Decision Support Software

1. Decision Support Software DECISION-MAKING SYSTEMS

2. Reasons for the growth of decision-making information systems • People need to • People must make • People must techniques, such as modeling and forecasting, to make good decisions • People must the corporate asset of organizational information

3. Transaction Processing Systems • C regarding business transactions/activities. • That data is stored in a database and then mined/analyzed using one or more decision making techniques • Transactional Data being captured • D and • Inventory of the system • Items being and . • Payments • Uses : captures data at the point of origin

4. The Organizational Pyramid and Information Needs • As you move from lower to upper levels in an organization, information needs move from in nature to . Analytical information supports . Info also becomes and more

5. Different Decision Types • Programmed Decisions (structured decision) • S relationships • Quantifiable. • Very easy to automate (program) these types of decisions. • NonprogrammedDecisions (nonstructured decision) • Ill-structured situations with between variables • Not easily quantifiable in advance. No agreed-on decision making method. • There may be (although some answers could be better than other answers).

6. Most decisions that you make structured and nonstructured (containing elements of both). • Various forms of decision support tend to be used when dealing with nonstructured aspects of a decision. (DSS helps you ) • With artificial intelligence, the decision making expertise is so that the AI system

7. Problem Solving Approaches Used by Computer-Aided Decision Making Systems • O : find the very best solution given the constraintsprovided(aka the ) • S : find a , onethat of your decision , without necessarily being the best solution.

8. DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM (DSS) Highly flexible and interactive IT system that is designed to support decision making when the problem is ( i.e. Nonprogrammed decision). are a common form of decision support system (DSS)

9. Alliance between You and a DSS • Decision support systems help you , but you must know how to , and how to use the results of the analysis • A DSS in making a decision, as opposed to making the decision for you. • Power of a DSS is its ability to analyze information and its ease of use.

10. QUANTITATIVE MODELS OFTEN USED BY A DSS • Three quantitative ( ) models often used by DSSs include: • S – the study of the impact that changes in one (or more) parts of the model have on other parts of the model • W analysis – checks the impact of a change in an assumption on the proposed solution • G analysis – finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal such as a desired level of output

11. DSS Quantitative Model: What-if analysis: change and see what on the model

12. DSSQuantitative Model:Goal-seeking analysiswhat must occur in order to achieve the ?

13. A DSS Can Help With Analysis Tasks Like • Deciding where to spend advertising dollars • Analyzing sales trend information • Analyzing drug interactions • Developing airline schedules • Pricing products • Allocating limited investment dollars among several potential projects. • Budget setting. Inventory control. • Cash flow forecasting. Processing rules are . Human required.

14. Applied Uses of a DSS

16. Y SYSTEMS are a form of DSS used by airlines to alter the price of seats on available flights on a minute by minute basis, comparing the number of seats sold to an estimate of what was expected. If fewer seats have sold, more low-cost seats are made available. If more seats have sold, less low-cost seats are made available. Objective: have the

17. Airlines are using optimization software to save money on the costs associated with each flight by reducing the number of miles traveled, fuel used and/or overflight fees paid, with the system also taking weather and wind speed & direction into account.

18. GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS) • A Geospatial Information System (GIS) is a specialized decision support system designed specifically to • Spatial information is that can be shown in , such as roads, population distribution characteristics, sewer systems and other utilities, income levels, health conditions, areas of high or low crime, etc. • The strength of a GIS is the ability to with a mouse click.

19. ArcExplorer 2: showing features in San Diego (can find out more info about an attraction by placing your mouse over it) • Pg. 213: Haag • GIS used in the space shuttle Challenger investigation • GIS used in tree maintenance in Chattanooga • GIS used in the 2001 Virginia highway sniper investigation. • Pg. 188: Analyzing hurricane destruction in Florida.

20. Businesses use GIS software to information,, and make decisions. • Can layer in info with a mouse click • Marketing applications

21. Westar Outage Map

22. EXECUTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS • Executive information system (EIS) – specialized DSSs designed for use by in order to make • Most EISs offering the following capabilities: • Consolidation – involves the and features simple roll-ups to complex groupings of interrelated information • Drill-down – enables users to get , and , of information • Slice-and-dice – looks at information from

23. Digital Dashboards • Digital dashboard – from multiple components and presents it in a unified display