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DSS News
D. J. Power, Editor
October 27, 2002 -- Vol. 3, No. 22
A Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM
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Check the "Product development decision
support at Lockheed Martin" case from SGI
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Featured:
* DSS Wisdom
* Report from Advanced Decision Support Workshop at UNO
* What's New at DSSResources.COM
* DSS News Releases
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Enhance model-driven DSS with Crystal Ball simulation software.
Download a FREE evaluation at http://www.crystalball.com/dss/
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DSS Wisdom
Keen and Wagner (1982) argued "For DP, MIS, OR/MS, and related analytic
disciplines, the urgent need is to bridge the gap between their
specialized world and the manager's. Decision support exploits existing
computer technology to meet the needs of decision-makers
(p. 341)."
from Keen, P. G. W. and G. R. Wagner, "DSS: An Executive Mind-Support
System", In House, W. C. (editor). Decision Support Systems: A
Data-Based, Model-Oriented, User-Developed Discipline. New York:
Petrocelli Books, 1983 pp. 325--341 (reprinted from Datamation).
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Report from Advanced Decision Support Workshop at UNO
by Dan Power
Prof. Gerald R. (Jerry) Wagner organized and hosted a workshop on
Advanced Decision Support at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Oct.
17-19, 2002. Jerry is creating an Advanced Decision Support Research
group based at the Peter Kiewit Institute at UNO. Some readers probably
recall Jerry as a faculty member at UT-Austin and as founder and CEO of
Execucom Systems.
About 30 DSS researchers and practioners met to discuss the "hot DSS
topics" and Jerry's vision for a research group called the International
Academy for Advanced Decision Support (http://www.iaads.unomaha.edu/).
The purpose was to set a DSS research agenda for the upcoming year.
Peter Keen (http://www.peterkeen.com/) led off the workshop at 8 am
Thursday with a presentation titled "Decisions that Matter". Peter
argued visualization is the linking theme for DSS, "If you can’t see it,
you can’t get it". He argued we need more "recipes" for different types
of decision support. Also, Peter noted DSS has "lost momentum in the era
of PCs, networks and the Internet" because Information Technology staff
and executives don't seem to understand the potential of "new
generation" DSS. Peter's slides and those of other presenters should be
at the IAADS website by the end of November.
After a panel discussion, Henk Sol, Dean of the Faculty of Technology,
Policy and Management at Delft University of Technology, discussed
decision support for e-governance. After lunch we discussed military DSS
challenges with Brigadier General Emile P. Bataille, Director, Command,
Control, Communications and Computer Systems at USSTRATCOM. Following
that discussion Prof. Alexander Verbraeck of Delft moved the focus
toward new technologies and especially his research on visual
simulation. Terry Priebe and Asim Roy continued that focus. After some
socializing at about 6:15 pm Peter Keen spoke about the new generation
of DSS developer. Some students from UNO joined us for that lively
discussion. So after almost 12 stimulating hours of DSS talk, I headed
back to the motel where we were all staying.
The Friday session started at 8 am and Mike Goul from ASU and I rode
over to the workshop with Dr. Kim Wheatley, Chairman of Option
Technologies Interactive (http://www.optionfinder.com/). Friday
broadened our horizons with a presentation by George Legrandy, Professor
of Media Arts from UC Santa Barbara, and a presentation by David Zeltzer
on "Decision Centered Visualization". David is with the Fraunhofer
Institute. Various visualization technologies provided a major theme for
the workshop.
Friday afternoon the software package Flash MX was center stage with a
tag team demonstration by Michelangelo Capraro and Duncan McAlester, the
co-authors of a technical book titled Skip Intro. Both are techies and
user interface designers in the "mello" California style. Next, Prof.
Christer Carlsson from Finland brought document decision support and
mobile phones into our discussions. The panels after each presentation
kept the sessions lively. By 3 pm, Dr. David King, CTO of Comshare,
brought us back to the current reality of web-based performance
management software. The interplay between academics, developers,
practioners, new and estabished technologies created an interesting
dialectic. Prof. Bruce Avolio from UNL made the last presentation. I
hadn't met Bruce, but he did an admirable job of tying together a number
of technology, leadership and decision making issues. Bruce has done
work on GDSS and leadership and he brought his behavioral perspective
into the final session. After some discussion, we adjourned for a
social hour and then about 10 of us had an excellent dinner at Sprigs
restaurant.
