Decision Support System - Assignment Example

Decision support system Abstract      Technology has become an inevitable tool in the business arena for effective management of the organization. With the ever increasing competion in the current global arena and business re engineering no one can afford to sideline the use of current business operating systems in the enhancement of high productivity and better business management. (Rajarratnam, 2001)There is the use of Decision interactive software-based system that compiles useful information from a combination of raw data, documents, personal knowledge, or business models to identify and solve problems and make decisions on support system, Customer relationship management among other systems that aid in better management and appropriate decision makings. Introduction      A franchise is a legal and commercial entity between the owner of a brand, service mark, trade name, or advertising symbol and an individual or group wishing to use that identification in a business. I.e Using another firm's successful business model. Mr. Brocoli who indeed is a franchisor wants to look for prospective franchisee in the south coast England from Hampshire to Cornwall in a Beverage business . He requires sufficient data before enterprising there as he has to make sound decisions that would see him prosper in his business. In an organization the data capture process is very important because it enables the management to know the basic fundamentals that guides them in the functionality of the firm. It enables efficient management to increase the out put of the organization. Body                The elements  of management includes planning, controlling, organizing and leading. In a business set up these elements are affected by the internal and external factors .The stake holders are very fundamental in the running of the firm. For instance in a software system, this can include managers, designers, and users of a system (employees). Stakeholders are those who are impacted by (or have an impact on) the project, their perspectives need to be taken into account in order for a project to be successful. Stakeholders can have positive or negative views regarding a given project, and at times differ with one another, making it a challenge to come to a conclusion with their varied viewpoints. For instance workers might value a high degree of autonomy and personal control over their work practice, while management might value efficiency and standardization of the factory’s work flow (Spinuzzi, 2002). The goals of various organizational stakeholders might differ as well. For example, the factory manager might want to maximize the output of the factory, while the CFO might want to have a real-time view of the factory’s inventory, even if implementing such a system will decrease factory output..           A business contingency business model which in cooperates external forces that affect the functions of a business include sociological, political, economical and technological (Montana & Charnov, 2000) Analyzing these factors we have External factors: Economic and political:  These Encompasses competitors, suppliers and customers in an open model of business. For instance the coffee cafe house company has high customer satisfaction and supply rating which includes ratings of 8 and 7 respectively. This would ultimately lead to a high turn over as the customers would always demand for more of which it would be supplied. The management has to study the economy and political environment for a sustainable relationship. In this system the management assumes that the business or company has both input and output. By envisaging this firm has to study the companies' suppliers', competitors and customers as well as current political status. The management would be able to make effective managerial decisions. The products designed under this should posses place, form and time utility to succeed in the mark place. Sociological: Includes; the demographic variation and trends, work ethics and personal values, and general cultures. This will determine where a new business venture is more likely to agar well. For instance a city like Southampton that has high population (217800) indicates the availability of ready market. If a new venture has to put in place assuming a population of more than 65000 as the population requirement, then Southampton would be the first on line place. However this is not always true. A geographical region can have a high population but made up of low class individuals or possibly have a different taste. Here uncertainty risks have to be carried out thoroughly so as to come up with conclusive solution. A new market if targeted there is more likely to flourish well. This factors influences differently on how management accomplishes its jobs. The social environment presented by each country is unique and as the business becomes international, management s ought to understand these unique environments. This understanding assists the management to plan for the future and design products for particular groups of people. Climatic factors . This has a vast effect on where the business is to be located. This helps in decision making while employing staff and forecasting sales. This results from the fact that certain crops e.g. coffee do well in a well distributed rainfall. When coffee industry is set up the probable weather conditions have to be calculated using weighted mean f DSS so as to know where to locate the firm that would yield maximum returns. If the company wants to engage the business with another company the real time data is taken.  Normally en comprises the filling the data of spread sheet 2 to spread sheet 8.The numerical value from the fifth column on spread sheet number 2 are taken which indicate environmental values. The system then usually gets the average automatically. The climate of a region defines if the goods you are introducing can be consumable .A town like Winchester will definitely agar well with hot beverages given the fact that it has high humidity of about 93% Technology: Has the most felt effect on the firms output quickly. As the market can change overnight the management should be in a position to make decisions that will put the company in a flexible position to adapt with the technological changes (Karger, 1991). Geographical . The location of the venture is also a critical issue as the leads would always want to get their needs within their reach. In the towns where the venture has to be located, it should not be more than 7 miles as according to the study most leads prefer not to travel more than seven miles. Internal factors: These comprises  of the organizational resources available to accomplish its set  goals. For instance technological, financial and physical resources. Technology refers to the applied techniques which make operations easier. In a DSS the data on second spread sheet are written on the 9th spreadsheet and values of the 6th column on the second spread sheet are taken to be the operating margin after the average has already been computed. Innovation involves research and development efforts in the creation of new technology. Management team has to acquire these resources and make efficient and effective use of them within an organization. In this task the management of each business is in competition with all other businesses in the life. Organizational resources are therefore scarce and management success depends on how well these resources are both acquired and used. (Montana & Charnove 2000) .This also shows the capital adequacy of affirm .Companies with high capital adequacies ca be worth reliable working with. Putting a scale of 19 we have British coffee, Mash cafe bars coffee cafe house as the most suitable companies to work with having an index of 19, 20, and 21 respectively company with high capital adequacy should also have means of customer satisfaction to as to put good use of their available resource otherwise they may be in for a shock as sales revenue would be down.         