Decision Support Systems and Business Intelligence
The business environment is very changeable, and therefore it is necessary to constantly collect and analyze a large amount of data for making successful decisions in such circumstances. In this case, various tools and systems are helpful in supporting the work of managers and analysts. Decision support systems (DSS) are part of business intelligence (BI) and help companies make decisions based on available data (Olavsrud, 2020). At the same time, Sharda et al. (2018) note that DSS and BI are content-free expressions, which implies that their meaning may differ for people. Nevertheless, definitions can be presented that provide insights into these phenomena. DSS is an information system that analyzes a large amount of data from various sources to support quality solutions (Olavsrud, 2020; Sharda et al., 2018). Business analytics is an umbrella term for services, applications, and technologies for data collection, storage, and analysis (Olavsrud, 2020; Sharda et al., 2018). These systems and tools are essential for organizations operating in a business environment.
Analytics Types
The process of developing informed decisions is called analytics, and depending on its stage or level, three types are distinguished. Descriptive analytics is the first step in the process, and it involves analyzing historical data to understand the current situation, past successes, and failures. The second stage, predictive analytics, focuses on what may happen in the future, combining historical data and predictive models and algorithms. As a third phase, prescriptive analytics combines historical data and probable predictions to provide guidance on a particular solution (Sharda et al., 2018). In the latter case, the user can get several variants of events and their potential consequences. Therefore, analytics provides significant value and support in decision-making and is widely used in business.
References
Olavsrud, T. (2020). Decision support systems: Sifting data for better business decisions. CIO. Web.
Sharda, R., Delen, D., & Turban, E. (2018). Business intelligence, analytics, and data science: A managerial perspective (4th ed.). Pearson.