MANAGEMENT SUPPORT SYSTEMS

Management Support Systems and its Role in Electricity Utility Companies in UK

Abstract

This study investigates literature on approaches to Management support systems (MSS) and understands the processes of application for these Management Support Systems (MSS) in electricity utility companies in UK.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 14

Introduction4

Aims of the Study10

Objective of the Study11

Research Question11

CHAPTER 212

Literature Review12

CHAPTER 316

Research Methods16

Data collection and summarization17

CHAPTER 437

Results and Discussion37

CHAPTER 583

Summary, conclusions and Recommendations83

Conclusions87

REFERENCES91

BIBLIOGRAPHY98

APPENDICES106

Chapter 1

Introduction

Management support systems (MSS) are comprised of systems that support managerial work, and provide functionality to summarize and analyze business information (Bajwa and Brennan, 1998, 31-43). These systems have also been defined as computer based system that collect (or retrieve), store, process, and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organisation. A number of researchers have classified and described these systems. Based on these classifications/taxonomies, this study considers the following MSS: Decision Support Systems, Expert Systems, Data Warehouses, Group Decision Support Systems, Organisational Decision Support Systems, and Executive Information and Management Information Systems. The definitions and characteristics of these systems are provided in Table 1.

Table 1. System types and definitions

System types

Definitions

Decision Support-System

Computer-based system that includes a body of knowledge that describes some aspects of the decision maker's world, that specifies how to accomplish various tasks, that indicates what conclusions are valid in various circumstances, that has an ability to acquire and maintain descriptive knowledge and other kinds of knowledge, to present knowledge on an ad hoc basis in various customized ways as well as in standard reports, to select any desired subset of stored knowledge for either presentation or deriving new knowledge in the course of problem recognition or problem-solving, and to interact directly with a decision maker or a participant in a decision maker in such a way that the user has a flexible choice and sequence of knowledge management activities

Expert System

Computer-based system that mimics the behavior of human experts by encapsulating their expertise in solving problems in a particular domain

Computer-based system (comprised of a user interface, inference engine, and stored expertise) that reasons about facts and assertions in order to solve problems that would otherwise require services of human experts; a kind of artificially intelligent decision support system

Data Warehouse

Computer-based system that functions as a specially prepared repository of data created to support decision-making. The data are extracted from source system, cleaned/scrubbed, transformed, and placed in data stores

Group Support-System

Computer-based system that combines communication, computer, and decision support tools and processes to support problem formulation and solution by a group

Computer-based system to increase the effectiveness of decision groups by facilitating the interactive sharing and use of information among group members and also between the group and the computer

Organisational Decision Support-System

Computer-based system that utilizes communication, data and problem-solving technologies to support organisational decision processes

Computer-based system that provides an organisation wide platform to enhance, facilitate, and enable the work of organisational members

Executive Information System/Management Information System

Computer-based system that provides executives with easy access to internal and external information that is relevant to their critical success factors ...