A Brief History of Decision Support Systeams

by D. J. Power Editor, DSSResources.COM Abstract

Information Systems researchers and technologists have built and investigated Decision Support Systems (DSS) for more than 35 years. This paper chronicles and explores the developments in DSS beginning with building modeloriented DSS in the late 1960s, theory developments in the 1970s, financial planning systems and Group DSS in the early and mid 80s. Then it documents the origins of Executive Information Systems, OLAP and Business Intelligence. Finally, the discussion ends with Web-based DSS in the mid-1990s.

Introduction
Decision Support Systems evolved early in the era of distributed computing. The history of such systems begins in about 1967 and it is important to start formalizing a record of the ideas, people, systems and technologies involved in this important area of applied information technology. Today it is still possible to reconstruct the history of Decision Support Systems from first-hand accounts and unpublished materials as well as published articles. This hypertext paper is a starting point in documenting the origins of the various technology threads that are converging at the start of the 21st Century to provide integrated support for managers working alone, in teams and in organization hierarchies to manage organizations and make more rational decisions. History is both a guide to future activity in this field and a record of the ideas and actions of those who have helped advance our thinking and practice. In a technology field as diverse as DSS, history is not neat and linear. Different people have perceived the field from various vantage points and so they report different accounts of what happened and what was

important. Some of this can be sorted out, but more data gathering is necessary. This paper is a starting point in collecting more first hand accounts and in building a more complete mosaic of what was occurring in universities, software companies and in organizations to build and use DSS. The next few sections move from about 1965 to the mid1990s. The DSS threads related to model-oriented DSS, query and reporting tools, OLAP, Business Intelligence, Group DSS, and Executive Information Systems are traced and interwoven as they appear to converge and diverge over the years.

The Early Years

Prior to 1965, it was very expensive to build large-scale information systems. At about this time, the development of the IBM System 360 and other more powerful mainframe systems made it more practical and cost-effective to develop Management Information Systems (MIS) in large companies. MIS focused on providing managers with structured, periodic reports. Much of the information was from accounting and transaction systems. In the late 1960s, a new type of information system became practical model-oriented DSS or management decision systems. Two DSS pioneers, Peter Keen and Charles Stabell, claim the concept of decision support evolved from "the theoretical studies of organizational decisionmaking done at the Carnegie Institute of Technology during the late 1950s and early '60s and the technical work on interactive computer systems, mainly carried out at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1960s. (Keen and Scott Morton, 1978 preface)" Some historical information about the MIT project on interactive computer systems (Project MAC) is at multicians.org. According to Sprague and Watson (1979), around 1970 business journals started to publish articles on management decision systems, strategic planning systems and decision support systems. For example, Ferguson and Jones (1969) discussed a computer aided decision system. In 1971, Michael S. Scott Mortons ground breaking book Management Decision Systems: Computer-Based

Support for Decision Making was published. In 1968-69 Scott Morton studied how computers and analytical models could help managers make a key decision. He conducted an experiment in which managers actually used a Management Decision System (MDS). Marketing and production managers used an MDS to coordinate production planning for laundry equipment. Scott Morton's research was a pioneering implementation, definition and research test of a model-based decision support system. T.P. Gerrity, Jr. focused on Decision Support Systems design issues in his 1971 Sloan Management Review article titled "The Design of Man-Machine Decision Systems: An Application to Portfolio Management". His system was designed to support investment managers in their daily administration of a clients' stock portfolio. DSS for portfolio management have become very sophisticated since Gerrity began his research. In 1974, Gordon Davis, a Professor at the University of Minnesota, published his influential text on Management Information Systems. He defined a Management Information System as "an integrated, man/machine system for providing information to support the operations, management, and decision-making functions in an organization. (p. 5)." Davis's Chapter 12 titled "Information System Support for Decision Making", and Chapter 13 titled "Information System Support for Planning and Control" created the setting for the development of a broad foundation for DSS research and practice. By 1975, J. D. C. Little was expanding the frontiers of computer-supported modeling. Little's DSS called Brandaid was designed to support product, promotion, pricing and advertising decisions. Also, Little (1970) in an earlier article identified criteria for designing models and systems to support management decision--making. His four criteria included: robustness, ease of control, simplicity, and completeness of relevant detail. All four criteria remain relevant in evaluating modern Decision Support Systems. Klein and Methlie (1995) note "A study of the origin of DSS has still to be written. It seems that the first DSS papers were published by PhD students or professors in business schools, who had access to the first time-sharing computer

system: Project MAC at the Sloan School, the Dartmouth Time Sharing Systems at the Tuck School. In France, HEC was the first French business school to have a time-sharing system (installed in 1967), and the first DSS papers were published by professors of the School in 1970. The term SIAD ('Systmes Interactif d'Aide la Dcision' the French term DSS) and the concept of DSS were developed independently in France, in several articles by professors of the HEC working on the SCARABEE project which started in 1969 and ended in 1974."

