Strategic Decsion Making

Chapter Two Questions

1. Define TPS & DSS, provide some examples of these systems in business

Transactional information brings together all the information contained with a single business process or unit of work, and its primary purpose is to support the performing of daily tasks. These include involving elementary business activities such as sales, receipts, cash deposits, payroll, credit decisions and flow of materials. Transaction Process Systems (TPS) manage these activities, and are usually fundamental to the operation of a business. The most common example of a  TPS is an operational accounting system like a payroll system or even a order-entry system. Transactions can also be managed in various ways, for example batch and online. The enterprise view of information and information technology is shaped in a hierarchal manner. 

2. Describe the three quantitative models typically used by decision support systems.

The three quantitative models often used used by DSS include:

- Sensitivity analysis: is the study study of the impact that changes in one or more parts of the models information to support managers and business professionals during the decision making process. 

-What-if analysis: checks the impact of a change in an assumption on the proposed solutions. 

- Goal-seeking analysis: finds the input necessary to achieve a goal such as a desired level of output. It sets a target value for a variable and then repeatedly changes other variables until the target value is achieved. 

3. Describe a business processes and their importance to an organisation, outline and example of how they are used.

A business process is a standardised set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a customer's order. They transform a set of inputs into a set of outputs (goods or services) for another person or process by using people and tools. Examining business processes helps an organisation to anticipate bottlenecks, eliminate duplicate activities, combine related activities, and identify smooth running processes. 

4. Compare business process improvement and business process re-engineering.

Improving business processes is paramount in order to stay competitive in todays electronic marketplace. Organisations must improve their business process because customers are demanding better products and services. When customers to are not fully satisfied, it is as easy as a slick of a mouse to explore their options. This is quite different from business process re-engenieering (BPR) as the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises. BPR relies on a much more different train of thought than improving business processes. It assumes that the current process is irrelevant, does not work or is broken and must be redesigned from scratch. 

5. Describe the importance of business process modelling (or mapping) and business process models.

Business process modelling (mapping) is the activity of creating a detailed flowchart or process map of a work process, showing its inputs, tasks and activities in a structured sequence. A business process model is a graphical description of a process, showing the sequence of a process tasks, which is mainly developed for a specific purpose and from a selected viewpoint.  a set of one or more process models details the many functions of a system or subject area with graphics and text.