Fundamentals chap 8 Flashcards
Management Information and decision support systems
Why Learn About Information and Decision Support Systems?
Is in helping you and your coworkers make more informed decisions
Transportation coordinators can:
Use management information reports to find the least expensive way to ship products to market and to solve bottlenecks
Process of making a decision
Intelligence stage
Decision stage
Choice stage
Implementation stage
Monitoring stage
Intelligence stage
In the Intelligence stage, we would then collect information about the problem
Decision stage
In the Design stage, you start working out which are the realistic options available to you by considering the entrance requirements and other factors such as costs.
Choice stage
In the Choice stage, you actually decide which University programme that you would like to study
Implementation stage
In the Implementation stage, you send off your applications to one or more Universities where you decided you wanted to study
Monitoring stage
In the Monitoring stage, you check to see if your application was successful.
Decision-making phase:
Intelligence stage:
Identify and define potential problems or opportunities
Design stage:
Develop alternative solutions to the problem and evaluate their feasibility
Choice stage:
Select a course of action
Problem solving:
Includes and goes beyond decision making
Includes Implementation Stage
Monitoring Stage
Decision makers evaluate the implementation
Programmed Vs. Non-programmed Decisions
Programmed decisions follow a set procedure and are easy to computerise. Non-programmed decisions are harder to program, as they require one to make decisions where not all the information required can be presented in a computerised manner.
Optimization, Satisficing, and Heuristic Approaches
Optimization model:
Finds the best solution, usually the one that will best help the organization meet its goals
Satisficing model:
Finds a good, but not necessarily the best, problem solution
Heuristics (‘rules of thumb’):
Commonly accepted guidelines or procedures that usually find a good solution
Management information system (MIS)
Integrated collection of people, procedures, databases, hardware and software that provide decision makers with information to help achieve organisational goals.
Can give the organization a competitive advantage
Purpose of an MIS:
To help an organization achieve its goals
Provide the right information to the right person in the right format at the right time
Business transactions:
Can enter the organization through traditional methods, or via the Internet, or via an extranet
Inputs to MIS
Internal data sources:
TPS and ERP systems and related databases
External data sources:
Customers, suppliers, competitors, and stockholders whose data is not already captured by the TPS and ERP systems
Business intelligence:
Can be used to turn a database into useful information throughout the organization
Outputs of a Management Information System
What are the different types of MIS reports?
Scheduled reports:
Produced periodically, such as daily, weekly, or monthly
Key-indicator report:
Summarizes the previous day’s critical activities
Demand reports:
Developed to provide certain information upon request
Exception reports:
Automatically produced when a situation is unusual or requires management action
Trigger points should be set carefully
Drill-down reports:
Provide increasingly detailed data about a situation
Characteristics of a Management Information System
1.Provide reports with fixed and standard formats
2.Produce hard-copy and soft-copy reports
3.Use internal data stored in the computer system
4.Allow users to develop custom reports
5. Require user requests for reports developed by systems personnel
Functional Aspects of the MIS
Most organizations are structured along functional lines or areas
Finance
Manufacturing
Marketing
Human Resources
MIS can be divided along functional lines to produce reports tailored to individual functions
Financial MIS
Description:
Provides financial information to executives and others
Functions of a Financial MIS:
Integrate financial and operational information from lots of sources into a single system.
Provide easy access to data for both financial and non-financial users via the corporate intranet.
Make financial data immediately available to shorten analysis turnaround time.
Enable the analysis of financial data along multiple dimensions – time, geography, product, plant, customer.
Analyse historical and current financial activity.
Monitor and control the use of funds over time
Manufacturing MIS
Description:
Used to monitor and control the flow of materials, products, and services through the organization
Functions of a Manufacturing MIS:
Design and engineering
Master production scheduling
Inventory control
Process control
Quality control and testing
Marketing MIS
Definition:
Supports managerial activities in product development, distribution, pricing decisions, promotional effectiveness, and sales forecasting
Functions of a Marketing MIS:
Marketing research
Product development
Promotion and advertising
Product pricing
Sales analysis
Human Resource MIS
Definition:
Concerned with activities related to employees and potential employees with the use of computers
Functions of a Human Resource MIS:
Human resource planning
HRMIS determines the personnel and human needs
Personnel selection and recruiting
Increasingly companies use the Internet for people to upload their CVs
Training and skills inventory
Specialist or computer-based training
Scheduling and job placement
Scheduling of assignments over a period; job placement based on skills inventory
Wage and salary administration
Determine salaries and benefits
An Overview of Decision Support Systems (DSS)
Definition:
Organized collection of people, procedures, software, databases, and devices used to help make decisions that solve problems
Used at all levels of the organisation
Focus of a DSS:
Is on decision-making effectiveness regarding unstructured or semi-structured business problems
Characteristics of a DSS
Provide rapid access to information
Handle large amounts of data from different sources
Provide report and presentation flexibility
Offer both textual and graphical orientation
Support drill-down analysis
Perform complex, sophisticated analysis and comparisons using advanced software packages
Support optimisation, satisficing and heuristic approaches
Perform goal-seeking analysis
Perform simulation
Capabilities of a DSS
1.Support for problem-solving phases:
A specific DSS might support only one or a few phases
2.Support for various decision frequencies:
Ad hoc DSS is concerned with situations or decisions that come up only a few times
Institutional DSS handles situations or decisions that occur more than once
3.Support for various problem structures:
Highly structured problems are straightforward, requiring known facts and relationships
Semi-structured or unstructured problems are more complex
4.Support for various decision-making levels:
DSSs can provide help for managers at various levels within the organization
A Comparison of DSS and MIS
The type of problems solved
The support given to users
The decision emphasis and approach
The type, speed, output, and development of the system used
Components of a Decision Support System
At the core of a DSS are a database and a model base
Dialogue manager:
Allows decision makers to easily access and manipulate the DSS and to use common business terms and phrases
Database management system
Allows managers and decision makers to perform qualitative analysis on data stored in company’s databases, data warehouses, and data marts
Can also be used to connect to external databases
Data-driven DSS:
Performs qualitative analysis based on the company’s databases
Model base
Model base:
Allows managers and decision makers to perform quantitative analysis on both internal and external data
Model-driven DSS:
Performs mathematical or quantitative analysis
Model management software (MMS):
Coordinates the use of models in a DSS
The User Interface or Dialogue Manager
Allows users to interact with the DSS to obtain information
Assists with all aspects of communications between user and hardware and software that constitute the DSS
Executive Support Systems (ESS)
Definition:
Specialized DSS
Includes hardware, software, data, procedures, and people used to assist senior-level executives
Also called an executive information system (EIS)
Characteristics of an ESS
Tailored to individual executives
Easy to use
Have drill-down abilities
Support the need for external data
Can help with situations that have a high degree of uncertainty
Have a future orientation (plan for the future)
Linked with value-added business processes
Capabilities of Executive Support Systems
Support for defining overall vision
Support for strategic planning
Support for strategic organizing and staffing
Support for strategic control
Support for crisis management
