Computerised DSS do provide the potential for better decisions to be made and for significant increases in management productivity. The degree to which this potential can be realised depends upon culture and organisation as much as upon computer technology. Practical experience gained by Effem Management Services Ltd in the implementation of Decision Support environments across many different industry sectors illustrates the benefits and pitfalls that await organisations that adopt a 'Decision Support' environment. This paper highlights the lessons learnt from implementing DSS, notes the principal benefits and problems associated with DSS and emphasises the fact that the computer technology is but half the solution to a successful Decision Support Environment.
This paper looks at the problems of managing large retailing organisations and the implications for the design of an effective marketing information system. Six broad problems are distinguished - increasing concentration in retailing, increasing power over suppliers, fewer buying points, the proliferation of new products, profits highly sensitive to price and volume changes and great differences between shops. These define the information needs of the decision-maker. The objective is to design a system which can appropriately meet these needs. A case study is developed which shows how a comprehensive system can be applied to meeting the organisational buyer's decision needs. The model is based on a screening technique with parameters developed from past data on costs and product performance.
The implementing of an ISM in a firm is a long and complex operation as it is not only a question of the construction of technical tools, but equally and especially the insertion in the firm of a work method placing data processing at the service of marketing . It consequently insists on the close cooperation of the specialists of these systems and those individuals responsible for the marketing and data processing of the firm. We are not going to present here in detail the numerous stages of the implementing of an ISM, but limit ourselves to some essential aspects of its development; the designing or its initial schema director, its progressive validation, the sequence of different sub-systems which compose it, the experimentations to which it leads and its pedagogical role.
The implementing of an ISM in a firm is a long and complex operation as it is not only a question of the construction of technical tools, but equally and especially the insertion in the firm of a work method placing data processing at the service of marketing . It consequently insists on the close cooperation of the specialists of these systems and those individuals responsible for the marketing and data processing of the firm. We are not going to present here in detail the numerous stages of the implementing of an ISM, but limit ourselves to some essential aspects of its development; the designing or its initial schema director, its progressive validation, the sequence of different sub-systems which compose it, the experimentations to which it leads and its pedagogical role.