The Components of a Decision Support System

(i)Data Management Component. The data focus component performs the function of storing and maintaining the data that you want your purpose resist formation to substance abuse. The data management component, therefore, consists of both the finis reenforcement System information and the Decision Support System database management system. The information you use in your Decision Support System comes from one or more of three sources organisational information One may want to use virtually any information available in the organization for your Decision Support System. What you use, of course, depends on what you need and whether it is available.You can creation your Decision Support System to admission charge 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 organizations database and data warehouses. External information Some d ecisions require input from external sources of information. Various branches of federal government, Dow Jones, Compustat data, and the internet, to mention besides a few, can provide 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 model management component consists of both the Decision Support System models and the Decision Support System model management system. A model is a representation of some event, fact, or situation.As it is non always practical, or wise, to experiment with reality, people build models and use them for experimentation. Models can take various forms. Businesses us e models to represent variables and their relationships. For example, you would use a statistical model called abbreviation of variance to determine whether newspaper, TV, and billboard praise are equally effective in increasing sales. Decision Support Systems dish in various decision-making situations by utilizing models that allow you to study 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 change of one or more variables will take for on other variables, or optimization to find the most profitable solution given direct 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 and 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 engage the best model for you to use for a particular problem that requires your expertise but it can help you create and manipulate models quickly and easily. (iii)User Interface Management Component. The substance ab exploiter interface management component allows you to notify 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 contribute 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 no 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, allows onsider the Decision Support System that Lands End 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 gybe the right customer with the catalog, lands end has identified 20 different specialty post markets. Customers in these target markets receive catalogs of merchandise that they are likely to buy, saving Lands End the expense of move catalogs of all harvests to all 20 million customers.To squall customer demand, lands end needs to continuously observe 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 Support System stores customer and product information. In addition to this organizational informatio n, 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 forecasting 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.