Developing Theory
In the late 1970s, both practice and theory issues related to DSS were discussed at academic conferences including the American Institute for Decision Sciences meetings (cf., Power and Rose, 1976) and the ACM SIGBDP Conference on Decision Support Systems in San Jose, CA, January 24-26, 1977. Academic conferences provided forums for idea sharing and information exchange. MIT researchers including Peter Keen and Michael Scott Morton were especially influential. Keen and Scott Mortons DSS textbook (1978) provided a comprehensive behavioral orientation to Decision Support System analysis, design, implementation, evaluation and development. In 1980, Steven Alter published his MIT doctoral dissertation results in an influential book titled Decision Support Systems: Current Practice and Continuing Challenge. Alter's research and papers (1975; 1977) expanded the framework for our thinking about management DSS. Also, his case studies provided a firm descriptive foundation of Decision Support System examples. A number of other MIT dissertations completed in the mid- and late 1970s also dealt with issues related to using models for decision support. In 1979, John Rockart of the Harvard Business School published a ground breaking article in the Harvard Business Review that led to the development of executive information systems (EISs) or executive support systems (ESS). Bonczek, Holsapple, and Whinston (1981) created a theoretical framework for understanding the issues

associated with designing knowledge-oriented Decision Support Systems. Their book showed how Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems technologies were relevant to developing DSS. Ralph Sprague and Eric Carlsons (1982) book Building Effective Decision Support Systems was an important milestone. It provided a practical, understandable overview of how organizations could and should build DSS. Although their book probably created some unrealistic expectations, the problems stemmed more from the limits of the existing technologies for building DSS rather than the limits of the concepts Sprague and Carlson presented.

Expanding the Framework

By the late 1970s, a number of companies had developed interactive information systems that used data and models to help managers analyze semi-structured problems. These diverse systems were all called Decision Support Systems. From those early days, it was recognized that DSS could be designed to support decision-makers at any level in an organization. DSS could support operations, financial management and strategic decision-making. Financial planning systems became popular decision support tools. The idea was to create a "language" that would "allow executives to build models without intermediaries (Gray, 1987, p. 3)". A popular financial planning systems called IFPS, an acronym for interactive financial planning system, was originally developed in the late 1970's by Gerald R. Wagner and his students at the University of Texas. Wagners company, EXECUCOM Systems, marketed IFPS until the mid 1990s. One major advantage that a planning language has over a spreadsheet is that the model is written using natural language and the model can be separated from the data. In the early 80s, spreadsheets were also used for building model-driven DSS. See "A Brief History of Spreadsheets". In the mid-1980s, academic researchers developed a new category of software to support group decision-making. Mindsight from Execucom Systems, GroupSystems developed at the University of Arizona and the SAMM system developed by University of Minnesota researchers

were the early Group DSS. Dickson, Poole and DeSanctis (1992) report that Brent Gallup, a Ph.D. student at Minnesota, decided in 1984 to "to program his own small GDSS system in BASIC and run it on his universitys VAX computer". That system was the start of the Minnesota GDSS studies. Jay Nunamaker, Jr. and his colleagues wrote in 1992 that "The underlying concept for GroupSystems had its beginning in 1965 with the development of Problem Statement Language/Problem Statement Analyzer (PSL/PSA) as part of the ISDOS (Information System Design and Optimization System) project at Case Institute of Technology (p. 144)". In 1984, a system called PLEXSYS was completed and the first computer-assisted group meeting facility was constructed at the University of Arizona. The first facility, called the PlexCenter, housed a large U-shaped conference table with 16 computer workstations. PLEXSYS provided the foundation for the development of the University of Arizona GroupSystems software. Since the mid-80s, many research studies have examined the impacts and consequences of Group DSS. Also, a number of companies have commercialized Group DSS and groupware. Click to see a group decision support room. Executive Information Systems (EIS) evolved from single user model-driven Decision Support systems and improved relational database products. The first EIS used pre-defined information screens and were maintained by analysts for senior executives. Beginning in about 1990, data warehousing and On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) began broadening the realm of EIS and defined a broader category of Data-Driven DSS (cf., Dhar and Stein, 1997). Multidimensional analysis and OLAP had origins in the APL programming language in systems like Express and Comshares System W. Pendse (1998) claims the first Executive Information System product was Pilot Softwares Command Center. A more detailed history on the origins of OLAP products written by Nigel Pendse (1998) is available on the Web at URL http://www.olapreport.com/. Nylund (1999) traces the developments associated with Business Intelligence (BI) to Procter & Gambles efforts in 1985 to build a DSS that linked sales information and retail scanner data. Metaphor Computer Systems, a spinoff of researchers from Xeroxs Palo Alto Research Center (PARC),

