What is a Decision Support System(DSS)?
The term DSS was first used in the early 70s to describe an item of computer software which utilizes data and models to assist managers to solve complex problems. Most organisations today have developed large computerised management information systems (MIS). These systems process day-to-day transactions and from this data provide management with information, usually in the form of printed reports. Usually managers are unable to do anything directly with this information. Analysing the information can be a slow and tedious process requiring numerous manual calculations. A DSS allows managers to take information from a MIS and build complex business models. A DSS does not provide a definitive answer to a particular problem (that would be more the area of an expert system). Instead, by providing a modelling capability it gives managers the ability to explore new and different business scenarios and it provides new insights into business problems.
