A decision support system (DSS) is a computer-based information system that supports business or organizational decision-making activities.

DSSs serve the management, operations, and planning levels of an organization and help to make decisions, which may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance. DSSs include knowledge-based systems. A properly designed DSS is an interactive software-based system intended to help decision makers compile useful information from a combination of raw data, documents, personal knowledge, or business models to identify and solve problems and make decisions. Typical information that a decision support application might gather and present are: inventories of information assets (including legacy and relational data sources, cubes, data warehouses, and data marts), comparative sales figures between one period and the next, projected revenue figures based on product sales assumptions.

Management information systems give managers quick access to information. This can include interaction with other decision support systems, information inquiries, crossreferencing of external information and potential data mining techniques. These systems can also compare strategic goals with practical decisions, giving managers a sense of how their decisions fit organizational strategy. Classification There are several ways to classify DSS applications. Not every DSS fits neatly into one of the categories, but may be a mix of two or more architectures. Holsapple and Whinston[13] classify DSS into the following six frameworks: Text-oriented DSS, Database-oriented DSS, Spreadsheet-oriented DSS, Solver-oriented DSS, Rule-oriented DSS, and Compound DSS. A compound DSS is the most popular classification for a DSS. It is a hybrid system that includes two or more of the five basic structures described by Holsapple and Whinston.[13] The support given by DSS can be separated into three distinct, interrelated categories[14]: Personal Support, Group Support, and Organizational Support. DSS components may be classified as: Inputs: Factors, numbers, and characteristics to analyze User Knowledge and Expertise: Inputs requiring manual analysis by the user Outputs: Transformed data from which DSS "decisions" are generated Decisions: Results generated by the DSS based on user criteria DSSs which perform selected cognitive decision-making functions and are based on artificial intelligence or intelligent agents technologies are called Intelligent Decision Support Systems (IDSS).[citation needed] The nascent field of Decision engineering treats the decision itself as an engineered object, and applies engineering principles such as Design and Quality assurance to an explicit representation of the elements that make up a decision. [edit] Applications

As mentioned above, there are theoretical possibilities of building such systems in any knowledge domain. One example is the clinical decision support system for medical diagnosis. Other examples include a bank loan officer verifying the credit of a loan applicant or an engineering firm that has bids on several projects and wants to know if they can be competitive with their costs. DSS is extensively used in business and management. Executive dashboard and other business performance software allow faster decision making, identification of negative trends, and better allocation of business resources. A growing area of DSS application, concepts, principles, and techniques is in agricultural production, marketing for sustainable development. For example, the DSSAT4 package,[15][16] developed through financial support of USAID during the 80's and 90's, has allowed rapid assessment of several agricultural production systems around the world to facilitate decision-making at the farm and policy levels. There are, however, many constraints to the successful adoption on DSS in agriculture.[17] DSS are also prevalent in forest management where the long planning time frame demands specific requirements. All aspects of Forest management, from log transportation, harvest scheduling to sustainability and ecosystem protection have been addressed by modern DSSs. A comprehensive list and discussion of all available systems in forest management is being compiled under the COST action Forsys A specific example concerns the Canadian National Railway system, which tests its equipment on a regular basis using a decision support system. A problem faced by any railroad is worn-out or defective rails, which can result in hundreds of derailments per year. Under a DSS, CN managed to decrease the incidence of derailments at the same time other companies were experiencing an increase. [edit] Benefits Improves personal efficiency Speed up the process of decision making Increases organizational control Encourages exploration and discovery on the part of the decision maker Speeds up problem solving in an organization Facilitates interpersonal communication Promotes learning or training Generates new evidence in support of a decision Creates a competitive advantage over competition Reveals new approaches to thinking about the problem space Helps automate managerial processes Simulation is the imitation of some real thing, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system. Simulation is used in many contexts, such as simulation of technology for performance optimization, safety engineering, testing, training, education, andvideo games. Training simulators include flight simulators for training aircraft pilots in order to provide them with a lifelike experience. Simulation is also used for scientific modeling of natural systems or human systems in order to gain insight into their functioning.[1] Simulation can be used to show the eventual real effects of

