Assignment 2: Decision Support Systems

Use the Internet to research decision support systems to identify those systems that are particularly useful for the design industry. Based on your weekly readings, case study information, and Internet research, do the following:

1. Describe the best decision system for the design industry and explain how it is or could be used in ArtShirts.
2. Explain its advantages and disadvantages.

Write a 1–2-page paper in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources. 

Please use the CASE study and the book: 

Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2017). Management information systems: managing the digital firm. Pearson.

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Information Management & New Technologies in Design & Media Arts

©2011 Miami International University of Art and Design

Technology and Decision Making

Lucas Moore, ArtShirts’s creative director, was responsible for model selection, photo shoot
coordination, creative licensing, talent licensing, and overseeing the creative-asset production
tasks of the ArtShirts and Amazon Web sites. As a creative director, Lucas was also responsible
for insuring that all creative assets, including the company logo, met ArtShirts’s branding and
visual criteria, and that each asset was legally and technically prepared for usage through the
company’s various marketing and promotional channels.

Although Lucas had shared his “brand bible,” a brand style guide, and vigorously used Basecamp
to post creative compositions for approval across the company, his approvals came in slowly and
not in any particular divisional order. Occasionally, it would happen that John reviewed a product
image after it had gone live on the Web site and hated the model wearing it; a certain shirt wasn’t
selling and Walter wanted the copy changed immediately; Laura’s marketing partners wanted a
special asset that was customized to their Web site palette and not ArtShirts’s approved palette;
or Cynthia felt that the product description was misleading on a promotional asset. As a result,
Lucas often found himself modifying his creative assets several times or even hosting emergency
model calls and photo shoots to accommodate last-minute changes and approvals.

Lucas found that his current software for gathering approvals did not allow him the ability to
forward assets through a hierarchical chain which would give him the assurance that reviews and
approvals were being blessed and guided by the appropriate order of decision-makers in the
company.