The Model Management Subsystem Information Technology Essay

Answer: GE Real Estate’s general processes/operations: GE Real Estate, an integral part of GE Commercial Finance are globally one of the largest commercial real estate investors and lenders in the world across 20 countries and their business valued more than USD $48 billion. Although it is one of the largest commercial real estate investors and lenders from past two decades there is an enormous competition as many large, medium and minor companies entering in o the market to capture the business value. GE real estate’s is able to give their best services to their customers through speed services like loan approvals , financial support for those customers who are looking for real estate investment so that it can achieve competitive edge in the market. Initially GE Real Estate major information is stored in spread sheets and hard copy reports and this used to be difficult for GE Managers to have quick access to the information and decision making as well. The data is obtained from various different sources and they need to keep track of these information and when they need it they should be able to retrieve them very quickly. For this to happen and to have an competitive edge in the market they need support such that they are able to access the information very quickly and can analyse the information in order to figure out the risks involved by keeping track of performance of loans in a particular market. They not only store data, but also have to access very well, collect and distribute across different functional groups in the market. And this will not be possible because these are time consuming and many errors will occurs and they can’t make good analyse ,if they store the data in spread sheets and hard copy. The big disadvantages of the above processes is it is very costly, error avoidable, time consuming and due to the errors the GE Company has to provides its customers with very low interests in order to cover up the errors. Having high interests will move the customer from GE real estate to another lender having the lower interests affecting the GE’s loan-portfolio performance. In order to have the competitive edge in the market and to have best support for decision making the GE real estate’s has to adapt Decision Support Systems as one of the solution.

Business goals of GE Real Estate: Due to the entry of many large , medium and small firms in the market, GE Real Estate’s has to maintain their position in order to achieve competition edge and to remain as global business leader in capturing the business value. Michael Pralle President and Chief Executive Officer of GE Real Estate is the one who transformed GE Real Estates, a US focused firm globally had certain business goals. Prallel decide to expand the business through real estate cycles and his idea was to develop real estate which in turn will increase the population with which he can increase customers. He planned to introduce GE Real Estate’s in Mexico and Eastern Europe which doesn’t deserve GE real estate’s .This was the chance for GE real estate’s to have an focus on these countries to expand their business value and to stay ahead of their competitors. GE Real Estate’s future markets were India and china and they had an focus on this emerging market as well. They need better strategies to have a market in those countries in order to have competitive edge in the world market. To achieve all these, GE Real Estate’s needed to implement innovative decision support systems and should expand the use of World Wide Web. The systems should also be computerised to have better decisions. Implementing a Innovative DSS was necessary for GE to satisfy their customers and improve their sales, quality of service and good deals by eliminating the risks involved.

Implementing Decision Support Systems and the areas need to have improvement before implementation process:

GE Real Estate’s should have a proper understanding of market and should have a clear idea of a specific property. Managers are not able to judge whether approving a loan for any specific property would be profitable or not.

GE Real Estate’s CEO has concluded to set up date warehouse and web-reporting systems for having high accurate and reliable data as fast as can and to eliminate the errors as well

Implementing date warehouse will provide the quick access of information and can eliminate the errors and helps the managers in better decisions .

Web-based reporting system helps the managers to have an analysis It was important for GE Real Estate’s to understand market performance and exact estimation of the specific property. Managers were facing problems in analysing whether approving a loan to a specific property would be profitable or not.

The factors like Cost, Quality and Time has to be taken care of while implementing the decision support systems. These are the major problem because the final product should meet the quality requirements and excess cost has be take in to account when comparing the business value it creates.

There is also priority between the departments when automating them. There is an link between the departments say for example between financial department and accounting department. The data moves in an logical way then Prioritization should be taken care off.

As data come from different sources, integration of complex data is an important issue. This is unwanted data ,may kill time and will create problems in data warehouse.

GE Real Estate processes need to be computerised and should be supported by decision support systems

Use of computerised Decision Support System should be categorised in to two categories both primary and secondary.

Whereas Primary users includes sales and property management and risk involved. Property and sales department uses DSS to evaluate the risk involved in the proposed loans and its sales as well.

Secondary users are Finance and Marketing. They use this application to forecast the profit and to figure out the opportunities in the market.

2) GE Real Estate with a DSS [10 marks]

Describe the characteristics and capabilities of the DSS offered to GE Real Estate. The benefits brought to the company. Identify the type of the DSS for GE Real Estate. Identify the DSS functionalities that can support for 3 levels of decision problems.

