Role of Decision Support Systems - Essay Example

Decision Support Systems How do decision support systems assist in making decisions regarding informative and interactive contexts using the available data and assist user in solving the problems while working alone and in network? Decision support system assists in making decisions. It is informative and interactive system. The system run by a computer software to take decision according to the information supplied. The data supplied, the documents fed, communications made were used by the system in assisting the managers to take decisions. This also offers scope for academic research to enhance its capabilities according to the ever improving technology. It can be termed as computerised information system that supports activities regarding decision making.1 There are five types of decisions support systems. 1. The decision support system driven by communication 2. The decision support system driven by data supplied 3. The decision support system that depends on documents for decision making. 4. The decision support system that depends on software that uses knowledge database to take a decision. 5. The decision support system that works on the prescribed models. The number of changes in the visualisation software in the last two years made the Decision support systems more interactive. They are more user friendly and less expensive. Data visualisation is the main feature of the latest decision support systems. This increases business intelligence. In the first category DSS systems finding out insights in the stored data base is the dominating feature. In the second category the presentation of the status of the company is explicit. In the third and the latest category the simulations for the alternatives were available. (eg., @task software). 1 The strength of the first category DSS is visual display of insights from the stored data. The analysis of the explored data can be appreciated. It is general to consider the data analysis as statistics. It is suitable to test the research questions when they are doubtful. Though data speaks about the result it is the statistics that confirms the results and chance of occurrence of unwanted. Both visualisation and data exploration with analysis can be termed as same. The analysis of the explored date forces the user to analyse it. This makes the user to see things in a new way and stimulates him to think the business done in different ways resulting in finding out number of better alternatives. The DSS that builds tools set for analysis will support business intelligence. This system is powerful in questioning and answering the questions in the course of analysis that involves the data stored. These type of DSS systems build ability in a person to think analytically. It answers the questions even on a specific topic. Generally these type of tools used to answer in a generalised manner. But now the situation was changed. Now as the tool is having visualisation capacity, the question of the range of the answering capacity of the tool arises. The time taken by the tool in answering and analysing the situation also matters. In general the DSS tools used in the business interact with data using the numbers and tables. The data analysed was presented according to the standards of the industry. When we consider the following example the figure one shows breakdown of sales. The database provided gives the transactions and accumulating sales and the time periods that were taken to happen. Figure adopted from http://dssresources.com/ The product which can be sold most can be answered but by taking time. The manual scan is error prone. But in the next figure the best selling product comes out automatically. This was due to the presentation of the information in more analyzed way. In case of figure 2 the perceptual system based on psychology was used to present the data. The bars presented clearly represents more and less sales just by their size. 1 The use of visual cue is the best thing that can be used in the DSS tools to present the data. The example here exhibits the capacity of visual cue in saving time and reducing the errors in analysis and reasoning. Figure 2. adopted from http://dssresources.com/ So it can be decided that the bar chart is a better presentation for the question of area of better sales. Now let us turn to comparative analysis. What about the sales when it compared to last year? Again a bar chart can termed as a good answer. Each row can be assigned to type of product. The bar denotes the region and year. The regions, years are coloured differently to differentiate the sales happened. Figure 3 provides four bars for two years. Figure 4 provides the flip to each cluster of two bars. This makes understanding easier in figure 4 to compare the sales of a particular product in two years. Figure 3 adopted from http://dssresources.com/ The adjacent placement of the items makes the comparison easier. This is based on the fact that the processing capacity of human eye was concentrated at the centre of the field. The resolution will be more there. Human eye focuses in the direction it is looking. Figure 4 adopted from http://dssresources.com/ All the above data supports the process of analysis and psychological presentation. This process contains number of questions. These questions can be answered in analytical and pictorial form. In the presentation the hypothesis, experiment and discovery were exhibited. The Decision support systems of the above type were designed to analyse. They first put a question and get answer involving number of factors. This requires some processes to be done. If the interaction is not easy and simple it obstructs the thought. Though the analysis based on visualization shows unexpected answers they will be sure not unwanted. The data analysis that was performed in giving the presentation will make every answer in the presentation useful. If the finding was unexpected it can give rise to still deeper analysis. The procedure of analysis involved in the tools working is capable of undo, redo and return to previous condition. Like in other applications creating book marks must be also a feature of these types of applications. These tools make exploration and analysis easy. It will be comfortable to use automated systems to take decisions when there is huge number of collection transactions like registration fees. In this case centralized computer systems will communicate with local systems across the network. When the registration is about a number of types of cases it is better to merge the separate transaction systems into one. This type of computation can consolidate and keep in order to put the process in line with the needs. The types of soft wares which are used in this process can be termed as automated fee systems.1These are capable of combining the processes across more than one computing platforms, more than one computing language and