alternative conditions and courses of action. Simulation is also used when the real system cannot be engaged, because it may not be accessible, or it may be dangerous or unacceptable to engage, or it is being designed but not yet built, or it may simply not exist .[2] Key issues in simulation include acquisition of valid source information about the relevant selection of key characteristics and behaviours, the use of simplifying approximations and assumptions within the simulation, and fidelity and validity of the simulation outcomes. Uses of Simulation Modeling Simulation modeling allows designers and engineers to avoid repeated building of multiple physical prototypes to analyze designs for new or existing parts. Before creating the physical prototype, users can virtually investigate many digital prototypes. Using the technique, they can: Optimize geometry for weight and strength Select materials that meet weight, strength, and budget requirements Simulate part failure and identify the loading conditions that cause them Assess extreme environmental conditions or loads not easily tested on physical prototypes, such as earthquake shock load Verify hand calculations Validate the likely safety and survival of a physical prototype before testing [edit]Typical Simulation Modeling Workflow Simulation modeling follows a process much like this: Use a 2D or 3D CAD tool to develop a virtual model, also known as a digital prototype, to represent a design. Generate a 2D or 3D mesh for analysis calculations. Automatic algorithms can create finite element meshes, or users can create structured meshes to maintain control over element quality. Define finite element analysis data (loads, constraints, or materials) based on analysis type (thermal, structural, or fluid). Apply boundary conditions to the model to represent how the part will be restrained during use. Perform finite element analysis, review results, and make engineering judgments based on results. Simulation Modeling Software Programs Abaqus ANSYS Autodesk Algor Simulation Autodesk Inventor Professional Nastran Solidworks Simulation

OLAP tools enable users to interactively analyze multidimensional data from multiple perspectives. OLAP consists of three basic analytical operations: consolidation, drill-down, and slicing and dicing. Consolidation involves the aggregation of data that can be accumulated and computed in one or more dimensions. For example, all sales offices are rolled up to the sales department or sales division to anticipate sales trends. In contrast, the drill-down is a technique that allows users to navigate through the details. For instance, users can access to the sales by individual products that
[6]

make up a regions sales. Slicing and dicing is a feature whereby users can take out (slicing) a specific set of data of the cube and view (dicing) the slices from different viewpoints. Databases configured for OLAP use a multidimensional data model, allowing for complex analytical and ad-hoc queries with a rapid execution time.
[7]

They borrow aspects of navigational

databases,hierarchical databases and relational databases. The core of any OLAP system is an OLAP cube (also called Typical applications of OLAP include business reporting for sales, marketing, management [3] reporting, business process management (BPM), budgeting and forecasting, financial reporting and [4] similar areas, with new applications coming up, such as agriculture. The term OLAP was created as [5] a slight modification of the traditional database term OLTP (Online Transaction Processing).

Knowledge Management System

Knowledge Management System (KM System) refers to a (generally generated via or through to an ITbased program/department or section) system for managing knowledge in organizations for supporting creation, capture, storage and dissemination of information. It can comprise a part (neither necessary nor sufficient) of a Knowledge Management initiative. The idea of a KM system is to enable employees to have ready access to the organization's documented base of facts, sources of information, and solutions. For example a typical claim justifying the creation of a KM system might run something like this: an engineer could know the metallurgical composition of an alloy that reduces sound in gear systems. Sharing this information organization wide can lead to more effective engine design and it could also lead to ideas for new or improved equipment. A KM system could be any of the following: 1. Document based i.e. any technology that permits creation/management/sharing of formatted documents such as Lotus Notes, SharePoint, web, distributed databases etc. 2. Ontology/Taxonomy based: these are similar to document technologies in the sense that a system of terminologies (i.e. ontology) are used to summarize the document e.g. Author, Subj, Organization etc. as in DAML & other XML based ontologies 3. Based on AI technologies which use a customized representation scheme to represent the problem domain. 4. Provide network maps of the organization showing the flow of communication between entities and individuals 5. Increasingly social computing tools are being deployed to provide a more organic approach to creation of a KM system.

