Supporting informed decision-making under uncertainty and risk through interactive visualisation

Informed decisions are based on the availability of information and the ability of decision-makers to manipulate this information. More often than not, the decision-relevant information is subject to uncertainty arising from different sources. Consequently, decisions involve an undeniable amount of risk. An effective visualisation tool to support informed decision-making must enable users to not only distil information, but also explore the uncertainty and risk involved in their decisions. In this paper, we present VisIDM, an information visualisation tool to support informed decision-making (IDM) under uncertainty and risk. It aims to portray information about the decision problem and facilitate its analysis and exploration at different levels of detail. It also aims to facilitate the integration of uncertainty and risk into the decision-making process and allow users to experiment with multiple “what-if” scenarios. We evaluate the utility of VisIDM through a qualitative user study. The results provide valuable insights into the benefits and drawbacks of VisIDM for assisting people to make informed decisions and raising their awareness of uncertainty and risk involved in their decisions

Leveraging business Intelligence and analytics to improve decision-making and organisational success

In a complex and dynamic organisational environment, challenges and dilemmas exist on how to maximise the value of Business Intelligence and Analytics (BI&A). The expectation of BI&A is to improve decision-making for core business processes that drive business performance. A multi-disciplinary review of theories from the domains of strategic management, technology adoption and economics claims that tasks, technology, people and structures (TTPS) need to be aligned for BI&A to add value to decision-making. However, these imperatives interplay, making it difficult to determine how they are configured. Whilst the links between TTPS have been previously recognised in the Socio-Technical Systems theory, no studies have delved into the issue of their configuration. This configuration is addressed in this study by adopting the fit as Gestalts approach, which examines the relationships among these elements and also determines how best to align them. A Gestalt looks at configurations that arise based on the level of coherence and helps determine the level of alignment amongst complex relationships. This study builds on an online quantitative survey tool based on a conceptual model for aligning TTPS. The alignment model contributes to the conceptual development of alignment of TTPS. Data was collected from organisations in a South African context. Individuals who participated in the survey came from the retail, insurance, banking, telecommunications and manufacturing industry sectors. This study's results show that there is close alignment that emerges between TTPS in Cluster 6 which comprises of IT experts and financial planners. Adequate training, coupled with structures encouraging usage of Business Intelligence and Analytics (BI&A), result in higher organisational success. This is because BI&A technology is in sync with the tasks it is being used for and users have high self-efficacy. Further analysis shows that poor organisational performance can be linked to gaps in alignment and the lack of an organisational culture that motivates usage of BI&A tools. This is because there is misalignment; therefore respondents do not find any value in using BI&A, thus impacting organisational performance. Applying a configurational approach helps researchers and practitioners identify coherent patterns that work well cohesively and comprehensively. The tangible contribution of this study is the conceptual model presented to achieve alignment. In essence, organisations can use the model for aligning tasks, technology, people and structures to better identify ideal configurations of the factors which are working cohesively and consequently find ways of leveraging Business intelligence and Analytics

Propuesta de elaboración de indicadores para el Sistema de Información Gerencial de Correos de Costa Rica

Trabajo Final de Graduación (Licenciatura en Administración en Tecnología de Información) Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Área Académica de Administración de Tecnologías de Información, 2015.El presente proyecto pretende entregar a Correos de Costa Rica S.A. una propuesta de indicadores claves de desempeño para el sistema de inteligencia de negocios que apoyen la toma de decisiones de gerentes y directores. Dicha organización planea la implementación de un sistema de inteligencia de negocios que facilite la toma de decisiones; sin embargo, se desconocen los indicadores claves de desempeño que deben formar parte del sistema. Para resolver esta situación este proyecto plantea el diseño de una ficha de indicadores mediante la cual se elaboren todos los indicadores del sistema. Para la elaboración de los indicadores se realizan entrevistas con los gerentes y directores de cada una de las gerencias de la empresa, a saber: la Gerencia de Administración y Finanzas, la Gerencia de Recursos Humanos, la Gerencia de Informática, la Gerencia de Operaciones y la Gerencia Comercial. También, se revisan documentos generados la Dirección de Planificación sobre indicadores claves de desempeño de la organización. Luego de la elaboración de los indicadores se identifican las fuentes de datos para el cálculo de estos mediante el análisis de las fuentes de información de la organización. Con la finalidad de tener un panorama general sobre la calidad de las fuentes de datos se aplica la técnica de perfilado de dato sobre ellas. Como resultado se obtiene una propuesta de veinte (20) indicadores claves de desempeño de tipo financiero, administrativo, logístico, comercial, informático y de recursos humanos para el sistema de inteligencia de negocios de Correos de Costa Rica.This project aims to deliver Correos de Costa Rica S.A. a proposal of key performance indicators for the business intelligence system to support decisionmaking of managers and directors. The organization plans to implement a business intelligence system that facilitates decision-making, however, the key performance indicators that should be part of the system are unknown. To resolve this situation the project proposes to design a indicators index card by which all system indicators are developed. For development of the indicators they are conducted interviews with managers and directors of each of the organization area of the company: Administration and Finance, Human Resource, Information, Operations and Commercial. Documents generated by Planning Direction about key performance indicators of the organization are also reviewed. After the development of indicators data sources for calculating them are identified by analyzing the sources of information of the organization. In order to have an overview of the quality of the data sources profiling technique applies data on them. As a result a proposal of twenty (20) key performance indicators of financial, administrative, logistical, business, IT and human resource are obteined for the Correos de Costa Rica’s business intelligence system

