Decision Support Systems and Information Systems

Information systems are the interaction between the people, their processes, operations and data with technology.  We can see an explanation of Information System in this video:



Decision Support Systems or DSS are basically information systems designed to support managers in solving various management issues in order to improve the decision process at a firm level.

The process of decision making in organizations is divided in five phases: intelligence, design, choice, implementation of the decision and evaluation of the decision.

The intelligence phase refers to the managers using his own effort to search any possible relevant information of the existence of the need to make a decision. This information may come from friends, colleagues, media or expert opinions.

The design phase refers to the information on the range of alternatives available and their implications. For managers, at this point, the first thing to consider is if the system is easy to use.

The choice phase is basically when the manager chooses the best option from those designed ones in the design phase. The most important thing to have in mind in this phase is that the option chosen is the one that will solve the problem. Having made the decision, the final phases are implementation and evaluation.

 

The next video shows a very brief explanation of Decision Support Systems' flow

DSS comprise tools and techniques to help gather relevant information and analyse the options and alternatives in order to help managers make decisions.
These systems often involve the use of complex databases to create "what-if" models.

Systems for SMEs

SMEs are basically Small and Medium Size Enterprises. These ones are determined by the number of the staff and either turnover or balance sheet total of the company. According to the EU, Medium size companies are those that have up to 250 employees. On the other hand, small and micro companies have up to 50 and 10 employees respectively.

In these tough economic times, organizations are looking for effective methods to improve the efficiency and profitability of their business.

One way to improve their business efficiency is by implementing new digital technologies and systems in order to facilitate many processes within the organisation and also to gain competitive advantage.

The adoption of technological systems may be divided in three stages which are initiation, adoption, and implementation. The initiation is concerned with gathering and evaluating information about the technological innovation. The adoption is when a decision is made about adopting the technological innovation. When the decision is to go ahead with adoption, the implementation involves implementing the technological innovation in the business.

But why implementing systems in small businesses?

Systems reduce risk, improves profitability, help organizations to grow, improve the way to manage and control information and knowledge. Systems play a key role in providing information for decision making within the organization. That is why they have changed the nature of business significantly.

The areas that small companies should definitely systemize are: Accounting systems, tracking systems, customer service systems, sales marketing systems, inventory systems, general business systems, among others.

 

The implementation of the system could be on site, cloud or hybrid.

 

Cloud is an innovative solution for small business because it can help them to save costs. The information will be stored in the servers and provided on line as a service to the company in a pay as you need manner. However, it has some risks too. Like the risks of safety in the confidentiality areas and the dependency on internet to run the system and get information.