ASSIGNMENT

ON MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

SUBMITTED TO, SUBMITTED BY

DR. MADHU LAL M FITHA FATHIMA
SMBS S2, MBA
SOFTWARES IN DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
A decision support system (DSS) is an interactive computer-based application that combines data
and mathematical models to help decision makers solve complex problems faced in managing the
public and private enterprises and organizations. They combine useful information from
documents, raw data, personal knowledge, and business models to find and solve business
problems. DSSs help in the management and planning of operations, but also in making decisions
with problems that can be rapidly changing and which are hard to see in advance. In other words,
DSSs are business software that help companies improve the quality of their work, their reliability,
and that facilitates and speeds up the decision process. More and more, decision support systems
are offered under a SaaS (Software as a Service) model: web-based, hosted on the cloud, meaning
that can be accessed with a simple web browser. The typical types of information that are gathered
by a DSS include sales figures, projected revenue and inventory data that has been organized into
relational databases. The information it analyzes can come from multiple sources, like documents,
raw data, management, business models and personal knowledge from employees.

DSS applications can be used in various fields, including credit loan verification, medical
diagnosis, various types of business management, and evaluating bids on engineering, agricultural
and rail projects.

MS SQL
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system. As a database server that stores
and retrieves data as requested by other software applications on the same computer or a remote
computer using the client-server model. Microsoft provides APIs to access SQL Server over the
internet as a web service.

PURPOSE: SQL server functions are sets of SQL statements that execute a specific task. Their
main use is in allowing common tasks to be easily replicated. The use of SQL server functions is
similar to that of functions in mathematics, in that they correlate a series on inputs to a series of
outputs. Users can create reusable blocks of code with user-defined SQL server functions. These
make the code that needs to be written to query data a lot simpler. They also enhance the readability
and functionality of queries, as well as allowing other users to follow the same processes. Overall,
the purpose of SQL server functions is to give users greater control over the most common code
strings that they are using. These speeds up tasks and makes the results replicable.

USES: Microsoft SQL Server is ideal for storing all the desired information in relational
databases, as well as to manage such data without complications, thanks to its visual interface
and the options and tools it has. This is vital, especially for websites that have the option of
registering users to log in.

For companies, using this tool is essential because of the facilities it offers and the utilities it has.
If you have a list of customers, a product catalog or even a large selection of multimedia content
available, Microsoft SQL Server helps to manage absolutely everything. It is essential for the
proper functioning of a website or any application.

Its main component is composed of a relational engine in charge of processing commands,

queries, as well as the storage of files, bb.dd., tables and data buffers. Its secondary levels are
intended for memory management, programming and administration of request and response
interactions with the servers that host the databases.

DEVELOPERS: The original SQL Server code was developed in the 1980s by the former Sybase
Inc., which is now owned by SAP. Sybase initially built the software to run on Unix systems and
minicomputer platforms. It, Microsoft and Ashton-Tate Corp., then the leading vendor of PC
databases, teamed up to produce the first version of what became Microsoft SQL Server,
designed for the OS/2 operating system and released in 1989.

LINK: https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/sql-server

ORACLE
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology company headquartered
in Austin, Texas, United States. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the
world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells database software (particularly the
Oracle Database) and cloud computing
PURPOSE

Oracle is the most used relational database management system (RDBMS) today. An RDBMS is
used by businesses to store and retrieve information. Oracle was the first database to use
enterprise grid computing (EGC). Enterprise grid computing performs tasks using groups of
computers connected by a network. Oracle serves as a robust platform for storing and managing
large volumes of structured and unstructured data efficiently.

Oracle enables integration of disparate data sources and streamlines data processing workflows
through ETL processes.

Oracle offers specialized solutions for building and managing data warehouses, providing a
centralized repository for analytical processing.

Oracle provides comprehensive BI tools for analyzing data, creating interactive visualizations,
and generating reports to support decision-making.:

Oracle offers solutions for real-time analytics and stream processing to analyze data as it is
8generated.

USES:

Organizations utilize Oracle Database to store transactional data, historical records, and other
relevant information needed for analysis within a DSS. Oracle's data management capabilities
ensure data integrity, security, and reliability, facilitating seamless data access and retrieval for
decision-making processes.

Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) and Oracle GoldenGate are commonly used for data integration tasks
within DSS. These tools facilitate the extraction, transformation, and loading of data from various
sources into data warehouses or analytical systems, ensuring that data is cleansed, standardized,
and ready for analysis.

Tools such as Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) and Oracle Analytics
Cloud empower users to explore data, gain insights, and share findings through intuitive
dashboards and reports.
Oracle Database incorporates encryption, access controls, auditing, and other security mechanisms
to protect sensitive data and ensure regulatory compliance.

DEVELOPERS: Larry Ellison and his two friends and former co-workers, Bob Miner and Ed
Oates, started a consultancy called Software Development Laboratories (SDL) in 1977. SDL
developed the original version of the Oracle software

LINK: https://www.oracle.com/in/

TABLEAU
Tableau is a powerful data visualization and analytics tool that plays a crucial role in Decision
Support Systems (DSS).

PURPOSE: Tableau's primary purpose in DSS is to visually represent data in a meaningful and
interactive way.

Tableau enables the creation of interactive dashboards that consolidate multiple visualizations into
a single, dynamic interface

Tableau supports ad-hoc analysis, allowing users to explore data freely and perform on-the-fly
calculations.

Tableau facilitates data storytelling by enabling users to create compelling narratives around their
data insights.

USES: Tableau's storytelling features to build narratives that contextualize data findings, explain
trends, and communicate actionable insights effectively. By combining visualizations, annotations,
and narrative text, users can create persuasive data stories that engage stakeholders and drive
decision-making in DSS applications.

Analysts and decision-makers utilize Tableau's capabilities to conduct ad-hoc analysis without
predefined queries or reports. With features like data blending, calculated fields, and parameters,
users can manipulate and visualize data dynamically, enabling rapid exploration and hypothesis
testing within a DSS environment.
Decision-makers use Tableau to build interactive dashboards that provide a holistic view of key
performance indicators (KPIs), metrics, and trends relevant to their business objectives. Users can
interact with dashboard elements, apply filters, and drill down into data to uncover insights and
answer specific questions, enhancing the decision-making process

Users leverage Tableau's drag-and-drop interface to create a wide range of visualizations, including
bar charts, line graphs, scatter plots, heatmaps, and geographical maps. These visualizations enable
stakeholders to explore data, identify trends, and gain insights into complex datasets, facilitating
informed decision-making.

DEVELOPERS: Chris Stolte, Pat Hanrahan, and Christian Chabot developed and patented
Tableau's foundational technology

LINK: https://www.tableau.com/

SAP BW (Business Warehouse)

PURPOSE: SAP BW serves as a central data warehousing solution that integrates data from
various sources within an organization.

SAP BW facilitates the extraction, transformation, and loading of data from heterogeneous sources
into a unified data warehouse.

SAP BW enables organizations to design and manage data models that support complex analytical
queries and reporting needs.

SAP BW provides built-in capabilities for business intelligence and reporting, enabling users to
analyze data and generate insights for decision-making.

SAP BW supports advanced analytics and planning functionalities, such as predictive analytics,
forecasting, and budgeting.

SAP BW facilitates data governance and quality management practices to ensure data consistency,
integrity, and compliance with business rules.
USES: It consolidates data from operational systems, such as SAP ERP (Enterprise Resource
Planning) systems, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software, and other external
sources. SAP BW stores historical and transactional data in a structured format, optimized for
analytical processing within a DSS environment.

Data architects and modelers use SAP BW's modeling tools to define data structures, hierarchies,
relationships, and aggregates. They create InfoCubes, DataStore Objects (DSOs), InfoObjects, and
other components to organize and optimize data for efficient analysis within DSS applications.

With tools like SAP Business Explorer (BEx) and SAP Analysis for Office, users can create ad-
hoc queries, interactive dashboards, and standardized reports using data stored in SAP BW. These
tools offer features for data visualization, drill-down analysis, and data exploration to support
various analytical requirements within a DSS environment.

Organizations leverage SAP BW's integrated planning tools, such as SAP Integrated Planning (IP)
and SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC), to perform scenario analysis, what-if
modeling, and financial planning within DSS applications. These tools enable users to forecast
trends, allocate resources, and optimize business processes based on predictive insights.