To add more value to the organization various mitigation measures has to be put in place. There is need to employ the use of high technology to aid the management team in doing its work efficiently. One way is by use of operating systems such as Decision Support System (DSS). It's a class of information systems which is not only limited to computerized system that supports business and organizational decision-making activities. It’s an interactive software-based system that  compiles useful information from a combination of raw data, documents, personal knowledge, or business models to identify and solve problems and make decisions. For instance it may gather comparative sales figures in a span of one week and the next week, the projected sales revenue data based on new product sale assumptions, cost of products sold, expenditure and an inventory on all your current information assets e.g. relation data sources cubes data ware houses and data marts and suppliers trend. The DSS final calculations arising from measurement of end points i.e. research study conducted and record the source of study. The final decision=sum for all measured end points*sum of calculated weight b*data score. The answer that is gotten is compared with the total calculated score after analyzing each submitted study to decision criteria carried out in the first step. The DSS helps in speedy computation of data, increased productivity, technical support as computation data is stored in different database outside the organization. This aspect would actually enable Brocoli to manage his business though he is far away.                 It normally comprises of four phases namely, intelligence, Design, choice and implementation. (Simon, 1997)The intelligence phase would entail; searching and scanning the procedures required, organization of objectives to be laid down, data collection, the problem identification e.g. availability of customers, market trend. In the design phase there is; formulation of the model to be used, setting the criteria of choice , searching the alternative possible solutions and predicting and measuring outcomes. In the choice phase we have the; solutions to the model, analyzing of the model used, selecting of the best outcome and planning the implementation.       In the analysis of the data the decision variables, uncontrollable variables and result variables come in handy to aid in the final conclusion. We may also employ the use of standard linear programming where the maximization gives us the most desired method. To come up to a conclusion say , which towns could best suit the business venture, we  first get the highest level of good attainment from a given set of resources. For instance giving Southampton with scale 65%.Then we find the alternative with the highest ratio of goal attainment to cost e.g. profit per dollar invested. Finally we find the alternative with lowest cost that will meet the acceptable level of goals. From this the method that attains the set level with minimum cost is chosen.          The use of DSS helps in quickly improving decisions as large computation is carried out without error.    A more advanced system is a Knowledge Driven DSS model uses special rules used by a human or stored in a computer to determine whether a decision should be made. For example, for many day traders a stop loss limit can be seen as a knowledge driven DSS model. These rules or facts are used in order to make a decision. In an organization the introduction of a Customer Relationship management is a more effective way in management organization  . It involves using technology to organize, automate and synchronize business, process  sales activity ,provides customer service and introducing marketing The principle goals are to get, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, lure former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service. An instance is when a consumer scans his or her card, and then his or her items, the items that customer bought are entered into a database. The business gets  accurate idea of what customers really need. Businesses then analyze this information. After analyzing the collected data, businesses can alter their marketing strategies and increase sales. Customer Relationship Management brings the company closer to the leads. The mechanism enables companies attain these objectives: Streamlining of sales and marketing processes      .               Increase sales productivity Increased cross-selling and up-selling opportunities Better the service, loyalty, and retention                                 High call center efficiency Higher close rates                                                                  Improved profiling and targeting lower expenses                                                                     Increased market share Generally higher  profitability                                                Marginal costing This system ensures that various ways are mitigated to make sure the customer is satisfied .Areas that may need concern like cleanliness of toilet and environment ,aesthetic of furniture e.g. tables, chairs and quality of food are also checked as there is a feed back mechanism .The customer relationship marketing helps in development of profitable relationship and enables them understand the cost  to serve.                       In the identification of functional requirement some factors have to be considered before implementing a new system. There is the use of soft ware requirement Specification (SRS)The SRS document itself states in precise and explicit language those functions and capabilities a software system entails like a software system like a software application, an eCommerce Web site,. and must provide, as well as states any required constraints by which the system must abide. It also functions as a blueprint for completing a project with as low cost gain as possible. Normally called the "parent" document as it in cooperates all subsequent project management documents, such as , statements of work, design specifications software architecture specifications, testing ,documentation plans and validation plans, all have a relationship to it A well-designed, well-written SRS accomplishes four major goals: Provision of feedback to the customer. It's customer’s assurance that the development organization understands the issues or problems to be solved and the software behavior necessary to address those problems. Breaks down problem into component parts. The simple act of writing down software requirements in a well-designed format organizes information, places borders around the problem, solidifies ideas, and helps break down the problem into its component parts in an orderly fashion.         Acts as a product validation check . It tests and validates strategies that will be applied to the requirements for verification. Functions as an input to the design specification. As a parent software the SRS must contain sufficient detail in the functional system requirements so that a design solution can be devised. SRS are usually developed during the first stages of "Requirements Development," which is the initial product development phase in which information is collected about what requirements are needed--and not. This information-gathering stage includes online visits, interviews , questionnaires, surveys, , and perhaps a return-on-investment (ROI) analysis or needs analysis of the customer or customers’ current business environment. The actual specification, then, is written after the requirements have been gathered and analyzed. Conclusion    The use of database systems enables the quick arrival to decision making. This systems would definitely assist Mr. Brocoli know where to locate his business and know the appropriate geographical location where he has to set up the business and who can be the potential partners. Recommendations There is need to use the more enhanced systems with the intelligence component that has a market share model and improved data base management systems .The use of Visual interactive simulation which entails the customer to watch the progress of simulation model in an animated form on graphic display .The users will have more confidence in is use because of their own participation in its development use .The development of portals that serves a gateways to a range of subject related sources are also needed. This makes access to data more conveniently as the data is brought together of the related content from different sources. REFERENCES 1. Bessent, J, 2001, The question of public trust and schooling systems. 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