1 Management Decision Support and Intelligent Systems

Objectives
Describe the concepts of managerial, decision making, and computerized support

for decision making.
Justify the role of modeling and models in decision making.
Describe decision support systems (DSSs) and their benefits, and describe the DSS structure.
Describe the support to group (including virtual) decision making.
Describe organizational DSS and executive support systems, and analyze their role in management support.
Describe artificial intelligence (AI) and list its benefits and characteristics.
Define an expert system and its components and describe its benefits and limitations.
Describe natural language processing and compare it to speech understanding.
Describe Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), their characteristics and major applications. Compare it to fuzzy logic and describe its role in hybrid intelligent systems.
Describe the relationships between the Web, DSS, and intelligent system.
Describe special decision support applications including the support of frontline employees.

liaison
Informational - monitor, disseminator, spokesperson
Decisional - entrepreneur, problem solver, resource

coordinator, and negotiator

Management is a process by which organizational goals (outputs) are achieved through the use of corporate resources (inputs). These organizational decisions (processes) are typically made by managers.

Information systems support all three roles especially decisional.

Information Technology.  It is very difficult to make good decisions

without valid, timely and relevant information.
Number of alternatives to be considered is increasing
Many decisions are made under time pressure.
Due to uncertainty in the decision environment, it is frequently necessary to conduct a sophisticated analysis.
It is often necessary to rapidly access remote information.

A decision refers to a choice made between alternatives. Decision making in organizations can be classified into two broad categories: problem solving and opportunity exploitation.

Can we make better decisions?

to analytical, quantitative types of decisions.
Executive (Enterprise) Support Systems (ESS)

support the informational roles of executives.
Group Decision Support Systems supports managers and staff working in groups.
Intelligent Systems

Discovery, communication and collaboration tools provide indirect support to decision making, however there are several other information technologies used to directly support decision making.

decision making are:
The cost of virtual experimentation is much lower

than the cost of experimentation with a real system.
Models allow for the simulated compression of time.
Manipulating the model is much easier than manipulating the real system.
The cost of mistakes are much lower in virtual experimentation.
Modeling allows a manager to better deal with the uncertainty by introducing “what-ifs” and calculating the risks involved in specific actions.
Mathematical models allow the analysis and comparison of a very large number of possible alternative solutions.
Models enhance and reinforce learning and support training.

A model (in decision making) is a simplified representation of reality. Simplified because reality is too complex to copy exactly and much of the processes complexity is irrelevant to a specific problem.

physical replica of a system.
An Analog model does not look

like the real system but behaves like it.
A Mathematical (Quantitative) model describes the system with the aid of mathematics and is composed of three types of variables (decision, uncontrollable and result)
A Mental models provides a subjective description of how a person thinks about a situation. The model includes beliefs, assumptions, relationships and flows of work as perceived by that individual.

Representation by models can be done at various degrees of abstraction. Models are thus classified into four groups according to their degree of abstraction

decisions that fall along a continuum that ranges from structured

to unstructured. Structured processes refer to routine & repetitive problems with standard solutions. While Unstructured are "fuzzy," complex problems with no clear-cut solutions.

information system that combines models and data in an attempt

to solve semistructured and unstructured problems with user involvement.

contains all the data that flow from several sources, and

are extracted prior to their entry into a DSS database or a data warehouse.
A model management subsystem contains completed models (financial, statistical, management science, or other quantitative models), and the routines to develop DSSs applications.
The user interface covers all aspects of the communications between a user and the DSS.
The Users.  The person (manager, or the decision maker) faced with the problem or decision that the DSS is designed to support
A knowledge-based or intelligent subsystem provides the expertise for solving some aspects of the problem, or the knowledge that can enhance the operation of the other DSS components.

Every DSS consists of at least data management, user interface, model management components, and the end users. A few also contain a knowledge management component.

it using this processes.
Data
Model

one place
Virtual group, whose members are in different locations
The DSS

methodology was initially designed to support individual decision makers. However, decision making is frequently a shared process. Where a group may be involved in making the decision. When a decision-making group is supported electronically, the support is referred to as a group decision support system (GDSS).

are:
It affects several organizational units or corporate problems
It cuts

across organizational functions or hierarchical layers
It involves computer-based technologies and communication technologies.
It often interacts or integrates with enterprise-wide information systems.

