational systems and dynamics. The term 'Macroergonomics' took hold to describe this broadening of perspective. This concept was a manifestation of the holistic design philosophy and values of the user-centred design (UCD) paradigm, but tended to place more emphasis on how technology fit into organizational systems than on either design or on individual use of technology. While the benefits in the quality of work life that were expected to result from paying more attention to how organizations managed technology and technological change were many, the track record has been disappointing. The promotion of a focus on the organizational context of technology did not lead directly to practical application or make companies more humane for either their workers or for external customers. Today, however, with the maturation and broadening application of user-centred design approaches, the time is ripe to apply them to the design of information systems within companies as vigorously as they are being applied to products and systems intended for consumers.     

Expert systems and their applications in production and operations management

Recently, the world competitive environment has forced organizations to reexamine and reevaluate their manufacturing strategies. Large capital investments in machine tools and management control systems are being made. The application of expert systems in the production environment has been steadily increasing. This paper examines the concepts of expert systems and reviews the literature pertinent to the areas of application in production management such as scheduling, layout planning and tools used in applying these concepts such as simulation and optimization. It has been concluded that due to increasing automation requirements in manufacturing and the intensified organizational competitive environment, the decision making process itself will have to be automated. It has been suggested that expert systems could be a vehicle in achieving this. This paper examines the applications of expert systems in production and operations management.The technology of expert systems is still in its infancy and many researchers see learning as a major problem. As expert systems become more readily available, the management issues of safety, validity and reliability will become more crucial. The compensation on transferring of knowledge is unclear. Also, the fear of replacement of white collar jobs is growing.     

Expert Recommender: Designing for a Network Organization

Recent knowledge management initiatives focus on expertise sharing within formal organizational units and informal communities of practice. Expert recommender systems seem to be a promising tool in support of these initiatives. This paper presents experiences in designing an expert recommender system for a knowledge-intensive organization, namely the National Industry Association (NIA). Field study results provide a set of specific design requirements. Based on these requirements, we have designed an expert recommender system which is integrated into the specific software infrastructure of the organizational setting. The organizational setting is, as we will show, specific for historical, political, and economic reasons. These particularities influence the employees’ organizational and (inter-)personal needs within this setting. The paper connects empirical findings of a long-term case study with design experiences of an expertise recommender system.     

A survey of evaluation techniques used for expert systems in telecommunications

Hardware and software used within the telecommunications industry must combine great complexity with high reliability. Production and maintenance of communications equipment requires many different kinds of human expertise. There is growing interest in the potential of expert systems to assist, or perhaps to replace, human experts. It is important to ensure that the expert systems are reliable and accurate; consequently, they must be evaluated. We review published experience with expert systems in the telecommunications industry and we propose some principles that we feel could usefully be adopted for their evaluation.     

The client-centred approach: expert system maintenance

Abstract: Developing an expert system is a considerable investment in time and money and yet very little attention has focused on keeping expert systems in regular beneficial use. The problems of maintaining expert systems and the lack of research that this area has attracted are major contributing factors to the continued lack of acceptance of these systems. This paper discusses the maintenance of expert systems within the context of the Client Centred Approach. Although there are many similarities between maintaining expert systems and conventional systems maintenance there is one vital difference—knowledge changes. Consequently an expert system requires regular evolutionary maintenance if its performance is not to be impaired.
This paper is intended to promote discussion of maintenance issues within the community. We review some principles and techniques that can assist the maintenance of expert systems and describe some formative work towards a maintenance methodology derived from a case study of maintaining a commercially-available expert system.     

A microcomputer-based expert system prototype for helping the layperson find specific information on breast cancer questions

Medical expert systems have been around since the early 1970s. MYCIN, PUFF, CADUCEOUS and CASNET are examples of medical expert systems that have been built; however. their use, like most medical expert systems, is for the physician. There is a growing need for educating the public in certain areas of medicine. Laypersons want to be better informed. This paper focuses on a microcomputer-based expert system which is being developed to help the layperson be more informed on general and specific questions dealing with breast cancer.     

Knowledge acquisition in ecological product design: The effects of computer-mediated communication and elicitation method

In the mid 1980s, a cluster of HF professionals described a new paradigm in which technology would be designed for a better fit not just with individual users but also with organizational systems and dynamics. The term 'Macroergonomics' took hold to describe this broadening of perspective. This concept was a manifestation of the holistic design philosophy and values of the user-centred design (UCD) paradigm, but tended to place more emphasis on how technology fit into organizational systems than on either design or on individual use of technology. While the benefits in the quality of work life that were expected to result from paying more attention to how organizations managed technology and technological change were many, the track record has been disappointing. The promotion of a focus on the organizational context of technology did not lead directly to practical application or make companies more humane for either their workers or for external customers. Today, however, with the maturation and broadening application of user-centred design approaches, the time is ripe to apply them to the design of information systems within companies as vigorously as they are being applied to products and systems intended for consumers.     

A Survey on Expert Recommendation in Community Question Answering

Community question answering (CQA) represents the type of Web applications where people can exchange knowledge via asking and answering questions. One significant challenge of most real-world CQA systems is the lack of effective matching between questions and the potential good answerers, which adversely affects the efficient knowledge acquisition and circulation. On the one hand, a requester might experience many low-quality answers without receiving a quality response in a brief time; on the other hand, an answerer might face numerous new questions without being able to identify the questions of interest quickly. Under this situation, expert recommendation emerges as a promising technique to address the above issues. Instead of passively waiting for users to browse and find their questions of interest, an expert recommendation method raises the attention of users to the appropriate questions actively and promptly. The past few years have witnessed considerable efforts that address the expert recommendation problem from different perspectives. These methods all have their issues that need to be resolved before the advantages of expert recommendation can be fully embraced. In this survey, we first present an overview of the research efforts and state-of-the-art techniques for the expert recommendation in CQA. We next summarize and compare the existing methods concerning their advantages and shortcomings, followed by discussing the open issues and future research directions.     

