Abb Automation

A Decision Support System
for Executive Business Management
Tobias Helfridsson
Daniel Wennström
2006-03-02
Master Thesis, Computer Science, 20 credits Supervisors:
Mälardalen University ABB Automation Techonologies:

Department of Computer Science and Electronics Fredrik Carpenhall, fredrik.carpenhall@se.abb.com
Performed at: Mälardalen University:

ABB Automation Technologies Kristian Sandström, kristian.sandstrom@mdh.se
Västerås, Sweden Rikard Land, rikard.land@mdh.se
Abstract
This report is about developing a common decision support system for ABB
Automation Technologies Products, which consists of a number of subunits and today
uses several systems of this type. In the beginning we had to figure out how everything
works today. That was primarily done by interviews with selected persons that were
potential users of the system we were to develop. We have also made a market
research to determine if any usable program already exists on the market. The
collected information was then analyzed and we found one solution that we kept on
working with. During all the work we have continuously given great importance to the
interests and viewpoints of the future users.
We ended up with a prototype of a portal system where information about key
figures, reports, presentations and other existing documents will be collected in a
database. That will then be presented as a web solution, which can be updated easily
through an admin interface. This way, the problem with employees not knowing where
documents can be found, which one is the actual version etc. will be eliminated.
The report can be seen as an effective and simple alternative to many other
solutions that are built on connections between different databases which was not
desirable in our case. This will definitely be a functional and cost effective solution for
the company.
Sammanfattning
Denna rapport handlar om utvecklingen av ett gemensamt ledningsstödssystem för
ABB Automation Technologies Products, som består av ett antal underliggande
enheter och idag har flera olika sådana system. Till en början gick vårt arbete ut på att
sätta oss in i situationen som råder idag. Detta gjordes i första hand genom intervjuer
med utvalda personer som skulle kunna tänkas ha nytta av systemet som vi ska
utveckla. Vi har även gjort en marknadsundersökning för att se om det finns något
färdigt program på marknaden som skulle kunna användas. Den information vi sedan
hade fått in analyserades och vi hittade en lösning som vi jobbade vidare på. Under
hela arbetet har stor vikt lagts på de blivande användarnas intressen och synpunkter.
Resultatet blev en prototyp av ett portalsystem där information om nyckeltal,
rapporter, presentationer och andra redan befintliga dokument samlas i en databas.
Detta presenterades sedan i form av en webblösning, som enkelt uppdateras via ett
admin-gränssnitt. På så sätt slipper man undan problem med att anställda inte vet var
dokumenten finns, vilken som är den senaste versionen osv.
Rapporten beskriver en lösning som kan ses som ett effektivt och enkelt alternativ
till många andra lösningar som går ut på kopplingar mellan olika databaser, vilket i
vårt fall inte var önskvärt. Detta blir en i allra högsta grad funktionell och samtidigt
kostnadseffektiv lösning för företaget.
Preface
Acknowledgements
During our time at ABB Automation Technologies, there were some people that
helped us more than others. We especially would like to thank our supervisor, Fredrik
Carpenhall for advice and assistance. We have also received lots of help from our
interviews with: Dennis Helfridsson, Tommy Andreasson, Robert Larsson, Lars
Kåredal, Per-Arne Fossander, Peter Grandin, Ulrika Hesslow and Annica Poikela.
Thank you all for taking your time in answering our questions!
We would also like to thank our supervisors from Mälardalens Högskola, Rikard Land
and Kristian Sandström who during our efforts gave useful input and directions.
Table of content
1 INTRODUCTION..................................................................................... 6
1.1 BACKGROUND ........................................................................................... 6
1.2 PURPOSE .................................................................................................. 6
1.3 READER INSTRUCTIONS .............................................................................. 6
2 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION ..................................................................... 7
2.1 DELIMITATIONS .......................................................................................... 8
2.2 ABB ORGANIZATION ................................................................................... 8
ABB Automation Technologies................................................................ 8
ABB Power Technologies........................................................................ 8
ABB Web Policy ...................................................................................... 9
ABB Web Design Standards - ABB Graphic User Interface (GUI) ........ 10
Page structure ....................................................................................... 10
2.3 PROBLEM ANALYSIS ................................................................................. 10
3 METHOD............................................................................................... 12
3.1 WORKFLOW............................................................................................. 12
Specification from ABB.......................................................................... 13
Brainstorming ........................................................................................ 13
Analysis ................................................................................................. 13
Design ................................................................................................... 13
Prototyping ............................................................................................ 13
Testing/Evaluation................................................................................. 14
Master thesis ......................................................................................... 14
3.2 BRAINSTORMING ...................................................................................... 14
3.3 EVALUATION ............................................................................................ 14
Common ERP ....................................................................................... 14
Aggregated System............................................................................... 15
Ad Hoc Solution..................................................................................... 15
No Solution............................................................................................ 15
3.4 INTERVIEWS ............................................................................................ 15
Interview questions................................................................................ 15
Summary of interviews .......................................................................... 16
Reflections............................................................................................. 16
3.5 MARKETING RESEARCH ............................................................................ 17
Stratsys RunYourCompany ................................................................... 17
Xcelsius ................................................................................................. 18
4 RELATED WORK / THEORY ............................................................... 19
4.1 ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP) APPLICATIONS .......................... 19
4.2 DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM (DSS).......................................................... 19
4.3 MARKET RESEARCH ................................................................................. 19
Stratsys AB............................................................................................ 19
Simple Concepts (vendor of Xcelsius)................................................... 20
4.4 ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION (EAI) .......................................... 21
What is involved in EAI?........................................................................ 21
Market Leaders ..................................................................................... 22
4.5 HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION AND USABILITY ....................................... 22
The Human............................................................................................ 23
The Computer ....................................................................................... 23
The Interaction between human and computer ..................................... 24
Usability................................................................................................. 24
4.6 PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT ................................................... 26
Balanced Scorecard .............................................................................. 26
Six Sigma .............................................................................................. 27
Keep it simple and straight-forward (KISS)............................................ 28
4.7 HOW TO INTERVIEW ................................................................................. 28
Advice for Interviewers .......................................................................... 29
Content of the interview......................................................................... 29
5 RESULTS.............................................................................................. 31
5.1 ANALYSIS ................................................................................................ 31
5.2 DESIGN ................................................................................................... 33
Database ............................................................................................... 35
Xcelsius ................................................................................................. 35
Functionality/GUI................................................................................... 36
5.3 EVALUATION / TESTING ............................................................................. 43
5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................ 43
5.5 FUTURE WORK ......................................................................................... 44
6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS........................................................ 45
6.1 PERSONAL REFLECTIONS .......................................................................... 45
7 GLOSSARY .......................................................................................... 47
8 APPENDIX ............................................................................................ 48
8.1 ABB ORGANIZATION ................................................................................ 48
8.2 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ............................................................................. 49
9 REFERENCES...................................................................................... 52
Introduction 6
1 Introduction
This report is a Master Thesis made for the Department of Computer Science and
Electronics at Mälardalen University, commissioned by ABB Automation
Technologies in Västerås.
1.1 Background
ABB has a leading position within power and automation technologies. The ABB
Group operates in approximately 100 countries and has about 100 000 employees. The
Group is divided into three divisions, which will be presented in section 3 Problem
Description.
One of the Divisions is ABB Automation Technologies whose activity consists of
solutions for control, motion, protection, and plant integration within industries. In this
division there are three different business areas (BA), each divided into a number of
business units with production of various kinds and locations all over the world.
Such a large organization is very complicated to keep under control, particularly
when the requirements of different resources are widely spread. In making it easier, it
would be a valuable support with a common tool to follow-up key figures and results.
1.2 Purpose
The purpose of this report is to examine the possibility of developing a support
system for business management that is flexible enough for all of the ATAP-divisions.
The solution must be an adaptable tool that makes it possible to keep track of various
key figures. The key figures must be comparable to registered target values and with
that, serve as a tactical support resolution. This tool must function in ABB’s existing
IT-infrastructure and be able to integrate with existing applications and ERP’s.
This report also aims to give the students a deeper insight in fields like Real World
Research, Enterprise Application Integration, Human Computer Interaction and several
different principles of business management, corresponding to an industrial enterprise
such as ABB.
1.3 Reader instructions

