Decision Support & Cloud Computing in Retail

This assignment examines the critical role of Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Cloud Computing (CC) in modern retail businesses. It highlights the importance of these technologies for success in today's dynamic market, emphasizing their impact on scalability, flexibility, mobility, and cost-effectiveness. The assignment also delves into the benefits of CC for retailers, such as increased market share and reduced resource wastage through a leased model. Furthermore, it explores the challenges associated with adopting CC in business.

Informatics and Financial Applications Retail Industry
Informatics and Financial Applications
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[Assignment]
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[Name] [Student Number] i

Informatics and Financial Applications Retail Industry
Executive Summary
Information technology has come a long way since its inception where businesses and
organization used it as a supplementary component to support operations. In today’s world,
information technology is used as a fundamental component of business operations which
necessitates the need to deploy its infrastructure before conducting business. Moreover, its
subsidiary elements such as information systems are now used to manage industries and
businesses as they efficiently collaborate information to give conclusive results. It is from
these results that better organizational decisions are made which facilitate the success of an
enterprise. Now, consider the recent advances in the fields of IT and IS where virtualization
seems to offer a new environment for deploying business services and products. Through this
new platforms, businesses are able to increase their customer market size, an outcome that
inevitably increases revenues and profits. In all, visualization and IS are the key to the
success of future enterprises as illustrated by the combination of cloud computing, the most
common virtualization technique and IS. In light of these outcomes, this report focuses on
these two technological advances (Cloud computing and IS) in business more so, in retail
functionalities where services and products are offered to the end customer.
Keywords: Information systems (IS), Cloud computing (CC), Decision support system
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Informatics and Financial Applications Retail Industry
Table of Contents
Contents Page
Introduction........................................................................................3
Decision support systems in business................................................3
Cloud computing................................................................................5
Conclusion...........................................................................................6
References............................................................................................7
Table of Figures
Figure 1: DSS model of Inventory decisions........................................................5
Figure 2: A monthly estimate of a cloud server...................................................7
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Informatics and Financial Applications Retail Industry
Introduction
Information systems encapsulate many functionalities and components that support business
operations, decision support systems are among these elements that facilitate decision
making. In essence, DSS are described as systems that collaborate computer technologies
with communication and decision-making processes. Therefore, these systems collect,
interpret and analyse data to support an organization’s decision making stages, from
identifying the problem to developing an effective solution (Semo, 2012). DSS, therefore, are
highly dependent on the knowledge bases held by an organization or enterprise. Take the
example of the retail industry where decisions involving product supply, sales and marketing
are coordinated. The people involved must assess millions of records to make good decisions,
a function facilitated by DSS.
Consequently, cloud computing offers the support infrastructure for IS through online
platforms i.e. the internet. It is through CC that enterprises are able to deploy services to
multiple locations using cost effective procedures. This outcome is facilitated by the fact that
CC resources are leased based on the immediate needs of the consumer which enhances
productivity. Therefore, when combined with IS, CC increases the availability, mobility and
flexibility of enterprise resources which is evident in the modern structure of business where
services are delivered directly to consumers. The retail industry is a good example where
businesses now host products online facilitated by IS and CC, a technological application in
enterprises that have increased business outcome through revenues and profits (Marston, et
al., 2010).
Decision support systems in business
Retail businesses such as supermarkets require to regularly make decisions regarding their
daily operations. Among these decisions are inventory considerations where the
service/product stock is managed to ensure it fits the needs of the end consumer while
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Informatics and Financial Applications Retail Industry
meeting its lifetime. In simple terms, the products at hand should perfectly fit the demand
without having excessive products, moreover, the opposite outcome should not happen either
as it would lead to losses. Therefore, consider the decisions at hand, where resources must be
allocated based on their demands while prospecting the number of customers who would
shop in the store. Now, for a physical system (man driven) the person would account for the
number of consumers through an estimation exercise. Secondly, the person would then
consider the products and their purchase value before allocating the necessary stock
(inventory) (Arnott & Pervan, 2005).
Figure 1: DSS model of Inventory decisions
While the simple process highlighted above may work its prone to many errors more so
because it based on estimation and assumptions. DSS eliminate this form of business
operations and instead uses factual results and not intuitions. For one, the DSS in place would
start by identifying the variables of the retail business (supermarket). These variables will
include stock requirements, purchase value, sale value and customer numbers among many
others. These variables would be obtained from the existing records which were either fed by
the user or are collected from a supporting database (knowledge base). Finally, the system at
hand would produce several decision outcomes based on the analysis done using the available
[Name] [Student Number] 2
Main-frame
data
Cloud-based
data
Inventory variable
Stock amount
Stock value
Sale value
Purchase value
Etc.
Final results
based on
analytics

