text:
Understanding Data-Driven Decision Support Systems
Information Systems Management 25(2):149-154
DOI:10.1080/10580530801941124
DBLP
Project: Decision Support
Daniel J. Power
Citations (158)
It is important for managers and Information Technology professionals to understand data-driven decision support systems and how such systems can provide business intelligence and performance monitoring. Data-driven DSS is one of five major types of computerized decision support systems and the features of such systems vary across specific implementations. Different development packages also impact the capabilities of data-driven DSS and hence criteria for evaluating data-driven DSS development software are important to understand. Overall, this article builds on an historic foundation of prior decision support systems theory.
Content uploaded by Daniel J. Power
All content in this area was uploaded by Daniel J. Power
Information Systems Management, 25: 149–154
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1058-0530 print/1934-8703 online
UISM
Understanding Data-Driven Decision Support Systems Daniel J. Power
University of Northern Iowa, Iowa, USA
Abstract It is important for managers and Information Technology professionals to understand
data-driven decision support systems and how such systems can provide business intelligence and performance
monitoring. Data-driven DSS is one of five major types of computerized decision support systems and the
features of such systems vary across specific implementations. Different development packages also
impact the capabilities of data-driven DSS and hence criteria for evaluating data-driven DSS development
software are important to understand. Overall, this article builds on an historic foundation of prior decision
support systems theory.
Keywords decision support, DSS framework, systems features
For almost 50 years, data-driven decision support has
been used for a wide variety of purposes. The U. S. Semi-
Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) air-defense com-
mand and control system became operational in 1963
and it provided real-time decision support for more than
20 years. Operators accessed the SAGE system through
cathode ray tube displays and used a light pen to select
"tracks" of potential incoming hostile aircraft and man-
age their status (cf., Power, 2006, 2007b). One of the first
business-oriented, data-driven DSS was built using an
APL-based software package called AAIMS, for An Analytical
Information Management System. The system was devel-
oped from 1970–1974 by Richard Klaas and Charles Weiss
at American Airlines (cf., Alter, 1980).
As technology has evolved, data-driven decision sup-
port systems have become more sophisticated. According
to Watson, Wixom, Hoffer, Anderson-Lehman, and Rey-
nolds (2006), "Data management for decision support has
moved through three generations, with the latest being
real-time data warehousing". Today data-driven decision
support is used for a variety of purposes including opera-
tional and strategic business intelligence queries, static
and real-time performance monitoring, and customer
relationship management.
Most of us have a general understanding of data-
driven decision support and recognize how important it
is in organizations. The purpose of this article is to clarify
the basic concepts and stimulate further research and
innovation related to this type of computerized support.
The next section examines key terminology especially
the terms data-driven DSS and business intelligence, then
the major features of data-driven DSS are summarized,
section 4 suggests some criteria for evaluating software
for developing data-driven DSS, the concluding section
draws some conclusions about the current state-of-the-art
related to data-driven decision support.
Business Intelligence and Data-Driven DSS
Managers can use systems that access current and histor-
ical data to support many decision tasks. When the tasks
are performed regularly then a computerized decision
support system can potentially increase access to the
data and help managers gain insights into organization
processes, customer activities, employee performance
and organization-wide performance metrics.
DSSResources.com defines a decision support system
(DSS) as "an interactive computer-based system or sub-
system intended to help decision makers use communi-
cations technologies, data, documents, knowledge, and/or
models to identify and solve problems, complete decision
process tasks, and make decisions. Decision Support Sys-
tem is a general term for any computer application that
enhances a person or group's ability to make decisions.
In addition, Decision Support Systems refers to an aca-
demic field of research that involves designing and study-
ing Decision Support Systems in their context of use. In
general, Decision Support Systems are a class of comput-
erized information system that supports decision-making
Address correspondence to Daniel J. Power, University of North-
ern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50614–0125, USA. E-mail: power@
DSSResources.com
150 Power
activities. Five more specific Decision Support System types
include: communications-driven DSS, data-driven DSS,
document-driven DSS, knowledge-driven DSS, and model-
driven DSS" (cf., Power, 2002a).
