Using IS for Decision making

Levels of Decision making

Strategic decision making made by managers who are knowledge based and are used to dealing with major problems in the company.  These managers are there to provide the necessary support for the organisation and normally work in small groups.

First we should know that there are 3 different forms of decisions:

°         Structured decisions

°         Un-Structured decisions

°         Semi-structured

Structured decisions by contrast are repetitive, routine and involve a definite procedure for handling.

Unstructured decisions Where by the manager has to provide judgement, evaluation and insights into the problem definition.

Semi-structured decisions; clear cut answer provided by an accepted procedure.

Stages for making decisions include:

Intelligence identifies the problem, gather the information and communicate to the rest of the organisation.

Design: used to identify alternative solutions. DSS is used here.

Choice, were management chose among alternatives, keep track of consequences cost and opportunities.

Implementation, this is reporting on specific solutions and possible improvement actions.

Traditional MIS is information that can help identify problems in a system.

DSS can be used specifically in the design stage because these are simple models that can be quickly develop and with limited data.

http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~nora/FT351-3/DSS.pdf

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‘Even the lunch breaks are smart’

“Even the lunch or coffee breaks are just the smartest way for easy information- and knowledge-management, and team-building throughout and between all departments, as you meet your friends, enjoy amazing food and discuss [the] latest projects, new innovative ideas.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/poplife/2013/02/11/dublins-tiger-techland/

Using IS For Decision Making

“An executive information system (EIS) is a computer-based information system designed to provide senior managers with access to information relevant to their management activities. The use of these systems by executives may become a particularly important component of their decision making behavior. The effects of EIS use on aspects of the decision making process are examined by surveying 46 executive users of EIS. The frequency of EIS use and the length of time of EIS use are shown to increase problem identification speed, decision making speed, and the extent of analysis in decision making.” Leidner, Dorothy E.
Elam, Joyce J.

This abstract explains how managers use EIS to improve decision making within a business. Its helps analyase decision making to reduce the risk of making a bad decision. It will also allow management to make decision faster and more efficiently. Overall we can see from this article that Information Systems are a vital part of decision making within a business. It allows the business to be run a lot more efficiently.

Using IS for decision making – Choice and Implementation stage’s

In my final Blog, I will complete the in depth analysis on the four stages involved in Decision Making. Having already looked at the Intelligence and Design stages in detail, we will now have a closer look at the remaining two stages; Choice and Implementation.

3. Choice:

As stated in previous blog’s, this stage of the decision process involves choosing between the solutions proposed in design stage and ensuring the right solution is chosen. This stage more often then not, involves information to be gathered on each solution and the best one chosen from a final evaluation, to then be implemented in the final tage of the decision making process.

4. Implementation:

The implementation stage involves the implementing the chosen course of action to be taken and also ensuring evaluation of the chosen course in order to ensure it has the desired effect. Many issues must be crossed during this process as the organization is outing an old system and introducing a new one. As a result, the business may have to deal with resistance to change and achieving necessary approvals and authorizations, as well as following the implementation plan, conducting training and transferring resources if necessary. As a result, this phase of decision making process can be the most time consuming for organizations.

We have now discussed in detail the four stages involved in decision making, as well as the different types of decision making, various businesses that use IS for decision making, and finally why Information systems are improtant to many businesses and organizations world wide! Thats all from me, and I hope you enjoyed the blogs over the last number of weeks. Thanks to everyone who liked, commented and in general interacted to my blogs..

Using IS for decision making – Intelligence and Design stage’s

During last weeks blog, we previewed the four stages in the decision making process, used by organizations on a regular basis. I will now take an in depth look at each stage, giving practical examples and how companies use helpful tools/software applications to aid in the decision making process. first up…

1. Intelligence:

Last week we defined the intelligence stage of decision making IS as the point where we locate and accurately identify problems within the organization. Now this stage also has a place in the process of producing new products, as in each design stage of a new product/service, each one must be tested for problems or ‘bugs’ in the case of most software/applications. A prime example of this is given in an article by IEEE Xplore, in which they give us a low down on a function tool, which effectively assess a new products introduction.

In the article, James Zurn discusses the uses and efficiencies used by the Product Discovery Function or PDF, used to validate new products during the design stage to see how effective they are and problems occurring. The author makes the point that the validation of the new products during the design stage is vital to succesful release in the market, and that PDF takes less time then it would manually to constantly validate said product. It uses historical data to create correlations, thus leading to forecast problem discovery rates. Zurn states Program delays due to excessive validation will therefore be a thing of the past, saving the company time and money, as well as freeing up personel to work on other areas within the project!

