Answer Minimum in 300 words. Should be in APA format

DecisionSupportSystemsMISCU.pdf

Home >Engineering homework help >Answer Minimum in 300 words. Should be in APA format

Introduction

This lesson will discuss Decision Support Systems (DSS) and their relevance to structured, semi-structured, and non-structured decision-making patterns. In addition, this lesson will explain the types of skills and qualities that teams need to best utilize a DSS. Finally, the relationship between a DSS and a company’s competitive advantage will be reviewed and the following question broached: Do these systems help companies gain a competitive edge that offsets their costs?

Decision Support System (DSS)

A Decision Support System, or DSS, can be defined as a series of linked computerized procedures that aid in the important process of leadership and management decision-making. But why is a DSS so necessary?

Here is an example of how the pharmaceutical industry uses such a system:

The cost of bringing a new drug to market is significant—as much as $800 million over 15 years. Consequently, pharmaceutical companies must rely on methods to make better decisions about which drugs hold the best chances for success, how to bring products to market faster, and to support a product and monitor its performance after it's on the market. Advances in analytic business intelligence have produced tools for improved pharmaceutical decision support (Spotfire, 2006, para. 1).

People have always made decisions -- decisions regarding how to eat, how to build better homes, how to develop tools to automate processes, and so forth.

Even in the early ages when cave dwellers led more simple lives, they made decisions regarding how to light fires, how to build helpful tools, how to find food, etc. Yet, they do not appear to have needed sophisticated decision-making databases or tools.

Now, consider the decision-making diagram below. This diagram shows the flowcharts that control the decision-making processes in many businesses today. Essentially, such diagrams tell companies what to do in order to be most effective and efficient when choosing a combination of resources to enjoy maximum output. Companies invest much of their time in coming up with these decision trees to avoid long-term losses.

But the question remains: What caused decision-making to become a science? In short, historically, decisions were not as numerous or complex as they are today, due to humanity’s ever increasing knowledge and freedoms. The more choices the world has, the more complex business decisions become. Furthermore, in order to compete in the 21st century marketplace, companies must seek to utilize their resources in the best combination possible. Below are some of the questions companies ask today:

 Should a company stay with its current products and services? Alternatively, what if the company extends its product differentiation strategy and produces a variety of items?

 What if the company invests more in technology and reduces its current human capital investment?

 What if the company keeps employee raises at a minimum but increases the benefits such as gym privileges, cafeteria quality, and better health coverage? Will such changes psychologically improve employee motivation?

These are only a few of the “what if” questions asked by leadership and management daily, monthly, quarterly, and annually. Now, imagine if a company had to implement these ideas in order to understand their pros and cons? Such a high level of trial and error would take up massive amounts of company time and money. As such, DS Systems came into being to help companies answer these “what if” questions in a more informed and cost-effective manner.

There is no question that a DSS adds benefit to an organization. One article, entitled “Improving Clinical Practice Using Clinical Decision Support Systems,” addresses the effect DSS has had on clinical practice states and offers that “Decision support systems significantly improved clinical practice in 68% of trials” (Kawamoto et al., 2005, “Results”).

Decision-making Patterns

What type of DSS does a company need to support its decision-making needs? Prior to answering this question, one has to first understand the types of decision-making patterns that exist within a company.

For the most part, a company has three layers of decision-makers:

 Executive Leadership  Middle Level Management  Front-line Management

As one moves from the top to the bottom, one finds the following patterns in relation to decision- making. Consider the following diagram:

Effectively, the length of the decision span (long, mid-range, short) that each level of leadership (executive, middle, front-line) is responsible for determines the pattern (unstructured, semi structured, structured) of decision-making. The following further explains this concept from a more practical perspective.

Executive Leadership sees the whole, knows the vision, and formulates the mission to reach the vision. Its decisions are normally made anywhere from two to ten years in advance in order to plan effectively. Predictions are made, and many alternatives have to be considered in order to make effective long-term decisions. As such, decisions present more doubt, more margins for inaccuracy, and so forth. Persons make predictions based on alternatives, a process that relies on sophisticated tools. So, for these reasons, the time of the decision-making is long-term and the pattern unstructured because of the level of prediction. An example of a question Executive Leadership might ask is, “What do we want the company to look like in five years in relation to revenues?”

Middle Management sees the whole of its department and can be expected to make decisions as far out as one to five years. While these managers need to see the whole in order to effectively lead/manage their teams, their focus is on a section of the organization. As such, decisions deal with more mid-ranged timetables. Thus, as Middle Management decisions are not as unstructured as Executive Leadership decisions or as structured as Frontline Management decisions, their decision-making style is referred to as semi-structured. An example of a question a Middle Management employee might ask is, “During May and June, how many service calls need to come in order to keep all workers busy?”

