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Information systems:

Assist with problem solving, helping people make better decisions and save lives

Intelligence stage

Design stage

Choice stage

Decision-making phase:

Intelligence stage

Identify and define potential problems or opportunities

Design stage:

Develop alternative solutions to the problem and evaluate their feasibility

Choice stage:

Select a course of action

Problem solving

Includes and goes beyond decision making

Includes implementation stage

Monitoring stage

Decision makers evaluate the implementation

Programmed decision

Made using a rule, procedure, or quantitative method

Easy to computerize using traditional information systems

Nonprogrammed decision

Decision that deals with unusual or exceptional situations

Not easily quantifiable

Optimization model

Finds the best solution, usually the one that will best help the organization meet its goals

Satisficing model

Finds a good, but not necessarily the best, problem solution

Heuristics

Commonly accepted guidelines or procedures that usually find a good solution

Decision support systems

Performance is typically a function of decision quality and problem complexity

Problem complexity

Depends on how hard the problem is to solve and implement

Ad hoc DSS

is concerned with situations or decisions that come up only a few times

Institutional DSS

handles situations or decisions that occur more than once

DSS

Organized collection of people, procedures, software, databases, and devices used to help make decisions that solve problems

Used at all levels

Focus of a DSS

Is on decision-making effectiveness regarding unstructured or semistructured business problems

Dialogue manager

Allows decision makers to easily access and manipulate the DSS and to use common business terms and phrases

Data-driven DSS

Performs qualitative analysis based on the company's databases

Model-driven DSS

Performs mathematical or quantitative analysis

The User Interface

- Allows users to interact with the DSS to obtain information

- Assists with all aspects of communications between user and hardware and software that constitute the DSS

Group support system (GSS)

- Consists of most elements in a DSS, plus software to provide effective support in group decision making

- Also called group decision support system or computerized collaborative work system

Group Support System

Consists of most elements in a DSS, plus software to provide effective support in group decision making

Also called group decision support system or computerized collaborative work system

- Collabnet

- OpenMind

- TeamWare

GSS software packages:

GSS software

• Often called groupware or workgroup software

Helps with joint work group scheduling, communication, and management

• GSSs use a number of tools, including:

E-mail, instant messaging (IM), and text messaging (TM)

Video conferencing

Group scheduling

Project management

Document sharing

Executive support system (ESS)

Specialized DSS

Includes hardware, software, data, procedures, and people used to assist senior-level executives

Also called an executive information system (EIS)

Support for problem-solving phases:

A specific DSS might support only one or a few phases

Support for various decision frequencies:

• Ad hoc DSS is concerned with situations or decisions that come up only a few times

• Institutional DSS handles situations or decisions that occur more than once

Support for various problem structures:

• Highly structured problems are straightforward, requiring known facts and relationships

• Semistructured or unstructured problems are more complex

Support for various decision-making levels:

DSSs can provide help for managers at various levels within the organization