Computers in Context - But in Which Context?

The focus of this research is on the appropriateness of the Substance-Theory-Oriented approach to the implementation of an Organizational Decision Support Systems in a small company. An ODSS is a general-purpose, multiple-user, large-scale system that has a relatively definite, continuous and organized position in the planning and decision making processes of an organization and which are designed for a variety of organizational decisions. We constructively show by means of a real case how the substance theories can be used to determine the actual contents of an ODSS. We have tested design guidelines and implementation strategies that can be exploited in small business companies in general. The main idea of the proposed approach is that the managerial substance-theories should be utilized at each phase of the development process, beginning from the initial problem review and ending with the use and the evolution of the developed system. It is assumed that only these theories can direct the design and development process in the right direction and carry appropriate information and knowledge into the organization. By applying the proposed approach small companies are able to decide the contents of an ODSS, manage the development process, increase their managerial knowledge, and finally, make more structured and better decisions.