Decision support systems in the electronic commerce model development

Decision support system (DSS) is an interactive computer-based system, which helps decision makers utilize data and models to solve unstructured managerial problems, such as problems of design processes. Business is undergoing a major paradigm shift, moving from traditional management into a world of agile organizations and processes. Agile corporations have been seeking to develop a number of information technology (IT) systems to assist with decision making of on-line business processes. To assure the electronic commerce's widespread use, its design process problem must be addressed by a team of specialists or intelligent agents agilely and based on object-oriented design. Solution approaches to quickly supporting decision making to design processes are crucial in the electronic commerce's management. In this paper, an agent-based framework using an object-oriented approach in the creation of an electronic commerce model is presented. The approach supports solutions to the decision makers who are geographically separated and operate on differing computer platforms. It is agile because, by combining various objects, different types of design processes can be solved with the same agent-based framework. The proposed methodology is applied to a real-world case that involves combining objects to complete an electronic commerce model, and particularly the shipping object is described. Copyright (C) 2000 IFAC.