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Management Information Systems

Notes Document-Driven DSS

A new type of DSS, a Document-Driven DSS or Knowledge Management System, is evolving to
help managers retrieve and manage unstructured documents and Web pages. A Document-
Driven DSS integrates a variety of storage and processing technologies to provide complete
document retrieval and analysis. The Web provides access to large document databases including
databases of hypertext documents, images, sounds and video.

Example: Documents that would be accessed by a Document-Based DSS are policies and
procedures, product specifications, catalogs, and corporate historical documents, including
minutes of meetings, corporate records, and important correspondence.
A search engine is a powerful decision-aiding tool associated with a Document-Driven DSS.

Communications-Driven and Group DSS

Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) came first, but now a broader category of
Communications-Driven DSS or groupware can be identified. This fifth generic type of Decision
Support System includes communication, collaboration and decision support technologies that
do not fit within those DSS types identified. Therefore, we need to identify these systems as a
specific category of DSS. A Group DSS is a hybrid Decision Support System that emphasizes both
the use of communications and decision models. A Group Decision Support System is an
interactive computer-based system intended to facilitate the solution of problems by decision-
makers working together as a group. Groupware supports electronic communication, scheduling,
document sharing, and other group productivity and decision support enhancing activities We
have a number of technologies and capabilities in this category in the framework – Group DSS,
two-way interactive video, White Boards, Bulletin Boards, and Email.

Inter-Organizational or Intra-Organizational DSS

A relatively new targeted user group for DSS made possible by new technologies and the rapid
growth of the Internet is customers and suppliers. We can call DSS targeted for external users an
Inter-organizational DSS. The public Internet is creating communication links for many types of
inter-organizational systems, including DSS. An Inter-Organizational DSS provides stakeholders
with access to a company’s intranet and authority or privileges to use specific DSS capabilities.
Companies can make a Data-Driven DSS available to suppliers or a Model-Driven DSS available
to customers to design a product or choose a product. Most DSS are Intra-Organizational DSS
that are designed for use by individuals in a company as “standalone DSS” or for use by a group
of managers in a company as a Group or Enterprise-Wide DSS.

Function-Specific or General Purpose DSS

Many DSS are designed to support specific business functions or types of businesses and industries.
We can call such a Decision Support System a function-specific or industry- specific DSS.
A Function-Specific DSS like a budgeting system may be purchased from a vendor or customized
in-house using a more general-purpose development package. Vendor developed or “off-the-
shelf” DSS support functional areas of a business like marketing or finance; some DSS products
are designed to support decision tasks in a specific industry like a crew scheduling DSS for an
airline. A task-specific DSS has an important purpose in solving a routine or recurring decision
task. Function or task-specific DSS can be further classified and understood in terms of the
dominant DSS component, that is as a Model-Driven, Data-Driven or Suggestion DSS. A function
or task-specific DSS holds and derives knowledge relevant for a decision about some function

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