This article presents a description of what decision support systems are as well as the different stages these applications have gone through to this day.
It also tells us how their operation is within the organizational structures of today and how they could be impacted with the next level that these systems will have in their evolution, this refers to the recent appearance of the concept of automated decision.
This is a remarkable breakthrough in decision making but we will have to address it in the right way.
Content
Decision Support Systems (DSS) are a specific class of computer equipment-based information systems intended to support decision-making activities in the organization.
An appropriately designed DSS is an interactive software system aimed at helping key personnel within the organization - who are the decision makers - obtain useful information from source data, records in documents, knowledge and applying models. Designed for business, this information obtained identifies problems throughout the organization and provides a robust tool to solve them by making correct decision-making.
Brief history
The decision-making process within organizations has had significant changes in the last decades, since the appearance of the Decision Support Systems (DSS) concept, although academically during the 60's, this concept continued its development until the 80's where the design of executive information systems (EIS) as well as organizational decision support systems (ODSS) was already involved, for the 90's the online analytical processing technologies (OLAP) and data warehousing are already components of DSS. In addition, some techniques based on web applications were added towards the end of the 90's.
We could consider that SSDs appeared as a new generation within the area of information systems now more complex and sophisticated.
Use of DSS
Currently, the use of DSS has become widespread due to its ability to analyze large volumes of data and the way they have to present this information in summary.
The information that a decision support application can typically collect and display includes all of the data stored in the enterprise, ranging from legacy systems to relational databases, data warehouses, or data cubes.
The resulting information is presented in graphical diagrams so that they are easy to understand even for users who are not very familiar with computer systems. One of the most important functions of this type of system is the projection into the future of the behavior of some business factors, this projection is based on a system model that has been designed in accordance with the experts in the area in which the application.
Evolution of DSS
Information technology is immersed in ever faster changes and DSS are no exception, despite their excellent functionality, obviously as in all systems there will always be something to improve, or errors to eliminate or resolve. One of the main problems that DSS presently present is in its design, since they require considerable experience on statistical issues and complex human analysis to optimize their operating times.
Now a new stage of information systems that support decision making is already being developed and applied in some business areas and is known as Automated Decision Making in a literary translation of “Automated Decision Making”, considered as the evolution of Decision Support Systems and Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking the best features of both to create the new concept.
Automated Decision systems are based on rules such as AI and also involve statistical concepts or data analysis algorithms just as DSS does.
Although this technology is still under development, it is already being applied in areas such as medical prescription, travel services, transportation control, also especially in the financial area within banking and insurance companies. Some of the reasons for this evolutionary process is that it will now be easier than ever to create and manage applications. Automated decision systems will have the ability to detect data online, apply logic or coded knowledge, and make decisions, all with minimal human input.
In this way, many decisions will be made automatically by the systems, and although it seems that it is only good news for companies, management personnel will now have to face this new technology challenge by adapting to it and sharing the responsibility for certain types of decisions.. Likewise, the different economies, especially in developed countries, will have to resolve some aspects derived from the loss of jobs as a result of the entry of technologies such as automated decisions.
Bibliography
Turban, E., Aronson, J., Liang, TP Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems. Prentice Hall, 2005. Seventh edition. 0-13-046106-7
Davenport, Tom. Decision Evolution. Digital article consulted on 02/28/2006 at
Power, DJ A Brief History of Decision Support Systems. Digital article consulted on 01/03/2006 at
Hayes, Heather. Analytic Applications Packaged Decision Support Solutions Take Decision-Making to a New Level. Digital article consulted on 01/03/2006
Information Builders Decision Support Systems - DSS. Consulted on 02/28/2006 at
www.informationbuilders.com/decision-support-systems-dss
