Common types of decision-making information systems used in organisations today include: TPS (Transaction Processing Systems) and DSS (Decision Support Systems). TPS systems are generally used by analysts while DSS systems are commonly used by managers.
TPS: Is the basic business system that serves the operational level (analysts) in an organisation. The most common example of this system is an operating accounting system such as a payroll system.
DSS: Models information to support managers and business professionals during the decision-making process. (Below is an example of a DSS for flood analysis and flood plain management). Attained from: proceedings.esri.com.
Organisations can use these systems to make decisions and gain competitive advantages as the TPS can provide transactional based data to a DSS. The DSS will then summarise the given information, asssisting managers in decision making. This eases the process as it is faster and omits a higher risk of error in figures. People and organisations can now rely on these systems to keep them up to date with information, assist in making business forecasts, help with problem solving and opportunity capturing.
Refer to the following link for a further analysis of the characteristics of TPS and DSS.
http://www.angelfire.com/rebellion2/jsmith/case_2.html
2. Describe the three quantitative models typically used by decision support systems.
a) Sensitivity analysis: the study of the impact that changes in one (or more) parts of the model that impacts other parts of the model. Users change the value of one variable repeatedly and observe the resulting changes in other variables.
b) What-if analysis: checks the impact of a change in an assumption of the proposed solution. Users repeat this analysis until they understand all effects of various situations.
c) Goal seeking analysis: Finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal such as a desired level of output. Instead of observing how changes in a variable affect other variables e.g. what-if analysis and goal seeking analysis. They set a target value (goal) for a variable then repeatedly change other variables until the target value is achieved.
3. Describe a business processes and their importance to an organisation.
Business processes refer to the manner in which work is organised, coordinated and focussed to produce a valuable product or service. E.g. processing a lay-by.
HR Business Processes are crucial to an organisation as data about employees ie their skills, experience can be identified through the organisation’s online human resource information system. It makes the business run more efficiently and effectively as all the information can be located from the same area in an easy manner. This system will also contain information on such things as terminations, workplace health and safety guidelines, hiring policies, counseling, health care benefits etc.
4. Compare business process improvement and business process re-engineering.
Business process improvement: focuses on understanding and measuring the current process and making performance improvements accordingly. Below is an example of a process improvement model used by an organisation.
Attained from: http://www.all-freeware.com/images/full/59784-business_process_improvement_software_business_other.gif
This differs to business process re-engineering (BPR) which is the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises. BPR assumes that the current process is ineffective or broken and, therefore, must start again from scratch.
5. Describe the importance of business process modeling (or mapping) and business process models.
After redesigning the business process, the organisation must determine the most efficient way to begin improving the process. Business mapping is important as it allow business’ to create flowcharts of work processes showing its inputs, tasks, and activities in a structured sequence. This enables organisations to run efficiently, cutting costs externally e.g. financial experts and time.
Business process models are important as they show and describe the plans graphically so that employees can visually determine what is expected of them e.g. timeframes in which to achieve activities. A set of one or more process models details the many functions of a system or subject area with graphics and text.
The model can:
* expose process detail gradually and in a controlled manner;
* encourage conciseness and accuracy in describing the process model;
* focus attention on the process model interfaces;
* provide a powerful process analysis and consistent design vocabulary.
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