Article Review: Management Assessment Answers

Social media platforms, and analytical tools has enabled a much higher level of information systems support for managers. In the next sections we study a historical classification of decision support tasks. This leads us to be introduced to decision support systems. We will then study an overview of technologies that have been broadly referred to as business intel¬ligence. From there we will broaden our horizons to introduce various types of analytics.

1. What are some of the key system-oriented trends that have fostered IS-supported decision making to a new level?

2. List some capabilities of information systems that can facilitate managerial decision making.

3. How can a computer help overcome the cognitive limits of humans?

The Effect of Business Intelligence Tools In Decision Making Process:

Organizations often implement business intelligence systems in their operational structures, but the long-term effect of such intelligence system on the quality of the decisions made by the business house and its impact on the performance of employees varies from one industry to another. In this paper, an analysis of those factors which influence the managerial decisions have been made.

In the last few years, most of the business organizations are incorporating more and more tools so as to encourage IS supported decision making activities. Some of the system oriented trends which have led to such sudden interest in decision making processes aided by the benefits of Information System are:

• Improved procedures for the proper management of data.
  
  
• Development of various analytical tools for the purpose of analysis of all the data generated by a business organization.
  
  
• Wireless connectivity providing access to any data at all points of time.

The advancements in the fields of Information system have started facilitating the task of managerial decisions, due to the introduction of the capabilities mentioned below:

• Web based tools to support the collaboration and communication of a group of people based at various geographical locations.
  
  
• Management of enormous quantity of data using data warehousing techniques and the analysis of this data using Big data analysis tools.

The term cognitive limit is used to define the limitations that the human brain faces when it faces the challenge of analysis enormous amounts of data, for which one requires excellent problem solving skills and knowledge in diverse domains (Business Intelligence and Analytics: Systems for Decision Support, 2015). Information System tools that help to retrieve data from various tools and analyze them are used to overcome cognitive limits of human beings.

McCormak et all in their research paper have considered a case study and conducted an intensive research on the effects of continuous use of BI tools in decision making (McCormack & Trkman, 2014). Their research pointed out that in the initial stages, the dependency on these tools are high and this dependency starts decreasing with passing time, which leads to a erosion in the capabilities of the decision making on the part of the employees as well as the technologies used. They are of the opinion that Business tools should not be used solely for the purpose of facilitating managerial decisions; neither should such decisions be the responsibility of human resources only. A right mix of Business tools, artificial intelligence and human cognitive senses should be applied so as to find the right strategies and solutions that could be implemented to facilitate the process of managerial decisions.

References:

• Business Intelligence and Analytics: Systems for Decision Support. (2015) (10th ed.).
  
  
• McCormack, K., & Trkman, P. (2014). The influence of information processing needs on the continuous use of business intelligence. Information Research, (19(3)), 636.