what is a decision support system?

[shuijian-xu]

The purpose of a decision support system is to provide decision makers in organizations with information. The information advances the decision makers' knowledge in some way so as to assist them in making decisions about the organization's policies and strategy.

[shuijian-xu]

A DSS tends to have the following characteristics:

1. They tend to be aimed at the less well structured, underspecified problems that more senior managers typically face.

2. They possess capabilities that make them easy to use by noncomputer people interactively.

3. They are flexible and adaptable enough to accommodate changes in the environment and decision-making approach of the user.

[shuijian-xu]

The job of a DSS is usually to provide a factual answer to a question phrased by the user.

For instance, a sales manager would probably be concerned if her actual product sales were falling short of the target set by her boss. The question she would like to be able to ask might be:

Why are my sales not meeting my targets?

There are, as yet, no such computer systems available to answer such a question. Imagine trying to construct an SQL (Structured Query Language) query that did that !

Her questioning has to be more systematic such that the DSS can give factual responses. So the first question might be:

For each product, what are the cumulative sales and targets for the year?

A DSS would respond with a list of products and the sales figures. It is likely that some of the products are ahead of target and some are behind. A well-constructed report might highlight the offending products to make them easier to see. For instance, they could be displayed in red, or flashing. She could have asked:

What are the cumulative sales and targets for the year for those products where the actual sales are less than the target ?

Having discovered those products that are not achieving the target, she might ask what the company's market share is for those products, and whether the market share is decreasing. If it is, maybe it's due to a recently imposed price rise.

[shuijian-xu]

The job of a DSS is usually to provide a factual answer to a question phrased by the user.

For instance, a sales manager would probably be concerned if her actual product sales were falling short of the target set by her boss. The question she would like to be able to ask might be:

Why are my sales not meeting my targets?

There are, as yet, no such computer systems available to answer such a question. Imagine trying to construct an SQL (Structured Query Language) query that did that !

Her questioning has to be more systematic such that the DSS can give factual responses. So the first question might be:

For each product, what are the cumulative sales and targets for the year?

A DSS would respond with a list of products and the sales figures. It is likely that some of the products are ahead of target and some are behind. A well-constructed report might highlight the offending products to make them easier to see. For instance, they could be displayed in red, or flashing. She could have asked:

What are the cumulative sales and targets for the year for those products where the actual sales are less than the target ?

Having discovered those products that are not achieving the target, she might ask what the company's market share is for those products, and whether the market share is decreasing. If it is, maybe it's due to a recently imposed price rise.

[shuijian-xu]

The job of a DSS is usually to provide a factual answer to a question phrased by the user.

For instance, a sales manager would probably be concerned if her actual product sales were falling short of the target set by her boss. The question she would like to be able to ask might be:

Why are my sales not meeting my targets?

There are, as yet, no such computer systems available to answer such a question. Imagine trying to construct an SQL (Structured Query Language) query that did that !

Her questioning has to be more systematic such that the DSS can give factual responses. So the first question might be:

For each product, what are the cumulative sales and targets for the year?

A DSS would respond with a list of products and the sales figures. It is likely that some of the products are ahead of target and some are behind. A well-constructed report might highlight the offending products to make them easier to see. For instance, they could be displayed in red, or flashing. She could have asked:

What are the cumulative sales and targets for the year for those products where the actual sales are less than the target ?

Having discovered those products that are not achieving the target, she might ask what the company's market share is for those products, and whether the market share is decreasing. If it is, maybe it's due to a recently imposed price rise.

[shuijian-xu]

The purpose of the DSS is to respond to ad hoc questions like these, so that the user can ultimately come to a conclusion and make a decision.