B102.4 - FAMMMSOIT/bELS vs Software Menus - NOT ALIGNED
By now you are seeing a pattern related to Business Subjects...
At this point we are summarizing our Business categogries with FAMMMSOIT/bELS. And that acronym expands into:
What happens when you try to then automate a company with software? Do those same firm business categorie hold?
The images below are images from various web based software systems.
These menus are for systems that can all generally be referred to as Business Systems, or Data Management systems, but the following terms are industry terms for various systems used in Business.
The take-away from this information presented below will be that you should realize there is often very little direct alignment of the FAMMMSOIT/bELS Subjects by name or isolation in business systems.
At this point we are summarizing our Business categogries with FAMMMSOIT/bELS. And that acronym expands into:
- Finance
- Accounting
- Management
- Marketing (and Sales)
- Management Science and Operations (or Business Information Technology)
- Information Technology
- Business Ethics
- Business Law
- Business Strategy
What happens when you try to then automate a company with software? Do those same firm business categorie hold?
The images below are images from various web based software systems.
These menus are for systems that can all generally be referred to as Business Systems, or Data Management systems, but the following terms are industry terms for various systems used in Business.
- ERP System (Enterprise Resource Planning Systems)
- CRM System(Customer Relationship Management Systems)
- EIS (Executive Information System)
- DSS (Decision Support System)
- RCM System (Revenue Collection Management System)
The take-away from this information presented below will be that you should realize there is often very little direct alignment of the FAMMMSOIT/bELS Subjects by name or isolation in business systems.
- Business systems often times are organized via processes, not subjects/categories
- Data needs often span across subjects/categories
- This break down in alignment between business subjects and data systems is why you really need to have a baseline understanding of business subjects in pure/raw form before setting out to use business software.
- If you don't know the functional Subjects first, defining software needs can turn into one huge ball of confusion for all, and the users are the ones who ultimately suffer the most (or get trapped the most by a nefarious few seeking to lock up users in mediocre, monopolistic software that has greater benefits to the creators than the users).
Health Insurance Billing Software
This image is from a popular low cost insurance billing system utilized by health care and wellness providers.
This image is from a popular low cost insurance billing system utilized by health care and wellness providers.
- This system enables Providers to electronically submit claims to insurance carriers, and it then offers an Accounts Receivable Module for adjusting collection amounts, issuing invoices and tracking payments from insurance companies and patients.
- The submission portion of this system is relatively straight forward.
- The Accounts Receivable portion of this system is a nightmare.
- Other than the word "Accounting", notice that none of the other "Business Words" we've been defining are prominent...
- Likewise, if you knew what was what in this software, you'd realize that "Accounting" is not remotely accurate or transparent word choice. This software module labeled "accounting" is in fact all about "Accounts Receivable" which is only a tiny part of the Accounting process, and totally unrelated to core Accounting functions for Tax or Cost Accounting.
Dye House -- Sales, Production Processing, Inventory Management, Quality Control, Shipping and Other...
The menu on the right is associated with a private, web based data system for a dye house in the early 2000's. It isn't really broken out into the nice clean categories related to business as we've been defining them. |
Metal Art Business -- Sales, Production Processing, Product Assembly maps, Compenent Vendors, etc...
This is a system that was built to assist with the management of 60 unique metal art designs created for a small metal art Business. Again, there is a lack of the nice clean categories related to business as we've been defining them... |
Vacation Rental Management -- Guests, Bookings, Deposit Refunds, Sales Reporting, etc...
This is a system that was built to assist with the management of two properties that are rented out very regularly as fully furnished rentals. Again, there is a lack of the nice clean categories related to business as we've been defining them. AND you should start to see some similarities in the digital needs of very different types of businesses. As you come to understand database systems you will start to learn that the labels used that make things look very different often are just masking very similar stored data. |
Accounting Software
This is a menu for web-based Accounting software created in 2002 because the bloat and the annual expenses related to Quicken and Quickbooks had gotten burdensome. Obviously this doesn't do all that that software did, but it does most of what any small business person needs from accounting software, and this minimalist view of that truth should be shocking for many. Again, a total lack of direct reference to all the Subjects we are using to define business. |
Summary
The "Subjects" we break business down into are "Cognitive Boxes" we use to try to create models for conversation, and they seldom correlate one-on-one to real world processes and software in a clean manner.
You may be saying "yeah.. so what... so it's all just complicated and criss-crossing stuff", and while that is true, understanding the Business Subjects and Business Structure theoretically, in simple form really does help all of us as we then transition into talking about the physical, mental and digital processes related to business.
The moral of this story is don't discount the theory, because things will get more complicated quickly and when that happens, theory and history comes in handy for clarity. Without any theory to start with, you have no line on history that preceded all of this which is actually amazingly fascinating and insightful. Without any theory, or access to the history that went into creating the theories, you will likely end up as a ball of yarn well before you strike it rich.
You may be saying "yeah.. so what... so it's all just complicated and criss-crossing stuff", and while that is true, understanding the Business Subjects and Business Structure theoretically, in simple form really does help all of us as we then transition into talking about the physical, mental and digital processes related to business.
The moral of this story is don't discount the theory, because things will get more complicated quickly and when that happens, theory and history comes in handy for clarity. Without any theory to start with, you have no line on history that preceded all of this which is actually amazingly fascinating and insightful. Without any theory, or access to the history that went into creating the theories, you will likely end up as a ball of yarn well before you strike it rich.