Characteristics and Capabilities of the DSS offered to GE Real Estate: GE Real Estate uses the computerised DSS to speed up their business process and to have competitive edge in the market. Computerised DSS will help the decision makers at different situations as it integrate the human judgement and computerised information. Decision Support Systems support all levels ranging from higher level management to low level such as from executive to operational level. It supports both groups and individuals in decision making, for example whether a loan has to be approved or not.DSS can be used for supporting various activities of the project from planning to closure of the project by helping the managers in having better decision-making. It is user friendly and even all the people can share knowledge through the enterprise. The human-machine interface will grow the effectiveness of DSS and in having effective decision making capabilities. It can be used for modelling and analysis which is used for decision making and end users can also use it for easily manipulating and modifying the simple systems. It allows the users to access data from various databases and it can be integrated with other systems.

Benefits to GE Real Estate brought by DSS(Decision Support Systems):

Implementation of Decision Support Systems improves GE Real Estate’s productivity and efficiency thus ensuring competitive edge in the market

Has quick response toward the client request by reducing the life cycle of the processes and could retrieve the data with in less time.

Has better decision whether a loan has be considered or not and whether particular property is profitable or not

Obtains a high reliable and accurate data with error free which can be used by managers for decision making

Better strategies can be built for forecasting and controlling financial systems

Has achieved better Service level Agreement and has attained good quality and fine work for its customers.

DSS Types for GE Real Estate’s are as follows:

Data driven DSS: Data driven Decision support systems relates to the transfer of data in to information. Data for the GE company from different sources and these data has to be processed in to information which can be used for decision making.

Communication Driven and Group driven DSS:This kind of DSS helps group members to perform a tasks through computer and collaboration and communication technologies(like group ware etc). This can be used for supporting group meeting, supply chain management etc.

Model driven decision support systems:

Compound decision support systems

Knowledge driven DSS,data mining, Management Expert System application: This kind of DSS is used to have knowledge technologies like Knowledge management Systems where knowledge can be used for effective decision making.

Three levels of DSS that supports GE Real Estate are as follows:

Structured, semi structured and unstructured problems are the level of problems DSS could support GE Real Estate’s.

GE Real Estate’s should have an better understanding whether a loan for special property should be approved or not or whether the property is profitable or not by analysing properties like loan type, property location, ownership. They need to analyse the economic conditions like income, infrastructure needed, tax rates, career opportunities and macro-economic conditions like exchange rates, interest rates etc before having an decision.

We recommend Model based Decision Support Systems, an strategic model in order to support top management for strategic planning so that the GE company can have competitive advantage in the market.

GE used Tactical model used by the middle management for allocation and controlling of resources, labour requirement planning etc. In case of GE Real Estates managers had to access data manually which was time consuming so tactical model is one of the model supported managers to over come the problems.

Operational model this types of models are used for day to day activities like in GE its used for identifying the approval of personal loan.

3. You need to help the CEO of GE Real Estate’s European division for making decisions. Describe the phases for making the following decision and identify the data, models and technologies needed to support during the process.

[30 marks] “a telemarketing company in Geneva was going out of business, vacating five floors of a building on which GE holds a $US10 million note, the loan is might be at risk, what CEO should do next?”

(Hint: CEO needs to better understand the likelihood that a loan on this specific property would be profitable by analysing similar deals (by loan type, property type, location, ownership, tenant mix etc), local economic conditions

(Job growth, income growth, new construction, tax rates etc) and macro-economic conditions (interest rates,

Currency exchange rates etc). By better understanding the likelihood of profitability, they could better identify which Loan opportunities to pursue, and optimal terms and conditions for each proposed loan. )

Answer: Managers should be able to make good decision by analysing all the things related to the GE company investment project. Having good decision making is an essential skills for the project manager and manager should have the leadership skills. Good decision making is an essential skill for effective leadership particularly. Making well-considered decisions can lead to the success of the organisation and in case poor decision making leads to risk and failure of the project. Decision making can be made effectively if we follow the systematic approach which involves phases viz. Intelligence phase, Design Phase, Choice Phase, Implementation phase.

Decision made under certainty – Making decision under certainty means the decision makes known’s all the possible outcome and also know about the risk involved as well. In this case decision maker is the sole predictor of the outcomes. In this type of approach it is not mandatory to evaluate and check the outcomes of all possible actions.

Eg.”One of the fortune 500 IT Consulting company has come to GE Real Estate to ask for financing its Offshore Information Technology Park in India’s IT hub Bangalore, where CEO Michael Pralle has to take the decision whether to go ahead with the project”.