built the early P&G DSS. Metaphor alumni latter founded many of the BI vendors: Richard Tanler founded Information Advantage and Katherine Glassey co-founded Brio Technologies.

Technology Shift
Beginning in about 1990, Bill Inmon and Ralph Kimball actively promoted DSS built using relational database technologies. For many MIS practioners, DSS built using Oracle or DB2 were the only decision support systems they were exposed to in the popular computing literature. Model-driven DSS were in the domain of operations research and were not part of Information Systems. Ralph Kimball was "The Doctor of DSS" and Bill Inmon was the "father of the data warehouse". Inmon defined decision support system (DSS) as "a system used to support managerial decisions. Usually DSS involves the analysis of many units of data in a heuristic fashion. As a rule, DSS processing does not involve the update of data (cf., billinmon.com)." Inmon and Kimball focused on building data-driven DSS. In the early 1990s, a major technology shift occurred from mainframe-based DSS to client/server-based DSS. Some desktop OLAP tools were introduced during this time period. In 1992-93, some vendors started recommending object-oriented technology for building "re-usable" decision support capabilities. In 1994, many companies started to upgrade their network infrastructures. DBMS vendors "recognized that decision support was different from OLTP and started implementing real OLAP capabilities into their databases" (Powell, 2001). Paul Gray asserts that around 1993 the data warehouse and the EIS people found one another and the two niche technologies have been converging. In 1995, data warehousing and the World Wide Web began to impact practitioners and academics interested in decision support technologies. Web-based and web-enabled DSS became feasible in about 1995 (cf., Power, 2000; Bhargava and Power, 2001). The history of Decision Support Systems is relatively brief, and the concepts and technologies are still evolving. Today it is still possible to reconstruct the history of Decision Support Systems (DSS) from retrospective accounts from

key participants as well as from published and unpublished materials. Many of the early innovators and early developers are retiring but their insights and actions can be captured to guide future innovation in this field. It is hoped this paper leads to email and retrospective accounts that can help us understand the "real" history of DSS. The Internet and Web have speeded-up developments in decision support and have provided a new means of capturing and documenting the development of knowledge in this research area. Decision support pioneers include many academic researchers from schools like MIT, University of Arizona, University of Minnesota and Purdue University. The DSS pioneers created particular and distinct streams of technology development and research that serve as the foundation for much of todays work in DSS. Tm tt H thng thng tin cc nh nghin cu v cng ngh xy dng v iu tra cc h thng h tr quyt nh (DSS) cho hn 35 nm. Bi vit ny bin nin s v khm ph s pht trin trong u DSS vi xy dng m hnh theo nh hng DSS vo cui nhng nm 1960, l thuyt pht trin trong nhng nm 1970, h thng lp k hoch ti chnh v cc DSS Tp on trong nhng nm 80 u v gia. Sau ti liu ngun gc ca H thng thng tin iu hnh, OLAP v Kinh doanh thng minh. Cui cng, tho lun kt thc vi DSS da trn web vo gia nhng nm 1990. Gii thiu Quyt nh h thng h tr pht trin sm trong thi i ca tnh ton phn tn. Lch s ca h thng nh vy bt u trong khong 1967 v iu quan trng l bt u chnh thc ha h s v nhng tng, con ngi, h thng v cng ngh tham gia trong lnh vc ny quan trng ca cng ngh thng tin p dng. Ngy nay n vn cn c th ti to li lch s ca cc h thng h tr quyt nh t ti khon v cc ti liu u tay cha c cng b cng nh cc bi bo xut bn. Giy siu vn bn ny l mt im khi u trong ti liu ngun gc ca cc ch cng ngh khc nhau ang hi t ti u ca th k 21 cung cp h tr tch hp cho cc nh qun l lm vic mt mnh, trong cc nhm v phn cp t chc qun l cc t chc v a ra cc quyt nh hp l hn. Lch s l c mt hng dn hot ng trong tng lai trong lnh vc ny v ghi li mt trong nhng tng v hnh ng ca nhng ngi gip thc y t duy v thc hnh ca chng ti. Trong mt lnh vc cng ngh nh l a dng nh DSS, lch s khng phi l gn gng v tuyn tnh. Nhng ngi khc nhau nhn thc cc lnh vc t cc im thun li khc nhau v do h bo co ti khon khc nhau ca nhng g xy ra v nhng g l quan trng. Mt s ny c th c sp xp, nhng thu thp nhiu d liu hn l cn thit. Bi bo ny l mt im khi u trong vic thu thp cc ti khon hn 1 tay v xy dng mt bc tranh khm y hn v nhng g xy ra ti cc trng i hc, cc cng ty phn mm v trong cc t chc xy dng v s dng DSS. Cc phn tip theo chuyn ng t khong 1965 n gia nhng nm 1990. Cc ch DSS lin quan n cc DSS nh hng m hnh, truy vn v cc cng c bo co, OLAP,

