The Components of a Decision Support System

(i)Data prudence Component. The data commission disassembleicle performs the function of storing and maintaining the reading that you necessitate your decisiveness ache dust to use of goods and services. The data guidance component, therefore, consists of both(prenominal) the closing deliver frame study and the close nurture corpse database management establishment. The education you use in your stopping point Support administration comes from one or more of three sources Organizational cultivation One may deficiency to use virtually any information available in the formation for your decisiveness Support administration. What you use, of course, dep halts on what you necessitate and whether it is available.You dope design your Decision Support System to access this information directly from your companys database and data warehouse. However, specific information is often copied to the Decision Support System database to save time in searching through the o rganizations database and data warehouses. External information Some decisions require input from out-of-door sources of information. Various branches of federal government, Dow Jones, Compustat data, and the internet, to mention just a few, hind closing curtain reserve additional information for the use with a Decision Support System.Personal informationYou can incorporate your own insights and experience your personal information into your Decision Support System. You can design your Decision Support System so that you enter this personal information only as needed, or you can keep the information in a personal database that is accessible by the Decision Support System. (ii)Model Management Component. The present management component consists of both the Decision Support System fashion models and the Decision Support System model management system. A model is a representation of some event, fact, or situation.As it is not always practical, or wise, to experiment with reality , people build models and use them for experimentation. Models can take motley forms. Businesses use models to represent variables and their relationships. For example, you would use a statistical model called analysis of variance to determine whether newspaper, TV, and billboard push are equally effective in increasing sales. Decision Support Systems help in various decision- devising situations by utilizing models that allow you to analyze information in many different ways.The models you use in a Decision Support System depend on the decision you are making and, consequently, the kind of analysis you require. For example, you would use what-if analysis to see what effect the deepen of one or more variables will have on otherwise variables, or optimization to find the most profitable solution give operating restrictions and limited resources. Spreadsheet software such as excel can be used as a Decision Support System for what-if analysis. The model management system stores an d maintains the Decision Support Systems models.Its function of managing models is similar to that of a database management system. The model management component can not select the best model for you to use for a particular problem that requires your expertise but it can help you puddle and manipulate models quickly and easily. (iii)User Interface Management Component. The substance abuser interface management component allows you to communicate with the Decision Support System. It consists of the user interface management system. This is the component that allows you to combine your know-how with the storage and processing capabilities of the computer.The user interface is the part of the system you see through it when enter information, commands, and models. This is the only component of the system with which you have direct contract. If you have a Decision Support System with a poorly designed user interface, if it is too rigid or too cumbersome to use, you simply wont use it n o matter what its capabilities. The best user interface uses your terminology and methods and is flexible, consistent, simple, and adaptable. For an example of the components of a Decision Support System, lets onsider the Decision Support System that Lands decision has tens of millions of names in its guest database. It sells a wide range of womens, mens, and childrens clothing, as well various household wares. To match the right customer with the catalog, lands end has identified 20 different specialty scrape markets. Customers in these target markets receive catalogs of merchandise that they are likely to buy, saving Lands End the get down of sending catalogs of all products to all 20 million customers.To predict customer demand, lands end needs to continuously monitor buying trends. And to meet that demand, lands end must accurately forecast sales levels. To accomplish theses goals, it uses a Decision Support System which performs three tasks Data management The Decision Supp ort System stores customer and product information. In addition to this organizational information, Lands End also needs external information, such as demographic information and industry and style trend information.Model management The Decision Support System has to have models to analyze the information. The models create new information that decision makers need to plan product lines and inventory levels. For example, Lands End uses a statistical model called regression analysis to determine trends in customer buying patterns and vaticination models to predict sales levels. User interface management A user interface enables Lands End decision makers to access information and to specify the models they want to use to create the information they need.