Informatics and Financial Applications Retail Industry
variables as outlined in the diagram above Figure 1: DSS model of Inventory decisions. In
all, the system contributes to business by forecasting functionalities and operational outcomes
through factual results, an important component of business success (Nowduri, 2012).
Cloud computing
CC is sometimes misunderstood because of its virtual nature where resources are available
while lacking a physical manifestation, an outcome that contributes to many speculations that
sometimes deters its application. However, CC in simple terms is the use of other people’s
resource e.g. a computer. Therefore, a resource not owned by a business or organization is
leased from another party who has it in abundance. Consider, the retail business highlighted
above, (a supermarket) nowadays these businesses will host their products online including
the available inventory. This inventory is made up of millions if not billions of records which
require extensive storage facilities. CC provides these resources very easily as its services are
scalable based on the needs of the end user, who in this case is a supermarket (Oredo &
Njihia, 2014).
Benefits and opportunities of CC: In a retail business, CC offers a new environment of doing
business which increases the market share as a new demographic of customers is introduced
into the business. Secondly, the new environment is offered in a cost effective way as
resources are leased based on demand which facilitates their application only when needed,
which again cuts down on the wastage of resources. A good example of this benefit is
outlined by the chart below Figure 2: A monthly estimate of a cloud server, which illustrates
a comparison between CC and in-house facilities. Furthermore, CC introduces the benefits of
IT/IS in business i.e. scalability, flexibility and mobility of resources, which are important
elements for conducting enterprise operations (Aljabre, 2012).
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Informatics and Financial Applications Retail Industry
Figure 2: A monthly estimate of a cloud server
Conclusion
Enterprises today cannot do without information technology, in fact, their success is directly
dependent on the functionalities of IT and its affiliated resources. This conclusion is based on
the nature of business today where customers demand immediate services based on their
needs. Traditional business models cannot fit this bill as outlined by companies who in the
past have failed to incorporate IT into business. Therefore, the components highlighted
above, DSS and CC are mandatory elements of business today, more so in the retail industry.
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References
Aljabre, A., 2012. Cloud Computing for Increased Business Value. International Journal of
Business and Social Science, pp. Retrieved 31 August, 2017, from:
http://ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol_3_No_1_January_2012/26.pdf.
Arnott, D. & Pervan, G., 2005. A critical analysis of decision support systems research.
Research gate, pp. Retrieved 31 August, 2017, from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31955014_A_critical_analysis_of_decision_support
_systems_research.
Marston, S. et al., 2010. Cloud computing-the business perspective. DSS, pp. Retrieved 31
August, 2017, from: http://www.keencomputer.com/images/KEENCOMP/CLOUD/cloud-
computing-business-perspective.pdf.
Nowduri, S., 2012. Management information systems and business decision making: review,
analysis, and recommendations. Journal of Management and Marketing Research, pp.
Retrieved 31 August, 2017, from: http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/10736.pdf.
Oredo, J. & Njihia, J., 2014. Challenges of Cloud Computing in Business: Towards New
Organizational Competencies. International Journal of Business and Social Science , pp.
Retrieved 31 August, 2017, from:
http://www.ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol_5_No_3_March_2014/18.pdf.
Semo, 2012. Decision support systems. Overview, pp. Retrieved 31 August, 2017, from:
http://cstl-hcb.semo.edu/sbeom/iebmdssrwweb.PDF.
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