Material flow, material information, and the analytics of integrative enterprise information systems

Abstract

Enterprise information systems (EIS) process highly abstracted information. They, nevertheless, are concerned with material systems. Information science has become increasingly analytic. This article draws attention back to the deeply embedded motive forces of ‘exchange’ and ‘money-information’ in the empiric systems that attend its analytics. The article further points to a danger that excessive abstraction can disconnect decision information from that in the processes of concern to EIS.

Keywords:

• material flow
• concrete systems
• money-information
• exchange
• complexity
• enterprise information systems
• accountability