This report can be divided into two parts. First we have the pure facts that we
found interesting from our literature study. That part is called “Related Work/Theory”.
If you feel comfortable with the subject you may skip reading this part.
The second part is directly connected to problem solving and methodology. This
part is based on the “Related work”. Here we describe our work, strategy/method and
discuss our results.
At the end of the report there is also a glossary with explanation of common
acronyms.
Problem Description 7
2 Problem Description
To make it possible to understand more about what we really should do we made
some interviews and had meetings with different people at ABB. More information
about that will be given later in the report. Here we will give you the facts you need to
understand our problem.
ABB Automation Technology Products is a Business Area that consists of seven
different business units. That is the working-area for our master thesis. Each business
unit has their own senior management and their own work procedures. That is a
problem in itself, because it makes it a lot more complicated to find a common solution
for all units. They don’t even have the same ERP systems, below we have made a map
(Figure 1) showing which ERP systems and other management tools in use today.
Figure 1 - System map
The used ERP-systems are SAP R/3, BaaN and Jeeves Enterprise. In addition to these
the decision makers use some decision support systems. At three units they use a kind
of web-based system called “Processnavigatorn” which consists of links to the
different documents and reports with actual information. Those documents are
manually gathered by different employees in the existing departments. One of those
units also has an SMS-service that sends a message every morning with actual status of
the most important key figures.
In another department they use a worksheet in excel, called EVITA, where they
collect selected key figures (according to the balanced scorecard principle, described
earlier in our report). All that input is done manually and it costs a lot of time to
maintain. At this unit they also use a report generator to get data from the ERP system;
this is done automatically, but seemed to be a bit complicated at first sight.
The other three has their reports and of course they also have follow up key
figures, but they do not have any special decision support system, like
Processnavigatorn or EVITA.
2.1 Delimitations
Our task is to understand the current state, evaluate different solutions of how
ABB Automation Technology Products should work with their key figures, select one
and develop a system for that. No limitations are given such as economical or other
resources. But of course we have to keep the costs at a reasonable level and use
common sense. The only real delimitation we have is our time of 20 weeks.
2.2 ABB organization

ABB is a global leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility
and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental
impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs
about 102,000 people. ABB focuses on two core businesses: Power Technologies and
Automation Technologies. 1
ABB Automation Technologies

ABB Automation Technologies (ABB/AT) blends a robust product and service
portfolio with end-user expertise and global presence to deliver solutions for control,
motion, protection, and plant integration across the full range of process and utility
industries. ABB/AT in Sweden consists of four different Business Areas, see
organization chart in Appendix.
ABB Automation Products

Automation Products is one of four Business areas under Automation
Technologies and consists of eight different business area units, which produces a
wide range of products as Motors, low voltage products, Generators etc.
Automation Products is one of those areas, which is the one our task is assigned to.
ABB Power Technologies

ABB Power Technologies (ABB/PT) serves electric, gas and water utilities as well
as industrial and commercial customers, with a broad range of products, systems and
services for power transmission, distribution and automation.
Since our work is independant of that Area, we will not present it more deeply. For
more information, visit http://www.abb.com.
ABB Web Policy

As the business’s reliance on Web-related applications grows ABB needs to
maintain and develop Web sites in a consistent way that makes them simple and easy
to use and maintain
ABB Image Bank

The ABB Image Bank is a global archive for storage and retrieval of images,
photos, logos, illustrations, etc.
Keep pages as “light” as possible

Also, it is important to keep pages as “light” as possible, so that users can easily
and quickly open them. This dictates severe restraint in the use of images and other
components that do not add direct value to the users. All of ABB’s Web content should
be fully functional for users who have a setup – hardware, software and bandwidth -
that is between three and five years old. As a rule of thumb, only features and
functions immediately available to a minimum of 97 percent of visitors should be used.
Global Web Management issues and maintains technical usability standards according
to these principles on behalf of the group.
ABB Technical Usability Standards

These standards describe how pages should be built to fulfill this policy’s
requirement of catering to users with a three to five year old set-up. All pages should
have:
• A maximum download time of 12 seconds with a 56 Kb connection.
• Images are restricted to 15 Kb,
• Full page to 60 Kb.
Applications related to www.abb.com, inside.abb.com or other ABB Web

sites
An application that is, or will be related to inside.abb.com or one of ABB’s Web
sites, must be designed according to ABB’s Web Standards. The application can be
integrated in the frameset’s content or main frame of one of the Web sites. This means
that the application appears as an integrated part of the whole Web site, using the
standard navigation of the Web site. In this case, it is particularly important to follow
the standards for interaction, typography, colors, etc. for the Web site or the section it
relates to.
Third party applications

Applications that are provided as ready-to-use applications from a third party, and
that are either Web-based, or related to one of the ABB Web sites, should be tailored
to follow ABB’s Web standards. As the cost for design adaptations and maintenance
vary widely between different platforms, it is of great importance that the cost of
design compliance is taken into account when the platform is selected. Preference
should be given to platforms that can utilize cascading style-sheets (CSS) as supplied
by ABB’s Global Web Management, as that will greatly reduce design costs for the
individual application. The general rule is that all ABB applications should follow the
ABB Web standards, but there are a few situations where this is not feasible.
ABB Web Design Standards - ABB Graphic User Interface

(GUI)
The ABB Web Design Standards are part of ABB’s visual identity, and set the
standard for colors, fonts, graphical design, navigation and interaction, as well as the
page structure (grid) of the application. To achieve a user-friendly interface on ABB's
Web solutions, all content providers to ABB Web sites, both internal and external,
should follow the Web standard.
Page structure
The structure of Web pages on ABB Web sites includes seven main areas: Banner
area, Top menu, Left menu, Masthead, Content area, Resource area and Toolbox. In
addition there are some standard elements. (see Figure 2)
Figure 2 - Page Structure
2.3 Problem analysis

In this chapter we will try to analyze the initial recognized problems. This will
then be used to establish a workflow for further work.
• Flexibility, One thing we know is that our solution must be flexible. It must
suit the different businesses with all different management principles. If our
work should result in some kind of DSS it could not be system or principle
centric. Our solution must be a tool that the units themselves can customize to
fit their own company. If our tool should be integrated with the ERP system it
has to be flexible in this manner too. As we described earlier (Figure 1 -
System map) ATAP uses different ERP systems so our solution can’t have a
static interface against the ERP.
• Geographical differences, One other thing to take into consideration is the
geographical differences. The main part of ATAP is located in Västerås but
some of the units are to be found at other places in Sweden so our solution
must therefore be easy to implement and maintain.
• Surplus value for users, Our solution must simplify the work at the different
units, not add more tasks for the users. If the employee doesn’t see our solution
as an aid in their daily work, all our efforts would be in vain and the system
would soon be forgotten.
• Sensitive information, Some of the units are in business relations with each
other which lead to scaleable access levels in our solution. To prevent sensitive
information getting in the wrong hands we must consider some kind of
authorization system to separate these units.
• Information sources, One of the main assignments of our work is to design
something that makes it possible to measure and follow up different key
figures. This should probably be done in a graphical way with graphs, gauges,
and tables. From Where to extract this information is probably one of the key
problems in our work. There are several different sources to choose between:
reports like excel files, power point files and crystal reports but also data from
ERP systems and other DSS systems.
• User characteristics, In a large organization like ABB there are many different
personalities that should be comfortable using a system. As we earlier
described an executive has some characteristics that should be taken into
consideration when designing the interface and system functions. Our solution
can’t be time consuming; an executive’s time is precious.
• Integration, One thing that is essential is the fact that the solution must
function in ABB’s existing IT-infrastructure. We have to make sure that all of
the rules of, the earlier mentioned, ABB Web Policy is followed. However, this
is nothing we see as a problem, just as guidelines in the design phase.
In the end, all of the problems mentioned above must be solved within reasonable
financial limits. Although we did not get a budget to stick to, ATAP is a company like
any others with tight financial funds and with orders from the steering group to reduce
the IT costs.
Method 12
3 Method
In this chapter we will describe methods and how we have structured our work.
One of the first things we made was to set up a web page for our work. That was a
way to reach our supervisors both at ABB and MDH so they could follow our work
without having to email or call us which would have taken much more time for both of
us. On the webpage we presented our activities, minutes of meetings, documents etc.
At an early stage, we made a workflow diagram (Figure 3), and a project time
plan. Both of them which have been reviewed several times during our work. More
about that later in this chapter.
We have not found any standardized method that we felt comfortable with in our
work, we have rather made up our own to perform our task as ably as possible.
3.1 Workflow
Figure 3 - Our workflow diagram

