************************************************************ DSS News by D. J. Power January 28, 2001 -- Vol. 2, No. 3 A Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM ************************************************************ Check Chapter 2 in HTML at http://dssresources.com ************************************************************ Featured: * DSS Wisdom * Ask Dan! -- What factors indicate a special study is more appropriate than a DSS? * Request for Information -- Health Care Simulations * What's New at DSSResources.COM * DSS News Stories ************************************************************ We have more than 2300 unique visitors each week at DSSResources.COM and more than 400 subscribers from more than 50 countries to this newsletter. Please forward this email to people interested in Decision Support Systems. ************************************************************ DSS Wisdom James March wrote in 1978, "Prescriptive theories of choice are dedicated to perfecting the intelligence of human action by imagining that action stems from reason and by improving the technology of decision. Descriptive theories of choice are dedicated to perfecting the understanding of human action by imagining that action makes sense. Not all behavior makes sense; some of it is unreasonable. Not all decision technology is intelligent; some of it is foolish." (p. 604) from March, J. G. "Bounded Rationality, Ambiguity, and the Engineering of Choice", Bell Journal of Economics, Vol. 9, 1978, pp. 587-608. ************************************************************ Ask Dan! What factors in a decision situation indicate that it is probably more appropriate to prepare a special study than it is to build a Decision Support System? Let's clarify the term special study. Some other names that are used include: a quantitative analysis, a simulation study, and a management analysis. Special studies are usually prepared to support decision-making in situations that are especially important and one-time (novel or infrequent). Situations that are very unstructured, involve negotiation or bargaining or that are political are also likely candidates for special studies. DSS are not very appropriate in these situations. Data-Driven DSS seem most appropriate where managers need frequent access and ad hoc analysis of large data sets. Model-Driven DSS are appropriate in recurring decision situation that are semi-structured where a quantitative model or models can inform or support analyses and choices. Knowledge-Driven DSS are appropriate where a narrow domain of expertise can be defined and where one or more experts can be identified or where knowledge can be codified to help a less expert decision maker. A Document-Driven DSS should be built when a very large set of documents has been, is or will be created that needs to be filtered, sorted, searched and analyzed. A Communications-Driven DSS is most appropriate where two or more people need to be involved in an ad hoc or on-going decision process and either can't meet or find it costly to meet and want to use technology tools to communicate, collaborate, evaluate and support decision analysis or evaluation. NOTE to DSS News Subscribers: Please send me your comments and feedback or post the information to the DSSResources.COM Bulletin Board. ************************************************************ Request for Information -- Health Care Simulation I am searching for a simulation computer model (software) to enable health sciences medical students at rural health clinics to learn health systems dynamics, strategic thinking resulting in action plans for their assigned clinics. Can you recommend a model or software related to systems dynamics? Thank you. R. Rudy Filek, PhD ************************************************************ What's New at DSSResources.COM 01/20/2001 Posted HTML version of Chapter 2 "Gaining Competitive Advantage with Decision Support Systems". This is an experimental chapter that we are testing. The plan is to put all of the chapters in the subscriber zone in a similar HTML format. Chapter 2 is currently being revised and your comments on its content and format will be appreciated. 01/20/2001 Revised Ask Dan! format. 01/15/2001 Updated and posted the DSS Web Tour (version 4.0). ************************************************************ DSS News Stories - Jan. 14 to Jan. 28, 2001 01/26/2001 During the morning of January 25, Microsoft was the target of a denial-of-service attack against the routers that direct traffic to its Web sites. 01/26/2001 Facilities Management software transforms facilities organizations to e-Businesses. 01/25/2001 The University of Minnesota identified more than $500,000 annual savings from the implementation of enterprise facilities management system. 01/25/2001 2,200 delegates to World Economic Forum use Pocket PCs and Wireless Network for information management. 01/25/2001 The Freedom Group selected Brokat's Java-Based rules management technology to facilitate insurance processes. 01/24/2001 Fair, Isaac announced availability of its next generation decision engine technology. 01/22/2001 Saatchi & Saatchi deploy Hummingbird Cyberdocs 3.1 document management application. 01/22/2001 Study finds organizations with successful balanced scorecards involved high-level senior management. 01/19/2001 M-I deployed Web-based Cognos Finance enterprise-wide for budgeting; replaced Excel spreadsheet and Oracle system. 01/19/2001 Call for papers: ISE2001 Workshop on Knowledge Management Systems June 25-28, 2001 in Las Vegas. Submission deadline is March 26, 2001. 01/18/2001 SupplyLinks chose NextLinx to support global transportation decisions for its customers. 01/18/2001 Microsoft selects Sagent to help develop a comprehensive database to personalize marketing campaigns. 01/17/2001 BizLand is offering its small business members a customized Web Site Building Tool from Trellix. 01/17/2001 Bristol-Myers Squibb signed contract for Fair, Isaac MarketSmart Decision System. 01/16/2001 Informix Business Solutions changed its name to Ascential Software, Inc. 01/16/2001 Seagate Software previewed new Web Analytic Reporting tool: Crystal Analysis Professional. It features OLAP reporting and interactive analytic application creation delivered via the Web. 01/16/2001 Thailand's CP 7-Eleven chose Computer Associates' Unicenter TNG for data transport to support 1,500 7-Eleven retail outlets. 01/15/2001 Royal Philips Electronics is deploying Lotus Collaboration, Knowledge Management and Business Balanced Scorecard solutions. 01/15/2001 Staples selects MarketMAX for Web-based, multi-channel merchandise planning. ************************************************************ This newsletter is available online at http://dssresources.com/newsletters/ . ************************************************************ DSS News is copyrighted (c) 2001 by D. J. Power. Please send your email to power@dssresources.com. You have previously subscribed to the DSS News Mailing List. To unsubcribe, send an email to dssresources-unsubscribe@topica.com . |