CEO Michael Pralle should have the information related to Credit History of the client, loan type. They should also take under consideration the present current Currency Exchange rate, which is particularly significant in making this decision. The local Economic Conditions of the region and government rules and regulations, policies , government regulations in this region and common infrastructural issues which are very vital. These information an very important role in taking good and efficient wise decision.

This decision uses dynamic model: Dynamic modelling is used where decision is made related to changing circumstances according to time.The example specified above even states that even if it is a fortune 500 company it is not untouched by market’s dynamic factors. These factors can be responsible for company’s profit, loss. As a financial company we should have a track of client’s performance and if it is satisfactory then only we give the disbursement. So our decision has to be overlooked every time we disburse such big amount.

Decision making under risk – This type of decision making approach is also known as stochastic or probabilistic decision making. While making decision under risk, decision maker evaluates each outcome or possibility with some probability and the combining probability of outcomes from one alternative action is known as degree of risk involved in choosing that course of action. On this basis Risk analysis is performed.

Eg.”Major IT Company has proposed to setup 7-Star IT Campus in one of the 2-tier or 3-tier cities of India, where no other company has entered in this city”

In order to take efficient decision CEO has to consider local culture, local economic conditions like tax rates, people’s income groups. In this case it is very vital to analyse these local economic conditions. He has to consider local government’s regulations as well as the accessibility to the location. Being available with these inputs CEO can take wise decision.

This decision also involves dynamic modelling. Here also whenever the disbursement has to be paid to the client company, GE Real Estate Company has to study company financials. If the company financials are satisfactory then only we pay the amount.

Decision making under uncertainty – In the situation of uncertainty several outcomes could be possible or predicting the outcome or predicting the probability of the outcomes is not possible. This gives rise to the situation where decision has to be taken under uncertainty. Most managers try to avoid this situation of uncertainty.

Eg.”GE Real Estate had financed Power Plant of Energy Company, but due to some un-forecasted reasons the power produced from the particular plant was expensive than other sources and the energy company has announced itself bankrupt, CEO has to take decision whether to sell the property or hold”.

To understand the problem & current scenario, the CEO has to go through various factors & analyse them to a wise decision. This is the situation of most uncertain environment where in factors like judicial decisions, Government regulations have to be considered & analysed. In this particular decision company’s name is also on stake. So the CEO has to take the decision which will not hamper company’s public reputation. Although taking a perfect decision in this situation is next to impossible, CEO can make sure to consider all above data.

This decision involves static modelling. Once the company has taken the decision to sell or hold that property, company does not have to reconsider the decision for the fix period. No dynamic factors will pressurise the company to take up this issue. Also once the decision of selling the property is taken it cannot be rolled back. However, situations might appear where company has to sell the property in future on demand.

Technologies: Taking all above decisions was impossible without having proper technology in place. Data warehouse was one of the key technologies. Sensitivity analysis used to calculate the risks. Oracle database, Informatics for ETL, ASP and ASP.Net for front end, and Cognos for reports was used. Design of the system includes tables from the source systems, an ODS (Operational Data Store) for normalizing raw data to reduce redundancy.

4) You are required to design a DSS to support GE Real Estate for making decisions. Currently there is DSS used for GE Real Estate. You can design your own DSS based on your justification and knowledge. [35 marks]

• Identifying the subsystems of the DSS for GE Real Estate (Ref. chap 3). You must describe the detailed content of each component. You need to indicate the required functions that each subsystem can provide.

• You need to identify the data and information required by the DSS. Identify the key issues and challenge

related to the data quality, consistency and integration etc for the data warehouse.

• Suggestions on what models and tools will be used for analysis, forecast and supporting of the decision making processes

• Identify users of the DSS.

• Exam user interface design issues and discuss User Interface styles and factors to be considered in DSS user interface design.

• Stating your designed system could be individual, multi-individual, or group DSS. Identifying any groupware will be required in the DSS if the DSS is a group decision support system

Computers are using today everywhere in the world for storing, interpreting, retrieving the data etc.They are used at every corner of the world. Traditionally computers are used in payroll, book keeping functions etc. They are used to complex managerial issues like designing, management and business acquisitions etc .In other words computer applications has undertaken the activities of problem analysis, solution application through high-speed, networked information systems to provide support for management persons in making decisions.

Decision Support System for GE Real Estate case study, is the best strategy for having an competitive edge in the market. Due to the DSS, the company has been able to provide most efficient services to its customers and is able to survive in the long run by capturing the business value.

