Information systems role in Ernest and Young's on-line consulting service - Essay Example

It was later converted in to a pay and use to web users for accessing all the consulting strength of E&Y (Webizus 2003). Business models have taken on greater importance recently as a form of intellectual property that can be protected with a patent registration (Rappa 2006). In this case, the tax-payer (the consumer) is helped by the model called 'Consumer Direct'- transactions involving products, services, or information between businesses and consumers, here the expert consultants enrolled with Ernest & Young, and the client company's employees; the product - tax-management solutions (Adapted from IBM 1996).

The tool used here are the Decision-support systems - interactive computer-based tools used since the 1960s by decision-makers to help answer questions, solve problems and support or refute conclusions (Hall 2005). The advantages of 'Distance Consulting' involved in this model, in this case study of Ernst & Young may be listed as follows: a) The cost: They are more economical. b) A large resource base like panel of direct access to E&Y's national network of tax specialists, FAQs, self-educating information tools to decide on the right solution. c) The guaranteed rapid turnaround and the get-back time. d) Ernie's email consulting helps clients' articulate problems when they write to consulting firms thus leading to faster solutions.

Disadvantages include a) May be perceived as too impersonal in a business based on relationship and trust. b) Developed to answer technical tax questions with a limited scope. c) Some large-scale consultations which involve handling large data-base systems, still require on-site assessments for best results. d) Possibility of servicing unknown clients, and risk of oversight of information leading to inappropriate conclusions, very high (Millard 1999). Discuss Knowledge management systems and decision support systems.

How are these ideas related to Ernie and Tax Advisor The definition of Knowledge is given as "a function of information, culture, and skills" (Rampersad, 2002).The storing and sharing of such information and acquired knowledge to benefit all the members of the organization paved way for Knowledge Management. In the 1990s, E&Y created three knowledge centers, with three goals: the Center for Business Innovation for creating new knowledge through research, the Center for Business Technology for the use of existing knowledge to create predefined methods and automated tools, and the Center for Business Knowledge for gathering and storing E&Y's internal and external knowledge and information resources.

The services included a library, a call centre for answering consultant requests, and a database of consultant skills (NHS 2005). Interactive information systems using data and models to help managers analyze semi-structured problems were developed in the 1970s. These diverse systems were all called Decision Support Systems. In the 80s Executive Information Systems (EIS) was born, from single user model-driven Decision Support systems and improved relational database products (Power 2003). And in the 1990s, data warehousing and On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) started expanding the domain of EIS and defined a broader category of Data-Driven DSS (cf.

, Dhar and Stein, 1997). E&Y started in 1996 On-Line