KMS systems deal with information (although Knowledge Management as a discipline may extend beyond the information centric aspect of any system) so they are a class of information system and may build on, or utilize other information sources. Distinguishing features of a KMS can include: 1. Purpose: a KMS will have an explicit Knowledge Management objective of some type such as collaboration, sharing good practice or the like. 2. Context: One perspective on KMS would see knowledge is information that is meaningfully organized, accumulated and embedded in a context of creation and application. 3. Processes: KMS are developed to support and enhance knowledge-intensive processes, tasks or projects of e.g., creation, construction, identification, capturing, acquisition, selection, valuation, organization, linking, structuring, formalization, visualization, transfer, distribution, retention, maintenance, refinement, revision, evolution, accessing, retrieval and last but not least the application of knowledge, also called the knowledge life cycle. 4. Participants: Users can play the roles of active, involved participants in knowledge networks and communities fostered by KMS, although this is not necessarily the case. KMS designs are held to reflect that knowledge is developed collectively and that the distribution of knowledge leads to its continuous change, reconstruction and application in different contexts, by different participants with differing backgrounds and experiences. 5. Instruments: KMS support KM instruments, e.g., the capture, creation and sharing of the codifiable aspects of experience, the creation of corporate knowledge directories, taxonomies or ontologies, expertise locators, skill management systems, collaborative filtering and handling of interests used to connect people, the creation and fostering of communities or knowledge networks. A KMS offers integrated services to deploy KM instruments for networks of participants, i.e. active knowledge workers, in knowledge-intensive business processes along the entire knowledge life cycle. KMS can be used for a wide range of cooperative, collaborative, adhocracy and hierarchy communities, virtual organizations, societies and other virtual networks, to manage media contents; activities, interactions and work-flows purposes; projects; works, networks, departments, privileges, roles, participants and other active users in order to extract and generate new knowledge and to enhance, leverage and transfer in new outcomes of knowledge providing new services using new formats and interfaces and different communication channels. The term KMS can be associated to Open Source Software, and Open Standards, Open Protocols and Open Knowledge licenses, initiatives and policies. [edit]Benefits

of KM Systems

Some of the advantages claimed for KM systems are: 1. Sharing of valuable organizational information throughout organizational hierarchy.

2. Can avoid re-inventing the wheel, reducing redundant work. 3. May reduce training time for new employees 4. Retention of Intellectual Property after the employee leaves if such knowledge can be codified

An expert system is software that uses a knowledge base of human expertise for problem solving, or to clarify uncertainties where normally one or more human experts would need to be consulted. Expert systems are most common in a specific problem domain, and are a traditional application and/or subfield of artificial intelligence (AI). A wide variety of methods can be used to simulate the performance of the expert; however, common to most or all are: 1) the creation of a knowledge basewhich uses some knowledge representation structure to capture the knowledge of the Subject Matter Expert (SME); 2) a process of gathering that knowledge from the SME and codifying it according to the structure, which is called knowledge engineering; and 3) once the system is developed, it is placed in the same real world problem solving situation as the human SME, typically as an aid to human workers or as a supplement to some information system. Expert systems may or may not have learning components. Expert systems were introduced by researchers in the Stanford Heuristic Programming Project, including the "father of expert systems" Edward Feigenbaum, with the Dendral and Mycin systems. Principal contributors to the technology were Bruce Buchanan, Edward Shortliffe, Randall Davis, William vanMelle, Carli Scott, and others at Stanford. Expert systems were among the first truly successful forms of AI software.[1][2][3][4][5][6] The topic of expert systems also has connections to general systems theory, operations research,business process reengineering, and various topics in applied mathematics and management science.
The following general points about expert systems and their architecture have been outlined: 1. The sequence of steps taken to reach a conclusion is dynamically synthesized with each new case. The sequence is not explicitly programmed at the time that the system is built. 2. Expert systems can process multiple values for any problem parameter. This permits more than one line of reasoning to be pursued and the results of incomplete (not fully determined) reasoning to be presented. 3. Problem solving is accomplished by applying specific knowledge rather than specific technique. This is a key idea in expert systems technology. It reflects the belief that human experts do not process their knowledge differently from others, but they do possess different knowledge. With this philosophy, when one finds that their expert system does not produce the desired results, work begins to expand the knowledge base, not to re-program the procedures. There are various expert systems in which a rulebase and an inference engine cooperate to simulate the reasoning process that a human expert pursues in analyzing a problem and arriving at a conclusion. In these systems, in order to simulate the human reasoning process, a vast amount of knowledge needs to be stored in the knowledge base. Generally, the knowledge base of such an expert system consists of a relatively large number of "if/then" type statements that are interrelated in a manner that, in theory