2. Design:

The Design process deals primarily with identifying solutions to the discovered problem, and then exploring different and varied solutions, as posted last week. For this stage of the decision making process, many organizations will look at a broad range of solutions to any given problem, and work within teams or collaborative environment to try and define the correct solution for the issue. Finding company examples where IS was a major influence in this stage of decision making process proved difficult, but I will attempt to provide more and sufficient examples in my next blog, where I shall look in depth at the Choice and Implementation stages 🙂

References:

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=00078407

http://cathaldoyle.com/

Summary of using IS for decision making

Well this unfortunately is my last ever post , cue the sad music. So just to make your life a bit easier by summarising the topic and giving some helpful links and videos to help you understand the topic more.

In this first post I gave a brief introduction into the whole decision making issue , what it is , the different levels , and what systems you can use to aid decision-making. https://eternalsunshineoftheismind.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/using-is-for-decision-making/

The next post dealt with the various decision making levels of an organization , which include the owners ,the managers and the employees.

Using IS for Decision Making

After that I discussed the different types of IS used in decision making like MIS, DSS, ESS and GDSS.

Using IS for Decision Making

In a twist in events I looked at the world of data visualization which is another form of IS and makes the information clearer to the decision maker.

Using IS for Decision Making

And in the final post I discussed the phenomena of Big Data which deals with how company’s can manage their data intake to help operate effectively, make decisions, reduce risks, and serve customers. https://eternalsunshineoftheismind.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/big-data/

So here’s some useful links to sites related to this topic.
http://dssresources.com/ – this is really helpful website in understanding DSS and other decision aiding IS.
http://www.slideshare.net/Eacademy4u/decision-making-with-information-system – these are just some summary slides that cover the whole topic
http://wps.prenhall.com/bp_malaga_ist_1/17/4571/1170223.cw/index.html – very useful for quick and simple definitions of IS or any other IS terms
http://wps.prenhall.com/bp_malaga_ist_1/17/4571/1170223.cw/index.html – also these slides are very helpful with explaining the topic

Videos :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD5S6yZXaVI – Explaining Big Data
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UxC9Le1eOY – Data visualization
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la7MdnrlLZc – DSS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTgSjnaL8Y8 – MIS

So that’s all folks !!

Using IS for Decision Making

Data driven DSS

Web-based DSS based on file drawer system that analyses, provides access to unstructured data and facilitates communication and decision making that is the backbone of any organisations decision making process. These are tools that are used in everyday business questions. These tools are process and methodologies that are key components for any DSS provides managers or decision makers in the organisation with comprehensive, monitoring and data analysis.

Web-based DSS Architecture,

 

 

High level decision making system requirements:

>Data collection from various sources, inventories market research, etc

>Data formatting and collation

>Suitable database location and format built for decision support-based reporting & analysis

>Robust tools and applications to report, monitor, and analyse the data

Business Intelligence

MicroStrategy is an example of a decision support system that provides companies with a unified reporting analytical and monitoring platform that forms the core of any DSS.

Supports individual and group decision making, easy to develop and deploy, comprehensive data access, integrated software & flexibility.

 

 

 

 

 

http://pdf.aminer.org/000/244/014/introduction_to_the_minitrack_on_multimedia_information_systems.pdf

http://www.microstrategy.com/decision-support-system/

Using IS for Decision Making – Enterprise Resource Planning.

In this post I will be discussing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), why it’s used and the advantages & disadvantages of this information system.

ERP is an integrated information system that serves all departments within an organisation. Originating in the manufacturing industry, ERP implies the use of packaged software rather than proprietary software written by or for one customer. ERP software applications can be used to manage product planning, the purchasing of parts, inventories, interacting with suppliers, providing customer service, and tracking orders.

Advantages of ERP

• There is coherent work-flow from one department to another, which ensures smooth transition and completion of processes.
• The possibility of advanced e-commerce integration with ERP systems, which can handle web-based order tracking and processing.
• ERP systems can help managing globally dispersed enterprise companies.
• ERP systems make it easier for tracking, sales forecasting and related activities.
• ERP systems provide visibility and therefore enable better and faster collaboration across all of the departments.
• The possibililty of integrating other systems to the ERP system.