Business Intelligence, cc DSS Tp on, v H thng thng tin iu hnh truy tm v an xen nh chng xut hin hi t v phn k trong nhng nm qua. u nm Trc khi n 1965, n l rt tn km xy dng h thng thng tin quy m ln. Ti thi im ny, s pht trin ca h thng IBM 360 v cc h thng my tnh ln khc mnh hn lm cho n thc t hn v chi ph-hiu qu pht trin H thng Thng tin Qun l (MIS) trong cc cng ty ln. MIS tp trung vo vic cung cp qun l vi cu trc, bo co nh k. Phn ln thng tin l t cc h thng k ton v giao dch. Vo cui nhng nm 1960, mt loi mi ca h thng thng tin tr thnh thc t - DSS hoc h thng nh hng m hnh quyt nh qun l. Hai ngi tin phong DSS, Peter Keen v Charles Stabell, yu cu bi thng cc khi nim v h tr quyt nh pht trin t cc nghin cu l thuyt ra quyt nh t chc thc hin ti Vin Carnegie Cng ngh trong thi gian cui nhng nm 1950 v u nhng nm 60 v lm vic k thut v h thng my tnh tng tc, ch yu l thc hin ti Vin Cng ngh Massachusetts vo nhng nm 1960. (Keen v Scott Morton, 1978 li ni u) "Mt s thng tin lch s v cc d n MIT trn cc h thng my tnh tng tc (d n MAC) l multicians.org. Theo Sprague v Watson (1979), 1970, tp ch kinh doanh bt u xut bn cc bi vit trn cc h thng quyt nh qun l, h thng lp k hoch chin lc v h thng h tr quyt nh. V d, Ferguson v Jones (1969) tho lun quyt nh mt h thng my tnh h tr. Nm 1971, Michael S. Scott Morton th cun sch Qun l Quyt nh h thng: H tr cho my tnh da trn vic ra quyt nh c xut bn. Nm 1968-1969, Scott Morton nghin cu lm th no my tnh v cc m hnh phn tch c th gip cc nh qun l a ra quyt nh quan trng. ng tin hnh mt th nghim, trong qun l thc t s dng mt h thng qun l Quyt nh (MDS). Sn xut, tip th v qun l s dng MDS phi hp lp k hoch sn xut cho cc thit b git. Nghin cu ca Scott Morton l mt thc hin tin phong, nh ngha v kim tra nghin cu ca mt h thng h tr quyt nh da trn m hnh. T.P. Gerrity, Jr. Tp trung vo cc vn Quyt nh H thng h tr thit k trong 1.971 bi vit Qun l Sloan nh gi ca ng c tiu "Thit k h thng Quyt nh ManMachine: Mt ng dng qun l danh mc u t". H thng ca ng c thit k h tr qun l u t trong qun l danh mc u t chng khon ca khch hng hng ngy ca h. DSS cho qun l danh mc u t tr nn rt phc tp k t khi Gerrity bt u nghin cu ca ng. Nm 1974, Gordon Davis, mt gio s ti i hc Minnesota, cng b vn bn nh hng ca mnh v cc h thng thng tin qun l. ng nh ngha mt h thng thng tin qun l l "ngi n ng mt h thng tch hp / my, cung cp thng tin h tr cc hot ng, qun l v ra quyt nh chc nng trong mt t chc (trang 5). Davis ca Chng 12 c tiu "Thng tin h thng h tr cho vic ra quyt nh", v Chng 13 c tiu "Thng tin h thng h tr cho K hoch v kim sot" to ra cc thit lp cho s pht trin ca mt nn tng rng ln cho nghin cu v thc hnh DSS. n nm 1975, JDC c rt t m rng bin gii ca m hnh my tnh h tr. DSS c gi l ca t Brandaid c thit k h tr sn phm, khuyn mi, gi c v quyt nh qung co. Ngoi ra, Little (1970) trong bi vit trc mt tiu ch xc nh thit k m hnh v h thng h tr quyt nh lm qun l. Tiu chun 4 ca ng bao gm: mnh m, d dng kim sot, n gin, y v chi tit c lin quan. Tt c bn tiu ch vn cn c lin quan trong vic nh gi h thng h tr quyt nh hin i.

