Managing Decision Making - Essay Example

The result is that decision makers will have better grasp of factors bearing on company performance. Business Intelligence (BI) tools, especially in the form of spreadsheets, can be highly complementary to EUD systems, for they both lend themselves for use by non-specialists. An extension of BI is Artificial Intelligence (AI), which aims to minimize human interference in the preliminary and intermediate stage of data selection and processing. Expert Systems are an even advanced vision of AI, that aim to make the sort of sophisticated decision making and recommendations that only experts were thought capable of doing.

In sum, EUD is a promising avenue for business operation. It has wide scope and application within an enterprise, affecting employees from all domains to the top managers. Introduction The practice of End User Development (EUD) was not thought of as viable in the early days of the Information Technology revolution. But in recent years, with storage, processing and programming technology having grown at a rapid pace, EUD is given consideration by many business enterprises. All employees, irrespective of their proficiency in IT and programming, can participate and benefit through EUD.

Sophisticated software tools with intuitive user interfaces and integration capabilities help create new applications through the study and improvement of existing systems. (Luthy 2002, pg. 69) Hence, the report will cover various ways in which employees can adapt to EUD and increase both individual and overall productivity. Decision making is one area where EUD has had impact. If end users merely point to what comprises relevant data for the company, the powerful IT system can create salient reports for the top management.

Spreadsheets are a great aid in this process, but the key is in identifying valuable information from the vast amounts of data that a company generates. EUDs also changes the role and responsibility of regular IT staff, in that, they now coordinate with non-specialists in fine-tuning the system. A company would also need lesser number of IT staff, leading to cost efficiency. Each employee will bring his/her domain knowledge to the information system, making it a multi-dimensional tool. With the incorporation of Knowledge Management (KM) features into EUD, the IT system can prove to be focussed and yet flexible.

The key to successful KM lies in understanding where important data lies and in devising ways of tapping into it. (Lindvall &Rus, 2002) The report speculates on the potential of KM to offer a competitive edge for the business. Business Intelligence (BI) tools, especially the ubiquitous spreadsheet, can be a great ally for EUD systems. The simplicity of working a spreadsheet makes it accessible to non-IT personnel. When aligned with sophisticated data mining principles, a spreadsheet can be programmed to produce the most relevant reports, future trends and estimates.

Expert Systems and related Artificial Intelligence technology are going to be at the centre of business functioning in the future. (Rao, David 2004. 779) The pros and cons of these cutting edge technologies are explored in the report. Finally, the importance of EUD is analyzed in light of rampant growth in the services industry, which is more data intensive compared to manufacturing industries. The report outlays various aspects of EUD and analyzes how much this nascent technology can transform business operations