Disadvantages of ERP

• Costs can be an issue, due to planning, testing, implementation etc.
• There are also indirect costs, such as the need to upgrade links.
• ERP systems can take time before being fully functional.
• Long user training is essential, as the systems can be both difficult to learn and use.

Example: If a company manufactures tables, an ERP would keep an eye on how many raw products the firm has in stock. If it notices that the stock of one particular item needed to make a table is low, it will automatically re-order that product.

Although the above example is quite simplified, it shows how ERP helps processes to run smoothly and efficiently.

References:

http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,1237,t=ERP&i=42727,00.asp

Advantages & Disadvantages of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Systems

http://www.cathaldoyle.com

Using IS for decision making – Stages involved in decision making process

For the next few blogs, Ive decided to look at a certain aspect of decision making involving IS that our group haven’t yet covered in detail. The stages of decision making using IS is a subject that for the next few weeks, I will look at closely, giving examples of each where applicable.

 

For Businesses, IS has proven to be a useful tool in improving decision making throughout all levels of the organization, no matter how big or small that organization may be. However to really understand how this is the case, we must look at the stages involved in each process of decision making. These four stages are laid out below (diagram 1):

 

1. Intelligence: This involves finding the problems occurring within the organization and understanding them.

 

2. Design: This process deals primarily with identifying solutions to the discovered problem, and then exploring different and varied solutions

 

3. Choice: the Choosing of the solutions proposed in design stage and ensuring the right solution is chosen

 

4. Implementation: This involves implementing and making the chosen alternative work, while also continuing to monitor on how well the new alternative is working

These are the four stages involved in decision making in their basic form, but in the next number of blogs, I shall attempt to give in-depth analysis to each stage, what exactly is involved in each one and give examples where appropriate

 

References:

http://intranet.ibat.ie/moodle/course/is_management/mis10e/ch12/chpt12-1bullettext.htm

http://cathaldoyle.com/

Using IS for decision Making – Businesses that use IS for decision making

As we have seen in previous Blogs within our group, Information systems have been used in many organizations to improve decision making and the overall efficiency, functionality and profitability of these organizations/businesses.

I will now take a look at 2 businesses in particular that have proven that increased use of Information Systems (IS) does aid in the decision making process and improves the overall performance of the organization.

The first such example is http://www.ibrokerghana.com. I-BrokerGhana is used primarily as a means to monitor goings on and investments in the Ghana stock exchange, used primarily by investors. This website is a free online trading platform designed to help the investors keep up to date with their  investments and how they are doing.

The way in which this business in particular has used IS successfully to improve decision making is fairly evident – it has allowed investors to check and manage directly their shares online in a free and simple, step by step process. Visit the pay itself for more details on the services it offers to its clients including i-track and i-trade, two very useful tools for monitoring portfolios and also selling and buying shares instantly online (Reference 1).

Another company that uses IS for decision making is in fact an organization that provides Human resource systems software to other companies. People Inc supplies very competent HR systems for personnel management, recruitment management and training administration, employee self service and time and attendance.

This personnel software management system allows businesses to manage all their human resource department needs including job definitions, records of salaries, holiday allowances and bookings, absence, bonuses, benefits, maternity leave and sickness. Can be used to decide who indeed can avail of absence or maternity leave etc at any give time for a business.

Again, PeopleInc website is available online for anyone who wishes to look at what exactly the business does in detail, but this is another very good example of how IS can be used for decision making in businesses.

References:

http://ibrokerghana.com/

http://www.peopleinc.co.uk

Using IS for Decision Making – Management Information Systems.

In this post I will be talking about the role of Management Information Systems (MIS) in decision making and I will list several advantages.

MIS is a formal system for providing management with accurate and timely information necessary for decision making. When information systems are designed to provide information needed for effective decision making by managers, they are called management information systems.

The main purpose of MIS is to provide the right information to the right people at the right time. All three of these aspects are key to making the right decision. 

An MIS provides the following advantages:

• It facilitates planning.
• In minimizes information overload.
• It encourages decentralization.
• It brings co-ordination.
• It makes control easier.

Examples:

1. British-based retailer Marks & Spencer uses information generated from customer credit cards to better tailor its marketing efforts. It has also revamped its process for supplying products to stores after studying its customer database.
2. 3M, whose best-known products are Post-It Notes and Scotch Tape, operate in more than 60 countries. It recently introduced a $30 million online information system and all its senior executives get their information from the online database.

References:

http://www.management-hub.com/information-management-advantages.html

http://www.marketing91.com/mis-examples/

http://www.cathaldoyle.com