Jerry let us sleep later on Saturday. We started at about 9 am and
discussed a wide array of research topics and action items. The
prospects related to mobile decision support in hospital settings and
DSS to help with bioterorism were especially interesting. Well I haven't
mentioned all of the attendees, topics or activities, but it was a great
group and a great workshop. Ilze Zigurs of UNO organized the panel
discussions and we all had our say. Thanks Jerry and sponsors UNO,
Union Pacific, ConAgra, Booz Allen and Hamilton, and SAIC. Jerry plans
to expand IAADS activities, put more resources at the website, join AIS
SIG DSS and work with a variety of companies on DSS projects.
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Visit http://www.crystalball.com/dss/ and http://teradata.com
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What's New at DSSResources.COM
10/22/2002 Posted version 2.5 of Power, D.J. A Brief History
of Decision Support Systems. DSSResources.COM, URL
http://DSSResources.COM/history/dsshistory.html
10/16/2002 Posted case by Silicon Graphics Staff, "Product
development decision support at Lockheed Martin", 2002,
URL http://dssresources.com/cases.
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Get information about Dan Power's book, Decision Support
Systems: Concepts and Resources for Managers, at
http://www.dssresources.com/dssbookstore/power02.html .
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DSS News Releases - October 14 to October 25, 2002
Complete news releases can be found at DSSResources.COM.
10/25/2002 Cata web conferencing demonstrates the benefits of its
solution at TechLearn 2002.
10/24/2002 SAS extends commitment to customers to offer open,
standards-based technology; alliance with Sun Microsystems yields
technology advances, lower TCO and higher ROI.
10/24/2002 Oracle(R) helps companies maximize supply chain efficiency
with new advanced capabilities.
10/24/2002 SAUBER PETRONAS, the Swiss Formula 1 team, upgrades to an
SGI® Onyx® 3800 for improved visual simulations.
10/23/2002 Cognos(R) Visualizer wins Intelligent Enterprise best data
visualization solution for second year.
10/23/2002 Business Objects again rated number one in business
intelligence by Intelligent Enterprise readers.
10/23/2002 Connecticut's Department of Children & Families implements
Softscape's Web-Based Juvenile Case Management Information System.
10/22/2002 MeetingPlace available as standalone web conferencing
solution.
10/22/2002 Infonet and Polycom announce delivery of global IP video
solutions.
10/22/2002 Survey prescribes PDAs for pharmaceutical field reps; Results
demonstrate that handheld access to corporate systems improves return on
CRM investment and increases sales productivity.
10/21/2002 London Stock Exchange implements Teradata Active Data
Warehouse to provide real-time market intelligence services and exploit
historical data.
10/21/2002 New Fair, Isaac Business Science suite delivers complete set
of decision management software tools.
10/21/2002 Washington, DC chooses OPTIMUS Corp. to implement new mobile
ambulatory reporting system.
10/21/2002 Reminder: Two weeks remaining to submit presentation
proposals for GeoSpatial World 2003.
10/21/2002 Advanced analytical software aids law enforcement.
10/21/2002 Adobe unveils new document server for dynamically generating
Adobe PDF files.
10/21/2002 WebPutty Application Platform version 6 simplifies and
accelerates development of web-based corporate applications.
10/19/2002 Reminder: INFORMS Computing Society Conference, Phoenix, AZ,
Jan. 8-10, 2003.
10/18/2002 Documentum achieves highest ranking in Strategic Information
Technology Investment study.
10/17/2002 40 top retailers learn how analytics can improve supply chain
processes.
10/16/2002 IntelliWhere launches mobile workforce starter kit to
accelerate data automation for field crews.
10/16/2002 Microsoft and Comshare(R) extend 'Power of Two' to deliver
complete CPM solutions to the UK.
10/16/2002 Rapiscan announces $2.2 million order for advanced cargo
pallet screening system for an Asian location.
10/16/2002 ChoicePoint(R) acquiring Resident Data(R), expands presence
in tenant screening field.
10/15/2002 Business Objects awards customers for excellence in Business
Intelligence.
10/15/2002 Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner LLP licenses
RainMaker's business intelligence suite.
10/15/2002 Clinical tool helps reduce medication errors associated with
herbal remedies.
10/15/2002 NTT America markets value-added IP-VPN service to provide
secure extranet capabilities for Multinational Corporations.
10/14/2002 Hyperion enables ChartOne to move from spreadsheet management
to customer management.
10/14/2002 Verity CTO to address World Knowledge Forum.
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