Competitive Intelligence Systems: Qualitative DSS for Strategic Decision Making

Technologies such as decision support systems (DSS) are helpful in solving many kinds of problems, especially those that are based on quantitative data and/or are tactical in scope. For strategic decisions, however, decision makers can benefit greatly from a tool that tracks and organizes qualitative and other nebulous information. Such a tool would help cultivate and leverage an organization's intellectual assets to help users address decision making in a more informed fashion. While DSS technologies have not commonly been used in such situations, they can be adapted to do so. This paper addresses the development of a qualitative DSS in a health care setting that allowed hospital administrators to exploit the qualitative information obtained by its network of field representatives for strategic benefit. This type of system, and its corresponding benefits, can be extended to other business situations.