at least, resembles the sequence of mental steps that are involved in the human reasoning process.
[7]

Because of the need for large storage capacities and related programs to store the rulebase, most expert systems have, in the past, been run only on large information handling systems. Recently, the storage capacity of personal computers has increased to a point to which it is becoming possible to consider running some types of simple expert systems on personal computers.
[7][dated info]

In some applications of expert systems, the nature of the application and the amount of stored information necessary to simulate the human reasoning process for that application is too vast to store in the active memory of a computer. In other applications of expert systems, the nature of the application is such that not all of the information is always needed in the reasoning process. An example of this latter type of application would be the use of an expert system to diagnose a data processing system comprising many separate components, some of which are optional. When that type of expert system employs a single integrated rulebase to diagnose the minimum system configuration of the data processing system, much of the rulebase is not required since many of the optional components will not be present in the system. Nevertheless, early expert systems required the entire rulebase to be stored since all the rules were, in effect, chained or linked together by the structure of the rulebase.
[7]

When the rulebase is segmented, preferably into contextual segments or units, it is then possible to eliminate the portions of the rulebase containing data or knowledge that is not needed in a particular application. The segmentation of the rulebase also allows the expert system to be run on or with systems having much smaller memory capacities than was possible with earlier arrangements, since each segment of the rulebase can be paged into and out of the system as needed. Segmentation into contextual units requires that the expert system manage various intersegment relationships as segments are paged into and out of memory during the execution of the program. Since the system permits a rulebase segment to be called and executed at any time during the processing of the first rulebase, provisions must be made to store the data that has accumulated up to that point so that later in the process, when the system returns to the first segment, it can proceed from the last point or rule node that was processed. Also, provisions must be made so that data that has been collected by the system up to that point can be passed onto the second segment of the rulebase after it has been paged into the system, and data collected during the processing of the second segment can be passed to the first segment when the system returns to complete processing that segment.
[7]

Artificial intelligence (AI) is theintelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents"
[3] [4] [2]

where

anintelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success. John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1956,
[5]

defines it as "the science and

engineering of making intelligent machines."

The field was founded on the claim that a central property of humans, intelligence the sapience of Homo sapienscan be so precisely described that it can be simulated by a machine.
[6]

This raises philosophical issues about the nature of the mind and the ethics of creating
[8]

artificial beings, issues which have been addressed by myth, fiction and philosophy since antiquity. setbacks
[7]

Artificial intelligence has been the subject of optimism,

but has also suffered

[9]

and, today, has become an essential part of the technology industry, providing the heavy
[10]

lifting for many of the most difficult problems in computer science.