Accounting information systems and organization learning: A simulation

Accounting Information Systems may facilitate or impede organizational learning. Critical attributes of accounting systems that have the potential to affect organizational learning include: (1) characteristics of the information environment, whether uniform, dispersed or clustered importance weights; (2) information distribution, whether overlapping or segregated information; and (3) information coordination mechanisms, whether expert teams, majority voting teams or hierarchies. Organizational learning and performance was simulated in the following manner: (i) the organization was faced with a continuous sequence of repetitive but not identical problems; (ii) the organizational task was subdivided between analysts; and (iii) analysts learned by basing their decisions on the relationship found between information available to them and organizational outcomes. Simulation results indicated that learning in flatter (team) organizations is generally more accurate than in hierarchical organizations. Learning is also faster with majority teams than hierarchies, but slower with expert teams. Overlapping accounting information transmission between agents was found to offer only limited benefits. These findings have implications for the design of accounting information systems in organizations.     

Integration of information systems: assessing its quality

Due to organizational and technological changes the need for integrating information systems within healthcare institutions, has increased enormously. Although the technical means for systems integration have definitely matured, integration methodologies are still in their infancy. Two important questions regarding systems integration are hardly ever addressed in a systematic way: how to derive integration requirements, and how to check whether the requirements are met in a given integrated system. These two questions must be answered if we want to assess or improve the quality of integration of a given set of systems. In this article we present a nine-step method for deriving integration requirements from a business process model, and we assess the quality of integration of a given integrated system against these requirements. The method is demonstrated by elaborating two case studies from the health care domain.     

Expert system technology transfer strategies: Selected cases from the United States and Mexico

Expert systems are being developed in a multitude of domains worldwide. The usage of expert systems within organizations is growing; however, many expert systems projects still fail due to poor ‘institutionalization’ practices. This paper addresses various strategies for providing the transfer of expert systems technology within organizations. Specifically, this paper will address expert system technology transfer strategies using examples from United States and Mexican organizations.     

Expert knowledge acquisition and the unwilling expert: a knowledge engineering perspective

Expert systems are an evolving technology with the potential to make human expertise widely and cheaply available. The literature describing the development of expert systems generally assumes that experts willingly give up their knowledge. This is unrealistic and may be a reason why most expert system projects fail. This paper explores the problem of unwilling experts from the perspective of a knowledge engineer building an expert system. The link between knowledge and organizational power is established and human motivation theories are discussed. Finally, a new motivational approach is introduced to help the knowledge engineer deal with unwilling experts.     

An analysis of expert systems for business decision making at different levels and in different roles

This paper begins by analysing decision making activities and information requirements at three organizational levels and the characteristics of expert systems (ESs) intended for the two different roles of supporting and replacing a decision maker. It goes on to review the evidence from many years of commercial use of ESs at different levels and in different roles, and to analyse the evidence obtained from a pilot experiment involving developing ESs to fulfil two different roles in the same domain. The research finds that ESs in a replacement role prove to be effective for operational and tactical decisions, but have limitations at the strategic level. ESs in a support role, as advisory systems, can help to make better decisions, but their effectiveness can only be fulfilled through their users. In the experiments, an expert advisory system did not save a user's time, contrary to the expectations of many of its users, but an ES in a replacement role did improve the efficiency of decision making. In addition, the knowledge bases of the ESs in the different roles need to be different. Finally, the practical implications of the experience gained from developing and testing two types of ESs are discussed.     

Managing IT with systems thinking

Technological systems do not exist in a vacuum, but are an integral part of an organizational setting. With information systems now permeating almost every aspect of our environment, systems thinking has never been more relevant to engineers and managers. Information systems essentially store, process, and distribute organizational information. As the capacity to accomplish these tasks has grown by leaps and bounds, organizations have become increasingly coupled. The information systems that developers are designing and implementing today are not only more complex, they also generate more complex interactions within organizational units. Unfortunately, many engineers only come to understand the need for a holistic approach to managing information technology through experience.     

Expert systems and forecasting

Many business organizations are using expert systems for their business decisions. An expert system is a computer program that applies the knowledge of an expert to problem-solving. Forecasting is one of the quantitative tools businesses use for planning and decision-making. However, many business executives are not equipped to use the appropriate forecasting techniques. An expert system could be easily developed to help executives in forecasting.     

An attributional explanation of individual resistance to the introduction of information technologies in the workplace

Abstract

Numerous expert systems operate with more or less success in Hungary, primarily in pharmaceutics, banking, finance and industry. Naturally, the number of these is significantly lower than those used in West European countries like the United Kingdom, France or Germany. Several companies strive to develop these systems, unfortunately in many cases their efforts are in vain. As local facilities (financial background) are not suitable either there are no means to complete the system begun or sufficient time has not been spent on developing suitable human—computer interactions. There are many initiatives to develop the user interface and make knowledge defined in the expert system more exact in the hope of improving usability. 1 would like to set down some ideas related to this.