Data stewards and administrators use SAP BW's data governance features to define data quality
rules, monitor data quality metrics, and enforce data standards across the organization. SAP BW's
data cleansing and validation capabilities help maintain data accuracy and reliability for decision-
making processes in DSS.

DEVELOPERS: SAP began with a small group of friends who had a big idea: a vision of a
digitally connected enterprise. Dietmar Hopp, Klaus Tschira, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner,
and Claus Wellenreuther started the company as a private partnership in 1972 and launched the
first commercial product a year later.

LINK: https://www.sap.com/india/index.html

IBM WATSON
PURPOSE: Watson processes large volumes of structured and unstructured data to provide
meaningful insights for decision-making processes
Utilizing cognitive computing capabilities, Watson mimics human thought processes to assist users
in making informed decisions.

With NLP, Watson understands and interprets human language, enabling users to interact with the
system using natural language queries.

USES: Watson aids in diagnosing diseases, recommending treatment plans, and personalizing
patient care based on medical records and research data.

In finance, Watson supports risk management, fraud detection, investment analysis, and customer
service by analyzing market trends, financial data, and customer interactions.

Watson powers virtual assistants and chatbots, offering personalized customer support by
understanding and responding to inquiries in real-time.

DEVELOPERS: IBM is the primary developer of Watson, investing heavily in research and
development to enhance its capabilities across various industries and domains. IBM collaborates
with the open-source community, allowing developers to contribute to Watson’s development and
create innovative applications using Watson APIs and tools. IBM partners with universities,
research institutions, and technology companies to further advance Watson’s capabilities and
explore new use cases in decision support systems.

LINK: https://www.ibm.com/watson

WORKFLOWMAX
PURPOSE: WorkflowMax aims to streamline business processes by providing tools for project
management, time tracking, invoicing, and reporting, facilitating smoother decision-making
workflows.

It serves the purpose of centralizing project-related information, including tasks, deadlines,

resources, and financial data, to provide decision-makers with a comprehensive overview of
projects and operations.

WorkflowMax helps improve operational efficiency by automating repetitive tasks, minimizing

manual data entry, and providing real-time insights into project progress and resource utilization.
USES: WorkflowMax is used for project planning, task assignment, progress tracking, and
resource allocation, enabling decision-makers to monitor project timelines and budgets effectively.

It assists in optimizing resource allocation by tracking employee workloads, availability, and skill
sets, ensuring that projects are adequately staffed and deadlines are met.

WorkflowMax facilitates financial management by generating invoices, tracking expenses, and

analyzing project profitability, providing decision-makers with financial insights to guide strategic
planning and resource allocation.

DEVELOPERS: WorkflowMax is developed by Xero, a leading provider of cloud-based

accounting software. Xero acquired WorkflowMax in 2012 to expand its suite of business
management solutions. The development of WorkflowMax is primarily carried out by a team based
in New Zealand, where the company originated. This team focuses on enhancing the platform’s
features, usability, and integration capabilities. While Xero is the primary developer of
WorkflowMax, the platform benefits from input and feedback from its community of users and
partners, who contribute to its ongoing development through suggestions, beta testing, and
collaboration initiatives.

LINK: https://www.workflowmax.com/

TERADATA
PURPOSE: Teradata serves as a powerful data warehousing solution that consolidates and
manages large volumes of structured and unstructured data from diverse sources.

Teradata offers scalability and high-performance computing capabilities to handle massive datasets
and complex analytical workloads.

Teradata supports advanced analytics and data mining techniques for deriving actionable insights
from data.

Teradata facilitates the integration of data from disparate sources and the execution of ETL
processes to prepare data for analysis
provides BI tools and reporting capabilities for visualizing data and generating insights.

Teradata offers cloud-based solutions and services for deploying and managing DSS applications
in the cloud.

USES: Teradata allows organizations to create centralized data warehouses optimized for
analytical processing. It enables efficient storage, retrieval, and management of data, providing a
single source of truth for decision-makers within a DSS environment.

Teradata's massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture enables organizations to scale their
data warehouses horizontally to accommodate growing data volumes and user demands. This
ensures fast query performance and efficient data processing, even for large-scale analytics tasks
within DSS applications.