Klein v Methlie (1995) lu : "Mt nghin cu v ngun gc ca DSS vn cn phi c bng vn bn. C v nh rng cc giy t DSS u tin c xut bn bi cc nghin cu sinh hoc gio s ti trng kinh doanh, ngi c quyn truy cp vo h thng my tnh u tin chia s thi gian : D n MAC ti trng Sloan, Thi gian Dartmouth H thng chia s ti trng Tuck Ti Php, HEC l trng kinh doanh u tin ca Php c mt h thng chia s thi gian (c ci t vo nm 1967), v cc giy t DSS u tin c xut bn bi cc gio s ca trng trong nm 1970. Siad hn (Systmes Interactif d'Aide la Quyt nh 'thut ng ting Php DSS) v khi nim ca DSS c pht trin c lp Php, trong mt s iu ca cc gio s ca HEC lm vic trn cc d n SCARABEE bt u vo nm 1969 v kt thc vo nm 1974. " Pht trin L thuyt Vo cui nhng nm 1970, c hai vn thc hnh v l thuyt lin quan n DSS c tho lun ti cc hi ngh hc tp bao gm c Vin M cho Quyt nh cc cuc hp Khoa hc (x., in v Rose, 1976) v Hi ngh ACM SIGBDP v cc h thng h tr quyt nh San Jose, CA , 24-ngy 26 Thng 1, 1977. Hi ngh hc tp cung cp din n chia s tng v trao i thng tin. Cc nh nghin cu MIT bao gm c Peter Keen v Michael Scott Morton c bit l nh hng. Sch gio khoa DSS Keen v Scott Morton (1978) cung cp mt nh hng hnh vi ton din h tr quyt nh H thng phn tch, thit k, nh gi, thc hin v pht trin. Nm 1980, Steven Alter cng b kt qu MIT lun n tin s ca ng trong mt cun sch c nh hng c tiu H thng h tr quyt nh: thc hnh hin ti v thch thc tip tc. Alter ca nghin cu v cc giy t (1975, 1977) m rng khun kh cho cch suy ngh v DSS qun l. Ngoi ra, cc nghin cu trng hp ca ng cung cp mt nn tng vng chc m t v d h thng h tr quyt nh. Mt s lun n MIT khc hon thnh vo gia nhng nm 1970 v cui cng x l cc vn lin quan n s dng cc m hnh h tr quyt nh. Nm 1979, John John F. Rockart ca Trng Kinh doanh Harvard xut bn mt bi vit th trong Harvard Business Review dn n s pht trin ca h thng thng tin iu hnh (EISs) hoc h thng h tr iu hnh (ESS). Bonczek, Holsapple, v Whinston (1981) to ra mt khun kh l thuyt cho s hiu bit cc vn lin quan n thit k theo nh hng h thng h tr quyt nh tri thc. Cun sch ca h cho thy Tr tu nhn to v chuyn gia h thng cng ngh lin quan n DSS pht trin. Ralph Sprague v Eric Carlson (1982) cun sch Xy dng h thng h tr hiu qu Quyt nh l mt ct mc quan trng. N cung cp mt ci nhn tng quan, thc t d hiu lm th no t chc c th v cn phi xy dng DSS. Mc d cun sch ca h c th to ra mt s k vng khng thc t, cc vn xut pht t cc gii hn ca cng ngh hin c cc DSS xy dng ch khng phi l gii hn ca khi nim Sprague v Carlson trnh by. M rng khung Vo cui nhng nm 1970, mt s cng ty pht trin h thng thng tin tng tc s dng d liu v cc m hnh gip cc nh qun l phn tch vn bn cu trc. Nhng h thng khc nhau c gi l h thng h tr quyt nh. T nhng ngy u, n c cng nhn l DSS c th c thit k h tr ra quyt nh mi cp trong mt t chc. DSS c th h tr cc hot ng, qun l ti chnh v chin lc ra quyt nh.

