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98 Part I • Decision Making and Analytics: An Overview

Application Case 2.3

SNAP DSS Helps OneNet Make Telecommunications Rate Decisions
Telecommunications network services to educational and future developments; and leverage of the shared
institutions and government entities are typically infrastructure to enable further economic develop-
provided by a mix of private and public organiza- ment and collaborative work across the state that
tions. Many states in the United States have one or leads to innovative uses of OneNet.
more state agencies that are responsible for providing These considerations led to the development of
network services to schools, colleges, and other state a spreadsheet-based model. The system, SNAP-DSS,
agencies. One example of such an agency is OneNet or Service Network Application and Pricing (SNAP)-
in Oklahoma. OneNet is a division of the Oklahoma based DSS, was developed in Microsoft Excel 2007
State Regents for Higher Education and operated in and used the VBA programming language.
cooperation with the Office of State Finance. The SNAP-DSS offers OneNet the ability to select
Usually agencies such as OneNet operate as the rate card options that best fit the preferred pric-
an enterprise-type fund. They must recover their ing strategies by providing a real-time, user-friendly,
costs through billing their clients and/or by justifying graphical user interface (GUI). In addition, the SNAP-
appropriations directly from the state legislatures. DSS not only illustrates the influence of the changes in
This cost recovery should occur through a pricing the pricing factors on each rate card option, but also
mechanism that is efficient, simple to implement, allows the user to analyze various rate card options
and equitable. This pricing model typically needs to in different scenarios using different parameters. This
recognize many factors: convergence of voice, data, model has been used by OneNet financial planners to
and video traffic on the same infrastructure; diver- gain insights into their customers and analyze many
sity of user base in terms of educational institutions, what-if scenarios of different rate plan options.
state agencies, and so on; diversity of applications
in use by state clients, from e-mail to videoconfer- Source: Based on J. Chongwatpol and R. Sharda, “SNAP: A DSS
ences, IP telephoning, and distance learning; recov- to Analyze Network Service Pricing for State Networks,” Decision
ery of current costs, as well as planning for upgrades Support Systems, Vol. 50, No. 1, December 2010, pp. 347–359.

describing business assumptions. All assumptions are described in English equations (or
the user’s native language).
The best way to learn how to use Planners Lab is to launch the software and follow
the tutorials. The software can be downloaded at plannerslab.com.

the user interface subsystem

The user communicates with and commands the DSS through the user interface sub-
system. The user is considered part of the system. Researchers assert that some of the
unique contributions of DSS are derived from the intensive interaction between the
computer and the decision maker. The Web browser provides a familiar, consistent
graphical user interface (GUI) structure for most DSS. For locally used DSS, a spread-
sheet also provides a familiar user interface. A difficult user interface is one of the
major reasons managers do not use computers and quantitative analyses as much as
they could, given the availability of these technologies. The Web browser has been
recognized as an effective DSS GUI because it is flexible, user friendly, and a gateway
to almost all sources of necessary information and data. Essentially, Web browsers have
led to the development of portals and dashboards, which front end many DSS.
Explosive growth in portable devices including smartphones and tablets has changed
the DSS user interfaces as well. These devices allow either handwritten input or typed input
from internal or external keyboards. Some DSS user interfaces utilize natural-language input

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