Organizations leverage Teradata's built-in analytics capabilities, including SQL-based analytics

functions, machine learning algorithms, and statistical analysis tools, to perform predictive
modeling, clustering, classification, and anomaly detection within DSS environments. These
advanced analytics techniques help uncover hidden patterns, trends, and correlations in data,
enabling better decision-making.

Teradata's data integration tools, such as Teradata Parallel Transporter (TPT) and Teradata Parallel
Data Pump (TPump), enable organizations to extract, transform, and load data from various
operational systems, databases, and data sources into Teradata data warehouses. This ensures that
data is cleansed, transformed, and formatted appropriately for analysis within DSS applications.

DEVELOPERS: Teradata Corporation is the developer of Teradata software and analytics

solutions.

LINK: https://www.teradata.com/

Power BI
PURPOSE: Power BI is primarily used for creating interactive and visually appealing data
visualizations.
Power BI allows users to create interactive dashboards that consolidate multiple visualizations and
reports into a single view.

Power BI enables users to perform data analysis and exploration to uncover insights and patterns
in the data.

Power BI provides connectivity to a wide range of data sources, enabling users to access and
analyze data from various sources.

Power BI facilitates collaboration and sharing of insights among teams and stakeholders.

Power BI enables users to access and consume data insights on the go using mobile devices.

USES: Users can build various types of visualizations such as bar charts, line graphs, pie charts,
maps, and gauges using Power BI. These visualizations help in representing data in a meaningful
way, allowing decision-makers to quickly grasp insights and trends from the data within a DSS
environment.

Decision-makers can leverage Power BI to create personalized dashboards containing key

performance indicators (KPIs), metrics, and trends relevant to their business objectives. Interactive
features like drill-down, filters, and slicers enable users to explore data dynamically and gain
deeper insights into their data within a DSS environment.

Users can use Power BI's data modeling capabilities to create relationships between different data
sources and perform calculations using DAX (Data Analysis Expressions). This allows for in-depth
analysis of data, ad-hoc querying, and exploring relationships between different data elements,
supporting decision-making processes within DSS applications.

Users can connect Power BI to databases, cloud services, files, and streaming data sources to bring
in data for analysis. Power BI supports real-time data streaming and integration with Microsoft
Azure services, allowing users to analyze live data and make decisions based on up-to-date
information within a DSS environment.

DEVELOPERS: Power BI is developed by Microsoft Corporation.

LINK: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-bi
SNOWFLAKE

PURPOSE: Snowflake offers a scalable and elastic data storage infrastructure that can handle
large volumes of structured and semi-structured data.

Snowflake provides a modern data warehousing solution that enables organizations to build and
manage data warehouses in the cloud. It supports seamless integration of data from multiple
sources and simplifies ETL processes. It allows for concurrent processing of multiple workloads,
queries, and data pipelines. It facilitates data sharing and collaboration among users and
organizations.It supports advanced analytics and machine learning workloads for deriving insights
from data.

USES: Snowflake's integration capabilities enable organizations to ingest data from on-premises
systems, cloud applications, and third-party data sources into Snowflake data warehouses.
Snowflake's ETL tools and connectors streamline data movement, transformation, and loading
tasks, ensuring that data is prepared and available for analysis within DSS environments.

Snowflake's multi-cluster architecture enables organizations to run parallel queries and perform
concurrent data processing tasks without impacting performance. This capability ensures that users
can analyze data in real-time, execute complex analytical queries, and run batch processing jobs
simultaneously within DSS applications

Organizations can securely share data and analytics insights with internal teams, external partners,
and customers using Snowflake's data sharing capabilities. Snowflake's governed data sharing
model ensures that data access is controlled, monitored, and audited, enabling collaborative
decision-making and knowledge sharing within DSS environments.

Organizations can leverage Snowflake's integration with analytics and machine learning tools,
such as Python, R, and TensorFlow, to perform predictive analytics, statistical analysis, and data
mining within DSS applications. Snowflake's scalable infrastructure and compute resources enable
organizations to build and deploy machine learning models for decision support and automation.

DEVELOPERS: Snowflake Inc. is the developer of Snowflake software and data

warehousing platform.

LINK: https://www.snowflake.com/en/