Test Powerpoint

1. Supporting Decision Making
Chapter
10
McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. 10-2
• Identify the changes taking place in the
form
and use of decision support in business
• Identify the role and reporting alternatives
of management information systems
• Describe how online analytical
processing
can meet key information needs of
managers
• Explain the decision support system
concept
and how it differs from traditional
Learning Objectives

3. 10-3
• Explain how the following information
systems can support the information needs
of executives, managers, and business
professionals
– Executive information systems
– Enterprise information portals
– Knowledge management systems
• Identify how neural networks, fuzzy logic,
genetic algorithms, virtual reality, and
intelligent agents can be used in business
Learning Objectives

4. 10-4
• Give examples of several ways expert
systems can be used in business decision-
making situations
Learning Objectives

5. 10-5
Decision Structure
• Structured (operational)
– Procedures can be specified in advance
• Unstructured (strategic)
– Not possible to specify procedures in advance
• Semi-structured (tactical)
– Decision procedures can be pre-specified,
but not enough to lead to the correct decision

6. 10-6
Data Mining
• Provides decision support through
knowledge discovery
– Analyzes vast stores of historical business data
– Looks for patterns, trends, and correlations
– Goal is to improve business performance
• Types of analysis
– Regression
– Decision tree
– Neural network
– Cluster detection
– Market basket analysis

7. 10-7
Market Basket Analysis
• One of the most common uses for data
mining
– Determines what products customers purchase
together with other products
• Other uses
– Cross Selling
– Product Placement
– Affinity Promotion
– Survey Analysis
– Fraud Detection
– Analyze Customer Behavior

8. 10-8
Executive Information Systems (EIS)
• Combines many features of MIS and
DSS
• Provides immediate and easy
information
• Identifies critical success factors
• Features
– Customizable graphical user interfaces
– Exception reports
– Trend analysis
– Drill down capability

9. 10-9
Benefits of Expert Systems
• Captures human experience in a
computer-based information system
Limitations of Expert Systems
• Limited focus
• Inability to learn
• Maintenance problems
• Development cost
• Can only solve specific types of problems
in a limited domain of knowledge

10. 10-10
Knowledge Engineering
• A knowledge engineer
– Works with experts to capture the knowledge
they possess
• Facts and rules of thumb
– Builds the knowledge base
• if necessary, the rest of the expert system
– Similar role to systems analysts
10-10

11. 10-11
Neural Networks
• Modeled after the brain’s mesh-like network
of interconnected processing elements
(neurons)
– Interconnected processors operate in parallel
and interact with each other
– Allows the network to learn from the data it
processes

12. 10-12
Genetic Algorithms
• Genetic algorithm software
– Uses Darwinian, randomizing, and other
mathematical functions
– Simulates an evolutionary process, yielding
increasingly better solutions to a problem
– Used to model a variety of scientific, technical, and
business processes
– Useful when thousands of solutions are possible

13. 10-13
Virtual Reality (VR)
• Virtual reality is a computer-simulated reality
– Fast-growing area of artificial intelligence
– Originated from efforts to build natural, realistic,
multi-sensory human-computer interfaces
– Relies on multi-sensory input/output devices
– Creates a three-dimensional world through
sight, sound, and touch
• Telepresence
– Using VR to perform a task in a different location

14. 10-14
Intelligent Agents
• Software surrogate for an end user or a
process that fulfills a stated need or activity
– Uses built-in and learned knowledge base to
accomplish tasks
• Software robots or bots

15. 10-15
Types of Intelligent Agents
• User Interface Agents
– Interface Tutors
– Presentation Agents
– Network Navigation Agents
– Role-Playing Agents
• Information Management Agents
– Search Agents
– Information Brokers
– Information Filters