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Spreadsheet-Based Decision Support Systems M.M.H. Seref and R.K. Ahuja, A chapter to appear in Handbook on Decision Support Systems, edited by F. Burstein and C.W. Holsapple, Springer Verlag, pp. 277-298. 2007 With the increasing use of information technology and availability of high quality data, business organizations have a greater need for analyzing data and using this analysis to guide their decisions. An information system based on decision models is called a decision support system (DSS). A DSS uses the data residing in spreadsheets and/or databases, models it, processes or analyzes it using problem-specific methodologies, and assists the user in the decision-making process through a graphical user interface. In this chapter, we discuss the usefulness and capabilities of spreadsheet software for developing a DSS. Spreadsheets are a great option for developing many DSS applications since they are available with almost any operational system and have many features that are relatively easy to learn and can be implemented for a large variety of problems. |