I Want System: Architecture & Technology

The I Want application is a Phase III system that takes advantage of the existance of Phase I and II systems. The Gamma Company had its data in a relational database management system that was accessed via the Metaphor system. Brand managers in the corporate headquarters, along with a support staff, used the system to generate tables of data and graphs, and to prepare reports. The field sales offices had personal computers that could access the Metaphor system through telephone communications lines. Once a PC was connected to the system, Metaphor routines (called capsules) could be executed and the resulting data would be sent to the PC, where the sales representatives could move it into spreadsheets and graphics packages. The insight generation system was required to operate in the field sales offices, and to interface with the central Metaphor system via the communication lines.

This system was conceived as one part of a larger system that built upon the APEC cycle concepts that were discussed in Part II. In fact, the research described in Part II led to the notion of an APEC Manager: a master computer program that directed and controlled the various analyzers, monitors, and other agents in the system. The user would interact with the APEC Manager, and it would have the necessary intelligence to initiate and control the various agents in the system.

The APEC Manager knows how to log-on to the Metaphor system, initiate a Metaphor capsule, and retrieve the results. It could then pass these results to an analyzer, which would perform analytical steps and generate insights in the form of sentences and supporting graphs. The APEC Manager sends this text and graphic files to a word processor, where it initiates a macro that formats the text and graphics to produce the finished document. These steps are illustrated in the following exhibit.

Figure 1

The sales representative can then take control of the document because it is in his/her word processor. S/he can print it, modify it, and delete it.

The remainder of this chapter describes the system in terms of the user interaction and the final product. However, it should be pointed out at this time that this system has a unique characteristic: the analyzers were written in a spreadsheet, rather than in an expert system shell such as the one used in the Marketing Gate system. Hence the above exhibit and the following material refer to Lotus 1-2-3 analyzers. This choice of programming tool and the implementation methodology is explored in the next chapter. A more detailed description of the entire system is contained in Chapter 9.