Decision Support Systems Concept

Abstract

Since the late 1960s, researchers have been developing and implementing computerized systems to support management decision makers. A number of decision support system (DSS) typologies were proposed in the early 1980s (Alter, 1980; Sprague & Carlson, 1982), but technology developments and new applications led to an expanded DSS framework (Power, 2000a, 2000b, 2001). The expanded DSS framework that is explained in detail in Power (2002b) helps decision makers and DSS developers understand and categorize decision support projects as well as existing decision support systems. Many terms are used to describe decision support systems. For example, some vendors and managers use the terms business intelligence, collaborative systems, computationally oriented DSS, data warehousing, model-based DSS, and online analytical processing (OLAP) software to label decision support systems. Software vendors use these more specialized terms for both descriptive and marketing purposes. The terms used to describe decision support capabilities are important in making sense about what technologies have been deployed or are needed. Some DSSs are subsystems of other information systems and this integration adds to the complexity of categorizing and identifying DSSs. In general, decision support systems are a broad class of information systems used to assist people in decision- making activities (Power, 2004).