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Analysis of Online DSSs

Focus on one of the following for preparing a report about online DSSs. Your report (5-10 pages) will serve as a basis for a 15-20 minute presentation/demonstration of the selected DSS(s).

1. DSSs for Career Decisions: Computerworld, Job Smart, Career Site
2. DSS for Diet Decisions (online linear optimization)
3. DSS for Financial Decisions (American Express, Financenter, Prudential Securities)
4. DSS for Insurance Decisions (Quicken, Smartcalc)
5. DSS for Manure Management
6. DSS for Real Estate Decisions (NAR, Abele)
7. DSS for Relocation Decisions (Virtual Relocation, Movequest, Homebuyer Fair)
8. DSS for Retirement Decisions (Diversified Investment, T. Rowe Price)
9. DSS for Travel Decisions (Travelocity, Expedia, Mapquest)
10. DSS for Vehicle Decisions (Auto-by-Tel, Carpoint, Autoweb)
11. Engineering DSS
12. GIS-based Spatial DSS
13. Online Analytic Processing (Arbor beverage company demo)
14. Online Analytic Processing (Speedware papermill demo)
15. Decision Net

For each DSS, your report should cover the following:

1. What kind of managerial work is the DSS designed to support?

2. Which of Mintzberg's decisional roles does the system support?

3. Give an example(s) of a decision that the system can support.

4. Characterize the support provided.: a. What knowledge does it provide?
b. What problem(s) does it solve during decision making?
c. Which of the types of support (enumerated on page 85) does it furnish? Explain.
d. In which of the three phases of decision making would this system be used? Explain.

5. Describe the DSS's knowledge acquisition, knowledge presentation, and knowledge selection/derivation abilities.

6. Which of the potential benefits (pages 153-154) does the DSS seem to be capable of providing? Explain.

7. Which of the specialized frameworks in Chapter 6 fits the DSS? How so?