************************************************************ DSS News D. J. Power, Editor July 21, 2002 -- Vol. 3, No. 15 A Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM ************************************************************ Check the Anderson Clayton case by Eric Vollmer ************************************************************ Featured: * DSS Wisdom * Ask Dan! - How does a document management system differ from a document-driven DSS? * Report from IFIP Working Group 8.3 on DSS * What's New at DSSResources.COM * DSS News Releases ************************************************************ Get information about Dan Power's new book, Decision Support Systems: Concepts and Resources for Managers, at http://www.dssresources.com/dssbookstore/power02.html . ************************************************************ DSS News is sent to more than 850 subscribers from 50 countries. Please forward this newsletter to people interested in Decision Support Systems or suggest they subscribe. ************************************************************ DSS Wisdom Vannevar Bush (1945) in an article titled "As We May Think" wrote "Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and to coin one at random, "memex" will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory. ...... Presumably man's spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems. He has built a civilization so complex that he needs to mechanize his record more fully if he is to push his experiment to its logical conclusion and not merely become bogged down part way there by overtaxing his limited memory. His excursion may be more enjoyable if he can reacquire the privilege of forgetting the manifold things he does not need to have immediately at hand, with some assurance that he can find them again if they prove important." from Bush, V. "As We May Think", The Atlantic Monthly, July 1945, Vol. 176, No. 1; pp. 101-108, http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm. ************************************************************ Check the article by Giannopoulou and Lawrence ************************************************************ Ask Dan! by Daniel J. Power How does a document management system differ from a document-driven DSS? Vanevar Bush's 1945 vision of a memex that stores everything one has seen and read for fast retrieval is the goal for document management systems. Such systems may be personal, group or organization-wide document and knowledge bases. In my framework paper (Power, 2001), Document-driven DSS are defined as integrating "a variety of storage and processing technologies to provide complete document retrieval and analysis." A number of terms and acronyms are used in this area. Text management, document management (DMS) and electronic document management system (EDMS) are virtually synonymous terms. Text-oriented DSS and Document-driven DSS are also interchangeable terms. Swanson and Culnan (1978) in a classic paper argued "An information system may be said to be a document-based system when it is based primarily upon a store or collection of documents, rather than a store or collection of structured data" (p. 32). Two pioneers in the DSS field, Clyde Holsapple and Andrew Whinston (1996), noted the importance of text management and text-oriented DSS. They wrote "In the 1970s and especially in the 1980s, text management emerged as an important, widely used computerized means for representing and processing pieces of text. (p. 179)" Holsapple and Whinston (1996) provide the following example to illustrate how text-oriented or Document-driven DSS can help decision makers. "Imagine that you are a product manager, concerned with ensuring the success of a technically complex product. A number of the many decisions you face involve deciding about what features the product should have. Such decisions depend on many pieces of knowledge. ... During the course of each week, you get an assortment of product ideas that deserve to be checked out when you get the time -- if only you could remember all of them. With a text-oriented DSS, you keep electronic notes about the ideas as they arise, which consists of typing in the text ... (p. 180-181)" With a document-driven DSS, managers may want to read and review the "official" minutes of a meeting or may want to examine the version history of the company's policy on email privacy ... a manager may also want to examine all documents stored about email privacy in the document management system ... or she may want to know who authored documents on email privacy in the system. Another manager may want to determine how often the policy on email privacy has been accessed. Also, another manager may want to examine what policies are rarely accessed and which ones are frequently accessed. A document-driven DSS should support all of these queries. According to James Boyle in a BYTE article "A Blueprint for Managing Documents" (1997), "The document repository, the soul of an EDMS, stores, controls, and manages documents. Key repository functions include library services (e.g., controlling access to individual documents, document cataloging, check-in/check-out, and searching for and retrieving documents). Another key function is version control, including a history of all instances of a document as it changes over time." Multiple versions of a document often exist and in many situations one needs to track versions of a document created by different authors in different locations. A document management system should require and then attach metadata to assist users in document identification, retrieval, and analysis. Two major vendors of document management systems are Documentum (http://www.documentum.com) and Verity (http://www.verity.com). A visit to their web sites will help clarify the purpose, capabilities and limitations of current DMS. In general, document management systems are document transaction processing systems. A DMS provides a standardized, uniform and systematic storage of documents and data about the documents, it allows people to share documents and collaborate in editing a specific document. A DMS usually provides keyword tagging, search capabilities and document version control. Also, a DMS may provide both e-mail and Web access to documents (cf., Sullivan, 2001). A document management system processes, retrieves and stores the documents that are then analyzed, categorized and selectively displayed by a document-driven DSS to support decision making. Please note: Two related questions are answered in the Ask Dan! columns of May 20, 2001 and July 01, 