Method 13
Specification from ABB

This is the base of all our work, here we also include some tips we have gotten
from our supervisor at ABB. The original specification can be found in the
introduction (chapter 1).
Brainstorming
In order to get a picture of possible solutions we start with a step we call
brainstorming. Here we just write down, at a very high level, the different solution
alternates that we find possible. Those alternatives will then be the basis of our future
work.
Analysis
When we have made our brainstorming, we will get some alternatives to keep on
working with. Those ideas will then be analyzed with consideration given to a lot of
information from other sources described below.
Literature Study
Before our work started we made a lot of literature studies. This work is
documented in Chapter 2, ”Related Work”.
Guidance
We hope to get some useful support from our supervisors, both at ABB and MDH.
Interviews
To get an insight in how the organization works and a clearer view of how to solve
the problem we will conduct interviews with the decision makers at respective
business unit.
Marketing Research
We will make a marketing research to find out if any suitable solutions exist in the
market already, or maybe get some more input to make our work even better.
Design
When the analysis is finished, we have a good basis to create the design of a
system that will solve our problem (If the solution is a kind of new system).
Prototyping
If our solution ends up with a new system, we will make a prototype of it, to be
able to demonstrate what we want to do, and show how it could improve the work for
our employer.
Method 14
Testing/Evaluation
The prototype will have to be tested and evaluated and then return to the
prototyping stage several times. That’s to ensure that the system really works as
mentioned, and to correct or remove any bugs.
Master thesis
Finally our work will result in this Master Thesis.
3.2 Brainstorming
Our real work started with a brainstorming, we did not know almost anything
about what we should do in that time. So that’s why we just have superficial ideas. The
goal with the brainstorming is just to get some alternatives to start working with, and
make an evaluation of them.
During the brainstorming process we came up with four different possible
solutions (ideas):
1. A common ERP: The business units are in present situation using different
versions of ERP’s. They do not even use the same ERP. To avoid diversity, a
common ERP-system could be employed.
2. An aggregated system (middleware/data warehouse): A system that aggregate
information from different data sources and stores the assembled information in
a mutual data warehouse (According to 2.2 - Enterprise Application
Integration).
3. An Ad Hoc solution: A solution that is built upon existing systems to solve the
problem and to achieve uniformity.
4. No solution (no need for changes)
3.3 Evaluation
Now it’s time for us to evaluate our different possible solutions that came up
during the brainstorming. We do here describe them more and lift up the advantages
and drawbacks that we can se now, already at the beginning.
Common ERP
A common ERP should give a lot of advantages both for each unit and for the
entire company. For example there exist modules to existing ERP´s that could solve
our problem. The problem is then that those systems are extremely expensive, and
there has to be a lot of units that can split those costs, otherwise it can not be
economical defensible. Also, support and maintenance should be cheaper if all units
have the same system.
But of course there are drawbacks too. The most important is the enormous cost to
change ERP on a unit. It is a high cost that not directly is related to the application
Method 15
itself, as learning cost for the personal, new working routines has to be developed for
example. Another thing to remember is that there take several years from a decision
about changing ERP until it is installed and works fully. This may be too long time to
wait for a solution.
Aggregated System
This solution should give big advantages because it could be operated almost fully
automatically. The data could be retrieved directly from the existing systems, no
changes needed in the existing routines, except from the users of our new system.
The most essential disadvantage with that kind of solution is the need of experts to
solve problems, and the connections need to be updated if one system is changed. It
will therefore be expensive to maintain. Also the installation will be a complicated
work with a lot of different data sources.
Ad Hoc Solution
It would be easy to install, easy and cheap to maintain. No experts are needed. It
would be able use already created reports and as the Aggregated System, this will not
require any new routines for the employees.
With this solution nothing will be aggregated from other systems, it will need a lot
of work with reports and collecting information from existing systems. But do not
forget that all that work is already being done today.
No Solution
This solution should of course be the cheapest one. But it should also mean that
the company would not improve anything.
3.4 Interviews
To get an insight in how the organization works and a clearer view of how to solve
the problem we conducted about ten interviews with the decision makers and system
owners at respective business unit. Each and every interview started out with us asking
a set of predefined questions (according to 4.7 – How to interview). In order not to
loose vital information we recorded every interview which we later transcribed.
Interview questions
In Appendix the most important questions that were used during our interviews are
listed with some comments about why they are important and what we wanted to get
out of each question.
Method 16
Summary of interviews
It was hard to ask the “right” questions since we did not have an idea of what was
required. Our questions where of broad nature and we hoped that we, in the end, could
exclude all, except one solution.
It was hard getting these interviews completed. All of the executives were very
busy and we felt that we were in the way many times but after a few weeks we
managed to perform all of our scheduled interviews.
In general, our interviewees could be divided into two parties. Ones who saw the
need and potential in our work and others who didn’t see the need for “yet another
system”, but all of the executives agreed that there was need for change, in order to get
rid of the diversities within the company.
Reflections
Differences in management
Before the interviews, we had predicted differences in how the units are managed,
mainly because there are almost no similarities between them. After we conducted the
interviews we were no longer sure of what made the biggest difference; the personality
of the executive or the business type? Another interesting reflection we made was the
determining factor of age/experience. We discovered a difference between the slightly
younger persons compared to the older ones. The fact that older executives had more
experience and a broader base to lean on was nothing surprising, but we had not expect
this much diversity. The older executives had a more secure and calm image, which
made the biggest difference compared to the younger ones who were more guided by
known principles and models. This might just be a coincidence, considering the low
number of participants in our interviews, but it doesn’t feel that far-fetched.
Resource vs. Demand

Is a support system a resource or does it make the work more complicated? Here
we also discovered some divergence. Some participants were really excited about our
work while others seemed doubtful and saw it as yet another system to learn.
To take in consideration
Here are some aspects to take into consideration.
Method 17
• The fact that ATAP is striving for a common ERP system in the year of 2008 is
something to take into consideration if one shall develop an ERP based support
system.
• A fear among the participants was also that a support system could slow
existing systems down.
• One thing we saw as a similarity was that three of the units used an information
portal called Processnavigatorn.
• Most of the executives does not need a operative system with day-to-day
information, it’s sufficient with a analytical system containing data snapshots
and monthly/quarter/periodic reports
3.5 Marketing research

To prevent the mistake of discovering something that already had been discovered,
we did a marketing research. Due to the time limit we decided to visit two Swedish
companies that we thought met the requirements, so we made contact with Johan
Kusoffsky at the company Stratsys AB and Stefan Grahn at Simple Concepts, the
retailer of Xcelsuis software.
You can read more about their software in Related Work/Theory, here the
advantages and disadvantages with the existing software are listed.
Stratsys RunYourCompany
Advantages:
• A good way to check the quality of the company’s goals and strategies. .
• Gives an overall picture of the company’s present situation.
• Facilitates the accomplishment of reaching the goal of the company.
• Homogeneity
• This type of system may come in question in the future.
Disadvantages:
• Extensive work with data input
• Difficulty in getting the employees involved.
• Expensive
• Requires experts when installing and for maintenance.
Method 18
Xcelsius
Advantages:
• Make it easy to produce professional looking business presentations
• Dynamic presentations with possibilities to change values directly in
PowerPoint, PDF or Web pages.
• Relatively low purchase price (standard version which is enough for our
solution)
• Possibilities to expand in future.
Disadvantages:
• Makes it more difficult to keep the system updated
• If used in wrong way, it might be a bit messy with all “flashy” animations and
colors.
• When something is changed in an excel spreadsheet , the xcelsius presentation
also has to be updated.
Conclusions
Xcelsius seems to be a very useful program to make pretty and pedagogic data
presentations. If we we’re able to present our information in a nice and easy way, it
will make it easier for employees to understand how the company performs. EVITA
(machines visualization of balanced scorecard) should i.e. be possible to develop to
something that is much more presentative and professional looking. Even existing
presentations, that today is are used to present data and information for customers and
suppliers.
Xcelsius is not an expensive solution since one only needed to have a license to
update the information, not to view it.
Our future work will show if there is a need of this system or not. However it was
a very interesting and rewarding visit that gave us a lot of new ideas.
Related work / Theory 19
4 Related work / Theory

This Chapter aims to give an insight in related theories regarding the thesis
subject.
4.1 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Applications

ERP is an acronym meaning Enterprise Resource Planning. It is a software
package/solution most often used within the manufacturing environment. ERP is a
business tool that management uses to operate the business day-in and day-out. It’s
usually comprised of several modules which includes planning, manufacturing, and
sales, while more recent ERP software products encompass marketing, inventory
control, order tracking, customer service, finance and human resources as well. Each
of these modules shares information that is housed within the database structures for
which the ERP system was coded.
At ABB Automation Technology Products three different ERP systems are used;
BaaN, SAP R/3 and Jeeves.
4.2 Decision Support System (DSS)

