SUPPORT FOR THE I N T E L L I G E N C E P H A S E

73 SUPPORT FOR THE I N T E L L I G E N C E P H A S E

C H A P T E R 2 DECISION-MAKING SYSTEMS, MODELING, AND SUPPORT

T h e p r i m a r y r e q u i r e m e n t o f d e c i s i o n s u p p o r t f o r t h e i n t e l l i g e n c e p h a s e i s t h e ability t o s c a n e x t e r n a l a n d internal i n f o r m a t i o n s o u r c e s f o r o p p o r t u n i t i e s a n d p r o b l e m s a n d t o

i n t e r p r e t w h a t t h e s c a n n i n g discovers. W e b t o o l s a n d s o u r c e s are extremely u s e f u l f o r e n v i r o n m e n t a l s c a n n i n g . W e b b r o w s e r s p r o v i d e u s e f u l f r o n t e n d s f o r a v a r i e t y o f tools,

from OLAP to data mining and data warehouses. Data sources may be internal and external. I n t e r n a l s o u r c e s m a y b e a c c e s s e d via a c o r p o r a t e i n t r a n e t . E x t e r n a l s o u r c e s are m a n y a n d varied. For a list o f m a n y W e b sites w i t h g l o b a l m a c r o e c o n o m i c a n d busi- n e s s data, s e e H a n s e n ( 2 0 0 2 ) .

Decision support technologies can be very helpful. For example, an enterprise information system can support the intelligence phase by continuously monitoring b o t h internal a n d e x t e r n a l i n f o r m a t i o n , l o o k i n g f o r early s i g n s o f p r o b l e m s a n d o p p o r -

t u n i t i e s t h r o u g h a W e b - b a s e d e n t e r p r i s e i n f o r m a t i o n portal, as in t h e MMS Running

Case (also see DSS in Action 2.18 for an example in the pharmaceutical industry). Similarly, (automatic) data mining (which may include expert systems, CRM, and neural networks) and (manual) online analytic processing (OLAP) also support the

intelligence phase by identifying relationships among activities and other factors. T h e s e r e l a t i o n s h i p s c a n b e e x p l o i t e d f o r c o m p e t i t i v e a d v a n t a g e (e.g., C R M i d e n t i f i e s

c l a s s e s o f c u s t o m e r s t o a p p r o a c h w i t h s p e c i f i c p r o d u c t s a n d services; s e e S p a r a c i n o a n d O ' R e i l l y , 2 0 0 0 ) . A k n o w l e d g e m a n a g e m e n t s y s t e m c a n b e u s e d t o i d e n t i f y similar p a s t situations and how they were handled. Group support systems can be used to share

i n f o r m a t i o n a n d for b r a i n s t o r m i n g . A r t i f i c i a l n e u r a l n e t w o r k s c a n b e u s e d t o i d e n t i f y t h e b e s t t a k e o v e r targets, a s w a s d e m o n s t r a t e d f o r b a n k s b y S h a w v e r a n d A r o n s o n

DSS IN ACTION 2.18

PHARMACEUTICAL FIRMS ANALYZE AND VISUALIZE WITH WEB PORTALS INTO DATA

Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ( B o s t o n ) speeds drug of complex chemical-structure or gene-expression data, development by facilitating the process of evaluating

visually explore and analyze these data, and share new chemicals through real-time Web analytics. results. Spotfire.net automatically generates interactive Researchers need to generate statistical models of how

query devices for rapid identification of trends, anom- compounds will behave in a given chemical assay. With

alies, outliers, and patterns. Researchers can view and so many different models, the more real-time and inter-

maneuver data in 3-D by selecting different visualiza- active a researcher is, the more effective he or she will

tion types or displaying multiple variables on the same be. Data integration of chemical models databases with

screen. Spotfire.netprovides algorithms for data mining outside sources, such as databases of chemical com-

and basic statistical analysis via the Web to the user's pounds, and a consistent interface are critical. Infinity's

desktop. These include decision tree analysis, principal IT staff solved the problem by building a real-time sys-

components analysis, K-means clustering, hierarchical tem using Web services as its application model. X M L

clustering, and other statistical calculations, such as box- interfaces are coded into every program. The design

plots. Millions of compounds can be analyzed and visu- also includes a standardized metadata model, to which

alized in seconds.

Infinity maps its data dictionaries. Data integration is done upfront. The Spotfire.net (Spotfire Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts) decision-analytics portal uses Web con-

Sources: Adapted from Mark Hall, "Web Analytics: Get Real," nectivity to provide scientific decision-making commu-

ComputerWorld, Vol. 36, No. 14, April 1,2002,42-^3; Julia nities with a unified workspace to access large amounts

Boguslavsky, "Visualize Large Data Sets Online," Research &

Development, Vol. 42, No. 9, September 2000, p. 59.