Unit 2 SOFTWARE USED IN BUSINESS RESEARCH

Dr. Thulasi Krishna. K

Dept. of Management Studies

MITS

SOME SOFTWARE USED IN BUSINESS RESEARCH

• Groupware

Groupware is software that runs on a network so that teams can work on

joint projects, and it allows people from different departments to access

data jointly.

Example: If the accounting, finance, sales, and production departments

have to coordinate their efforts to come up with a viable product within a

tight budget, they will be served well by groupware.

Neural Networks

• Neural Networks are designed to trace patterns in a set of data and generalize there

from.

• This software enables sales forecasts, stock market predictions, detection of weather

patterns, risk management, process control, customer research and the like.

• The California Scientific Software‘s Brain-maker used for managing investments by

recognizing patterns and trends influencing stock prices can be cited as a specific

example.

•

• Advantages:

-requires less formal statistical training,

-ability to implicitly detect complex non-linear relationships between

dependent and independent variables,

-ability to detect all possible interactions between predictor variables, and

the availability of multiple training algorithms.

CAM/CAD

* Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software helps engineers to design the manufacturing

components and directs the production of the product.

* Computer-aided design (CAD) software creates and displays complex drawings with precision,

enabling experimentation with different designs.

* Design sophistication and product development are made possible by this programme, and

this software is extensively used by manufacturing organizations.

Enterprise Resource Planning

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is business management software that a

company can use to collect, store, manage and interpret data from many business

activities, including product planning, cost, manufacturing or service delivery,

marketing and sales, inventory management and shipping and payment.

The advantage of ERP packages is their capability to provide comprehensive

solutions to all the needs of an organization in its day- to-day work.

This is so because they provide complete support for the executive support system

and the Management Information System (MIS), and can work with all existing data

bases built on different platforms.

Software developers use various tools to build and modify data tables and develop

custom functionality.

ERP solutions were initially targeted for big companies and organizations that had

to reengineer to install ERP in their systems, with only one goal as the objective—to

increase the return on investment.

With the top organizations almost saturated, ERP software companies are now

targeting their products to the bottom of the pyramid, facing the challenge of

meeting a diverse set of applications while trying to keep their costs down.

Data Analytic Software Programmes

Software programmes are available to obtain, store, and analyze raw data collected

through surveys, using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), Statistical

Analysis System (SAS), Excel, System Analysis and Program Development (SAP)and

the like.

Sophisticated business presentations of the results obtained from data analysis are

also possible through computer graphics and interactive CDs.

Group Video Conferencing

Face-to-face meeting effect by using large TV monitors or multimedia projectors.

It has the advantage of integrating with other vital business technologies like

spreadsheets and presentation software.

Thus, much data (including numerical figures) can be exchanged during

videoconferencing as organizations try to engage in consultative decision making

and further research and analysis.