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Workgroup Doctor's office/ Support one or more workgroup processes.
medical practice 10–100 users; procedures often formalized;
problem solutions within group;
workgroups can duplicate data;
somewhat difficult to change
Enterprise Hospital Support one or more enterprise processes.
100–1,000+ users; procedures formalized;
problem solutions affect enterprise;
eliminate workgroup data duplication;
difficult to change
Inter-enterprise PRIDE system Support one or more inter-enterprise
processes. 1,000+ users; systems
procedures formalized; problem
solutions affect multiple organizations;
Figure 7-4 can resolve problems of duplicated
Characteristics of Information enterprise data; very difficult to change
Systems

Inter-enterprise Processes

Inter-enterprise processes span two or more independent organizations. For example, the
process of buying a healthcare insurance policy via a healthcare exchange (see Case Study 7,
pages 322–323) involves many insurance companies and governmental agencies. Each of these
organizations has activities to fulfill, all of which are affected by laws, governmental policy, and
competitive concerns of the insurance companies.
Inter-enterprise information systems support one or more inter-enterprise processes.
Such systems typically involve thousands of users, and solutions to problems require cooperation
among different, usually independently owned, organizations. Problems are resolved by meeting,
by contract, and sometimes by litigation.
Data are often duplicated among organizations; such duplication is either eliminated (as will
be done with PRIDE) or carefully managed. Because of their wide span, complexity, and use by
multiple companies, such systems can be exceedingly difficult to change. Supply chain manage-
ment (discussed in the International Dimension, pages 322–323) is the classic example of an
inter-enterprise information system. We will study inter-enterprise PRIDE examples throughout
the remaining chapters of this text.

Q7-2 How Can Information Systems Improve

Process Quality?

Processes are the fabric of organizations; they are the means by which people organize their
activities to achieve the organization’s goals. As such, process quality is an important, possibly the
most important, determinant of organizational success. 2
The two dimensions of process quality are efficiency and effectiveness. Process efficiency is
a measure of the ratio of process outputs to inputs. If an alternative to the process in Figure 7-1
can produce the same order approvals/rejections (output) for less cost or produce more approvals/
rejections for the same cost, it is more efficient.
Process effectiveness is a measure of how well a process achieves organizational strategy.
If an organization differentiates itself on quality customer service and if the process in Figure 7-1
requires 5 days to respond to an order request, then that process is ineffective. Companies that provide
customized manufacturing might make their processes more effective by using 3D printing.