Quick delivery of quotes and approvals to its customers to maximise the deals per year.

Having control and track over the company’s portfolio, and to determine the performance of financial and economic status of the borrowers and tenants.

Helps Managers to make quick and better decisions by analysing the data and to eliminate the risks and to save millions of dollars.

Data comes into organisation through several sources and using this computerised DSS, we can reduce the errors which can mitigate the risks involved.

By studying local economic conditions , macro economic and analysing the understandings of profitability ,similar deals ,the GE company managers can make very efficient decision whether the loan can be approved and profitable or not.

To understand, establish and expand business portfolio to underserved & emerging countries like Eastern Europe & India & China respectively.

To help its executives & employee to become more productive, effective by providing agility support, to help overcome the cognitive limits.

The following were taken in to consideration while designing DSS for GE Real Estate in providing innovative computerised decision .

The Model Management Subsystem

The User Interface Subsystem

The Model Management Subsystem:

The Model Management Subsystem has following elements.

Model base

Model Base management System

Modelling language

Model directory

Model Execution, Integration & Command Processor

How GE Real Estate uses the above subsystems are described below.

Model Base:

Model base of DSS is to invoke, run, change, combine & inspect statistical, financial, forecasting management & quantitative models .These models can be categorized into Strategic, Tactical, Operational & Analytical type. The model base also has model building blocks.

Strategic model:

Strategic models are used to support high level management like executives for strategic planning. The applications of this model include

Selecting Plant Location

E – Commerce venture decision

Developing corporate objectives

Merger & acquisitions planning

Environmental impact analysis

Adhoc – budget creation

Property Investment locations has been affected by local economy, government rules and regulations, policies ,political , geographic conditions etc. Using this strategic model, it is able for GE company to forecast the above impact on investment location and its impact on business

Tactical Models

Tactical Models usually use internal data rather than external data of an organisation and these models are mainly used by middle managers for organisational resources. These models are used in areas like accounting, production, marketing etc.Tactical Models are used for Web browser selection, Sales promotion, Plant layout determination, Labour requirement planning and Routine budgeting

GE Real Estate use tactical models in making sales decision, and also help in marketing decision etc.

Operational Model:

Operational Model is used for daily activities that is organisation every day activities. These models are used to support first line managers for making decision making in activities like

E-Commerce transactions

Personal loan approvals

Production scheduling

Inventory control

Maintenance planning

Quality Control

In GE we use this model for daily commercial business transactions between company and its customers, employees, vendors, contractors etc.

Analytical Model:

Data Analysis can be done by using these models. These models include Statistical models, Management Science Models, Data Mining algorithms, Financial Models etc.They integrate with other models such as strategic models sometimes. The business analytical foundation encompasses these analytical models. The business tools are web based hence web analytics. Analytical models are applied for administration monitoring of e- commerce.

functional areas such as finance model, production model etc (or) by discipline such as statistical models, management models can classify model base. These models are basically mathematical base which can be pre programmed using DSS tools such as Excel

Apart form strategic, tactical & operational models, model base have model building blocks. Some of these blocks are used to determine the values of variables & parameters in a model as in the use of regression analysis to create trend lines in a forecasting model.

Model Base Management System

Model base management system can interrelate models with appropriate linkages through a database. it has four main functions.

Model creation, using programming languages, DSS tools & other building blocks

New routines and report generation

Model updating & changing

Model data manipulation

Model Directory:

Model Directory contains many models like database in the model base.It also contains model definition and its function is to answer queries regarding the availability and capability of models

Model execution, Integration & Command

Model execution is the process of controlling the actual running of the model.

Model Integration involves combining the operations of several models when required

Model command process is used to accept & interpret modelling instruction from the user Interface component & route them to MBMS, model execution or integration unctions

Functions

The major functions of Model Base Management Subsystem are

It allows the users to manipulate models to conduct experiments & sensitivity analysis required for GE to analyse the loan profitability in a current situation & alternate scenarios

It enables the use of models by GE’s global spread executives by providing catalogue & directories.

It enables usage of multiple models in tasks like

Analysing similar deals, local economic conditions & macro economic conditions for understanding the profitability of a loan in specific property.

To keep track on the performance of the properties in timely manner (operational Model)

In risk analysis to gain critical competitive advantage in emerging new markets (strategic & operational maodel0

To identify potential marketing areas for opportunities

To help manage the operation throughout its branches (Operational Model)

The User Interface Subsystem

User Interface subsystem links all aspects of communication between a user and the DSS or any MSS. It includes not only hardware & software but also factors that are ease of use, accessibility & human machine interaction.