A decision support system is an application that supports business and
organizational decision-making activities. 2 The software analyzes business data and
presents it so that users can make business decisions more easily. DSS applications are
not single information resources, such as a database or a program that graphically
represents sales figures, but a combination of integrated resources like relational data
sources, cubes, data warehouses, and data marts and it are aimed to business
executives or some other group of knowledge workers. The information can be raw
data, documents, personal knowledge, and/or business models to identify and solve
problems. Typical information that a decision support application might gather and
present would be:
• Comparative sales figures.
• Projected revenue figures.
• The consequences of different decision alternatives.
A decision support system may present information graphically and may include
an expert system or artificial intelligence (AI).
4.3 Market research
Stratsys AB
Stratsys develops markets and implements web-based systems that support and
should optimize companies’ performance management processes. Stratsys works with
leading methodologies within the field of performance management, such as Balanced
Scorecard and Six Sigma. (Earlier mentioned in “Related work/Theory”) The products
are available either over the Internet (ASP) or as a local installation on a customer
client server. Since the performance management methodologies that form the
products are used within virtually all industries, customers clients are found in many
industries like: Folksam, The Swedish Government, Vattenfall and Stockholm County
Council.
Stratsys KPI
Stratsys KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a web-based standardized system that
supports the development and follow-up of the company’s key performance indicators.
The system makes it possible to collect structure and communicate the company
indicators and their respective links to action plans.
Stratsys RunYourCompany
Stratsys RunYourCompany is a web-based standardized system for performance
management. The system makes it possible to collect structure and communicate
company goals, strategies, critical success factors, key indicators and action plans.
Stratsys RunYourCompany has been developed for Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and
other similar methodologies. Many companies today work with these methodologies
but use IT solutions built in-house for documentation and follow-up. This often results
in a flood of different reporting materials in Excel, Word and PowerPoint and a lot of
manual and time-consuming work. It is difficult to link the different results to an
overall picture of the present situation and future direction for the whole unit or for the
whole company.
The system can be implemented in any organization and is structured in the
following way:
1. Formulate/adapt strategy and build scorecard
2. Develop goals that can be measured
3. Link goals with actions plans and activities
4. Collect and report results
5. Analyze and improve
Simple Concepts (vendor of Xcelsius)

One of the requirements from our employer was that our solution must be able to
keep track of various key figures and compare these to registered target values and
with that serve as a tactical support resolution. In order to do that we decided to, some
how, add a graphical module to our solution. Based on what we have read about ERP
systems and EAI we realized that it would be too time consuming and complex to
retrieve data directly from the ERP systems so we saw an opportunity in using all of
the existing excel reports that were already in use, data washed and ready for
presentation. Luckily, we stumbled over a software called Crystal Xcelsius XL which
did just that.
In Sweden, Xcelsius is marketed by Simple Concepts, a company that works with
making financial information from corporations easier to understand, access, and
manage.
About Xcelsius XL
Crystal Xcelsius is an intuitive stand-alone Windows application, designed to
create engaging, interactive visual analytics from ordinary Excel spreadsheets. It is
tightly integrated with Microsoft Office products, and requires no programming.
Crystal Xcelsius generates interactive visual analytics, charts and graphs, financial
presentations, and business calculators directly to PowerPoint, PDF documents and the
Web.
Utilizing an intuitive and easy-to-use “point-and-click” interface, Crystal Xcelsius
converts Excel spreadsheets into visual analytics in 3 steps:
Import an existing Create an interactive Output the interactive

Excel spreadsheet. visual analytic with visual analytic to
Crystal Xcelsius. PowerPoint, PDF, Outlook
or the Web.
To examine if this software could coexist with our proposed solution we

downloaded a trial version and did some tests. We discovered that this could indeed be
a perfect addition to our project and work as a visual aid. It also passed one other
requirement, to function in ABB’s existing IT-infrastructure.
4.4 Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

EAI is a combination of processes, software, standards and hardware resulting as
an integration of two or more enterprise systems, allowing them to operate as one. EAI
is often associated with integrating systems within a business unit but may also refer to
the integration of enterprise systems of different company units: Business-to-Business
Integration (B2Bi). 3
What is involved in EAI?

EAI is very complex, and affects every level of an enterprise system – its
architecture, hardware, software and processes. EAI involves integration at the
following levels:
Business Process Integration (BPI)

To integrate a business process, a company must define, enable and manage the
processes for exchange of enterprise information between different business systems.
This allows organizations to simplify operations, reduce process management, process
modeling and work flow, which will improve responsiveness to customer demands 4 .
Also, required input/output and tools needed for each step in a business process can be
streamlined.
Application Integration
The goal is to bring data or a function from one application together with that of
another application that together can provide near real-time integration. 5 Application
Integration is used for:
• B2Bi
• Implementing customer relationship management (CRM) systems that are
integrated with a company’s backend applications.
• Web integration
• Building web sites that leverage multiple business systems.
• Custom integration development.
Data Integration
To be successful in both application integration and business process integration,
the integration of data and database systems must be tackled. Prior to integration, data
must first be identified (where it’s located), catalogued and a metadata model must be
built (a master guide for various data stores). When these steps have been
accomplished, data can be shared or distributed across database systems.
Standards of Integration
In order to achieve full data integration, standard formats for the data must me
selected. These standards, which are the core of EAI, include: CORBA,
COM+/DCOM, EDI, JavaRMI and XML.
Platform Integration
In order to complete the system integration, the underlying architecture (software
& hardware) of the network must be integrated. To allow these systems to
communicate, both optimally and securely, adherent tools and processes must be dealt
with. For example, figuring out a way for an NT machine to pass information reliably
to a UNIX machine is a large task in integrating an entire corporate system.
Market Leaders
The EAI market is wide and because of that several software companies offer
products that are integral to some aspect of application integration, but many do not
offer complete solutions. EAI market leaders include 6 : BEA Systems, Cross Worlds
Software and IONA Technologies
Market leading large system integration firms include; IBM Global Services,
Accenture, Price WaterhouseCoopers and CSC, and EDS.
4.5 Human-Computer Interaction and Usability

One definition of Human-Computer interaction (HCI) is: 7
“Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design,
evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and
with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.”
In order to understand how humans interact with computers, we need to have an
understanding of both parties in the interaction.
The Human
The human user is the central character in any discussion of interactive systems
because the computers have been designed to assist him/her. 8 That’s an obvious point,
but it might be easy to forget it after some hours of working with software
development.
An important thing to take care of is different kinds of personalities, in our work
we are focused on Executive persons because our product is primarily intended for
their use.
The Executive
What an executive does or who they are varies from one organization to another
Executives often manage the entire or autonomous subunits of the organization. They
are enterprise-orientated and they consider welfare of the entire organization more
important than that of any single subordinate business unit. Executives are typically
located on the strategic planning level of their firm where the planning horizon is five
or more years into the future. 9 As a result, executives tend to be more future-oriented
then other managers. They have important positions and their actions and decisions
have considerable financial, human and business consequences.
Executives in combination with computers

Executives often have personal characteristics that can, in some cases, complicate
providing them with computer-based support. Age can have associated problems.
Given the time required to achieve a top management position, many executives are
over 50 years old and may not have had training on computers in school. Some
executives may have become familiar with personal computing on their own, taking
computer training courses or by necessity in a previous work assignment. System
designers cannot be certain that all of the executives are computer cultured. These
issues must be taken in to consideration when designing a computer based decision
support system. The age can also lead to physical characteristics that affect the design
work. Their visual needs may need to be accommodated through larger fonts.
Executives typically feel that they must demonstrate that they are self-confident,
capable, and able to handle any situation. Any threat to this image is usually met with
resistance, and unfortunately, computers may be perceived as such a threat.
Executive decision making

The simplest example for executive activity is decision making, not only
personally but also seeing that others in the organization do so as well. Executive
decisions have long time horizons and a high degree of discontinuity. They involve
abstract data and casual relationship, high uncertainty and no assumptions.
The Computer
The computer requires special equipment in order to be able to communicate with
the human. This equipment can be divided into two sub-parts; Input devices and
Output devices. There are many types of devices, some of which are very uncommon.
Different types of applications need different type of I/O devices. In our work we are
just interested in regular personal computers, with a keyboard, mouse monitor and
some kind of speakers.
Limitations
In software development there are many technical limitations that are important
and require attention. Below are listed some of the most important;
• Processing speed, A computers processing speed is very important in software
development. For example if you make a paint program, the tool for making a
line, has to work in real time. If you click, than have a delay before you can
draw the line, it would be very difficult to make a good job.
• Network capacity, If the application is to be connected to a network, it is
important to investigate how much network capacity it will need to work. What
happens if there is not enough bandwidth, will the application still work? Will
any information be lost because of communication problems?
• Storage capacity, When the application is used it can often cause a growing
amount of data to be saved. It is not just pure data that needs space; there are
for example, history logs, transactions history etc. If those don’t have a time
limit of how long the data is saved, they will continue to grow.
The Interaction between human and computer

