Faculty Publications

Past, Present, And Future Of Decision Support Technology

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Collaborative support systems, Decision support technology, DSS development, Optimization-based decision support, Virtual teams

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Decision Support Systems

Volume

33

Issue

2

First Page

111

Last Page

126

Abstract

Since the early 1970s, decision support systems (DSS) technology and applications have evolved significantly. Many technological and organizational developments have exerted an impact on this evolution. DSS once utilized more limited database, modeling, and user interface functionality, but technological innovations have enabled far more powerful DSS functionality. DSS once supported individual decision-makers, but later DSS technologies were applied to workgroups or teams, especially virtual teams. The advent of the Web has enabled inter-organizational decision support systems, and has given rise to numerous new applications of existing technology as well as many new decision support technologies themselves. It seems likely that mobile tools, mobile e-services, and wireless Internet protocols will mark the next major set of developments in DSS. This paper discusses the evolution of DSS technologies and issues related to DSS definition, application, and impact. It then presents four powerful decision support tools, including data warehouses, OLAP, data mining, and Web-based DSS. Issues in the field of collaborative support systems and virtual teams are presented. This paper also describes the state of the art of optimization-based decision support and active decision support for the next millennium. Finally, some implications for the future of the field are discussed. © 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Department

Department of Management

Original Publication Date

1-1-2002

DOI of published version

10.1016/S0167-9236(01)00139-7

Link to Full Text

Comments?

Share

COinS