Designing and Exploring Intelligent Decision Support Systems - A Description of five Technologies and an Implementation Case Study for an Artificial Neural Network

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Computer Science - Applied, grade: A, Aston University (Business School), course: Decision Support Systems, language: English, abstract: In today's economy the importance of effective and efficient decision making has become increasingly important in order to stay competitive in a global market set. Obtaining most relevant data and outputs is the key for best decisions on every management level. That is why the application of decision support systems (DSS) is now irreplaceable in organizations that operate a state-of-the art decision making processes. This paper discusses Group Support Systems, Expert Systems, Knowledge Management Systems, Neural Networks, and Fuzzy Logic Systems focusing on · the description of the methodology · their applications and software vendors · current research · and new developments. The analysis of these five systems is followed up by a case study that provides an example for a real life application of a neural network. It will be exposed how this decision support system facilitates the classification of potential patients for hospitals and how effective marketing strategies specified to each group of patients could be created. By comparison the application of an expert system for the same problem will be investigated. Concluding, a summary will compose the results of this paper focusing particularly on the outcomes of the case study. Advantages/disadvantages for the application of either system will be examined. The authors will then eventually state their personal recommendation for solving the problem given in the case study and comment on possible reasons why hospitals decided to apply a neural network.