Executive Support System

Executive Support System (ESS) is a reporting tool (software) that allows you to turn your organization's data into useful summarized reports. These reports are generally used by executive level managers for uic! access to reports coming from all company levels and departments such as billing" cost accounting " staffing" scheduling" and more. #n addition to providing uic! access to organized data from departments" some Executive Support System tools also provide analysis tools that predicts a series of performance outcomes over time using the input data. This type of ESS is useful to executives as it provides possible outcomes and uic! reference to statistics and numbers needed for decision$ma!ing. The exact reporting tools and outcome of an Executive Support System completely depends on the ESS developer and it's intended industry use. %or example" &ambridge Systematics has ESS to support the investment planning process for the 'inistry of Transportation. The features and functions of this Executive Support System are entirely different from the Executive Support System developed by 'editech" which is useful to health care organizations. Several companies offer pre$designed Executive Support System pac!ages (usually suited to one particular industry)" while others offer pac!ages which can be customized your your organization's needs.

What's an Executive Support System?

What's a ESS? ( ESS (or )SS more in general) is a software system under control of one of many decision$ ma!ers that assists in their activity of decision ma!ing by providing and organised set of

tools intended to impart structure to portions of the decision ma!ing situation and to improve the ultimate effectiveness of the decision outcome*. Sharing the same concepts of a )SS" an ESS focuses more in the end$user re uirements of maximum interactivity and user$ friendlyness. (n ESS can be understood as a friendly" fully customised and interactive )SS to be mostly used by top executives and policy$ma!ers to get permanent and updated assessment in relation to !ey uestions (information and !nowledge). +hile a complete )SS will have efficient lin!s to external large databases and advanced models" an ESS focuses only on interactive and executive assessment tools" those which can be used personally by end$ users. (n ESS re uires a previous expert wor! filtering information and !nowledge into meaningful indicators and tools. ,ecause of ESS definition" its design and implementation must integrate future users as much as feasible" since a ESS represents both a challenge and an opportunity to improve their wor!ing processes. (lthough software development play an integral role in any Executive Support System design (and more in general in the )ecision Support System world) the analysis of ESS and )SS is about how people thin! and ma!e decisions (nyway a ESS will induce organisational changes which can not be succesful in complex institutions unless they are clearly preceived and desired since the begining. -ecent developments on ESS and )SS tend to integrate the

multiple decisions being ta!en by the institution" so they become .rganisational )SS. (n .)SS is therefore a participative process" instead of a mandatory product. #n the figure" the green circle represents the domain area of a typical Executive Support System. Supporting decision-making processes Rational decisions by "computers" Start with the data/ (lmost free from pre0udicies. -ational formulation 1arge volums of information #nductive in$depth analysis Specialised/ Sectorial analysis 1arge volums of calculations" slow conclusions .ptimisation strategy from all possible solutions Emotional decision-makers ("people" Start with a provisory solution to be validated and modified (daptative behaviour 1imited access to information #ntuitive$deductive search for *patterns* 2lobal/ 'ultisectorial synthesis -apid expression of personal perceptions Satisfying strategy based on *acceptable* possibilitie

!ecision-making approaches "#$%&'($)*E%($(+'% economic efficiency allocating scarce resources maximum marginal social benefit$cost maximize users (travelers) utility S&R)&E,'%-(*'&'%)*

stakes

political interest

paramount ob.ective goals

create social consensus and social mobilization maximize voters perception

and minimize externalities issues timing sectorial basically short$ term cost$benefit uantitative results multi$sectorial long$term in theory" short$term in most cases multi$party negotiation

/rame0ork

period

transport pro.ects 'ilitary -oads and 3orts %irsts &anals and -ailways )eveloping 8ational Transportation 8etwor!s 'anaging the existing transport capacity

development paradigm

decisionmaking goals 3ermanent territorial control Short$term private interest 1ong$term development strategy Short$term social$economic rationality 3ermanent environmental and development negotiation

decisionmaking leadership 'ilitary$ -eligious imposition 3rivate iniciative 3olitical iniciative

3re$#ndustrial 4566$4766 Early #ndustrialization 4766$479: 'ass #ndustrialization

&olonization Exogenous in 8ational scale Exogenous #nternational scale

479:$475: #ndustrial &risis

&lose endogenous

,ureaucratic rationality

;475: 3ost #ndustrialization

#nternational and .pen 1ocal 8etwor!s endogenous )evelopment

Social agreement

S%'E$&'"'% )$)*1S'S Evaluation 'odels (e.g. &,(" 'ulticriteria...)

E2-ER& )$)*1S'S Explanatory 'odels ,ac!cast 'odel &onceptual 'odels

-(*'%1 )$)*1S'S 3olicy #ndicators

%orecast 'odels (e.g. <$Steps)

Statistic 'odels (e.g. 1inear regression)

%onceptual structure o/ an !SS (implications /or an ESS )espite the particularities of each ESS" they share with more general )SS some fundamental elements/ $#nformation system/ )atabases with consistent structure $'odels to generate un!nown information (e.g. #mpacts of alternative decisions). #n an ESS model should ideally be interactive and their results lin!ed to policy relevant indicators. $=nowledge basis to put in a political context information and model's outcomes" and evaluate them. 3olicy actions are the result of adding purposes and goals to !nowledge. $>ser$#nterfaces The users of the ESS must ideally get friendly and customised access to information" models and !nowledge (policy relevant indicators)" according to their needs). #nteractivity is a re uirement to ma!e *reinforcing learning* possible. Each module" and the lin!s between them" re uire specific software and hardware solutions" which should be designed together by system?s experts and end$users. 'n/ormation component/
(rchitectures

2iving structure to policy$relevant )ata descriptors and indexes. +odels component3 3redicting impacts of policy actions in different overall scenarios to produce meaningful and consistent indicators to evaluate alternative policy actions. 4no0ledge component ESS !nowledge$base could integrate few ma0or elements/ $3olicy indicators monitoring the impacts and needs of E> policies (calculated in the model base) $=nowledge$based tools (e.g. #nteractive models supporting policy evaluation). $(ll other fuzzy !nowledge elements which can not be encapsuled within strict *scientific methods* #ser-/riendly inter/ace component

>ser$#nterfaces must be adapted to end$ users/ $ESS for top decision ma!ers (which re uire already$made analysis in a friendly manner" but as well proper connections to other elements in the )SS) $Experts (which re uiere access to both data and models to carry on the analysis" but as well lin!s to modelling tools and raw data in order to chec! and understand models formulation and data sources reliability). (n ESS does not have *experts* as main target users.