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Chapter 1 • An Overview of Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Decision Support 37

• Encourage innovation and creativity.
• Improve customer service and relationships.
• Employ social media and mobile platforms for e-commerce and beyond.
• Move to make-to-order production and on-demand manufacturing and services.
• Use new IT to improve communication, data access (discovery of information), and
collaboration.
• Respond quickly to competitors’ actions (e.g., in pricing, promotions, new products
and services).
• Automate many tasks of white-collar employees.
• Automate certain decision processes, especially those dealing with customers.
• Improve decision making by employing analytics.
Many, if not all, of these actions require some computerized support. These and other
response actions are frequently facilitated by computerized decision support (DSS).

Closing the strategy gap One of the major objectives of computerized decision
support is to facilitate closing the gap between the current performance of an organi-
zation and its desired performance, as expressed in its mission, objectives, and goals,
and the strategy to achieve them. In order to understand why computerized support
is needed and how it is provided, especially for decision-making support, let’s look at
managerial decision making.

sectiOn 1.2 revieW QuestiOns
1. List the components of and explain the Business Pressures–Responses–Support
Model.
2. What are some of the major factors in today’s business environment?
3. What are some of the major response activities that organizations take?

1.3 managerial deCision making

Management is a process by which organizational goals are achieved by using
resources. The resources are considered inputs, and attainment of goals is viewed as
the output of the process. The degree of success of the organization and the manager
is often measured by the ratio of outputs to inputs. This ratio is an indication of the
organization’s produc tivity, which is a reflection of the organizational and managerial
performance.
The level of productivity or the success of management depends on the perfor-
mance of managerial functions, such as planning, organizing, directing, and control-
ling. To perform their functions, managers engage in a continuous process of making
decisions. Making a decision means selecting the best alternative from two or more
solutions.
the nature of managers’ Work

Mintzberg’s (2008) classic study of top managers and several replicated studies suggest
that managers perform 10 major roles that can be classified into three major categories:
interpersonal, informational, and decisional (see Table 1.2).
To perform these roles, managers need information that is delivered efficiently and
in a timely manner to personal computers (PCs) on their desktops and to mobile devices.
This information is delivered by networks, generally via Web technologies.
In addition to obtaining information necessary to better perform their roles, manag-
ers use computers directly to support and improve decision making, which is a key task

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