External Decision Support Systems (EDSS)

Having spent a few years in the BI industry working with quite a few clients it has become very clear that many companies are taking on similar BI projects. It makes perfect sense that companies belonging to a particular industry will need to make very similar decisions. How these companies approach a particular problem (decision point) may differ widely. Some may invest heavily in the best decision support system imaginable, and others may leave these decisions to the intuition of individual contributors.

There is opportunity to add value by providing highly focused External Decision Support Systems (EDSS) to targeted verticals. The model for such of a service would be based on the below principles.

1. EDSS is owned, housed, operated, and maintained by the vendor

2. A common decision (highly focused) among multiple organizations is identified

3. The EDSS will be provided input data to include sets provided by clients as well as sets of external data common amongst all clients

4. Algorithms are created and executed by the EDSS engine which convert the inputs into the desired output (decision)

This model provides the client with very clear advantages.

1. No need to build or maintain a BI project required to support a particular decision (no cost of ownership)

2. Client benefits from the investment of other companies dealing with the same problem/decision point.

3. External data that would be too costly for individual companies to acquire becomes cost effective for a pooled resource to make available.

The vendor that provides EDSS becomes a true specialist in the BI system that is being offered. This level of expertise does not exist in today’s distributed BI project model as each company is limited to the expertise that can be developed in house.

Target EDSS’s will need to focus on decision support systems that require high levels of analysis. By designing and delivering a tool that overcomes the many obstacles associated with building a truly analytical BI system, EDSS providers will add value.