1. Decision Support Systems Robbie Nakatsu AIMS 2710

2. The Business World Today More alternatives to choose from Larger cost of making errors More uncertainty in the future

3. Major Roles of Information Systems Support Strategies for Competitive Advantage Support Business Decision Making Support Business Processes and Operations

4. Types Of Decisions You Face STRUCTURED DECISIONS - those with a set of steps that guarantee the correct solution. UNSTRUCTURED DECISIONS – those with no rules or criteria that guarantee a good solution. SEMISTRUCTURED DECISIONS – some decisions procedures can be specified, but not enough to lead to a definite recommended decision

5. Defining DSS A DSS (decision support system) is a highly flexible and interactive IT system that is designed to support decision making when the problem is ill-structured. A DSS assists you in making a decision, as opposed to making the decision for you.

6. Imparting Structure to an Ill-Structured Decision

7. DSS Supports OLAP Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) enables managers to manipulate large amounts of data. Three basic operations: Consolidation (aggregate data) Drill-down (display detail data) Slicing and Dicing (look at data from different viewpoints)

8. Goals of DSS Extend the decision-maker’s ability to tackle large-scale, time-consuming, complex problems. Shorten the time associated with making a decision. Improve the reliability (or consistency) of a decision outcome. Encourage exploration and discovery on the part of the decision maker; reveal new approaches to problem-solving

9. Data Science: The discovery of patterns in your data Two Scenarios: 1.Moneyball: By analyzing baseball statistics, the Oakland A’s determined what the best predictors of baseball success were. 2.Target: Marketers analyzed customer data to determine when a woman is expected to become pregnant.

10. Organizational Decision-Making Determining new product design Evaluating the impact of new competition Formulating a strategic plan Supporting negotiations Most important organizational decisions are made not by individuals but by teams of decision makers.

11. Benefits of Group Working A group has more information than any one member Working in a group may stimulate the participants and the process. Groups are better than individuals at understanding problems. Groups moderate high risk takers.

12. Question for Discussion What types of technologies do we use today to support team working? Some obvious answers: email, databases, web sites, smartphones