Abstract Executives in Europe have significantly expanded their role in
operations—in parallel to their strategic leadership. At the same time, they need to
make decisions faster than in the past. Redesigned executive information systems
(EIS) should support top managers in their new roles. This article examines how
corporate management is evolving, and what issues a redesigned EIS should
address. Embracing a ‘‘new normal’’ environment, we arrive at four prescriptive
statements for an EIS architecture that is more business-driven than the state of the
art. This architecture differs by applying a business-to-IT approach, designed in
four layers: strategy, organization, alignment, and IT support. With such a structure,
it is possible to ‘‘drill-through’’ to information needed to executives’ more
operational decisions. Furthermore the proposed architecture balances key
performance indicators from five information clusters for accelerating executives’
decision making: financial accounting, management accounting, compliance
management, program management, and cash flow and liquidity management.