Front-line Management leads the team that interacts with the customers daily. As such, the decision-making timeline for these managers can be daily, weekly, or monthly. These managers have more control over the short-term questions that need to be answered, such as, “How many customers need to be served this week or this month?”

DSS and Decision-making Patterns

Keep in mind that a DSS houses a variety of data based on past and current trends, etc. It also includes built-in formats and procedures that manipulate the data. These are the tools used to help managers play with alternatives. Below are some of the most popular types of DS Systems:

1. Data-driven DSS

 These help users query a variety of unknowns based on the fields available in the database.

2. Communication-driven DSS

 These could include instant messages, threaded discussions, emails, synchronous chats, etc.

3. Knowledge-driven DSS

 These provide the type of information necessary to help management choose certain alternatives over others and guide them towards the best combination of products and services.

4. Document-driven DSS

 These are research-and-find type systems, such as the Web, in which users can electronically search for documents relating to their topics of interest.

Now, who should use which of the above four system to yield the best outcomes?

 Executive Leadership o This level of leadership can use all 4 types of DS Systems. The amount of data

employed in these systems may be more extensive that that used by middle management because Executive Leadership makes decision over a longer period in an unstructured environment. These DS Systems not only house a variety of data, but also lots of alternative analyses tools that answer the many “what if’ questions posed by this leadership group.

 Middle Level Management o This level of management can use all 4 types of systems as well. As shared

above, while middle level management also utilizes all four types of DS Systems,

they are used at another level -- one that will offer prediction, calculations, etc. in a shorter timeframe.

 Front-line Management o This group can use mainly 1 and 3 system types. This group best utilizes data

and knowledge-driven databases because it deals with decisions on a very short- term basis. Rarely will you find these front-line supervisors sitting in their offices, sending extensive emails, and surfing the Web. They are oftentimes in the field or in the front office ensuring that their team is meeting the daily needs of the customers. They use DS Systems mostly for scheduling purposes and in order to explore the services and product needs of their customers over a short period of time.

These systems are not inexpensive. Due to the cost, companies should seek to ensure a high enough ROI before using them. Then, proper analyses must be done in order for each team to clearly and definitively understand what type of information is needed to assist with the level of decision-making required of them.

Skills and Qualities Teams Need to Utilize a DSS

All levels of an organization must prepare themselves for the implantation of a DSS.

 Executive Team o In this case, oftentimes a change in mindset must occur. Not all leaders

naturally see the need and value of having a DSS, especially when they view the costs.

o Leaders need to be flexible, risk-takers, analytical, computer savvy, and patient. o It is important that all members of leadership are fully educated on the cost-

benefit analysis regarding these systems. o Leadership is integral in setting the culture of an organization. As such, it is

strongly advised that top leadership take as long as they need to agree on the types of DS Systems needed for the organization. This unity will be felt by the rest of the organization.

 Middle Management Team o What happens with Executive Leadership must be

shared with this team so that shared vision and mission exist in relation to this endeavor.

o This team needs to be open, trustworthy of leadership, computer savvy, flexible, and keenly aware of its departments’ needs.

 Front-line Management Team o Front-line workers need to be computer savvy as well. o They need to have confidence that these systems can

better their daily job duties.

o Since this team is held responsible for the direct care of the customer, its members may also need to be assured that the system will help them improve customer service

DSS and a Company’s Competitive Advantage

DS Systems can help companies meet their zeniths in competitive advantage. The key here is for an organization to clearly outline its goals and, then, to use the systems to help it meet these goals. While companies rely on these systems to answer their questions, a clear vision and mission are the foundations on which such systems should be built. Moreover, companies should also realize that, while DSSs are becoming more and more popular, they are not miracle workers. They respond to data entered and the types of queries and alternatives sought.

A report entitled “Midwest Watershed Management Geo-Spatial and Decision Support System” clearly shows what a quality DSS proposal looks like. The report’s details reveal that the company “knows” what it wants to achieve in a five-year period:

The purpose of our 5-year project is to:

 Improve the management of watersheds in Region 5 through the development, promotion, and use of a Web-based, user-friendly, geo-spatial watershed management data and decision support system (WMDDSS).

 Set the standard for other watershed management programs for the country (Midwest Watershed Management Company, 2002, “Objectives/Purposes”).

In closing, experience has shown that, when utilized correctly, the benefits of DS Systems far outweigh their costs. In this 21st century of fierce competition, it can almost be assumed that companies no longer have a choice but to invest in these DS Systems that can work as an extension of their own analytical capacity and increase competitive advantage.