Policy Implications of Organizational Decision Support Systems

IQS Department University of Baltimore 1420 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21201 *Tel #: (410) 837-5275 FAX #: (410) 837-5722 *[email protected] Rajesh M irani Many organizations are consolidating their data, models and information resources to create an organization-wide system, called organizational decision Support system (ODSS). This paper discusses issues related to ODSSs and their policy implications. Issues are identified from ODSS definition. SpeciJically, we group the issues as data, model/tool and overall systems and consider policy related to each of these in the context of ODSS. Introduction It is expected that by the twenty-first century technology convergence will lead to a seamless any time, any place environment. One outcome of this convergence will be explosive domestic and global competition. To meet this challenge organizations are responding with consolidations, partnerships, acquisitions and expansions. For example, Baby Bells are aligning with the entertainment industry to provide home entertainment on demand; Banks are expanding into insurance businesses; IBM is consolidating by acquiring LOTUS; and Oil companies are acquiring credit card businesses. This is having a profound effect on organizational structure and organizational decisions. Organizational decisions are becoming more frequent with shorter cycles. Managers are demanding organization-wide data and models which can be accessed and manipulated with little effort. Organizational Decision Support Systems (ODSS) are an attempt in that direction. Since the early 90’s much has been written about ODSSs in the literature [George (199 l-92), George, Nunamaker 1060-3425/96 $5.00