2001. References Boyle, J., "A Blueprint for Managing Documents," BYTE, May 1997, http://www.byte.com/art/9705/sec7/art1.htm Bush, V. "As We May Think", The Atlantic Monthly, July 1945, Vol. 176, No. 1; pp. 101-108, http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm. Fedorowicz, J. "A Technology Infrastructure for Document-Based Decision Support Systems", in Sprague, R. and H. J. Watson, Decision Support Systems: Putting Theory into Practice (Third Edition), Prentice-Hall, 1993, pp. 125-136. Holsapple, C.W. and A. B. Whinston. Decision Support Systems: A Knowledge-based Approach, Minneapolis, MN: West Publishing Co., 1996. Power, D. J. "What are the similarities and differences between Data-Driven and Document-Driven DSS?", DSS News, Vol. 2, No. 11, 05/20/2001. Power, D. J. "What is the difference between knowledge management and decision support?", DSS News, Vol. 2, No. 14, 07/01/2001. Power, D. J., "Supporting Decision-Makers: An Expanded Framework", Informing Science eBook, June 2001. Sullivan, Dan. Document Warehousing and Text Mining. New York: Wiley Computer Publishing, 2001. Swanson, E. B., and M. J. Culnan, "Document-Based Systems for Management Planning and Control: A Classification, Survey, and Assessment," MIS Quarterly, December 1978. ************************************************************ Report from IFIP Working Group 8.3 on Decision Support Systems by Andrew M McCosh {A.McCosh@ed.ac.uk} Chairman of WG 8.3, 2000-2004 Our most recent conference was in Cork, Ireland, early this month, and was on the theme of Decision Support in the Internet Age. George Huber, Tung Bui, and Robin Mansell provided excellent keynotes. Just over a hundred came to Cork to read papers and to hear others. A good time was had by all, where good might mean informative, productive, enjoyable, or all three. The organisational team of Jean-Charles Pomerol, Patrick Brezillon, Patrick Humphreys, and Frederic Adams did a great job. We decided that our next meeting will be in the summer of 2004 in Prado, near Florence, Italy. The exact theme is being worked on by the programme committee, but it is likely to be a shorter and snappier version of "Smart, integrated, on-the-spot Dss for coping with an uncertain and complex world". Graeme Shanks of Melbourne, David Arnott of Florence, Sven Carlsson of Jonkoping and George Widmeyer of Michigan will be in the lead this time We decided to set up a number of task groups, and the group would welcome those who would like to contribute to the work and to enjoy the benefits of creating new knowledge collectively. The groups are about [1] case studies of decision making (good and bad), [2] knowledge management, [3] ethical issues, [4] DSS aspects of mobile information systems, and a co-operative task group jointly with the Euro working group on OR-based DSS. If this is of interest, send an email and I will forward you to the task group leader. The group officers are now Andrew M McCosh, Chairman. Patrick Humpreys and Sven Carlsson, vice-chairmen, and Zita Paprika, secretary. I invite you to take part in the activities of the working group if you are interested. Thank you for your attention. I hope to see you in Florence, and very best wishes for a good summer. ************************************************************ Check the DSS mini-track at AMCIS in Dallas. For information visit http://hsb.baylor.edu/AMCIS2002/ ************************************************************ What's New at DSSResources.COM 07/19/2002 Posted article by Giannopoulou, L., and G. Lawrence, "The Scales of Justice and the Balance of Probabilities", DSSResources.COM, 07/19/2002, URL http://dssresources.com/papers/dssarticles.html. 07/12/2002 Posted case by Vollmer, E., "Anderson Clayton Corp. Delivers Real-Time Business Intelligence to U.S. Cotton Growers", Anderson Clayton Corp., May 2002, URL DSSResources.COM/cases/. ************************************************************ DSS News Releases - July 7, 2002 to July 21, 2002 Complete news releases can be found at DSSResources.COM. 07/19/2002 CALL FOR CHAPTERS: Business Intelligence in the Digital Economy. 07/18/2002 Dash Optimization announces Xpress-MP 2003. 07/18/2002 City of Winnipeg uses Intergraph's GeoMedia Technology to implement Water and Wastewater Geospatial Infrastructure Management System. 07/16/2002 Motorola Instant Messaging Client passes first Wireless Village interoperability testing event. 07/16/2002 Leading Turkish retailer Migros Turk successfully modernizes its supply chain operation. 07/16/2002 Optiant named to Start Magazine's 'Hottest Companies of 2002' list for Manufacturing Technology Leadership. 07/15/2002 MasterCard provides unique support to leading travel expense management solutions. 07/12/2002 National Science Foundation awards $5 million grant to Silicon Valley's American Institute of Mathematics. 07/11/2002 New version of IXOS-eCONserver for Lotus Notes offers simplified administration and improved e-mail management, adds mobile user ability. 07/10/2002 Oracle CEO Larry Ellison debuted new collaboration suite with calendar, conferencing, email, file system, voicemail and workflow support. 07/10/2002 Intergraph announces release of GeoMedia Transaction Manager 5.0. 07/10/2002 Statability and Databeacon offer ad-hoc reporting and analysis capabilities to global hospitality industry. 07/09/2002 Crystal Decisions introduces Crystal Analysis Professional 8.5. 07/09/2002 ACNielsen expands Category Business Planner sales reach through Crossmark Alliance. 07/08/2002 American Red Cross selects Comshare® corporate performance management software to drive strategic initiatives. 07/08/2002 Compaq Japan to resell Sagent’s ETL software; offers rapid data warehouse development and optimized performance. 07/08/2002 Leading data mining and analytic software companies work with Business Objects to develop enterprise analytic applications. 07/08/2002 BEA delivers industry's first unified portal platform; WebLogic Portal 7.0 features native support for Web services. 07/08/2002 SAS and ESRI team up to deliver spatial intelligence; form technology, sales, and marketing alliance. 07/08/2002 Ace Hardware selects MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform™. ************************************************************ You can read 786 DSS News releases in the Subscriber Zone at DSSResources.COM. ************************************************************ DSS News is copyrighted (c) 2002 by D. J. Power. Please send your questions to daniel.power@dssresources.com. You have previously subscribed to the DSS News Mailing List. |