Decision Support, Artificial Intelligence, and B2C E-Commerce: the Case of Unilever
Case Study #3: Decision Support, Artificial Intelligence, and
B2C E-Commerce: the Case of Unilever
By
Dustin Allen
MNGT 220-01
November 20, 2003
Question #1 Decision support systems, simply known as DSS, are often narrowly defined as highly flexible and interactive IT systems that are designed to support decision-making when the problem is non-structured (Haag, 2004). This definition expresses several keywords: support and non-structured. This means that although DSS greatly enhance the business processes, they do not do the business work itself. The DSS will bring speed, information, and unmatched processing capabilities to “the table,” but the final overall decisions will have to be made by the knowledge workers involved, which will use the information provided by the DSS, along with his/her experience, intuition, and judgment. The other main keyword in the definition is non-structured. A non-structured decision is a decision that may have several “right” answers, but there is no logical path to find only one exact answer, unlike a structured decision (Haag, 2004). Decision support systems are in action in nearly every meaningful, or more appropriately, successful, business organization for not only cost savings, but also for other attributes not involving price, which include better relations with suppliers and customers. Another aspect of technology that many organizations are now taking advantage of is the science of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Simply stated, AI is used to allow machines to imitate or duplicate, not only human thinking, but behavior as well. Whether it is to suggest products or services (expert systems), based on known information, or the recognition of patterns (neural networks), largely in the security sector of society, artificial intelligence is used on an everyday basis to achieve an organization’s goals. As one can easily see, both of these concepts, decision support systems and artificial intelligence,
B2C E-Commerce: the Case of Unilever
By
Dustin Allen
MNGT 220-01
November 20, 2003
Question #1 Decision support systems, simply known as DSS, are often narrowly defined as highly flexible and interactive IT systems that are designed to support decision-making when the problem is non-structured (Haag, 2004). This definition expresses several keywords: support and non-structured. This means that although DSS greatly enhance the business processes, they do not do the business work itself. The DSS will bring speed, information, and unmatched processing capabilities to “the table,” but the final overall decisions will have to be made by the knowledge workers involved, which will use the information provided by the DSS, along with his/her experience, intuition, and judgment. The other main keyword in the definition is non-structured. A non-structured decision is a decision that may have several “right” answers, but there is no logical path to find only one exact answer, unlike a structured decision (Haag, 2004). Decision support systems are in action in nearly every meaningful, or more appropriately, successful, business organization for not only cost savings, but also for other attributes not involving price, which include better relations with suppliers and customers. Another aspect of technology that many organizations are now taking advantage of is the science of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Simply stated, AI is used to allow machines to imitate or duplicate, not only human thinking, but behavior as well. Whether it is to suggest products or services (expert systems), based on known information, or the recognition of patterns (neural networks), largely in the security sector of society, artificial intelligence is used on an everyday basis to achieve an organization’s goals. As one can easily see, both of these concepts, decision support systems and artificial intelligence,
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