in two different systems. This automated system can be deployed on servers at each of the offices and a centralized system in the head quarters. This can be done in the event driven language type and is termed as EDL. These systems can be deployed even in main frame systems to develop the generation of notices and remittances. These processes were a part of decision support systems. These type of decision support systems can handle the processes even in COBOL. As mentioned above the whole system works under more than one computing platform, the changes and up gradations require two separate development efforts. Different analyst teams and databases need to be maintained. This was found difficult in coordinating the changes and to get consistency. These type of systems were used in the past and the required changes were to be done according to the new challenges in making decisions. When ever the changes are to be made more analysis and laborious programming used to be required by the development staff. When a point is reached of no more analysis and programming is possible with the system the upgrading was required. So instead of recording the present processes, the new technology and processes for managing the transactions must be deployed. This requires business rules management software. This can make possible of segregating the logic, policy and process from the application of the programming. This gives choice to analysts rather than programmers which makes decisions possible. If the choice was to the programmers it takes lot of time to transfer the choice to analysts and to convey the decision to programmers again. This would generate Java applications servers which can allow the open and internet ready system to make possible the future goals and needs. The systems developed were understandable and usable by non technical analysts who analyse the business processes. This type of facility requires an user interface. This allows complete control and examining the rules without disturbing the programming. This program can run quickly and will handle huge number of transactions like registration of houses, vehicles and others. This handling is from mainframes to servers in the offices. This can happen without substituting or re writing the number of applications and systems that are placed in the network. According to Seitz, who is a part of the above mentioned development felt that many people within the network felt that the rules were complex and a different software cannot handle the task. This made the community to look at innovative technology than can create DSS solution. The following is the figure that represents the modern DSS system that was developed by DMVA that analyses the transactions regarding huge number of registrations. Figure 3 Above figure adopted from http://dssresources.com/ This system can be merged with IBM’s websphere sever to enhance easily the delivery channels and self service websites along with telephone responses. The implementation of calculation of fee regarding registration over internet or network enhances the strategic business and IT goals. These enhancements to the business will decrease the costs of operating and will enhance the cost effectiveness. This cost effectiveness is due to the reducing the conversation over telephone network. The people who are interested in making softwares more interactive and intuitive will think about less dependence on the codes. When programmers were defining the way the systems work is not the logic of the business. The DSS will make the analysts and users define the way the tools work. This gives the control on the applications to analysts and business users which makes the interaction and decision making possible. The decision making situations for companies is a daily process. They range from strategies to business. The operational decisions that cover individual transactions will be in large number. These decisions are important for the approval of the application. So if these decisions are taken according to the strategic decisions and satisfying the field staff and customers then the DSS will be approved and accepted. Another critical point in Decision support systems is that they segregate the decisions from the processes. This makes the system change and manage them easily. These can be used in multiple ways and methods without reducing its capacity. The DSS use the rules management system that makes it easy to change the decisions fast. This is possible by taking a different approach to the rules. One should enable them to change without the need of recording in the main system. This will decrease the number of negative responses. The automation in the system will make analytic insight possible in segregation and prediction. The importance of the topic: The system is important because, till now there existed a lack for single model for a large range of domains. The decision can be termed as the choice by estimation and evaluation. This includes the comparison also. DSS is a computer aided application that processes the making of decision. It was considered that the concept of DSS became an area research in 1970s. This resulted in executive information systems, group decision support systems and decision support systems. The importance of these systems is analysis in process results in quality decisions and make the work faster and satisfactory. This even includes the research for database, artificial intelligence and interaction between humans and computers. This enhances the role of telecommunications in the business processes and minimises the negative responses in the network. Every body knows that there is no taxonomy that was accepted universally. So the decision making depends upon the taxonomies of the system. This increases the importance of role of the DSS in the ever increasing business environment. References: The references were given in the following format. Name of the author, year of publication, title, publisher or sponsor, ediciton information, type of media, date retrieved, website address. The information in the above format is supplied when available and if not available it was mentioned or a gap was left in that place. 1.DSSR team, 2006, DSS basics, DSSR, ,electronic, 23-10-06, http://dssresources.com/ 2. Clifford Alper, Kevin Brown and Gerald R. Wagner, 2006, Past, Present and Future, DSSR, , electronic, 23-10-06, http://dssresources.com/ 3. Clifford Alper, Kevin Brown and Gerald R. Wagner, 2006, New Software for Visualizing the Past, Present and Future, DSSR, ,electronic, 23-10-06, http://dssresources.com/ 4. Fair Isaac Staff, 2006, Business rules drive modernization of legacy transaction systems at the California Department of Motor Vehicles, DSSR, ,electronic, 23-10-06, http://dssresources.com/ 5. Media Wiki, 2006, Decision support system, WikiPedia, ,electronic, 23-10-06, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_Support_Systems Read More