Técnicas e software de visualização da informação como auxilio a tomada de decisão em instituições de ensino superior

Orientador : Prof. Dr. Celso Yoshikazu IshidaCo-orientadora : Profª. Drª. Maria do Carmo Duarte FreitasDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência, Gestão e Tecnologia da Informação. Defesa: Curitiba, 12/12/2014Inclui referênciasResumo: As Instituições de Ensino Superior (IES) não podem subestimar o volume de informação que dispõem e a necessidade de um sistema de informação eficaz para tratamento e análise desses dados. A informação tem que fluir da gestão da instituição para os funcionários, docentes e discentes e vice-versa. Essa informação reflete principalmente sobre os planos, políticas / decisões, programas, perspectivas e problemas da instituição. As IESs buscam tecnologia cada vez mais eficiente para o apoio nos procedimentos decisórios no processo de definição das novas estratégias e, melhoria da gestão institucional. Uma maneira de tratar eficazmente os desafios para a melhoria da qualidade da informação organizacional é proporcionar novos conhecimentos relacionados aos processos de ensino e entidades do sistema. Esse conhecimento pode ser extraído a partir de dados históricos e operacionais que residem em bancos de dados da organização, mas que não é tratado e nem tão pouco compreendido pelo desconhecimento de técnicas e ferramentas de visualização da informação. Daí, a importância do estudo que tem como objetivo investigar técnicas de visualização da informação disponíveis em software gratuito como auxílio a tomada de decisão de gestores nas Instituições de Ensino Superior. A pesquisa exploratória discute por meio de um levantamento bibliográfico os conceitos sobre: visualização de informação para tomada de decisão com suas técnicas, tecnologias e aplicações relacionadas à visualização da informação. Na fase experimental foram pesquisados quarenta softwares de visualização da informação, desses software dezenove são gratuitas que uma vez submetidos às etapas de triagem, de seleção, de avaliação por meio de mecanismo de interação e levantamento das técnicas de visualização foram reduzidos para dois com finalidade a simular a geração de informação em duas base de dados educacionais. Foram identificadas vinte e duas técnicas de visualização de informação como facilitadoras no processo de representação da informação. Foram realizados dois experimentos com objetivo de extrair algumas informações que sejam úteis para um gestor educativo no seu processo de tomada de decisão utilizando as diversas técnicas de visualização presentes nos dois software selecionados. Espera-se que esta pesquisa seja útil para os gestores educacionais ou qualquer gerente de outra organização a fim de servir como guia na escolha das técnicas nos software gratuitos estudados nesta pesquisa facilitando o entendimento das informações por meio de representação gráfica como auxilio no processo de tomada de decisão. Palavras Chaves: Tecnologia da informação, Sistema de informação, Visualização da informação, Instituição de Ensino Superior, Tomada de decisão.Abstract: Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) can not underestimate the amount of information available to them and the need for an effective information system for processing and analysis of such data. The information has to flow the institution's management to the staff, teachers and students and vice versa. This information reflects primarily on the plans, policies / decisions, programs, prospects and problems of the institution. HEIs are increasingly seeking more efficient technology to support the decision-making procedures in the process of defining new strategies and improving institutional management. One way to effectively address the challenges to improve the organizational quality of the information is to provide new knowledge related to educational processes and system entities. This knowledge can be extracted from historical and operational data residing in the organization's databases, but it is not treated and nor understood by the lack of technical knowledge and information visualization tools. Hence the importance of the study that aims to investigate the information visualization techniques available in free software as an aid to decision making managers in Higher Education Institutions. Exploratory research discusses through a literature review on the concepts: information visualization for decision making with their techniques, technologies and applications related to imaging. In the experimental phase, were investigated forty information visualization software, these software are free nineteen once subjected to screening steps, selection, evaluation through interaction mechanism and survey of visualization techniques were reduced to two with the purpose simulating the generation of two educational information in the database. Were identified twenty-two information visualization techniques as facilitators in the information representation process. Two experiments were conducted in order to extract some information that is useful for an educational manager in its decision-making process using the various visualization techniques present in the two selected software. It is hoped that this research will be useful for educational managers or any other organization manager to serve as a guide in the choice of techniques in free software studied in this research facilitating the understanding of the information by means of imaging as an aid in making decision. Keywords: Information of Technology, Information System, Information Visualization, Higher Education. Decisions Makin