Decision Support Systems - Essay Example

Topic: Decision Support Systems Introduction Decision Support Systems are a particular of computerisedinformation systems that are used to support decision-making in business and organizational activities (Sokolova & Fernández-Caballero, 2012; Sauter, 2014). These information systems are important at different levels of the organization and assist in arriving at decisions that may be dynamic and not indicated in advance. These support systems are either fully computerised, depend on humans or a blend of the two. While scholars consider DSS to be an instrument that supports decision making processes, the people who use it consider it as a tool that enables the facilitation of an organizational process (Gemelli, 2013; Huang, Jo & Wang, 2014). Some people consider the DSS to encompass all the systems that assist in making decisions. Thesis statement: The conventional perception of decision support systems is helping to support decision makers who have to select among different options. Decision Support systems Since the 70’s technology and applications associated with DSS has gone through significant changes. Various developments in technology as well the structure of organizations have been responsible for the changes that have been experienced (Morris & Coronel, 2014). At one point, DSS made use of limited databases, modelling along with user interface functionality but various innovations in technology have allowed for more powerful DSS functionality. The establishment of the World Wide Web has allowed for the development of organizational decision support technologies that connect different firms while also creating many newer applications in relation to the existing technology. To properly understand the DSS, its past, present and future must be looked at together with its applications and impact. Origins The idea of decision support has gone through changes associated with two key areas of research: Theoretical studies of organizational decision making and technical work associated with technology. The system consequently developed to become the motivation of research in the seventies before it turned out to be more intense in the eighties. Therefore, the definition and area that is covered by DSS has been changing throughout time. Initially, it was considered as system that was based on computers that was meant to assist in decision making, but evolved into an interactive system that assisted the decision makers make use of databases together with models in solving problems that were ill-structured (Brockett & Razaee, 2012). In the late eighties, the Gate Assignment Display System was developed and was credited with a considerable reduction in travel delays through assisting the management of ground operations at different airports. Data warehousing as well as online analytical processing increased the scope of the DSS in the early nineties which gave way to the web based analytical applications. The improvement of reporting technologies has made the DSS become a critical part of management design and instances of this can be identified in the intensity of the discussions concerning the DSS in educational settings. Decisions Support Systems also have some level of connection with the user level paradigm associated with hypertext. Even though the research into hypertext has usually been focused on information overload, some research has also focussed on the makers of decisions specifically. Development structures The Decision Support Systems do not vary in entirety with other systems as they also need a structured approach which includes people, technology as well as a development method. The initial structure of DSS comprised of four stages that included intelligence, the development of the design, choice and implementation. The technology levels that are associated with the DSS may include the particular application which the user will utilize as this portion of the application, permits decision makers to arrive at resolutions in a specific area. Another technology level is the generator which is comprised of a hardware or software setting which enables people to easily create particular DSS applications. At this level, the case tools or systems like Crystal are usually utilized while the Iterative developmental approaches allow for the changing and redesigning of the DSS at different intermissions. As soon as the design of the system is complete, it is goes through tests and revisions to achieve the anticipated outcomes. Database Management For the Decision Support System to get the correct data, there must be structures in existence for storing, accessing and retrieval of enormous quantities of data (Griffin, 2013). A database feeds the DSS making an excellent database design important to the overall performance of the DSS, thus designing and managing a database is an intricate and ill-conceived area. An excellent DBMS makes sure that there is integrity of the relevant data while reducing any form of redundancy, following a logical sequence and maintaining consistency in how it performs. The systems that are preferred in majority of the cases are the relational databases in regard to the design of DSS. This is mainly because of the suppleness linked to relational databases and the fact that it enables normalization that assists in maintaining large databases. These databases’ ability to recognise connections between different units makes information analysis a critical attribute of a successful DSS. Several hierarchical and network databases continue to be utilised today especially because the cost associated with the migration to a completely new Database platform is higher than the costs associated with maintaining the existing systems (Murgante, 2014). Since the database involves an important link in the abilities of a DSS, it should be structured and designed in a careful process that is supposed to be evaluated with a particular concern to the applications that are built on it. There is a general tendency that has been in the recent years that involve migration to web-based DSS, utilization of a search engines that are task specific or building the DSS based on a client fat server setting by utilizing technology based on the web or a different network. This can be viewed as a rationalisation of the need for an advanced database system as the internet is an all-inclusive network that is comprised of numerous interconnected databases as well as web pages. Data warehousing Databases are the sources of current information concerning an organization which is linked to the fundamental transaction processes but it does not provide historical information that is more vital to the process of decision making. The data warehouse therefore fills this void through the capture of organizational data and presents in a format that makes more sense using relational database (Krishnan, 2013: Khosrow-pour, 2014). Therefore, the data warehouses together with the database collaborate to develop a situation that supports the information needs of the DSS which is overlaid on the systems platform. Expansion as far as databases are concerned has necessitated the use of intelligent agents that assist in the speed and simplification of unplanned queries in the large databases as well as the data warehouses (Corchado, 2014). Conclusion DSS are very important in the performance or an organization but they can also result in a lot of confusion along with inaccurate assessment as they are not get rid of bad decisions. They are supposed to assist a manager in the process of making decisions even though the actual burden of the decision is on the manager. Managers may on some occasions become over-optimistic in what they expect of these systems and thus develop an over-reliance on the DSS. Additionally, if the managers continually ask the wrong questions, then the benefits of the system will not be fully realized since the preconceived ideas of the managers concerning a particular operational function may increase the damage. This is because it will justify the position of the manager as a result of the logic of the manager’s questions or since the manager has settled on a wrong conclusion concerning a particular result. The people who use the DSS are supposed to be practical and should never try replacing the functions of the system with their ideas. References Brockett A. & Rezaee, Z. (2012). Corporate Sustainability: Integrating Performance and Reporting. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Corchado, E. (2014). Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning -- IDEAL 2014: 15th International Conference, Salamanca, Spain, September 10-12, 2014. Proceedings. London: Springer. Gemelli, A. Mancini, A, Diamantini, C. & Longhi, S. (2013). GIS to support cost-effective decisions on renewable sources (1st ed.). Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media Griffin, R. (2013). Management (1st ed.). Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning. Huang, D., Jo, K. & Wang, L. (2014). Intelligent Computing Methodologies: 10th International Conference, ICIC 2014, Taiyuan, China, August 3-6, 2014. Proceedings. London: Springer. Khosrow-pour, M. (2014). Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Third Edition. Pennsylvania: IGI Global. Krishnan, K. (2013). Data Warehousing in the Age of Big Data. London: Newnes London: Springer. Morris, S & Coronel, C. (2014). Database Systems: Design, Implementation, & Management New York: Cengage Learning Murgante, B. (2014). Computational Science and Its Applications -- ICCSA 2014: 14th International Conference, Guimarães, Portugal, June 30-July 3, 2014, Proceedings, Part 5. London: Springer. Sauter, V. (2014). Decision Support Systems for Business Intelligence. NY: John Wiley & Sons. Sokolova, M., & Fernández-Caballero, A. (2012). Decision making in complex systems (1st ed.). Berlin: Springer. Read More