If we study an ordinary personal computer, the human receives information from
the computer primarily by sight from what appears on the screen and the computer
receives information from the human through the keyboard or mouse. There we have
the most important communication-channels in Human-Computer interaction. A
computer will always understand the same signal in the same way, but a problem with
the humans is that everybody understands things differently. Output to the computer
will go mainly thru the sense of touch, into the keyboard and mouse.
Usability
Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.
Usability is defined by five quality components 10 :
• Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time
they encounter the design?
• Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform
a tasks?
• Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it,
how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
• Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how
easily can they recover from the errors?
• Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?
Webpage / Intranet Usability

On a webpage usability is important because users leave the page if they don’t
understand how to navigate. In some ways that is useful to our work too, because this
should be a useful tool for the employees. If it is difficult to use, no one will use it,
they will attempt to get the information in other ways.
For intranets and other internal applications, usability is also matter of employee
productivity. The average mid-sized company could gain $5 million per year in
employee productivity by improving its intranet design to the top quartile level of a
cross-company intranet usability study. 11 The return on investment could be one
thousand percent or more. Time users spend on finding what to do, and correcting
errors is money you waste by paying them to be at work without getting work done.
Learning costs is also an important aspect to pay attention to. An application that is
easy to use will not need as much education as an application with a difficult interface.
To ensure a steady supply of good and fresh intranet content, it should be easy for
employees to add and update content. Department-level pages and employees' personal
pages contribute much more value to the intranet when they are kept up-to-date. Since
few companies have a special person with intranet as their main job, updates will only
happen if it is easy and fast to maintain.
Another report by Jacob Nielsen also emphasizes the importance of usability
engineering. He describes that ease of use does come from working with usability
engineering, and is an important part of a project. And it does cost money, but not as
much as might be expected. After a study he made, he stated that spending 10% of the
total project cost on usability engineering would give back at least double usability! 12
How to improve usability?

There are many methods for improving usability, but the most basic and useful is
user testing, which has three components:
• Obtain some representative users, such as customers for an e-commerce site or
employees for an intranet.
• Ask the users to perform representative tasks with the design.
• Observe what the users do, where they succeed, and where they have
difficulties with the user interface. Shut up and let the users do the talking.
It's important to test users individually and let them solve any problems on their
own. If you help them or direct their attention to any particular part of the screen, you
have contaminated the test results.
There are a lot of different testing methods and we have picked out two of the
most common;
Heuristic evaluation
Heuristic evaluation is a method for structuring the critique of a system using a set
of relatively simple and general heuristics. A heuristic is a guideline or a general
principle that can guide a design decision. The general idea is that several evaluators
independently critique a system to come up with potential usage problems. It is
important that there be several of these evaluators and that the evaluations be done
independently. According to Jacob Nielsen, the founder of this method, experience
indicates that using approximately five evaluators usually result in about 75% of the
overall usage problems being discovered.
Cognitive walkthrough
Cognitive walkthrough is an attempt to introduce psychological theory into the
informal and subjective walkthrough technique. Walkthroughs require a full review of
a sequence of actions. This sequence can be steps that the interface will require a user
to perform in order to accomplish some task. These steps are then examined by
evaluators to check them for usability problems. The main focus is to determine how
easy the system is to learn. Experience show that users prefer learning a new system by
exploring its functionalities in a hands on methodology.
4.6 Principles of Business Management

In order to develop a successful support tool for decision making, we had to look
at some popular business management principles. We chose to examine two different
types of principles, one of them used at ABB.
Balanced Scorecard
Many companies today compare their results with financially and non-financially
measures. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) transforms the overall goals and strategies into
several instruments that make it possible to measure success and profit. BSC balances
both internal and external measurements and helps the management clarify the goals
and visions which increases the strategic competence. 13
Single track economy

As long as the companies mass-produce standardized products their achievements
could easily be measured in financially dimensions. But the situation today is different:
• Customer adapted products
• Due to globalization, companies are more competitive.
• Shorter “length of life” of products.
• Symbiosis between company, customer and supplier.
• More important to mobilize the intellectual capital rather then the physical
capital.
A problem with focusing only on short-term financial key figures is the increasing
risk to over-invest in short-term solutions and under-invest in long-term accumulation.
The financially outcome can temporarily be satisfactory but is not a guarantee for a
successful future.
It goes without saying that a company needs financial goals and key figures but
these are only the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to dealing with profits and future
investments. To accomplish that the company needs to measure all the elements that
effect the financial result and future competitive edge.
The Four different perspectives

BSC reflects the company in four perspectives (Figure 4 - The four perspectives):
financially, customer, process and development. For each of these perspectives BSC is
showing the most important goals and key figures. The business concept is, in this
way, transformed into goals and key figures where the financially perspective only is
one out of four. However, all of the goals are connected to the financial goals and to
the profit of the company as well.
The financial key figures show whether the company’s strategy is increasing the
profit or not. Types of key figures: cash flow, yield, productivity.
The customer related key figures could be: number of new customers, profit of
different customers, share of the market, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
The process perspective concerns all the processes of greatest importance to

customer satisfaction and the financial goals. Could be figures like: product and
marketing development.
The development perspectives goal concerns the development of the staff, system
and routines, all with long-term development as a goal. Key figures could be common
measures like: Employee satisfaction or education.
Figure 4 - The four perspectives
In most cases four perspectives are enough but sometimes more are required.
Some companies need an Environmental perspective. The total number of key figures
usually ends up with 15-20 and they are interdependent of each other. The key figures
are strategic measures and should not be mistaken for regular operative measures of
which a company may have hundreds.
Why some strategies never get realized

Many strategies stay on paper. An American study discusses four, and the most
common, reasons for that:
• The strategy is not concrete enough. Visions and strategies should be
formulated in a way so the staffs can understand them. Six out of ten top
employers thought they understood how to reach the goals. Among the staff,
only 7% had the same comprehensive understanding.
• The strategy doesn’t get converted into goals for the divisions, groups and
individuals.
• The strategy doesn’t control the resource dispersion.
• The strategy doesn’t get sufficient feedback. Old school companies keep the
strategy secret for the staff. Today modern business executives have another
opinion. It’s important for the staff to know the strategies in order to follow
them.
Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a well-organized, data-driven methodology for eliminating defects
(driving towards six standard deviations between the mean and the nearest
specification limit) in any process, from manufacturing to transactional and from
product to service. The statistical representation of Six Sigma describes quantitatively
how a process is performing. To achieve Six Sigma, a process must not produce more
than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. A defect is defined as anything outside of
customer specifications and an opportunity is then the total quantity of chances for a
defect.
The fundamental objective of the Six Sigma methodology is the implementation of
a measurement-based strategy that focuses on process improvement and variation
reduction through the application of Six Sigma improvement projects. This is
accomplished through the use of two Six Sigma sub-methodologies:
• DMAIC: This process (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) is an
improvement system for existing processes falling below specification and
looking for incremental improvement
• DMADV.. The Six Sigma DMADV process (define, measure, analyze, design,
verify) is an improvement system used to develop new processes or products at
Six Sigma quality levels. It can also be employed if a current process requires
more than just incremental improvement.
Keep it simple and straight-forward (KISS)

The KISS principle is today often used when discussing design as a reminder to
avoid the unnecessary complexity that can arise during the design process. The
traditional expansion of this acronym is "Keep it Simple, Stupid". More particularly, it
is a leading principle in designing critical low-level routines of operating system
kernels, where it suggests to write the code in the most simple and self-explaining
manner, to avoid errors, or make it easy to find them. Engineers also use the KISS
principle, since the simplest solution is usually the best solution to engineering
challenges. The business community commonly uses the KISS principle when
encouraging simpler business plans, simpler processes, and lower overhead.
The KISS Principle recognizes two things:

1. People (including product and service users) generally want things that are
simple, meaning easy to learn and use.
2. A company that makes products or furnishes services may find simplicity an
advantage for the company as well, since it tends to shorten time and reduce
cost. (Where the company is trying to use the principle on behalf of users,
however, design time may take longer and cost more, but the net effect will be
beneficial since easy-to-learn-and-use products and services tend to be cheaper
to produce and service in the long run.)
4.7 How to Interview

To conduct professional and rewarding interviews we decided to study some
interview techniques. It felt important for us to get as much as we could from the
executives precious time. Well prepared interviews would hopefully lead to more
useful information that could be important later on.
An interview session should last for about one hour. Less than one hour is unlikely
to be valuable and a session over one hour may be making unreasonable demands on
the often busy interviewee.
All interviews require painstaking preparations: arrange meetings, arrange

necessary permissions, reschedule meetings, and prepare questions. Tapes, if used,
must be transcribed and are very time consuming. One-hour-tape takes 10 hour to
transcribe 14
Advice for Interviewers