H thng k hoch ti chnh tr thnh ph bin cng c h tr quyt nh. tng l to ra mt "ngn ng" s cho php gim c iu hnh xy dng cc m hnh m khng cn trung gian (Gray, 1987, trang 3) ". Mt h thng ti chnh lp k hoch ph bin c gi l IFPS, mt t vit tt cho h thng tng tc lp k hoch ti chnh, ban u c pht trin vo cui nhng nm 1970 bi Gerald R. Wagner v sinh vin ca mnh ti i hc Texas. Wagner, EXECUCOM h thng ca cng ty, th trng IFPS cho n gia nhng nm 1990. Mt li th ln l mt ngn ng lp k hoch c hn mt bng tnh m m hnh ny c vit bng cch s dng ngn ng t nhin v m hnh c th c tch ra t cc d liu. Trong nhng nm u 80, bng tnh cng c s dng xy dng m hnh iu khin DSS. Xem "Lch s vn tt ca Spreadsheets". Trong gia nhng nm 1980, cc nh nghin cu pht trin mt th loi mi ca phn mm h tr nhm ra quyt nh. Mindsight t h thng Execucom, GroupSystems pht trin ti i hc Arizona v h thng SAMM pht trin bi cc nh nghin cu i hc Minnesota DSS Tp on u. Dickson, Poole v DeSanctis (1992) bo co rng Brent Gallup, bng tin s sinh vin ti Minnesota, quyt nh vo nm 1984 " chng trnh ring ca h thng GDSS nh ca mnh trong BASIC v chy n trn my tnh VAX trng i hc ca mnh". H thng ny l khi u ca GDSS nghin cu Minnesota. Jay Nunamaker, Jr. V cc ng nghip ca ng vit vo nm 1992 rng: "Khi nim c bn cho GroupSystems bt u vo nm 1965 vi s pht trin ca phn tch bn Tuyn B Vn bn Tuyn B Language / Vn (PSL / PSA) l mt phn ca ISDOS (Thit k H thng thng tin v Ti u ha h thng) d n ti Vin Trng hp ca Cng ngh (trang 144) ". Trong nm 1984, mt h thng gi l PLEXSYS c hon thnh v my tnh h tr nhm c s cuc hp u tin c xy dng ti i hc Arizona. Cc c s u tin, c gi l PlexCenter, t mt bng hnh ch U-hi ngh ln vi 16 my trm my tnh. PLEXSYS cung cp nn tng cho s pht trin ca i hc ca Arizona GroupSystems phn mm. K t gia thp k 80, nhiu nghin cu xem xt cc tc ng v hu qu ca DSS Tp on. Ngoi ra, mt s cng ty thng mi ha nhm DSS v phn mm nhm. Nhn vo y xem mt phng nhm h tr quyt nh. H thng thng tin iu hnh (EIS) pht trin t m hnh theo nh hng ngi s dng duy nht h thng h tr quyt nh v cc sn phm c s d liu ci thin quan h. EIS u tin s dng mn hnh thng tin c xc nh trc v c duy tr bi cc nh phn tch cho iu hnh cp cao. Bt u t khong 1990, kho d liu v On-Line x l phn tch (OLAP) bt u m rng lnh vc ca EIS v xc nh mt th loi rng ln hn ca Data-Driven DSS (x., Dhar v cc Stein, 1997). OLAP a chiu phn tch v c ngun gc t ngn ng lp trnh APL trong cc h thng nh Express v h thng W. Pendse Comshare (1998) tuyn b sn phm H thng thng tin iu hnh u tin l Trung tm ch huy ca th im phn mm. Mt lch s chi tit hn v ngun gc ca sn phm OLAP bng vn bn ca Nigel Pendse (1998) c sn trn Web ti http://www.olapreport.com/ URL. Nylund (1999) du vt s pht trin lin kt vi Business Intelligence (BI) n lc Procter & Gamble vo nm 1985 xy dng mt DSS rng doanh s bn hng lin kt thng tin v d liu my qut bn l. n d h thng my tnh, mt ph phm ca cc nh nghin cu t Trung tm nghin cu Palo Alto ca Xerox (PARC), c xy dng P & G DSS u. Th hai n d cu sinh vin thnh lp nhiu cc nh cung cp BI: Richard Tanler thnh lp Li th thng tin v Katherine Brio Glassey Cng ngh ng sng lp. Cng ngh phm Shift