Organizational decision support system (ODSS) provide decision support for the individual, group, and organization. It focuses on an organizational task or activity involving a sequence of operations and decision makers.

graphics
Provides the capabilities of exception reporting (reporting only the results

that deviate from a set standard)
Provide drill down (investigating information in increasing detail).
ESS goes beyond EIS to include:
Analyse support
Communications
Office automation
Intelligence support

An executive information system (EIS), also known as an executive support system (ESS), is a technology designed in response to the specific needs of top-level managers and executives.

and presentation
Friendly data access
User-friendly graphical interface
Imaging capabilities
Intranet access
E-mail
Internet access
Modeling
ESS goes

beyond EIS to include:
Analyse support
Communications
Office automation
Intelligence support

Intelligent ESS saves an executive's time in conducting drill downs, exceptions, or identifying trends by automating these activities.

that describes the various commercial applications of artificial intelligence (AI).

AI is concerned with studying the thought processes of humans and representing those processes via machines (computers, robots, and so on). It’s ultimate goal is to build machines that will mimic human intelligence.

AI applications can be extremely valuable:
They can make computers easier to use.
They make knowledge more widely available.
They significantly increase the speed and consistency of some problem-solving procedures.
They handle problems that are difficult to solve by conventional computing and those that have incomplete or unclear data.
They increase the productivity of performing many tasks.
They helps in handling information overload by summarizing or interpreting information.
They assist in searching through large amounts of data.

Assist

exhibit intelligent characteristics draws upon several sciences and technologies, ranging

from linguistics to mathematics.

are attempts to сopy human experts. It is decision-making software

that can reach a level of performance comparable to a human expert in some specialized and usually narrow problem area. The idea is simple: expertise is transferred from an expert or other source of expertise to the computer.

The transfer of expertise from an expert to a computer and then to the user involves four activities:
Knowledge acquisition (from experts or other sources)
Knowledge representation (organized as rules or frames in the computer)
Knowledge inferencing is performed in a component called the inference engine of the ES and results in the recommendation.
Knowledge transfer to the user (the expert’s knowledge has been transferred to users).

(such as "what-if") with a computer on a model of

a management system. Because DSS deals with semistructured or unstructured situations, it involves complex reality, which may not be easily represented by optimization or other standard models but can often be handled by simulation. Therefore, simulation is one of the most frequently used tools of DSSs.

Advantages of Simulation. 
Allows for inclusion of the real-life complexities of problems.
Is descriptive.
Can handle an extremely wide variation in problem types.
Can show the effect of compressing time.
Can be conducted from anywhere.

expert advice. Other intelligent systems can be used to solve

problems or provide capabilities in areas in which they excel.

Artificial neural networks (ANNs)
simulate massive parallel processes that involve processing elements interconnected in a network.

Fuzzy logic deals with uncertainties by simulating the process of human reasoning, allowing the computer to behave less precisely and logically than conventional computers do.

Semantic Web. It is an extension of the current Web, in which information is given a well-defined meaning, based in part on NLP, on XML presentation, and new technologies such as resource description framework (RDF).

global basis via the Web.

of management support systems are tangible, it is difficult to

put a dollar value on the intangible benefits of many such systems.
Documenting personal DSS. Many employees develop their own DSSs to increase their productivity and the quality of their work. It is advisable to have an inventory of these DSSs and make certain that appropriate documentation and security measures exist.
Security. Decision support systems may contain extremely important information for the livelihood of organizations. Taking appropriate security measures, especially in Web-based distributed applications, is a must.
Ready-made commercial DSSs. With the increased use of Web-based systems and ASPs, it is possible to find more DSS applications sold off the shelf, frequently online. The benefits of a purchased or leased DSS application sometimes make it advisable to change business processes to fit a commercially available DSS.

application can greatly increase its functionality.
Organizational culture. The more

people recognize the benefits of a DSS and the more support is given to it by top management; the more the DSS will be used.
Embedded technologies. Intelligent systems are expected to be embedded in at least 20 percent of all IT applications in about 10 years. It is critical for any prudent management to closely examine the technologies and their business applicability.
Ethical issues. Corporations with management support systems may need to address some serious ethical issues such as privacy and accountability.