• Listen more, speak less: The interviewee should do the talking.
• The questions should be put in a straightforward, clear and non-threatening
way.
• Avoid cues or leading questions. This can force the interviewee to give the
‘correct’ answer to please the interviewer.
• Be interested, don’t give the impression of being bored or scared
Content of the interview

Interviews which are pre-structured, often pre-prepared content by the interviewer,
consists of:
• A set of questions, often with alternative subsequent questions depending on
the given response.
• Suggestions for so-called probes.
• A pre-defined sequence for the questions which may change during the
interview.
The Questions
There are three main types used in research interviews: closed, open or scale
questions. Closed questions force the interviewee to choose from two or more
alternatives. Open questions provide no restrictions on the content or manner of the
reply. Scale questions ask for a response in the form of degree of agreement or
disagreement.
Probes
A probe is a way to get the interviewees to expand on a response when you intuit
that they have more to say. There are obvious tactics like asking: ‘Anything more to
say?’ or ‘Could you go over that again’. There are other tactics like:
• A period of silence
• An enquiring glance
• ‘mmhmmmm’
• Repeating back all or part of what the interviewee just said.
The sequence of questions

Below is the sequence of questions in the common form of interviews;
1. Introduction, Interviewer introduces herself, explain purpose of the

interview, ask for permission to tape and/or make notes.
2. ‘Warm-up’, Easy, non-threatening questions.
3. Main body, Generally the purpose of the interview.
4. ‘Cool-off’, Usually a few straightforward questions at the end to defuse
any tension that might have built up
5. Closure, Thank you and good bye. Switch of the recorder or notebook put
away.
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5 Results
In this chapter we will collect all of the information we’ve got along the way and
mould it in to one solution.
5.1 Analysis
Now we have received a lot of input from different sources; ABB organization,
Literature studies, Interviews and Marketing research. We feel that we are ready to
take the next step in our work and decide on one of our ideas to utilize.
Almost every executive we met had a unique way of business management, which
resulted in different answers from all of the interviewees, but after extensive time spent
on transcribing and analysis we came to the following conclusions, with a starting-
point based on our four initial ideas:
1. A common ERP: Here we made an important discovery. ATAP is going to use
a common ERP system at the end of 2008. So there was no need for us to spend
time on evaluating a common ERP scenario, when ABB already was
investigating this. The interesting part of this discovery was the possibility of
purchasing a DSS-module for the common ERP (SAP R/3) in the future.
Another conclusion we made based on this information was that we could not,
at this time, develop an ERP centric prototype, because it would become
outdated in 2008.
2. An aggregated system (middleware/data warehouse): This solution had been
up for discussion at some of the units. Based on the given answers, this solution
would be rather expensive and time consuming and could only be implemented
individually (due to the current heterogeneous situation), something that was
incompatible with our requirements.
3. An Ad Hoc solution: With this we saw an opportunity to develop something
useful and uniform. Based on the interviews we found some similarities like
Processnavigatorn and the fact that they all use Inside (ABB Intranet).
4. No solution (no need for changes)
After the last interview we were almost certain of what we had to do. Now we had
an overall picture of how the company was functioning and the relationships between
the different departments. Today there is almost an information chaos with reports
laying on different drives/locations. Old and new files are mixed with reports with
improper filenames, which makes it even harder to find the right information at the
right time. This informational mess can sometime make it hard, or at least time
consuming, for the executive or controller to get a hold of the latest information when
he/she needs it.
There was a need for a portal system that gathers all these existing reports and key
figures and presents them in an easy, interactive and logical way, so we decided to
develop the Processnavigatorn one step further. Why the Processnavigatorn? It is
already in use, it is inexpensive and it doesn’t require high-priced experts for
maintenance. We wanted to design a tool that looks the same, no matter where you are
in the company and with that create a living intranet. We also wanted to make the
Results 32
Processnavigatorn more dynamic, more intelligent and add a graphical module to be

able to visualize the different key figures that an executive relies on in his/her daily
work. To make it easy to maintain and get rid of the existing HTML-coding, we
understood that we had to develop an easy-to-use admin interface. To suit the
characteristics of an executive person (earlier mentioned in our report) we needed to
develop a point-and-click type of interface with no complicated navigational system,
all this in the name of usability.
Results 33
5.2 Design
One of the obvious downsides of Processnavigatorn is the lack of dynamics. All of
the links are hand coded in HTML. It’s hard to keep the system updated and there is
much manual hand imposition. As a consequence of deleted, renamed and moved files
in the underlying file structure there are often reports of broken links in the old system.
To get rid of all these problems we decided to develop a database driven dynamic
portal, based on .NET technology. First, we named the project “ATAP Portalen” but
later on we changed it to “Ledningsportalen” because of ATAP could probably be
changed in future. In order to visualize and compare all of the key figures, something
that is totally absent in the Processnavigatorn, we use Xcelsius to develop dynamic
flash files that are linked to excel files. These flash files are then imported in to our
web based solution. In Figure 5 a high-level chart of how the new system should be
designed is presented.
The files (reports and other documents with key figures) will be placed on a
special location at ABB´s file system, and in the database there are links to where the
files are located. That will make it easy for employees to keep working as usual with
their reports, and but at the same time as he/she saves the report, the change will be
effected in “ledningsportalen”.
In the database we will also store information about each user of the system, and
their favorite-figures. More about that later in the description of the system. Each user
will also be connected to one or more roles. Each role involve access to a certain BAU,
or admin-page etc. For example the senior management of ATAP will have rights to
see all the BAU’s pages, but an employee at Machines will not be able to see results
for CEWE control.
Results 34
Figure 5 - System design overview

Results 35
Database
The database plays a significant role in our system. In some ways the database IS
the system, the web pages is only a user interface that makes it easier for a human to
understand the information stored in the database.
Our database will contain all information from Users and Business Units to key
figures and links. The communication between WebPages and the database will be
done via SQL-questions, which is easy to use and adaptable to a lot of different
databases. Figure 6 - Our database model shows our database model.
Figure 6 - Our database model

We have decided to make everything dynamic, both the number of BAU´s and the
names of them etc. In such a big organization like ABB names and organization
schemes will change continuously.
Xcelsius
After our meeting with the people at Simple Concepts, who gave us a
demonstration of Xcelsius, we convinced ABB to purchase a development version for
us to work with. The only downside with this less expensive version is that it doesn’t
automatically update the generated Macromedia Flash file if changes are made in the
underlying excel file. So we decided to visualize key figures that were updated
monthly, just to avoid having to generate new flash files every day. The solution to this
problem is to procure the more advanced version of Crystal Xcelsius, where this is
done automatically.
Combined with the Xcelsius software, a solution was found, that in accordance
with the previous work, can be an answer to ATAP’s problem.
Results 36
Functionality/GUI
We wanted to crate a uniform portal with a professional touch. To make it easy to
update and manage an admin interface will be needed. The screenshots in this part is
taken from a prototype which was developed at the end of our project.
Functions needed in the portal:
User interface:
• Log in / Sign out

• Add/remove files to favorites
• Add/edit/remove personal URL
• File last changed time
• File type detection
• Export graphical module to power point presentation.
• Detection of broken links
Admin interface:
• Add/edit/delete user
• Edit URL to Flash file
• Add/edit/delete unit
• Add/edit/delete area
• Add/edit/delete file URL
In the section below we will discuss all of the main pages
Start page
Results 37
Figure 7 - Screenshot of Start page
The user will come to this page (Figure 7) to log in. At the top of the page there is
a headline image, sized and positioned according to ABB Web Standards. Below the
image are the navigation tabs localized. If the user isn’t logged in, the BAU tabs are
not clickable and partly transparent to show them not being accessible. The selected
tab is marked with a darker shade of grey. At the middle of the page is the log in area.
The username and password are checked in the database.
Personal page
Figure 8 - Screenshot of Personal page
Figure 8 shows the first page an authorized user comes to. The user can customize
this page. The user can add a shortcut to a file or create an URL to another site. The
user’s full name is also automatically displayed. The first time a new user enters this
site, the site will contain no shortcuts or favorites but the user can, at any time, add or
remove files to his/her personal page.
If the user is authorized to visit one (or more) BAU page, corresponding tab in the
navigation area will become clickable and change transparency to 100%.
Results 38
One row in the favorite list consists of:

• File Type Icon: This is automatically set by the system. The function
recognizes four different file types: doc, ppt, xls and pdf, which are the most
common files used in ABB. If the link is broken the systems shows this with a
warning icon.
• File name: The file name and link to the file is set by the Admin.
• Changed Icon: The system recognizes when a file is changed. There are three
different Changed Icons: Changed Today, yesterday and last week.
• Changed date & time: Is automatically set by the system.
• Remove Icon: The user can delete selected file from his/her favorite list.
One row in the Link list consists of:

• Icon: Automatically set by the system
• Link name: Set by the user.
• Link URL: Set by the user.
• Edit Icon: The user can edit the information about the link.
• Remove Icon: The user can remove a link.
At the bottom of the Link list there is an Add Link button. This adds a row in the
list.
Results 39
BAU Start Page
Figure 9 - Screenshot of two different BAU start pages combined
BAU start page (Figure 9) is where the unit displays its most important key
figures. Below the navigation tab there are two rows of navigation links categorized by
units and areas. The graphical module is an interactive Macromedia Flash file, linked
to a Microsoft Excel file.
Results 40
BAU File List
Figure 10 - Screenshot of LV Motors File list
BAU File list is the page where all of the unit’s reports and instructions are
collected and displayed. (Figure 10) One row in the file list consists of:
• File Type Icon: This is automatically set by asp-page. The function recognizes
four different file types: doc, ppt, xls and pdf, which are the most common files
used in ABB. If the link is broken the systems shows this with a warning icon.
• File name: The file name and link is set by the Admin.
• Changed Icon: The system recognizes when a file is changed. There are three
different Changed Icons: Changed Today, yesterday and last week.
• Changed date & time: Is automatically set by the system.
• Add to favorite Icon: If the user clicks this icon he/she will be asked if he/she
want to add this file to the Personal page.
Admin start page

Results 41
Figure 11 - Screenshot of Admin Start page

Admin start page is the first page an authorized administrator enters. (Figure 11)
Here is where the admin will add/edit/remove BAU’s and add/edit/remove URL to
flash file, it’s only the last-mentioned function which is implemented in the prototype.
One row in the file list consists of:
• BAU Name
• URL to interactive Macromedia Flash file
• Edit: Edit URL to Macromedia Flash file.
The admin can, at any time, log out by clicking the “Logga ut” button.
Admin Users
Figure 12 - Screenshot of Admin User page

The admin can on this page (Figure 12) manage the users in several ways. Below
the navigation tabs the admin can add a new user by enter the user details (In the
prototype: Username, Name, Password, Admin yes/no) One row in the list consists of:
• Username
• Full name
• Admin yes/no
• Edit: Edit all the user details, except the password.
• Delete user.
The password is encrypted before it’s stored in the database.
Results 42
Admin BAU
Figure 13 - Screenshot of Admin BAU page

Here (Figure 13) is where the admin manages the units and areas. One row in the
list consists of:
• Unit/area name
• Edit
• Delete
There is also an “add button” at the top of the list where the user can add a row to
the list.
Admin BAU File list
Figure 14 - Screenshot of Admin BAU File List

The admin can on this page (Figure 14) manage the file-links. To add a file to the
database the admin enters the File name and File URL, the system will then
automatically show the file type and last change date. One row in the list consists of:
Results 43
• File Type Icon

• File name
• File URL
• File Last Change Date
• Edit
• Delete
The admin adds a row to the list by clicking the Add button on top of the list.
5.3 Evaluation / testing

To be able to evaluate, test and demonstrate the portal, a prototype was created.
The prototype is not a fully functional solution, just a demonstration of how it should
work.
At first we wanted to do an extensive test routine that involved several test persons
and document the results. But at the end of the project because of time constraints we
decided to test the prototype on some persons in executive positions of ABB LV
Motors and also our supervisor at Machines. LV Motors is one of the units that
currently uses the Processnavigatorn, so the concept is familiar to them. We chose
three persons, all with different decision making position: the Executive president,
Controller and an IT-handler who maintain the navigator today (probably a future
Admin).
The first impression of all of the test personnel was that they where impressed by
the professional interface. They where actually stunned by how the gauges and
diagrams at the BAU start page made the information so easily comprehensible. Both
the executive and the controller where surprised over the export function to Power
Point Presentation, they said: “that would really come in handy when giving
presentations in the future”. The IT-handler was excited about the admin interface
which made the time consuming HTML coding history.
The personnel at LV Motors were really interested in our prototype and made us
demonstrate the prototype on several different occasions.
Based on the test result, it seems that we’ve manage to develop something that is
really of practical interest for the organization.
5.4 Recommendations
Currently, there is considerable time spent in manipulating the data that is
generated from the ERP systems. This is almost entirely done by the employees that
put this data in various reports/sheets. This work is necessary today because the
information from the ERP’s must be controlled and data cleansed. In the future this
could be done automatically by special systems which will lead to dramatic reductions
of the present manual report management.
There is no way that ABB ATAP is ready to take the step in that direction today.
There has to be extensive research in areas like: where to extract data, which data, at
what time, how to assure that the information is accurate, how to store data and for
how long. But one step in the right direction would be to implement a full version of
Results 44
Ledningsportalen and integrate it with a common Report generator. This would reduce
the amount of manual data entry to some extent and make a smoother transition to an
automated system. (See figure Figure 15 and compare with Figure 5)
Figure 15 - Future system view
5.5 Future work

Ledningsportalen requires some further work to function as it should. We only
implemented the most crucial functions, functions that where necessary to get a
working prototype. No time was spent on features that had to be changed if ABB were
to decide to use this solution. The prototype’s underlying file structure is only a mimic
of the real structure at ABB, with only a few hand picked files. The user authentication
was also one area where we decided to create a dummy file. In the future, this is
supposed to become integrated with ABB’s authentication system. This integration
will make the sign-in page in the prototype unnecessary because then the user will
automatically be signed in once logged in on his/her computer. The Admin interface
will need some additions too. In the prototype, the report URL had to be typed in
which might not seem that practical. Instead there should be a browse function with an
option to add all files in a folder. The user control page should also be extended with
some additional features. The prototype was partly developed with Xcelsius which
only contained the most basic functions and features. To get rid of the Macromedia
Flash file generating process and to get XML integration possibilities a more advanced
version of Xcelsius must be used. This will enable connections directly to ERP
systems instead of Microsoft Excel files.
Summary and Conclusions 45
6 Summary and Conclusions

In this thesis, the general problem was to look in to the possibilities of the
development of a common Decision Support System for the ABB ATAP-Business
Area. Four different solution/ideas were, in an early stage, recognized and processed in
the analysis phase. Based on the work done in that process and all of the other input
collected during the work, one final solution that met all the requirements was
developed. An interactive prototype of a web based information portal called
Ledningsportalen was finally created.
The good thing about our solution, Ledningsportalen, is the simplicity. It really
helps the units keep the information easily accessible and to transform the intranet into
a more living information portal that all of the employers can use. The interactive
dashboards we developed didn’t just make the key figures accessible to the executives
but also to all of the employees in the company. Hopefully this will inspire the workers
and make them feel more involved in the company as well.
There are many problems that ATAP has to overcome in order to achieve
uniformity in all of the units. The biggest challenge is the different business directions
and the lack of solidarity. ATAP felt, to us, like a company that consisted of several
smaller companies with almost no similarities or sense of cooperation between them.
To make the information flow successfully transparent and uniform there must be a
solid ground on which to build the solution. A common ERP system is a good starting
point from which the work can slowly evolve. Our solution can then function as a
portal connecting all this information and employees together.
6.1 Personal reflections

The time we spent at ABB during our work with this master thesis was really
interesting. We learned that it is hard predicting the nearest future which makes it even
harder to follow a pre prepared time schedule. When working with a large corporation
you learn about all the different, sometimes unpredictable, forces that affects the
progress of your work. It’s not only your time that is of importance here and to get
things done, at the right time, you have to spend a good deal of time puzzling time
fragments together.
Conducting the interviews gave us many useful experiences and insights. Already
during the interview planning we met the first problems. The executives are not always
that easy to contact. There are many meetings, business trips, paternity leave, and so
on. Even a short answer to our mail turned out to be nothing dependable. They get
hundreds of mail each day and our matter was of low priority, to them.
After we conducted the interviews we asked ourselves several questions. Some of
them were really hard for us to answer. Our reflections are discussed below:
What are the factors that decide what answers we will get? Is it the executive’s
personal way of managing the business or is it their position or place of work? These
questions are difficult to answer without delving deeper, but we think we’re dealing
with some kind of combination. There are of course differences in producing big scale
machines from selling small contacts but it’s important to remember that these persons
are in their respective positions for a reason, maybe because of their special quality in
Summary and Conclusions 46
running a company. In some cases this quality can be of a great interest in technical
solutions and in other cases it could be the person’s social skills.
As we earlier mentioned, we where really confused at the beginning of the process.
It was hard to know what to do, how to do it and when to do it. After the early
literature study about the rather complex EAI system, the scope of our work seemed
almost infinite. But as time went by the scope decreased and the problem became more
and more clear. It is also hard to make limitation in one’s work. You have to let go of
the need to please everyone and focus on the overall picture of the problem. It was
when we came to that insight our work really progressed rapidly in what we thought
was the right direction.
Glossary 47
7 Glossary
AT ABB Automation Technologies AB
ATAP ABB Automation Technology Products
BA Business Area
BAU Business Area Unit
BU Business Unit
BUU Business Unit Unit
EAI Enterprise Application Integration
ERP Enterprise Recourse Planning Application
DSS Decision Support System
Appendix 48
8 Appendix
8.1 ABB Organization
Figure 16 – ABB Organisation and ATAP (Sweden)