The User Interface Subsystem is managed by software called User Interface Management System (UIMS).The UIMS is also known as dialog generation and management system.

Process

In the user interface process the user interacts with the computer by an action languages processed by the UIMS. It enables the user to interact with the model management and data management subsystems. The access is provided through web browser (web browser technology).Web browser provides a portal or dashboard to access the system. A customised user interface also used which is typically a GUI but appears to the user as a web browser.

In advanced systems the user interface components include a natural language processor or standard objects (eg. Pull down menu, button) through GUI.

In GE Real Estate where customer interaction is face to face type, the user interface (web browser) enabled a great boost to that by its user friendliness. A GE employee can at any location easily access accurate information reg a customer loan repayment details and can also answer a customer query quicker. This in fact reduced transaction cycle time by 65% in GE.

Functions

The major functions of User Interface Subsystem are

The user interface used in GE Real Estate case allow its employee spread across it branches to drill down the data to find the results

It helps to communicate with others reg the interpretation of results

Allows collaboration & Implementation of the solution generated by DSS models

Portals & dashboards which has capability to access data & methods to solve problems help GE employee & management executives to access information & business process in a comfortable format & help in collaboration & faster decision making.

Data and information required by DSS

The data and information required by DSS in GE Real Estate to provide decision support are

1. Data relating to deals executed by GE or Competitor in the past to analyse a take a decision on a loan proposal.

2. Information & data reg population density, customer income capacity, local economy (Micro & Macro), legal system, current regulations of a place or country where GE plans to setup a branch or where already established.

3. Information reg daily commercial transaction & activities of the GE offices.

4. Property income return data, tenant payment data 7 information reg the tenant etc.

Key issues & challenges related to Data quality, Consistency, Integeration for DW

The Data warehouse issues are caused by data warehouses. Here we discuss the challenges regarding data quality, Consistency & Integration.

Issues of Data Quality

A major issue in data warehouse management is data quality. Decision makers get the information from these data warehouse for making a decision on a particular thing. The quality of data will relate to the data we get in to the data warehouse. If the data is not good enough then it leads to poor information quality which ultimately goes waste. Since the data can’t be trusted, analysis can’t be done using them. The process will go in wrong direction as the data quality is poor .

Challenges

Middleware can be used to scan the documents 7 identify the problems & apply solution.

Data Integration Issues

Data come from different disparate sources in to the organisation .As these information is gathered from different sources and integrated in to data warehouse so that everyone has to use the same version of data throughout the organisation.

Integration issues become critical when implementing DSS, CRM, migrating to a system, integrating content into a content management system.

Challenges

Enterprises Information integration products can be used for integration of the data and Information.

Middle ware can be used to scan the documents & identify the problems & apply solution

Consistency Issues

The data loaded or transferred into the data warehouse by merging or integration of two types of data (like in two formats “Access tables & Excel tables”) would lead to corrupt or loss of data.

Security issues also play an important part in the consistency of data warehouse.

Challenges

Enterprise integration products can be used to integrate two formats type data and make the data type consistent.

Unauthorized access to the data ware house can be avoided by security measures like ID and password protection , giving access to specific data to specific authority level & encrypting the data to make it scrambled and unintelligible in the event of unauthorised access.

Models & Tools

Models and tools used for Analysis, Forecast, and Support in GE are

Analysis

Optimization model via algorithm is used for analysis purpose. It is used for GE’s business investment decision in new countries & markets for which numerous alternatives reg government regulations, politics, similar deals executed locally by competitors, economic conditions, customer trend etc has to be considered.

Linear & mathematical programming networks tools are used for this purpose.

Forecasting

Predictive models are used in GE to predict the profitability of a loan at different scenarios.

Forecasting models are used for this purpose.

Support

To support in decision making & to get best out of the above said model outputs heuristic

models are used .This is an informal judgement knowledge model that constitute the rules of

good judgement

Expert system is used as the tool for this model.

USERS OF DSS

The Users at GE Real estate are

Name Designation Dept

1) Mr. Michael Pralle President & CEO Management

2) Mr. Hank Zupnick CIO Management

3) Employee Executive Risk Management

4) Employee Executive Marketing & sales

5) Employee Executive Property Management

6) Employee Executive Finance

7) Employee Executive Customer Relations

USER INTEFACE ISSUES:

While designing the DSS for GE Real Estate , the user interface issues related to that implementation are display, security, memory and communication.