AI research is highly technical and specialized, and deeply divided into subfields that often fail to communicate with each other.
[11]

Subfields have grown up around particular institutions, the work of

individual researchers, the solution of specific problems, longstanding differences of opinion about how AI should be done and the application of widely differing tools. The central problems of AI include such traits as reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, communication, perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects. term goals.
[13] [12]

General intelligence (or "strong AI") is still among the field's long

Supply chain management (SCM) is the management of a network of interconnected businessesinvolved in the ultimate provision of product andservice packages required by end customers (Harland, 1996).
[2]

Supply chain management spans all movement and storage

ofraw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption (supply chain). Another definition is provided by the APICS Dictionary when it defines SCM as the "design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand and measuring performance globally." More common and accepted definitions of supply chain management are: Supply chain management is the systematic, strategic coordination of the traditional business functions and the tactics across these business functions within a particular company and across businesses within the supply chain, for the purposes of improving the long-term performance of the individual companies and the supply chain as a whole (Mentzer et al., 2001).
[3]

A customer focused definition is given by Hines (2004:p76) "Supply chain strategies require a total systems view of the linkages in the chain that work together efficiently to create customer

satisfaction at the end point of delivery to the consumer. As a consequence costs must be lowered throughout the chain by driving out unnecessary costs and focusing attention on adding value. Throughout efficiency must be increased, bottlenecks removed and performance measurement must focus on total systems efficiency and equitable reward distribution to those in the supply chain adding value. The supply chain system must be responsive to customer requirements."
[4]

Global supply chain forum - supply chain management is the integration of key business processes across the supply chain for the purpose of creating value for customers and stakeholders (Lambert, 2008).
[5]

According to the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), supply chain management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing,procurement, conversion, and logistics management. It also includes the crucial components of coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers. In essence, supply chain management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies. More recently, the loosely coupled, self-organizing network of businesses that cooperate to provide product and service offerings has been called the Extended Enterprise.

Supply chain management is a cross-function approach including managing the movement of raw materials into an organization, certain aspects of the internal processing of materials into finished goods, and the movement of finished goods out of the organization and toward the end-consumer. As organizations strive to focus on core competencies and becoming more flexible, they reduce their ownership of raw materials sources and distribution channels. These functions are increasingly being outsourced to other entities that can perform the activities better or more cost effectively. The effect is to increase the number of organizations involved in satisfying customer demand, while reducing management control of daily logistics operations. Less control and more supply chain partners led to the creation of supply chain management concepts. The purpose of supply chain management is to improve trust and collaboration among supply chain partners, thus improving inventory visibility and the velocity of inventory movement. Several models have been proposed for understanding the activities required to manage material movements across organizational and functional boundaries. SCOR is a supply chain management model promoted by the Supply Chain Council. Another model is the SCM Model proposed by the Global Supply Chain Forum (GSCF). Supply chain activities can be grouped into strategic, tactical, and operational levels. The CSCMP has adopted The American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) Process Classification Framework
SM

a high-level, industry-neutral enterprise process model that

[6]

allows organizations to see their business processes from a cross-industry viewpoint. [edit]Strategic

level

Strategic network optimization, including the number, location, and size of warehousing,distribution centers, and facilities.

Strategic partnerships with suppliers, distributors, and customers, creating communication channels for critical information and operational improvements such as cross docking, direct shipping, and third-party logistics.

Product life cycle management, so that new and existing products can be optimally integrated into the supply chain and capacity management activities.

Information technology chain operations. Where-to-make and make-buy decisions. Aligning overall organizational strategy with supply strategy. It is for long term and needs resource commitment.

[edit]Tactical

level

Sourcing contracts and other purchasing decisions. Production decisions, including contracting, scheduling, and planning process definition. Inventory decisions, including quantity, location, and quality of inventory. Transportation strategy, including frequency, routes, and contracting. Benchmarking of all operations against competitors and implementation of best practicesthroughout the enterprise.

Milestone payments. Focus on customer demand and Habits.

[edit]Operational

level

Daily production and distribution planning, including all nodes in the supply chain. Production scheduling for each manufacturing facility in the supply chain (minute by minute). Demand planning and forecasting, coordinating the demand forecast of all customers and sharing the forecast with all suppliers.

Sourcing planning, including current inventory and forecast demand, in collaboration with all suppliers.

Inbound operations, including transportation from suppliers and receiving inventory. Production operations, including the consumption of materials and flow of finished goods. Outbound operations, including all fulfillment activities, warehousing and transportation to customers.