Bt u t khong 1990, Bill Inmon v Ralph Kimball DSS tch cc xc tin xy dng bng cch s dng cc cng ngh c s d liu quan h. i vi nhiu practioners MIS, DSS c xy dng bng cch s dng Oracle hoc DB2 l h thng h tr quyt nh duy nht h c tip xc vi vn hc tnh ton ph bin. Model-driven DSS trong lnh vc hot ng nghin cu v khng phi l mt phn ca H thng thng tin. Ralph Kimball l "Bc s ca DSS v Bill Inmon l" cha ca cc kho d liu ". Inmon xc nh h thng h tr quyt nh (DSS) l mt h thng c s dng h tr cc quyt nh qun l thng DSS lin quan n vic phn tch ca nhiu n v ca d liu trong mt thi trang heuristic. Theo quy nh, DSS ch bin khng lin quan n vic cp nht d liu (x., billinmon.com). " Inmon v Kimball tp trung vo xy dng d liu iu khin DSS. Trong u nhng nm 1990, mt s thay i cng ngh ln xy ra t DSS my tnh ln da trn client / server-DSS. Mt s cng c OLAP my tnh bn c gii thiu trong khong thi gian ny. Nm 1992-1993, mt s nh cung cp bt u gii thiu cng ngh hng i tng xy dng "li c th s dng" kh nng h tr quyt nh. Trong nm 1994, nhiu cng ty bt u nng cp c s h tng mng ca h. DBMS cc nh cung cp "cng nhn rng quyt nh h tr khc nhau t OLTP v bt u thc hin cc OLAP kh nng thc s vo c s d liu ca h" (Powell, 2001). Paul xm khng nh rng khong nm 1993, cc kho d liu v ngi EIS tm thy nhau v hai cng ngh thch hp c hi t. Nm 1995, kho d liu v World Wide Web bt u vi cc hc vin tc ng v cc hc gi quan tm n cng ngh h tr quyt nh. Cc DSS da trn web v web cho php tr nn kh thi trong khong 1995 (cf., Power, 2000; Bhargava v Power, 2001). Lch s ca h thng h tr quyt nh l tng i ngn gn, v cc khi nim v cng ngh vn ang tin trin. Ngy nay n vn cn c th ti to li lch s ca cc h thng h tr quyt nh (DSS) t ti khon hi t ngi tham gia quan trng cng nh t cc nguyn liu c v cha c cng b. Nhiu ngi trong s nhng nh ci cch sm v cc nh pht trin u c ngh hu nhng nhng hiu bit v hnh ng ca h c th b bt gi hng dn s i mi trong tng lai trong lnh vc ny. Hy vng bi bo ny dn n cc ti khon email v truy c th gip chng ta hiu lch s "thc s" ca DSS. Internet v Web c y mnh pht trin ln trong h tr quyt nh v cung cp mt phng tin mi chp v ghi li s pht trin ca kin thc trong lnh vc ny nghin cu. Quyt nh tin phong h tr bao gm nhiu nh nghin cu hc tp t cc trng nh MIT, i hc Arizona, i hc Minnesota v i hc Purdue. Nhng ngi tin phong DSS to ra dng c bit v khc bit ca pht trin cng ngh v nghin cu phc v nh l nn tng cho nhiu cng vic ca ngy hm nay trong DSS. Google Dch dnh cho doanh nghip:B cng c DchTrnh bin dch Trang webGlobal Market Finder