Building Decision Support System User Interface
February 12, 2025
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Globalization has not only expanded the product markets. It has also made organizations geographically more dispersed. Therefore, the way the business is done and decisions are made has also changed significantly. Collaborative decision-making has become more valuable than ever.
This is why there is an increased emphasis on developing and implementing communications-driven group decision support systems. Decision making, in the current business environment, is a collaborative process with participation from in-house and remotely located teams or temporary work groups or task forces. In such a scenario, communications-driven group DSS makes it easier for every participant to send and receive communication and interact with others in real time, from their respective locations, without meeting physically.
A communications-driven group DSS
Now that we know how a communications-driven group DSS can support decision-making among geographically dispersed teams using web-based tools, it’s time to understand what exactly it is.
Let us try to define it in a layman’s language.
A communications-driven group decision support system:
There are a number of tools and technologies that can be incorporated in a GDSS (Group Decision Support System), in order to promote better decision making. These include:
A group decision support system fosters collaboration and team decision-making in four different situations:
Same Time, Same Place
In this situation, all decision makers are available at same time at same place. The information is displayed on either computer projection system or on individual computers of participants.
Same Time, Different Place
In this situation, individuals participate in decision-making from geographically different locations at the same time. A GDSS
Different Time, Same Place
In this situation, GDSS fosters communication for those who work at same place but have different shift timings. It offers numerous facilities, including:
Different Time, Different Place
It’s important to understand how GDSS work in different time and different place situations. It is a situation where participants are geographically distant and also operate in a different time zone. It fosters communication, collaboration and team decision making through:
A GDSS supports communication and collaboration in all the above situations.
A communications-driven group decision support system is implemented, so that it can support all activities of a work team or task force, irrespective of the locations and time zones of participants.
The major concern of investors/users at the time of deciding whether to develop a decision support system or not must be:
Therefore, the managers must ask themselves following questions, in order to attain more clarity:
A lot of thought and planning go into designing and development of a communications-driven group decision support system.
A communications-driven GDSS addresses problems associated with group collaboration, communication and decision making, when participants are geographically dispersed and operate in different time zones.
This means the effectiveness of a GDSS directly depends upon its design, user-interface, DSS architecture, integrated support tools and technical skills possessed by participants who use DSS.
Although managers know that the set of tools that they have chosen for a GDSS are good, but they may not perform equally good in all circumstances. There is no one best way of making decisions or supporting group collaboration. A tool or process may work well in some situations and may terribly fail in others.
In such a scenario, the managers must resort to a contingency approach that focuses on three main points:
A contingency approach depends on task structure, location of team members and difference in organizational attributes.
A virtual organization is an association of physically and/or professionally detached individuals working together on a project or to achieve a mission. It doesn’t have any physical existence but the technology (internet technology, more precisely) makes it look real.
Communications-driven group decision support systems are best suited for virtual organizations that require a lot of technological support to foster communication and collaboration and get the work done.
A GDSS makes a virtual organization:
A communications-driven GDSS for a virtual organization makes use of various knowledge management technologies, including:
A communications-driven group decision support offers numerous benefits. It
Not all group communication and support tools may suit your requirements. In order to choose the right group support tools for your communication-driven decision support system, it’s essential to consider these factors:
It’s important to select the right communication and support tools to promote good decision making by a team that is physically dispersed. Moreover, a GDSS must be carefully aligned to the structure of an organization, in order to get the best results.
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