2. Customer Satisfaction
Selection and Value
Performance and Service
Look and Feel
Advertising and incentives
Personal attraction
Community Relations
Security and Reliability

4. Survey Assignment
Groups of 2
Ask 3-5 Questions – 1 question of substance
Minimum 50 respondents
Enter Data into Excel – create at least 3 graphs
“Import” graphs into Word
Write at least a page about the results (not including graphs)
Deliver Excel file and word file on CD-ROM

6. Decision Support Systems9
Decision Support Systems
© 2002 McGraw-Hill Companies

7. Chapter Objectives
Identify the changes taking place in the form and use of decision support in e-business enterprises.
Identify the role and reporting alternatives of management information systems.
Explain how the following information systems can support the information needs of executives, managers, and business professionals:
A) Executive Information Systems
B) Enterprise Information Portals
C) Enterprise Knowledge Portals
© 2002 McGraw-Hill Companies

8. e-Business Decision Support Applications
Customer
Relationship
Management
Situation: What-if
Scenario Analysis
Supply Chain
Knowledge/Innovation
Enterprise Performance
Monitoring
Employee-
Manager/
Customer/Partner
Using information systems to support business decision making has been one of the primary thrusts of the business use of information technology. However, the e-commerce revolution spawned by the Internet and the World Wide Web is expanding the information and decision support uses and expectations of a company’s employees, managers, customers, suppliers, and other business partners.
The figure highlights several of the major e-business decision support applications that are being customized, personalized, and Web-enabled for use in e-business and e-commerce. These e-business decision support applications are being rapidly made available to employees, managers, customers, suppliers, and other business partners of an internetworked e-business enterprise.
Teaching Tips
This slide corresponds to Figure 9.3 on pp. 295 and relates to the material on pp. 294.
© 2002 McGraw-Hill Companies

9. Decisions in the e-Business
Strategic
Management
Tactical
Operational
Decisions
Information
Decision Characteristics
Unstructured
Semi-structured
Structured
To succeed in e-business and e-commerce, companies need information systems that can support the diverse information and decision making needs of business professionals. The type of information required by decision makers in a company is directly related to the level of management and the amount of structure in the decision situation.
Strategic Planning and Control. Top executives develop overall organizational goals, strategies, policies, and objectives through long-range strategic planning. They also monitor the strategic performance of the organization and its overall direction. As a result, they are typically involved in making unstructured decisions; that is decisions where decision procedures to be followed cannot be specified in advance.
Tactical Planning and Control. Middle managers develop short- and medium-range plans and budgets and specify the policies, procedures, and objectives for subunits of the organization. They also acquire and allocate resources and monitor performance of organizational subunits at the department, division, and other workgroup levels. Hence, these managers make more semi-structured decisions in which only some of the decision procedures can be specified in advance.
Operational Planning and Control. Supervisory managers develop short-term planning devices such as production schedules. Supervisors are front-line managers who direct the actions of non-management employees. Their IS needs are often linked to the processing, monitoring, and evaluating of physical products. Thus, their decisions are more structured; that is to say, they can be specified in advance.
Teaching Tips
This slide corresponds to Figure 9.4 on pp. 296 and relates to the material on pp
© 2002 McGraw-Hill Companies

10. Management Information System Reports
Periodic Scheduled
Reports
Exception Reports
Demand Reports
and Responses
Push Reports
Major
Management
Information
Systems Reports
The Management Information System concept, also called information reporting systems, was the original type of management support system. MIS produce information products that support many of the day-to-day decision-making needs of the organization. Three major reporting alternatives include:
Periodic Scheduled Reports. This traditional form of providing information to managers uses a prespecified format designed to provide managers with information on a regular basis. Typical examples include weekly sales analysis reports and monthly financial statements.
Exception Reports. These are generated when a specific set of conditions occur. The IS can be designed to produce exception reports when some process exceeds given parameters and requires management action. Exception reports reduce information overload. They also promote management by exception -- intervening only when decisions need to be made.
Demand Reports and Responses. These provide information whenever a manager demands it. For example, DBMS query languages and report generators allow managers at online workstations to get immediate responses or reports to their requests for information.
Push Reporting. Many companies are using webcasting software to selectively broadcast reports and other information to the networked PCs of managers and specialists over their corporate intranets. In this manner, information is pushed to a manager’s networked workstation.
Teaching Tips
This slide corresponds to the material on pp
© 2002 McGraw-Hill Companies