Appendix 49
CEWE Control
CEWE Control, located in Västerås/Nyköping is the global leader of low voltage
products. BUU Cewe Control shall develop, produce, market and sell the low voltage
products which they are globally responsible for within ABB: Large contactors,Soft
starters, Plugs and Sockets, Pilot Devices, DIN-mounted, electricity meters, Enclosed
switches, Arc guard system, Car heaters,
They shall market and sell the complete low voltage products and instrumentation
range as well as cable cabinets and distribution boards on the Swedish market.
LV Systems
LV Systems (LVS) is Sweden’s leading supplier of engineered low voltage
switchgear/MCC systems for power and industry applications. They are also the
largest producer of electronics / apparatus cabinets within the ABB group. LVS
customers are oil, gas and petrochemicals, manufacturing and consumer industries,
utilities, contractors and process industries. ABB LV System is located in Västerås.
Kabeldon
Kabeldon in Alingsås manufacture high quality dividers and wiring accessories
with high level requirements of simplicity and security. Their products are used to
lengthen and ramify cable networks all over the world. The basic function is fixed
electrical connections and all the products are developed in dialogue with customers
and partners.
Machines
ABB Machines in Västerås is one of three production units for motors and
machines, the other units are Low Voltage Motors and DC Motors. Machines supplies
Large AC Motors/Generators, Synchronous Generators, Synchronous Motors,
Induction Motors and Traction Motors. The main part of the production is for export.
LV Motors
LV Motor develops, manufactures and sells asynchronous motors in aluminum and

cast iron with height of axles within 112-280 mm. Effects up to 120kW.
Nordkomponent
Nordkomponent is located in Västerås/Sollefteå, and produces components
primary for mechanical, electro technical and electronic companies. They do also work
with prototype production and customer advice in product development.
The company focuses in the following areas: Construction, Electro technical and
Mechanical, Production technique, Painting, Montage, Logistics, Supply Management
Domestic Sales
Domestic sales are a pure sales organization, and their business is to market products
from the other business units under APR at the Swedish market.
8.2 Interview questions

What information is important for you to manage the company? At the first
moment we want to get an insight into the everyday-work of our interview subjects.
Appendix 50
With this question we especially are interested in their use of key figures, and if there
are any other important parameters.
How do you follow up the key figures today? We also need to know if there
exist any decision support systems today. If it does, does it work as intended, or what
could be done too improve it?
Which ERP´s do you use? If our solution needs to get information from the
existing systems, we have to know which systems they use today. Are there more than
one?
Do you miss something? This is an important question for our task. It is important
to learn from experiences from earlier solutions, and then be able to make it better in
the new application/system.
Which key figures are the most important? Since our task is to make a system
that is common between several units, it can be needed to choose just the common key
figures or at least make it suitable to the most used figures.
How often does the information need to be updated? If the information should
be taken from another system, we need to know how often the information should be
retrieved. Is it enough to do it every night? Should it be live information? These are
questions we want to get answered.
Does the information need any work before it can be used? If the information
requires some work up, it could be impossible to make any automatic connections to
existing systems; probably a human will have to check that the information is correct
before it is presented.
How do you want the information? (SMS, email, webpage, application) Today
we have a lot of different sources to spread information. SMS, E-mail, Webpage is just
some examples. What is most suitable for the users of our system?
In what format do you want the information to be presented?
(Numerical,diagrams, etc.) Some information is easier to read numerically, some in
diagrams. What is best for the information they want presented?
Does the information need to be protected? Which information? Why? For
whom? With this question we want to know the importance of security when we, later
on, begin working on the solution. Which information should be protected? Why?
Who should have access, who should not?
Are there more people in your organization that use the same
information/system? We want to know the information flow and information
transparency within the organization. Can we categorize the information somehow to
suit as many as possible?
History. Do you need to see historical key figures? For what length of time ?
Does our solution need to take historical facts into consideration? If so, what is the
time span? Large amount of history could advocate some sort of data-warehouse
solution.
Is the company located at several places in Sweden? Is this a problem? If the
company has several locations, could this affect our solution? In what way is this a
problem for the company?
Appendix 51
Is information about other units in the same BAU of interest? What should the
degree of transparency between units be? Could the different units share information?
Does any company have a customer relationship with other units in the same BAU
which prevents information sharing? This question is related to the one regarding
security.
References 52
9 References
1
ABB Intranet (2005): http://inside.abb.com
2
Information Builders (web page 2006), http://www.informationbuilders.com
3
Ruh W. A., Maginnis F. X., and Brown W. J. (2000): Enterprise Application Integration, A Wiley
Tech Brief, ISBN 0471376418
4
Andre Yee: "Demystifying Business Process Integration." EaiQ.
5
Gartner Group Inc (web page 2005), http://www.gartner.com
6
John P. Desmond and Ed Acly (1999): "Beating the Integration Blues." Software Magazine.
7
ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction Curriculum Development Group (1992).
ACM SIGCHI curricula for human-computer interaction. Technical report
8
Alan J. Dix, Janet E. Finlay, Gregory D. Abowd, Russel Beale (1998): Human-Computer Interaction -
Second edition, ISBN: 0-13-239864-8
9
Hugh j. Watson, George Houdeshel, Rex Kelly Rainer, JR. (1997): Building Executive Information
Systems and other Decision Support Applications, ISBN: 0-471-06930-2
10
Useit.com – Jacob Nielsen (web page, 2005): http://www.useit.com/
11
Design Guidelines from Studies with Intranet Users (2002), Jacob Nielsen
12
Return on Investment for Usability (2003), Jacob Nielsen
13
Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton (1996): Translating Strategy Into Action, The Balanced
Scorecard, ISBN: 0875846513
14
Colin Robson (2002): Real World Research, ISBN: 0631213058

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A Decision Support System

for Executive Business Management

Master Thesis, Computer Science, 20 credits Supervisors:

Mälardalen University ABB Automation Techonologies:

Performed at: Mälardalen University:

1.3 Reader instructions

Figure 1 - System map

2.2 ABB organization

ABB Automation Technologies

ABB Automation Products

ABB Power Technologies

ABB Web Policy

ABB Image Bank

Keep pages as “light” as possible

ABB Technical Usability Standards

Applications related to www.abb.com, inside.abb.com or other ABB Web

Third party applications

ABB Web Design Standards - ABB Graphic User Interface

Figure 2 - Page Structure

2.3 Problem analysis

Figure 3 - Our workflow diagram

Specification from ABB

Resource vs. Demand

3.5 Marketing research

4 Related work / Theory

4.1 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Applications

4.2 Decision Support System (DSS)

4.3 Market research

Simple Concepts (vendor of Xcelsius)

Import an existing Create an interactive Output the interactive

To examine if this software could coexist with our proposed solution we

4.4 Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

What is involved in EAI?

Business Process Integration (BPI)

4.5 Human-Computer Interaction and Usability

Executives in combination with computers

Executive decision making

The Interaction between human and computer

Webpage / Intranet Usability

How to improve usability?

4.6 Principles of Business Management

Single track economy

The Four different perspectives

The process perspective concerns all the processes of greatest importance to

Figure 4 - The four perspectives

Why some strategies never get realized

Keep it simple and straight-forward (KISS)

The KISS Principle recognizes two things:

4.7 How to Interview

All interviews require painstaking preparations: arrange meetings, arrange

Advice for Interviewers

Content of the interview

The sequence of questions

1. Introduction, Interviewer introduces herself, explain purpose of the

Processnavigatorn more dynamic, more intelligent and add a graphical module to be

Figure 5 - System design overview

Figure 6 - Our database model

• Log in / Sign out

Figure 7 - Screenshot of Start page

Figure 8 - Screenshot of Personal page

One row in the favorite list consists of:

One row in the Link list consists of:

BAU Start Page