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Decision Support Systems for Executives (continued)

Another key difference is that executives tend not to need real-time data as much as operating employees. "Up-to-the-minute information is less important than having ready access on figures for the month, the week, or perhaps the close of business the day before," McKnight says.

Although DSS technology is fairly mature, there have been recent advances in terms of portability: Web-based systems that can be accessed from anywhere using a standard web browser and executive dashboards that can be viewed on cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are making DSS a truly ubiquitous tool for IT executives who are frequently on the road.

Changing Behaviors to Better Exploit the Tools
The biggest challenges for organizations wishing to put executive DSS systems in place are behavioral rather than technical. "There are still some things that executives don't want to use a computer for -- they'd prefer to get certain information in paper form," says Power. "Also, what is the culture of the company? Is it fact-driven? If so, DSS systems probably will be more successful than if executives like to make decisions based on intuition." (article continues)

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