11. Decision Support Systems
What If-Analysis
Sensitivity Analysis
Goal-Seeking Analysis
Optimization Analysis
Important
Decision
Support
Systems
Analytical Models
Decision support systems (DSS) are computer-based systems that provide managers and business professionals interactive information support for semi-structured and unstructured decisions. Unlike management information systems, DSS rely on model bases.
A model base is a software component that consists of models used in computational and analytical routines that mathematically express relationships between variables.
There are various types of DSS analytical model bases. These include:
What-If Analysis. An end user makes changes to variables, or relationships among variables, and observes the resulting change in the value of other variables.
Sensitivity Analysis. A special type of what-if analysis in which the value of only one variable is changed repeatedly, and the resulting changes on other variables are observed.
Goal-Seeking Analysis. Instead of observing how changes in a variable affect other variables, goal-seeking analysis sets a target value for a variable, and then repeatedly changes other variables until the target value is achieved.
Optimization analysis. A more complex goal-seeking model. Instead of setting a specific target value for a variable, the goal is to find the optimum value for one or more target variables, given certain constraints.
Teaching Tips
This slide corresponds to Figure 9.13 on pp. 304 and relates to the material on pp
© 2002 McGraw-Hill Companies

12. Enterprise Information Portals and DSS
Enterprise Information Portal Gateway
Enterprise Information Portal User Interface
Search
Agents
OLAP
Data
Mining
Knowledge
Management
Database Management Functions
Mart
Other
Business
Applications
Operational
Database
Analytical
Base
DSS
What-If Models
Sensitivity Models
Goal-Seeking Models
Optimization Models
Internet
Intranet
Extranet
Cross-platform integration is one of the main objectives of today’s e-business. As shown in the figure, newer DSS packages not only are capable of running under different computer platforms, but can be integrated with corporate data resources, including operational databases, data marts, and data warehouses.
These packages are no longer limited to numeric input and response, but can use data visualization systems to represent complex data using interactive three dimensional graphical forms. This in turns helps users discover patterns and links between decision variables quicker and easier.
As we stated earlier, the objective of today’s e-business is to provide information to anyone that needs it, whenever, and wherever they are. More and more companies are developing Enterprise Information Portals to provide web-enabled access to information. When deployed successfully, this portal provides a universal interface to both corporate knowledge and decision-making tools as well as a wealth of other tools.
Teaching Tips
This slide corresponds to Figure 9.18 on pp. 310 and relates to the material on pp. 309.
© 2002 McGraw-Hill Companies

13. Attributes of Intelligent Behavior
Think and reason
Use reason to solve problems
Learn or understand from experience
Acquire and apply knowledge
Exhibit creativity and imagination
Deal with complex or perplexing situations
Respond quickly and successfully to new situations.
Recognize the relative importance of elements in a situation
Handle ambiguous, incomplete,or erroneous information
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a field of science and technology based on disciplines such as computer science, biology, psychology, linguistics, mathematics, and engineering.
The goal of AI is to develop computers that can think, as well as see, hear, walk, talk, and feel.
A major thrust of AI is the development of computer functions normally associated with human intelligence, such as reasoning, learning, and problem solving.
Alan Turing in 1950 proposed a test for determining if machines could think. According to the Turing test, a computer could demonstrate intelligence if a human interviewer, conversing with an unseen human and an unseen computer, could not tell which was which. Critics believe that no computer can truly pass the Turing test. They claim that developing intelligence to impart true humanlike capabilities to computers is simply not possible. But progress continues, and only time will tell if the ambitious goals of AI will be achieved.
Teaching Tips
This slide corresponds to Figure 9.21 on pp. 315 and relates to the material on pp. 315.
© 2002 McGraw-Hill Companies

14. Artificial Intelligence Applications
Cognitive
Science
Applications
Artificial
Intelligence
Robotics
Natural
Interface
Expert Systems
Fuzzy Logic
Genetic Algorithms
Neural Networks
Visual Perceptions
Locomotion
Navigation
Tactility
Natural Language
Speech Recognition
Multisensory Interface
Virtual Reality
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a science and technology based on disciplines such as computer science, biology, psychology, linguistics, mathematics, and engineering. AI works to develop computer functions normally associated with human intelligence. Its goal is to develop computers that can think, see, hear, walk, talk, and even feel. The major application areas of AI can be grouped into three categories:
Cognitive Science. Much of AI development is based upon research in human information processing, which focuses on understanding how the human brain works and how humans think and learn. Major applications in this area include: expert systems, learning systems, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms, neural networks, and intelligent agents.
Robotics. Robotics is concerned with deploying computers in ways that duplicate the actions (and even the appearance) of humans. Areas of development include visual perception, tactility, dexterity, locomotion, and navigation.
Natural Interface. AI developers hope to make the human-computer interface as natural as possible. Natural language programming, speech recognition, multisensory interfaces, and virtual reality are all areas of development.
Teaching Tips
This slide corresponds to Figure 9.22 on pp. 316 and relates to the material on pp
© 2002 McGraw-Hill Companies

15. Chapter Summary
Decision support systems in business are changing. The growth of corporate intranets, extranets, and other web technologies have increased the demand for a variety of personalized, proactive, web-enabled analytical techniques to support DSS.
Information systems must support a variety of management decision-making levels and decisions. These include the three levels of management activity: strategic, tactical, and operational.
© 2002 McGraw-Hill Companies