The development of innovative technologies gave way to the increase of different innovations that became not only really helping but extremely necessary as well. It becomes more and more convenient for people to use computer-based technologies both at the workplace and in everyday life. The main purpose of this report is to present a decision support system (DSS) or as it is usually called business intelligence (BI) with identifying its main spheres of use and the profit it brings to the modern world.
Starting with the definition of the notion, the main advantages of the system are going to be discussed in the section. DSSs are “computer-based systems used to assist and aid decision-makers in their decision-making process” (Kersten, Mikolajuk, & Yeh, 2000, p. 40). Although it is not the only definition of the notion and there are a great many other ideas on what DSS is, this definition will be considered as the main one that shows the specific nature of DSS and its main peculiarities. It is significant to know that DSS combines a number of different computerized systems that help to make decisions in business and share similar features.
First, DSS not replaces the decision, it rather supports it. Second, the DSSs were created with the understanding that a great amount of information will be necessary for making a decision. Thus, DSS involves flexible and interactive access to any necessary data. Third, DSSs are fragmented and can be applied only in this very situation to these very conditions. There is no full model applicable to an entire organization. Fourth, DSS development involves end-users. In other words, the decision-maker is to be involved in the decision-making process modeling (Curtis, & Cobham, 2005, p. 244).
Reporting about the sphere of use of DSS, it should be mentioned that there are two main fields where this system is used, management and patient care. It can be surprising, still, these both absolutely different spheres of social life equally use DSS. Considering DSS in the managerial sphere, Effy Oz (2006) insures that DSS computer-based systems can help to deal with the following problems, helping in market share increase, costs reduction, profitability increase, and product quality enhancing (p. 321). These opportunities began possible with the technologies development. The work that could take up much time and great effort is done in several seconds now. The most picturesque example is the database with thousands of cells.
The use of DSSs in patient care can be referred to in the following examples. Ghertow, G.M., Lee, J, Kuperman G.J, et al (2002) conducted research on the problem of medication dosing for inpatients with renal insufficiency. The research showed that the use of DSS is improved dose and frequency choices. Furthermore, the other research proved that the use of DSS improved the quality of antihypertensive treatment (Persson, Mjörndal, Carlberg, Bohlin, & Lindholm, 2000) and makes better the interpretation of myocardial perfusion imaging (Tägil, Bondouy, Chaborel, et al, 2008).
The use of DSSs in medicine helps do some routine work that does not require attention and people’s intrusion. At the same time, the computer-based DSSs help doctors and medical scientists develop some new methods in treatment, check the effectiveness of the method, and reduce the costs of its use. These aspects are extremely important as medicine is developing and everyday specialists try to improve the quality of health care services and at the same time reduce its costs. The innovative technologies help implement desired ideas into life and save somebody’s life if it is possible.
Moreover, DSSs can be also used in education. According to Power, D.J. (2007) DSSs are aimed to perform planning and controlling functions. These are considered to be the main tasks for decision-making in the educational system. Taking international students as an example, it can be lightened on that Universities will be able to make the decisions for planning different educational programs faster and with higher effectiveness. The controlling function will be also performed better with the relation to the fact that computer-based technologies work faster.
In addition, Simon’s decision-making model was discussed in detail by Mie Augier (2000) who insisted that Simon used four phases in his decision-making model, intelligence, design, choice, and implementation phases. These phases are logical and can easily fit any decision. First, a person thinks on something using intelligence, then the plan is designed along with the choice of the stages and the last part is the decision implementation into life with considering the results.
So, it can be concluded that DSSs are a collection of such computer-based systems that are completed in four stages, intelligence, design, choice, and implementation phases, and have some specific features common for all of them. Moreover, the DSSs can be easily implemented in different spheres of people’s life, management, education, and medicine. One of the peculiarities of DSSs is that they do not make decisions for a person, they are rather supporting the decision that was made and show the possible results after the decision is made.
References
Augier, M. (2000). Models of Herbert A. Simon. Perspectives on Science, 8(4), 407-443.
Curtis, G., & Cobham, D. (2005) Business information systems: analysis, design, and practice. London: Pearson Education.
Ghertow, G.M., Lee, J, Kuperman G.J, et al. (2002). Computer-based decision support systems can improve patient care. Kidney, 11(5), 226.
Kersten, G. E., Mikolajuk, Z., & Yeh, A. G. O. (2000). Decision support systems for sustainable development: a resource book of methods and applications. New York: Springer.
Oz, E. (2006). Management information systems. Stamford: Cengage Learning.
Persson, M., Mjörndal, T., Carlberg, B., Bohlin, J., & Lindholm, L. H. (2000). Evaluation of a computer-based decision support system for treatment of hypertension with drugs: retrospective, nonintervention testing of cost and guideline adherence. Journal of Internal Medicine, 247(1), 87-93.
Power, D.J. (2007). A Brief History of Decision Support Systems. Web.
Tägil, K., Bondouy, M., Chaborel, J. P., Djaballah, W., Franken, P. T., Grandpierre, S., Hesse, B., Lomsky, M., Marie, P. Y., Poisson, T., Edenbrandt, L. et al. (2008). A decision support system improves the interpretation of myocardial perfusion imaging. European Journal of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging, 35(9), 1602-1607.