Order promising, accounting for all constraints in the supply chain, including all suppliers, manufacturing facilities, distribution centers, and other customers.

From production level to supply level accounting all transit damage cases & arrange to settlement at customer level by maintaining company loss through insurance company.

[edit]Importance

of supply chain management

[7]

Organizations increasingly find that they must rely on effective supply chains, or networks, to compete in the global market and networked economy. In Peter Drucker's (1998) new management

paradigms, this concept of business relationships extends beyond traditional enterprise boundaries and seeks to organize entire business processes throughout a value chain of multiple companies. During the past decades, globalization, outsourcing and information technology have enabled many organizations, such as Dell and Hewlett Packard, to successfully operate solid collaborative supply networks in which each specialized business partner focuses on only a few key strategic activities (Scott, 1993). This inter-organizational supply network can be acknowledged as a new form of organization. However, with the complicated interactions among the players, the network structure fits neither "market" nor "hierarchy" categories (Powell, 1990). It is not clear what kind of performance impacts different supply network structures could have on firms, and little is known about the coordination conditions and trade-offs that may exist among the players. From a systems perspective, a complex network structure can be decomposed into individual component firms (Zhang and Dilts, 2004). Traditionally, companies in a supply network concentrate on the inputs and outputs of the processes, with little concern for the internal management working of other individual players. Therefore, the choice of an internal management control structure is known to impact local firm performance (Mintzberg, 1979). In the 21st century, changes in the business environment have contributed to the development of supply chain networks. First, as an outcome of globalization and the proliferation of multinational companies, joint ventures, strategic alliances and business partnerships, significant success factors were identified, complementing the earlier "Just-In-Time", "Lean Manufacturing" and "Agile Manufacturing" practices.
[8]

Second, technological changes, particularly the dramatic fall in information

communication costs, which are a significant component of transaction costs, have led to changes in coordination among the members of the supply chain network (Coase, 1998). Many researchers have recognized these kinds of supply network structures as a new organization form, using terms such as "Keiretsu", "Extended Enterprise", "Virtual Corporation", "Global Production Network", and "Next Generation Manufacturing System".
[9]

In general, such a structure can be defined

as "a group of semi-independent organizations, each with their capabilities, which collaborate in everchanging constellations to serve one or more markets in order to achieve some business goal specific to that collaboration" (Akkermans, 2001). The security management system for supply chains is described in ISO/IEC 28000 and ISO/IEC 28001 and related standards published jointly by ISO and IEC.

Customer relationship management

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a widely-implemented strategy for managing a companys interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processesprincipally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support.[1] The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service.[2] Customer relationship management describes a company-wide business strategy including customer-interface departments as well as other departments.[3] Measuring and valuing customer relationships is critical to implementing this strategy. [4]

Benefits of CRM A CRM system may be chosen because it is thought to provide the following advantages:[citation needed] Quality and efficiency Decrease in overall costs Decision support Enterprise agility Customer Attention

Implementation issues
Increases in revenue, higher rates of client satisfaction, and significant savings in operating costs are some of the benefits to an enterprise. Proponents emphasize that technology should be implemented only in the context of careful strategic and operational planning.
[22]

Implementations almost invariably

fall short when one or more facets of this prescription are ignored: Poor planning: Initiatives can easily fail when efforts are limited to choosing and deploying software, without an accompanying rationale, context, and support for the workforce.
[23]

In other

instances, enterprises simply automate flawed client-facing processes rather than redesign them according to best practices. Poor integration: For many companies, integrations are piecemeal initiatives that address a glaring need: improving a particular client-facing process or two or automating a favored sales or client support channel.
[24]

Such point solutions offer little or no integration or alignment with a

companys overall strategy. They offer a less than complete client view and often lead to unsatisfactory user experiences. Toward a solution: overcoming siloed thinking. Experts advise organizations to recognize the immense value of integrating their client-facing operations. In this view, internally-focused, department-centric views should be discarded in favor of reorienting processes toward information-sharing across marketing, sales, and service. For example, sales representatives need to know about current issues and relevant marketing promotions before attempting to cross-

sell to a specific client. Marketing staff should be able to leverage client information from sales and service to better target campaigns and offers. And support agents require quick and complete access to a clients sales and service history.
[24]