Display

Several strategies were used to reduce scrolling, use a single-tap entry method, using a dynamic user interface.

Security

Several Multiple-level security methods such as login and password, secure Web server, encrypted data transfer(Encryption), Secure ID and audit logs are used to increase the security levels.

Memory.

Use of the additional memory, a memory-efficient data structure, and standard vocabularies are used to avoid task of reconciling different content definitions.

Communication.

Use of Low bandwidth, the low reliability of both telephonic and wireless communication in some environments, Use of a new device and development of new technology were used as solutions.

User interface styles & factors

The User Interface is a subsystem of DSS and it is managed by software called User Interface Management System (UIMS).It is also known as Dialog Generation & Management System.

The styles and factors of this system considered in GE Real Estate summarised below.

Web based UI

Since the GE’s business environment requirement and CIO’s preference is for web based reporting, web browser technology is used for DSS access here. The access to the data, Information & knowledge is provided through web browser. It provides a portal or dash board to access the system. Even if it is customised it appears to behave as if it is a web browser. The users just need to enter the data & run the DSS to get the results for further collaboration and implementation of the solutions. It is particularly useful whenever multiple users may be interacting with a service. Most Web browsers now support rich UI including forms, images, audio, video, scripting, style sheets, etc

Dash board & Portals

Since the web browsers are an important user access path for DSS & data, major vendors provide portals or dash boards with capabilities to access data and methods to solve problem. This makes the user to access the information and business process in a comfortable format, leading to collaboration and faster decision making. (e.g.IBM’s e-commerce & SCM applications).

Audio Based UI

Apart from these a variety of portals have been available including notebook &b tablet PC’s, PDA, Pocket PC’s & cell phones. Many of these include technology to tap directly into the Web.

Some portals with voice recognition software is used. Verbal instructions with accompanied actions and outputs can be extracted. These devices can be incorporated into the portable devices given above. Audio based UI is a Text-to-Speech (TTS) interface allows to write a service that interacts with the Microsoft Speech API (SAPI) by converting text input to speech output

Identification of designed system (Individual or multi-individual or group DSS)

The designed system for GE Real Estate is a group DSS where the decision are arrived by Input & analysis by group of people ranging from field executives to top management at diierent locations .

The group ware involved in GE Real Estate are Blogs, E-mail, Chat tools, Intranet etc which enable them to have real time analysis & decisions round the branches across the globe.

Question5. Specifying the technologies and hardware for supporting such type of DSS. [5 Marks]

Give the analysis on the hardware and software selection. Identify the software platform of the DSS for GE Real Estate. Choose the method of obtaining a DSS. You also can search from the Web for some appropriate real life vendors/software tools that may be used for integrating the DSS. This will be reflected by your prototype well.

Answer:

Analysis on the Hardware & Software selection

GE Real Estate needs very efficient and well developed hardware and software infrastructure is needed to support its business for excellent decision making and to have an competitive advantage globally, geographically as well as financially. Vendors are chosen so that they should support the GE’S Decision Support Systems over the time. The advantage of hardware infrastructure is that it can be chosen before, during or after the design of MSS software and this software runs only on good standard infrastructure.

Hardware infrastructure mostly include GE’s own servers,mainframe computers ,database management systems, Client-server architecture. The only decision support systems that runs on various types of networks like internet, intranet, extranet etc is Distributed DSS .

The software platform for DSS

.NET for front end solution

For reports they use Cognos

The operating system used is Unix based for having more security

The database used is Oracle for having integration with Decision Support

Extraction-Transform-Load , ASP for informatics etc

Business Transaction Systems and Operational Data Store is used to normalise the data, and a star scheme , which takes data from Hierarchical Database. DSS provides a complete Transport historical database specifically designed to provide decision support in the areas of vendor contractor, subcontractor and market analysis. 

The key roles or people responsible for the DSS development can be made up of team of 20 people, including a core of 8 employees and contractors and consultants primarily freelancers. In-house work included project management, design and high-level development; contractors and consultants were focused on routine development, Quality Analysis and testing.

Question6. Provide a prototype of the DSS, it must show the interfaces of component data & models or optional components in the system. It should match with the architecture you have designed in item 3. It should provide corresponding information for the decision makers (you don’t need real data/ information, each interface in the prototype can just describe what information/function can provide). Instructions on how to use the system (prototype) and what it can do. [10 Marks]

Answer: Prototype is enclosed.