MIS- Module 4

Enterprise Systems
 Decision Support Systems
• A decision support system is an interactive
computer based system that serves decision
making needs of managers.
• It provides managers with the information
that enables them to make both semi-
structured and unstructured decisions.
 MIS AND DSS
• MIS fulfils the information needs of an
organization but they are not sufficient for
meeting all the needs of information and
decision making.
• In some situations where the nature of
decision is complex, the decision-makers
would require an appropriate DSS model to
support decision making.
 Major differences between MIS & DSS
• MIS deals with mostly structured problems. DSS
deals with semi-structured and unstructured
problems.
• MIS provide information to control day to day
activities.DSS provides information to analyze
specific problems.
• MIS produces reports based on routine flow of data;
the format of these reports are predefined.DSS are
interactive and provide quick responses to user
queries.
 Types of DSS
• Model based DSS-These are standalone
systems; not connected with other major
corporate information systems.
• Data Based DSS- These systems can analyze
huge amount of data from different sources
such as organizational data, data from
enterprise systems and data from the web.
 Components of DSS
A DSS is composed of 3 main components-
• DSS Database
• DSS Software System
• DSS User interface
 DSS database
• It contains data from various sources,
including internal data from the organization,
the data generated by different applications
and external data mined from the www.
 DSS software System
• It consists of various mathematical models
that are used to analyze the complex data
thereby producing the required information.
• Some of the commonly used mathematical
and statistical models are- Statistical models,
Forecasting models etc
 DSS user interface
• It is an interactive graphical interface which
makes the interaction between the DSS and its
users easier. It displays the results of the
analysis in various forms such as tables, text ,
chart or graphics.
 DSS Applications
Some of the main application areas of the
decision support system are-
• Supply Chain Management(SCM)
• Customer Relationship Management(CRM)
• Geographic Information Systems(GIS)
 Group Decision Support System
• A GDSS is an interactive computer based
system that facilitates a number of decision
makers(working together as a group) in finding
solution to the problems that are unstructured
in nature.
 Components of GDSS
A GDSS is composed of 3 main components-
• Hardware
• Software tools
• People
 Overview of a GDSS Meeting
• In a GDSS electronic meeting, each participant
is provided with a computer. The computers
are connected to each other, to the facilitators
computer and to the file server. A projection
Screen is available at the front of the room.
The facilitator and the participants both can
project digital text and images onto this
screen.
 Advantages of GDSS
• Increased participation
• Efficient group decisions
• Open meeting atmosphere
• Criticism free idea generation
• Documentation of meeting
• Improve meeting productivity
EXECUTIVE SUPPORT SYSTEM
• An executive support system(ESS) is a computer
based information system that helps in decision
making at the top-level of organization. The
decisions taken with the help of ESS are non-routine
decisions that affect the entire organization and
thus require judgment and insight. They use the
advanced graphics software to display the critical
information in form of charts or graphs that help
senior executives to solve a wide range of problems.
 Benefits of ESS
• Flexible to use
• Better Clarity
• Speed up decision making
• Enhance the quality of analysis
• Monitor performance
• Quick Action
• Decentralised decision making
EXPERT SYSTEMS
• Expert system is a computer based
information system that performs a task that
would otherwise be performed by a human
expert. It is the most common and practical
implementation of artificial intelligence. The
system is basically designed to model the
problem-solving ability of a human expert.
 It has 4 main characteristics of a human
expert
• Knowledge: It models the knowledge of human
expert, both in terms of content and structure.
• Reasoning: It consists of various procedures and
control structures, which process the knowledge
in the same way as a human expert does.
• Conclusions: The system gives conclusions, which
are consistent to the findings of a human expert.
• Explanations: System must explain the answers
similar to that of a human expert.
Components of Expert System

Knowledge acquisition facility

Knowledge base

Expert system
 Expert System

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• Knowledge Base: Knowledge base of an expert
system consists of facts about a specific
subject area. The knowledge is acquired from
the human expert, which is encoded in the
knowledge base.
• Knowledge Acquisition facility: It is not a part
of an expert system, but a set of software
tools that help in creating a knowledge base.
• Inference Engine: Inference engine extracts
information and relationship from the knowledge
base and provides expert advice to the end users.
• Explanation facility: It allows the user to
understand the concepts that how the inference
engine of the expert system has arrived to certain
conclusion or result.
• User Interface: Allows user to access Expert
system
 Applications of Expert system
• Agriculture: In the area of agriculture, expert
systems are used for providing their expertise
in various fields of agriculture like crop
management, insect control for raising the
productivity of crop.
• Chemistry: In the area of chemistry expert
systems are used for providing assistance to
the laboratory technicians and also in
interpreting test data.
• Geology: Expert Systems have been applied to
the problem of exploration.
• Space technology: Expert systems are used for
planning mission objectives and for controlling
spacecraft functions.
• Medicine: Expert System can assist a physician
in diagnosing medical problems of patients or
help in interpretation of medical test results.
 Benefits of Expert System
• It reduces the dependencies upon one expert.
• It eliminates errors and reduces
inconsistencies.
• It can give appropriate explanations to its
conclusions and decisions.
• It holds and maintains significant level of
information.
• It provides improved customer service.
 Limitations of Expert System
• They have high development cost and are
difficult to maintain.
• They are not able to make creative responses
as humans do.
• Knowledge base may contain errors that lead
to wrong decisions.
• It lacks common sense which may need in
some decision making.
 Artificial Intelligence
• Artificial Intelligence(AI) is a branch of
computer science that deals with the study
and creation of computer systems that exhibit
some form of intelligence. Intelligence can be
defined as the ability to acquire, retrieve and
use knowledge in a meaningful way.
 Research in AI has focused on the following
components of intelligence:
• Learning: It is the process of acquiring
knowledge, skills, experience or training.
• Reasoning: It refers to the ability of drawing
conclusions that are appropriate to the
situation in hand.
• Understanding: It refers to the identification of
the significance, interpretation or explanation
for certain data or information.
• Creativity: It is the ability to generate new
ideas or to conceive new perspectives on
existing ideas.
• Intuition: It is the inner knowledge without
being aware of how we know.
 Domain areas of AI
Various domain areas where AI is currently being
used include:
• Game Playing: The greatest advancements in
AI have been achieved in the field of game
playing. For example, computer chess
programs are now capable of beating humans.
In May 1997, an IBM super computer called
DEEP BLUE defeated the world chess champion
Garry Kasparov.
• Speech Recognition: Computer speech
recognition has reached a practical level.
• Computer vision: The world is composed of
3-D objects but the inputs to the human eye
and computer’s cameras are 2-D. Some useful
programs can work solely in two dimensions,
but full computer vision requires partial 3-D
information.
• Expert Systems: Some expert Systems help
doctors diagnose diseases based on patient’s
symptoms. One of the first expert systems was
MYCIN, which diagnosed bacterial infections
of the blood and suggested treatments. This
System performed better than medical
students or practising doctors.
• Neural Networks: Neural computing systems
mimic the brain through a network of highly
interconnected, processing elements.
• Robotics: In the area of robotics, computers
are now widely used in assembly plants, but
they are capable of only limited tasks.