Working in the Corporate America today, I deeply rely on information. I can do my job unless I have valuable information that is easily accessible to me, accurate and most important, complete.
A company can not survive financially unless the information they have is accurate and in today’s world, it needs to be economical. Sometimes there are many debates whether or not there is a “work around” in order to get the information that is needed by collecting all the relevant facts, or better know as data [1] to come up with information that will help us with make a decision on how to manage our business.
An example of how I personally use information that receive from several reports is when I need to Manage a Call Center and the appropriate times that I need a certain amount of employees on the phones. I know the facts (data), how many employees do I have, I know my hours of operation (data), I know the amount of calls that I receive within a half hour increments (information received from other collection of data). Now, that I have all the facts, I have information that will assist me in making a decision on the amount of representatives that I need, per half hour increments, because the information that I get, will tell me which half hour increments are the busiest during my hours of operation.
In addition to the above, I will notice patterns [2] and trends [3], depending on the day of the week, month, etc. That is valuable information that will also assist me in making decision on staff coverage. Once again, without information, we would be making decisions that most likely would be inaccurately forecasting Call Center coverage.
Content
1. Data-A collection of numbers, characters, images or other outputs from devices that collect information to convert physical quantities into symbols. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data
2. Patterns-a combination of qualities, acts, tendencies, etc., forming a consistent or characteristic arrangement.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pattern
3. Trends-A general tendency or inclination.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trends
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Query#2
Web 2.0/Social Networks
Should one imagine a set of people that created a network to connect with one another to share thoughts, experiences, facts, etc. on a specific interest through the Web, that network becomes a Social Network. A Web 2.0 site is an application that allows the network to be created and for the interaction of its users.
Human beings are a very unique species that have the need to interact with one another and most of us have special interests in life. A social network allows us and gives us the opportunity to explore, participate and learn. The network is created because of a particular interest but some are also very general, simply to have an interaction with our friends, families, or simply because we now can and have interaction, in our own home, with anyone across the globe. Facebook is a social network that most of have an account or at least are familiar with and usually its purpose is to interact with people that we know, or would like to know. Some may consider it the rolodex of the world. Linkedin is a social network that is very specific to business or professionals to get their name and working experiences to manage their careers.
When you explore the type of Social Networks that exist today, and continue to grow, you get a very good picture of the type of people that surround us, the differences in people’s interests within organizations, geographical boundaries, social boundaries and many others. As one explores any one of these areas, they may find an interest that they were not aware of.
Building these Social Networks on a Web 2.0 concept has become so affordable and easy that the concept continues to grow, allowing more users to educate themselves, communicate with each other. There is also a benefit to society itself or organizations that attempt to study the behaviors of human beings and certain patterns. Predictions can be made on social and economical behaviors of communities. When purchasing a product in today’s world, a consumer may take social networks and learn about the product and read other people’s opinion on the product or even the service that a company may perform. This type of interaction is new and can either make or break a business.
Web 2.0 has been accepted globally and more users are using Social Networking sites more than ever. Social Networks and its implementation of Web 2.0 is here to stay and will only become more popular as time goes on.
CDTABLE
Decison Making Lab
Decision Support Systems (DSS) in Organizations
Organizations that have proven to be successful often use Decision Support Systems (DSS) to help with forecasting, sales planning, revenue projection and other problem solving matters that a manager may come across. DSS refers to a computerized system that gathers and presents data from a wide range of sources within an organization. (2)
In general, the primary components of a decision support system are a database management system, a model-base management system, and the people that will be utilizing the data. All of these systems must be able to work with data that are internal and external to the organization. (1) Depending on who will be using the data, the systems used could be placed in different classifications:
A Model Driven system is one in which decision makers use statistical simulations models to come up with a solution or strategy. In this type of system, data is not the basis of the model.
A Communications system model is one in that involves a number of people to come up with a series of decisions depending on selected data that is then manipulated to fit the decision maker’s needs. An example would be the number of employees needed to run a call center based on call volume and trends and may vary from quarter to quarter.
A Document Driven system model uses documents such as text documents, spreadsheets, and records. When all put together, a decision can be made.
A Knowledge Driven system model uses special rules stored in a computer or that a human uses to determine whether a decision should be made. In the end it will come up with rules or facts that will be used to make a decision. (3)
Resources
1. http://www.answers.com/topic/decision-support-system
2. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/Ddecision_support_system.html
3. http://www.tech-faq.com/decision-support-system.html
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