Artificial neural network

An artificial neural network (ANN), usually called neural network (NN), is a mathematical modelor computational model that is inspired by the structure and/or functional aspects of biological neural networks. A neural network consists of an interconnected group of artificial neurons, and it processes information using a connectionist approach to computation. In most cases an ANN is an adaptive system that changes its structure based on external or internal information that flows through the network during the learning phase. Modern neural networks are non-linear statistical data modelingtools. They are usually used to model complex relationships between inputs and outputs or to find patterns in data.

Enterprise resource planning

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) integrates internal and external management informationacross an entire organization, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service,customer relationship management, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integratedsoftware application. Its purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside stakeholders.
[1]

ERP systems can run on a variety of hardware and network configurations, typically employing adatabase as a repository for information.
[2]

Components Transactional database Management portal/dashboard Business intelligence system Customizable reporting External access via technology such as web services Search Document management Messaging/chat/wiki Workflow management

Implementation
ERP's scope usually implies significant changes to staff work processes and practices.
[13] [13]

Generally,

three types of services are available to help implement such changesconsulting, customization, and support. Implementation time depends on business size, number of modules, customization, the

scope of process changes, and the readiness of the customer to take ownership for the project. Modular ERP systems can be implemented in stages. The typical project for a large enterprise

consumes about 14 months and requires around 150 consultants.

[14]

[14]

Small projects can require

[citation needed]

months; multinational and other large implementations can take years. substantially increase implementation times. [edit]Process

Customization can

preparation
[15]

Implementing ERP typically requires changing existing business processes.

Poor understanding of
[16]

needed process changes prior to starting implementation is a main reason for project failure.

It is

therefore crucial that organizations thoroughly analyze business processes before implementation. This analysis can identify opportunities for process modernization. It also enables an assessment of the alignment of current processes with those provided by the ERP system. Research indicates that the risk of business process mismatch is decreased by: linking current processes to the organization's strategy; analyzing the effectiveness of each process; understanding existing automated solutions.
[17][18]

ERP implementation is considerably more difficult (and politically charged) in decentralized organizations, because they often have different processes, business rules, data semantics, authorization hierarchies and decision centers.
[19]

This may require migrating some business units

before others, delaying implementation to work through the necessary changes for each unit, possibly reducing integration (e.g. linking via Master data management) or customizing the system to meet specific needs.
[citation needed]

A potential disadvantage is that adopting "standard" processes can lead to a loss of competitive advantage. While this has happened, losses in one area often offset by gains in other areas, increasing overall competitive advantage. [edit]Configuration Configuring an ERP system is largely a matter of balancing the way the customer wants the system to work with the way it was designed to work. ERP systems typically build many changeable parameters that modify system operation. For example, an organization can select the type of inventory accountingFIFO or LIFOto employ, whether to recognize revenue by geographical unit, product line, or distribution channel and whether to pay for shipping costs when a customer returns a purchase.
[citation needed] [20][21]

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce,eCommerce or e-comm, refers to the buying and selling ofproducts or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. However, the term may refer to more than just buying and selling products online. It also includes the entire online process of developing, marketing, selling, delivering, servicing and paying for products and services. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown

extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. The use of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer,supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Webat least at one point in the transaction's life-cycle, although it may encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices and telephones as well. A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely in electronic form for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but mostly electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers are now electronically present on the World Wide Web. Electronic commerce that takes place between businesses is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, prequalified participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce that takes place between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com. Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce where the buyer is directly online to the seller's computer usually via the internet. There is no intermediary service involved. The sale or purchase transaction is completed electronically and interactively in real-time such as in Amazon.com for new books. However in some cases, an intermediary may be present in a sale or purchase transaction such as the transactions on eBay.com. Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business transactions.