Decision support system

Definition:

1.Decision Support Systems (DSS) are a specific class of computerized information system that supports business and organizational decision-making activities. A properly designed DSS is an interactive software-based system intended to help decision makers compile useful information from raw data, documents, personal knowledge, and/or business models to identify and solve problems and make decisions.

2.Decision support systems are a class of computer-based information systems including knowledge based systems that support decision making activities.

Applications:

• Accessing all of your current information assets, including legacy and relational data sources, cubes, data warehouses, and data marts
• Comparative sales figures between one week and the next
• Projected revenue figures based on new product sales assumptions.
• Clinical decision support system for medical diagnosis.
• DSS is extensively used in business and management. Executive dashboard and other business performance software allow faster decision making, identification of negative trends, and better allocation of business resources
• the Canadian National Railway system, which tests its equipment on a regular basis using a decision support system.

BENIFITS:

1. Improving Personal Efficiency
2. Expediting Problem Solving
3. Facilitating Interpersonal Communication
4. Promoting Learning or Training
5. Increasing Organizational Control

Characteristics:

1. Support for decision makers in semistructured and unstructured problems.
2. Support managers at all levels.
3. Support individuals and groups.
4. Support for interdependent or sequential decisions.
5. Support intelligence, design, choice, and implementation.
6. Support variety of decision processes and styles.
7. DSS should be adaptable and flexible.
8. DSS should be interactive and provide ease of use.
9. Effectiveness balanced with efficiency .
   
10. Complete control by decision-makers.
11. Ease of development by end users.
12. Support modeling and analysis.
13. Data access.
14. Standalone, integration and Web-based.

Conclusion:

A DSS is an interactive computer based system intended to make help managers in making decisions.DSS supports a large group of mangers ina n/w,client -server environment.


Reference links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_support_systems#Benefits_of_DSS
http://www.informationbuilders.com/decision-support-systems-dss.html
http://www.dssresources.com/papers/whatisadss/
http://www.pitt.edu/~druzdzel/abstracts/dss.html