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DSS for Small Businesses

A staff member at the local business magazine approached me about writing an article on decision support for managers in small businesses. I hesitantly agreed and now my deadline is approaching.

I am contemplating discussing small scale applications built using tools like MS Excel and MS Access and hosted applications like Salesforce.com. Also, in some lines of business you can find packaged applications with some decision support capabilities.

The big problem is that in 800-1000 words it is easy to overstate the need and the possibilities. My limited experience with small businesses has focused on cost estimating applications for small manufacturing companies, bid generators for catering companies, and construction cost estimators for residential.

Customer relationship management and improved data-driven forecasting are also promising applications for many small businesses.

I'll give this some additional thoughts in the new year. Comments, suggestions appreciated.

Posted January 1, 2010 7:28 AM
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Chrome and Windows 7

I am a regular user of the Chrome browser from Google and I have been reading about the Chrome OS. I have also been trying Windows 7.

I like the speed and clean look of the Chrome browser. I also like seeing my most frequently used pages when I add a browser tab.

What does the browser and operating system innovation mean for decision support?

1) expanded capabilities in the user interface. I have always liked touch screen applications.

2) more focus on computing in "the cloud" and web-based applications.

3) more emphasis on mobility and computing "anytime and anywhere"

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Posted November 24, 2009 5:06 PM
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Decision Support and Chaos Theory

Recently, I reread Jurassic Park, a 1990 science fiction novel, written by Michael Crichton. Blog readers may recall from the book or film that mathematician and chaos theorist, Ian Malcolm, forecasted the failure of the amusement park that showcased dinosaurs recreated from DNA in fossils and in mosquitoes captured in amber.

Malcolm provides a layman's explanation of chaos theory. In Wikipedia, "Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics which studies the behavior of certain dynamical systems that may be highly sensitive to initial conditions. This sensitivity is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of error, the behavior of chaotic systems appears to be random. That is, tiny differences in the starting state of the system can lead to enormous differences in the final state of the system even over fairly small timescales."

Reading Crichton again and thinking about unpredictability has lead me to ponder what chaos theory means for business forecasting. What dynamical business systems do or might behave as a chaotic system? Are production and economic systems inherently chaotic and unpredictable?

My current thinking is that long supply chains are the primary dynamical systems we need to be concerned about for computerized decision support. The current efforts to produce and distribute H1N1 vaccine suggest the unpredictability of multilevel, long time horizon supply chains. Are there other dynamical systems of interest? Perhaps mortgage lending, derivatives, risk related systems??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory

Posted November 6, 2009 1:08 PM
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Preview Decision Support Basics

The printed version of my new book, Decision Support Basics, should be available November 10, 2009 for USD $25. You can preview the front materials and first 12 pages at http://businessexpertpress.com/books/decision-support-basics .

The E-Book is available now for USD$15.

Power, D.J. Decision Support Basics, Business Expert Press, 2009.

Because of increasing complexity, rapid change and risk, managers have an obligation to shareholders to learn about and understand computerized decision support systems (DSS). Managers must know much more about information technology solutions and especially computerized decision support. This book is targeted to busy managers and MBA students who need to grasp the basics of computerized decision support. Some of the topics covered include: What is a DSS? What do managers need to know about computerized decision support? And how can managers identify opportunities to create innovative DSS? Overall the book addresses 35 fundamental questions that are relevant to understanding computerized decision support.

In a short period of time managers can "get up to speed" on decision support, analytics and business intelligence. The book then provides a quick reference to important recurring questions. The questions are arranged in a logical order from more general questions to more specific, including specialized questions of interest to managers and future managers.

Posted October 19, 2009 11:41 AM
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Goodbye SL

A few months ago I stopped participating in Second Life. I still feel the withdrawal pangs, but my first life is much better because of the change. I am exploring the open sim project for decision support projects so my interest continues in visual simulations. The fantasy and social aspects of Second Life are now gone for me and that is good. I will no longer be writing about that venue.

Posted October 11, 2009 7:39 AM
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DSSResources.com 10th Anniversary

The DSS Research Resources home page started during late summer 1995 as a way of organizing the vast amounts of information on decision support systems (DSS) found during Webcrawler and Alta Vista searches for DSS-related web sites.

From October 2, 1995 to January 1, 1997, the DSS Research Resources website transmitted more than 300,000 files to visitors in more than 50 countries. In 1997, almost 1500 files per day were transmitted from a Quarterdeck WebStar server running on an Apple Macintosh IIci at http://power.cba.uni.edu/ and from a SUN Sparc 4 workstation running Netscape Commerce server at URL http://dss.cba.uni.edu. By 1997, the DSS Research Resources home page had been transmitted to more than 12000 visitors.

