The Integration of Human and Computing Activities

With the increased reliance on the power of the computer to conduct the daily operation in the financial enterprise and to support essential change, the integration of human and computing activities becomes more and more important. Software tools and devices are operated by humans and the failure to integrate the human factor in the software system development process reduces the usability and reliability of the tools to perform the intended task and to deal with singular situations as and when they arise. The integration of human and computing activities is necessary at many levels: interface, system analysis, system design and product design. A critical success factor for tools used in the financial enterprise is taking into account the human factor in every stage of the analysis, design, development, testing, and use of the tool. The need for the integration of human and computing activities is highlighted with reference to the above overviewed tools:

 Customer relationship management is a human centric activity and the use of technology to support it requires a high level of integration of the human and device5 activities. The challenge of computer-based technology is to support the saying of Andrew Fisher “The customer is always right” by finding out more about customers, their buying habits, tastes and spending levels. This is also supported by the view of Mattu (2001) on understanding customer relationship management.

 Business process modelling is not only about processes but also about the human role in participating in the business process model. Technology support for business process modelling should account for the role, behaviour, and interaction of different human participants in the process. This is supported by Davenport’s (1996) view published in his article “Why Re-engineering Failed: The Fad that Forgot People” on the cause of the failure of re-engineering projects in the United States. Vidgen et al. (1994) points out that

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BPR has more of an organizational focus than a technical one and that the central tenet of BPR is to devise new ways of organizing tasks, organizing people and making use of IT so that the resulting processes better support the goals of the organization.

 The data warehouse is the information asset of the financial enterprise. Management of the data warehouse requires the integration of the human expertise and the domain knowledge in meta-modelling of the data and its storage and retrieval from different repositories. Tools for the data warehouse should enable human input and feedback at every stage of the information loading. This can transform the data warehouse into a reliable knowledge base for strategic decision support. This is supported by the professional view of Peter Block's Flawless Consulting on warehouse projects6

“Warehouse projects will fail if the builders get specs from the users, go off for 6 months, and then come back with the 'finished' project. Warehouses are iterative! (I think the word iterative means there are lots of mistakes in the projects.) Builders and users working with each other will not reduce the number of iterations, but it will reduce the size of them.”

 Electronic document management is not limited to the transfer of documents throughout corporate networks. Documents contain valuable information for the enterprise. Failing to integrate the human interpretation of the document content with its permissible workflow reduces the reliability of electronic document management tools. Information security, and human understanding of the document content should be freely introduced at all stages of the electronic document management process to approve, or re-direct, the workflow of documents as and when necessary. The importance of the integration of the human and computing activities related to electronic document management is supported by Waldron’s (2000) view on the complexity of the electronic record management: “The value of electronic records management ERM has suddenly grown – as organisations increasingly hold vital transactions and documents in electronic form, and companies move to electronic processes …. The management of electronic records is complex as it requires a large range of functionality to be implemented well. ERM software may consist of a specialist package, a number of integrated packages, custom-designed software or some combination of these; in all cases, there will be a need for complementary manual procedures and management policies”

6 _{In “Actions for datawarehouse success” at http://www.dwinfocenter.org/success.html}

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 Electronic banking is becoming the new popular banking model. Face to face interaction of client / bank personnel is replaced by fill-in forms that capture to some extent the client needs and requirements. Multimedia support attempts to replace / complement the human intervention in the electronic banking activity. A proper technology integration and multimedia support are not enough for the success of electronic banking activity. Human judgement and pro-active intervention to deal with singular situations should be enabled at every stage of the electronic banking activity. In discussing the right infrastructure for e-business, Christopherson (2000) points out the importance of gaining a thorough understanding of the business and how well all the core functions interact internally with employees and externally with supplier and customers. He added that true e-business performance can only be achieved if all elements of the infrastructure are integrated, including key business processes and end-user functions.