Decision Support Systems MGMT Summer 2012 Night #7, Part 2 somewhat based on Chapter 12

Types of Decisions Structured  routine (maybe even repetitive)  definite procedure Unstructured  no agreed upon procedure refer back to "Types of Information" in Part #1

Decision Support Systems supports semi-structured and unstructured problem analysis  probably overkill for structured problems usually model driven allows to ask "What if?"

Simple DSS Examples Car Selection Car Selection  how many miles do you drive?  preferred style?  do you have kids?  yadda yadda yadda Inventory Replenishment Inventory Replenishment  past usage (data from accounting database)  projected need (information from CRM)  delivery time (model from Supply Chain system)  "what if" we delay purchase two weeks?

DSS Components Input  TPS Data  Other Internal Data e.g. forecasts, reports, spreadsheet calculations  External Data Model Analysis Software  OLAP and data mining  Easy to Use Interface

DSS Models Well Known Relationships  layout of production facility  Supply Chain  Organizational Chart  decision tables  spreadsheet calculations Mathematical Models Decision Variables Uncontrollable Variables Mathematical Relationship Result Variables

DSS Caveats DSS improve effectiveness, not efficiency. Some people consider group communication tools to be a type of DSS. DSS v. Expert Systems A human queries a DSS, while an ES queries a human. A DSS assists in decision making, while an ES makes decisions. A DSS is for semi-structured problems, but an ES only works well in highly structured domains.

Geographic Information Systems special category of DSS combines large databases and maps Screenshot of ArcView

Executive Support Systems "Balanced Scorecard" info displayed as a "Dashboard" with drill down abilities for more detail key performance indicators balancedscorecard.org textbook Figure 12-8

dashboardspy.com

Supporting the 5 Functions of Management  TPS  Customer Rel. Mgmt  Supply Chain Mgmt  Enterprise Knowledge Mgmt  Expert Systems  Decision Support Systems 1.Planning 2.Organizing 3.Coordinating 4.Deciding 5.Controlling

Next Time Next Time :  Your presentations  How software gets built Paper Ideas from Tonight:  Survey of Commercial Executive Scorecard Systems  Survey of Commercial Enterprise Knowledge Management Systems  Two or Three cases of Successful Expert Systems used in Business  Cases of using GIS for Decision Support