************************************************************ DSS News by D. J. Power October 21, 2001 -- Vol. 2, No. 22 A Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM ************************************************************ Check the article by Steve Yager at DSSResources.COM ************************************************************ Featured: * DSS Wisdom * Ask Dan! - What are Analytical Information Systems? * What's New at DSSResources.COM * DSS News Stories ************************************************************ This newsletter has more than 680 subscribers from 50 countries. Please forward this newsletter to people interested in Decision Support Systems or suggest they visit DSSResources.COM. ************************************************************ Join us at IFIP WG 8.3 Conference on Decision Support Systems (DSS), Decision Support in the Internet Age, Cork, Ireland, July 4-7, 2002. Paper submissions due November 30, 2001. Check http://afis.ucc.ie/dsiage2002/. ************************************************************ DSS Wisdom Swanson and Culnan (1978) developed a framework for classifying document-based systems for management. They argued "An information system may be said to be a document-based system when it is based prmarily upon a store or collection of documents, rather than a store or collection of structured data. In the case of document-based systems one may therefore speak in terms of a document base, rather than a database. A document is an ordered set of recorded visual images constructed so as to communicate as a whole." (p. 32) Swanson, E. B., and M. J. Culnan, "Document-Based Systems for Management Planning and Control: A Classification, Survey, and Assessment," MIS Quarterly, December 1978. ************************************************************ Ask Dan! What are Analytical Information Systems? In DSS News of February 11, 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4), my Ask Dan! column discussed whether Decision Support and DSS is a core concept in Information Systems. It is not surprising that my conclusion was that Decision Support is a core concept. In that column, I also discussed the plan to create Special Interest Groups (SIGs) for the Association for Information Systems. I asked people interested in forming an AIS SIG related to data management and decision support to contact me. Well the SIG creation process at AIS is continuing. I have submitted a revised proposal for a SIG DSS to Dennis Galletta, University of Pittsburgh. Dennis is the VP of Member Services for AIS. We should know in mid-December if SIG DSS has been approved. Six AIS members (Alter, Courtney, Sharda, Sugumaran, Turoff, and Watson) are joining me in proposing a Decision Support and Analytical Information Systems Special Interest Group called SIG DSS. You can read the proposal at http://dssresources.com/aissigdss/sigdss.htm. Choosing a name for the SIG has been the subject of some debate. You may be asking what are the Analytical Information Systems in the proposed SIG name. Well, analytical information systems seems to be an evolving concept. Henry Morris, VP for Applications and Information Access at IDC, has focused on "analytic applications" since 1997. He identifies three major types of analytic applications: Financial/Business Performance Management, Operations/Production, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Morris (2001) argues "Analytic applications are specialized, supporting a structured business process, while business intelligence tools are generic, supporting ad hoc user inquiries." Syntell (http://www.syntell.com) claims to be the leader in analytical application packages. I won't evaluate that claim, but the folks at Syntell argue "Managers have used many technologies over the past 30 years to support their decision making process. Originally the emphasis was on making decisions based on reports of past performance. Then came the day of the Decision Support System which added a layer of control over what in particular the manager could see. Spread sheets became the rage when managers could use their personal models to interpret the raw data they were presented with to come up with the key indicators that they used to drive their decision process. Then OLAP tools became popular since they provided a spread sheet like environment but also allowed for higher degrees of delving into the layers of data." The people at Syntell see analytical applications as the next wave of Decision Support. Simulation may finally become a "hot" tool for business decision support. So are analytical or analytic applications and Analytical Information Systems only the latest buzzwords? Perhaps, but they are contemporary terms that may help reinvigorate research about improving decision support for managers. So what about including the term Business Intelligence in the SIG name? >From my perspective, I'd rather not ... Recently, Information Technology Toolbox (ITtoolbox.com) announced a new online community for Business Intelligence. According to the press release, "Business Intelligence (BI) is a segment of information technology that comprises software systems that enable finding, storing, organizing and supplying data. By incorporating BI technology into an information system, a company has the ability to utilize real-time analysis of information." Business Intelligence sounds great and I think it falls in the domain of the proposed SIG DSS ... but the term doesn't make much sense. How can and do technologies make a business or a manager intelligent? BI or "business intelligence" is my favorite IS/IT oxymoron. We're still struggling with the expectations of Decision Support Systems. Let's not make the problem worse by creating a SIG BI. It definitely seems preferable to discuss and study decision support and analytical information systems rather than "business intelligence". Without a doubt we have major conceptual overlap problems related to terms associated with computerized decision support, we still have too much hype and terms that sound too good to be true. The term Analytical Information System seems like an appropriate term for software that supports real-time analysis of information on today's version of Charles Babbage's "analytical engine". In general, Analytical Information System is a descriptor for a broad set of information systems that assist managers in performing analyses, based on tools like dimensional analysis (OLAP), simulation, optimization, quantitative models and statistics. There are other decision support applications that focus on collaboration, communication, knowledge and document management and information retrieval. So the proposed name of the SIG is Decision Support and Analytical Information Systems -- SIG DSS. Morris, H., "Trends in Analytic Applications", DM Review, April 2001. ************************************************************ What's New at DSSResources.COM 10/21/2001 Updated DSS Vendor List. ************************************************************ DSS News Stories 10/17/2001 Microcell Telecom prepares for growth with Ascential's Information Asset Management Solution. 10/17/2001 Edwards Theatres uses ProClarity 4.0 to analyze key performance indicators driving business efficiency. 10/17/2001 Crystal Decisions Receives Certification from Balanced Scorecard Collaborative. 10/16/2001 Business Objects launches "Knowledge Exchange". 10/16/2001 Alphablox announced Alphablox 4, an infrastructure for developing InLine Analytic solutions. 10/15/2001 Brio Software unveils initiative and strategy map to maximize business performance. 10/11/2001 3M indicator measurement system to include hospital accreditation core measures. 10/11/2001 MapInfo announced participation in OpenLS intiative. 10/11/2001 BusinessGenetics to model governmental laws and regulations for National Forest Service. 10/09/2001 SAP and Crystal Decisions integrate formatted reports and information delivery through combined OEM and reseller agreement. 10/08/2001 New version of Hyperion Performance Scorecard measures and monitors business performance beyond the bottom line. 10/08/2001 Sybase online-billing-analysis software helps communications companies improve customer service. ************************************************************ This newsletter is available online in the Subscriber Zone 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. |