Management Information Systems - A Comparative Analysis of SAP and Inova Using the Balanced Scorecard Approach

Information systems start to play a key-role in modern business as well as in modern government. When speaking of them, most European organisations will think first of SAP. This is mainly because of the first mover advantage of SAP, being one of the first to offer solutions that worked. Comparisons to other products are difficult, since SAP offers basically everything, from process management to data mining. Here it is important to clearly define a range, in within different products are compared, and to find a proper methodology. This paper will focus on the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), a concept introduced by Kaplan and Norton in 1996. In a first step, the BSC and its philosophy will be introduced. This is important because the BSC is more than just another Management Information System (MIS). In a second step, crucial factors for a general implementation will be singled out. In a third step, Inova IndikatorWorkshop and mySAP.com will be introduced and compared, using the previously found critical factors.