Articles

Seamless integration of information in organizations promotes not only the operational efficiency but also the quality of decisions made by managers. Real-time decision support systems enable organizations to evaluate organizational changes immediately and ideally gives a hint of problems before they even appear in the organization. Such real time systems are nowadays regarded as the front-line solutions for managing organizations effectively. The technological possibilities seem not to conquer management. For most companies the data is still dealt with traditional solutions, data is collected and reports are generated to evaluate the past occurrences which only gives information on what has happened in the organization. The problem with these non-real-time systems is the reflection of organizational condition very late. These are the common rear-mirror descriptions for what already has been. Managers are receiving information from their organizations too late and often too little to make optimal decisions. Is it not possible to manage operations in real-time? Is real-time decision support really needed? If so, why most organizations still rely on traditional reporting systems.