The name of the site was changed to DSS Resources in Spring 1998. The domain name dssresources.com was registered at that time with InterNIC. In late 1998 and early January 1999 DSS Resources moved to a second generation design with a new logo and format. The revised DSS Resources home page was posted January 15, 1999.

My son Alex and I activated the DSSResources.COM web site on 09/28/1999.

DSSResources.com is available 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week. It serves thousands of people world-wide. Help us build and maintain this site.

Posted September 8, 2009 8:24 AM
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Next-Gen BI?

The cover story for the Aug. 31, 2009 Information Week is titled "Next-Gen BI Is Here" by Doug Henschen.

What does Doug think is next-gen BI?

more timely data and more future oriented analysis

He sees the following driving factors:

1. predictive analytics

2. stream processing technologies for real-time performance monitoring

3. in-memory apllications for faster analysis

4. software as a service (SaaS)

These technology developments will enhance operational BI. Historical data warehouses or classic BI is still needed and important. So improved technology, but not next-gen BI.

Doug is the editor of IntelligentEnterprise.com.

Posted September 3, 2009 2:56 PM
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Boiling Frogs

According to Charles Handy in The Age of Unreason, "People think they are clever at adapting to the changing world; however, people must do more than just adapt to change. They must jump out of their changing world and take charge of it if they are not to be boiled alive while they sleep."

With data warehousing we need to jump out of the relational database model. Moving normalized data to a data warehouse sets us up for failure. The data warehouse needs to be as carefully planned as the transaction database. Now is the time to stop relying on historical, normalized data from transaction databases to build a data warehouse. To stop the reliance on insufficient, convenient data, companies need to start collecting data specifically for decision support.

What do we need to know to make decisions in each decision process that is important to our firm? Ask that question, then get and store the data.

We have relied too much on convenient historical operating data. We will suffer the fate of the frog!

Posted July 8, 2009 7:28 PM
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Decision Support Basics contents

I promised to list the 35 fundamental questions related to decision support discussed in my upcoming book, Decision Support Basics .

Chapter 1: Decision support systems revisited

1. What is the need for decision support?
2. What technology skills do managers need?
3. What is the history of computerized decision support?
4. What is the theory of computerized decision support systems?
5. What is different about modern decision support systems?

Chapter 2: Decision support concepts and key terms

6. What is a decision support system?
7. Do we (still) need Executive Information Systems?
8. What is business intelligence?
9. What is operational business intelligence?
10. Are BAM and BPM decision support systems?
11. What is knowledge management?

Chapter 3: Recognizing types of decision support

12. What is decision automation?
13. What is a computer supported special study?
14. What are the different types of DSS?
15. What are basic characteristics of a decision support system?
16. What are the features of a communications-driven DSS?
17. What are the features of a data-driven DSS?
18. What are the features of a document-driven DSS?
19. What are the features of a knowledge-driven DSS?
20. What are the features of a model-driven DSS?
21. What type of DSS is it?

Chapter 4: Decision support benefits and tradeoffs

22. What are potential benefits of decision support?
23. Can DSS provide a competitive advantage?
24. Can DSS impact decision outcomes?
25. What are substitutes for computerized decision support?
26. What are possible disadvantages of building and using DSS?

Chapter 5: Identifying decision support opportunities

27. What is decision support planning?
28. What is a decision process audit?
29. Is reengineering necessary to build an effective DSS?
30. What is a decision support system feasibility study?
31. What factors influence DSS implementation risk?
32. What are tradeoffs of outsourcing enterprise-wide DSS?

Chapter 6: Looking forward to innovative DSS

33. Do you need formative or summative evaluation?
34. What are ethical issues associated with DSS?
35. Can project champions reduce resistance to a new system?

Posted May 18, 2009 11:40 AM
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Decision Support Basics

I have not been blogging recently because of a busy schedule. Yesterday, May 15, 2009, was the deadline for getting the draft of my new book to the Production Editor at Business Expert Press (http://businessexpertpress.com/). It was an intense work period, but I met the deadline and I should have corrections from the copy editor in about a month. The book titled Decision Support Basics is scheduled for September 15, 2009 publication. The book advertising page on the web is at URL http://businessexpertpress.com/node/110.

The book addresses 35 fundamental questions that are relevant to understanding computerized decision support. In an upcoming post I will list the 35 questions.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Decision support systems revisited

Chapter 2: Decision support concepts and key terms

Chapter 3: Recognizing types of decision support

Chapter 4: Decision support benefits and tradeoffs

Chapter 5: Identifying decision support opportunities

Chapter 6: Looking forward to innovative DSS

Glossary

Posted May 16, 2009 8:31 AM
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Blog: Dan Power