from DSSResources.com

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                          DSS News
                    D. J. Power, Editor
               July 21, 2002 -- Vol. 3, No. 15
         A Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM

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      Check the Anderson Clayton case by Eric Vollmer
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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

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Get information about Dan Power's new book, Decision Support 
Systems: Concepts and Resources for Managers, at 
http://www.dssresources.com/dssbookstore/power02.html .

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DSS News is sent to more than 850 subscribers from 50 
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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.

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      Check the article by Giannopoulou and Lawrence
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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.

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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.

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      Check the DSS mini-track at AMCIS in Dallas. For 
     information visit http://hsb.baylor.edu/AMCIS2002/
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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/.

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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™.

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