Business control systems

Business Control Systems is a framework for enhancing performance of organisations through a combination of enterprise resource planning,decision support systems and business analytics. The concept is analogous to process control system transposed on operation of businesses and incorporates the application of algorithms and mechanism in a context that integrates
* enterprise resource planning
* decision support systems
* Business analytics

The key elements of the framework are:
* Integration
* Algorithms / Business Rules
* Environment
** Data extraction and abstraction
** Analytics
** Presentation

Analogy to Process Control Systems

In order to explain the framework let us look at a simple process control system first. The Tank Level Controller consists of 4 key elements. The Input element : Level Monitor, which measures the level in the tank. The Control element : Controller which compares the input with the setpoint, the Goal element. The Output Element : opening or closing a valve is the control action / output which finally adjusts the level in the tank by increasing or decreasing the flow of water to the tank.

To summarise.
1. Input Element : State inputs from the system or environment (The water tank in the above case).
2. Goal Element : State variables for the optimum environment desired (a desired level in the tank so that it does not overflow).
3. Control Element : Decision rules to map the inputs with desired state of the environment (a rule that maps whether the input level is greater / less than the desired level and the actions thereof).
4. Output Element : State output to initiate changes in the system (closing / opening the valve for the tap on our tank).

Transpose this to a simple business environment. A hypothetical, street Ice Cream Vendor who has to sell all ice-creams in his inventory and can change prices anytime.

Input Element :
* Demand for Ice-creams
* Temperature today (affects both demand and how fast the ice creams get spoilt)
* Inventory of icecreams

Goal Element
* Maximise Overall Profits

Output Element
* Price
* Location

Control Element (the decision rules)
* If Demand is low / high - Change location, price
* If Temp is low / high - Change price
* If Inventory is low / high - Change price
* Interactions between the Input elements, for e.g. if Demand is high and inventory is low change price to very high.

As you can see the complexity increases in dimensions but the system is analogous. In a full scale developed framework even a simple business will have multiple items in each element and the decision rules will encompass several dimensions. However viewing from the framework it will be clear that several of these microsystems can be dealt separately just as is done in nested loops of process control systems where the output element of the inner loop forms the goal element for the outer loop.

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