Business Intelligence, often referred to as BI, is a popu-
larized, umbrella term introduced by Howard Dresner of
the Gartner Group in 1989 to describe a set of concepts
and methods to improve business decision making by using
fact-based computerized support systems (cf., Nylund,
1999). The term is sometimes used interchangeably with
briefing books and executive information systems.
A business intelligence system is a data-driven DSS that
primarily supports querying of an historical database and
production of periodic summary reports. Data-driven DSS
have been called various names over the years including
data-oriented DSS (Alter, 1980), retrieval-only DSS by Bon-
czek, Holsapple and Whinston (1981), Executive Informa-
tion Systems, OLAP systems and Business Intelligence
systems. My preference is to use the term data-driven DSS
or data-driven decision support. Business intelligence
refers to a specific purpose for some data-driven DSS.
Data-driven DSS refers to a category or type of Decision
Support System that emphasizes access to and manipula-
tion of a time-series of internal company data and some-
times external data. Simple file systems accessed by query
and retrieval tools provide the most elementary level of
functionality. Data warehouse systems that allow the
manipulation of data by computerized tools tailored to a
specific task and setting or by more general tools and
operators provide additional functionality. Data-driven
DSS with On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) provide
the highest level of functionality and decision support
that is linked to analysis of large collections of historical
data (cf., Power, 2002a).
Emphasizing the broad purpose of providing data-
driven decision support may reduce the current confusion
surrounding the term business intelligence. Some think of
Artificial Intelligence as the primary source of tools for
business intelligence and focus on special studies using
data mining. The results of data mining can be used for
decision automation and if data is changing quickly some
data mining tools can be incorporated in data-driven DSS,
for example, in fraud detection or monitoring stock prices
(cf., Hormozi & Giles, 2004). Other researchers emphasize
performance monitoring and business reporting as the
focus of business intelligence. Dhar and Stein in their
1997 book "Seven Methods for Transforming Corporate
Data into Business Intelligence" discuss data warehousing
and OLAP in Chapter 4 titled "Data-Driven Decision Sup-
port." Their perspective has certainly influenced the
expanded framework for identifying various types of DSS.
The most common data-driven computerized decision
support system is built using a data warehouse product
and a report and query product. Overall, this software
application category involves billions of U.S. dollars in
revenues each year. Beginning with Bill Inmon's (1991)
book "Database Machines and Decision Support Systems,"
managers have sought to deploy such systems. Inmon's
book provided the conceptual foundation for data-driven
DSS. Both Bill Inmon and Ralph Kimball (called "Dr.
DSS") have had a major impact on what Information Tech-
nology practitioners think of when the term decision
support system is used (cf., Power, 2007b). Referring to
this broad category of information systems as data-driven
decision support systems is both understandable and use-
ful. This terminology also provides research continuity
extending back to Gorry and Scott-Morton's (1971) article
that introduced the concept of a decision support system.
Various companies sell software that can be used to
build data-driven DSS including Teradata, Business
Objects, Cognos, Hyperion, and MicroStrategy. Teradata
software is primarily for the processing and development
of the backend data warehouse. The other vendors focus
on tools for creating a web-based user interface for a data-
driven DSS. Based upon recent DM Review magazine
reader surveys the major companies serving the business
intelligence community are IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, Busi-
ness Objects, and Teradata. Most of these large vendors
focus on the database component of a data-driven decision
support system.
Features of a Data-Driven DSS
Research on Executive Information Systems (Watson,
Rainer, & Koh, 1991) expanded the features managers
expect from data-driven DSS. In addition, a major advance
in technical capabilities for data-driven DSS occurred in
the early 1990s with the introduction of Online Analytical
Processing (OLAP) software. The term OLAP was coined in
1993 by E. F. "Ted" Codd (Codd, Codd, & Salley, 1993).
The key to a successful data-driven DSS is having easy
and rapid access to a large amount of accurate, well-
organized multidimensional data. Codd et al. (1993)
argued OLAP systems were characterized by:
1. multidimensional conceptual view;
2. link to a variety of data sources;
3. easy for users to access and understand;
4. multi-user support;
5. intuitive data manipulation;
6. flexible reporting; and
7. analytical capabilities.
Power's (2007a) Data-Driven DSS Major Features
The following is a detailed summary of major features of
data-driven DSS presented from a user's perspective from
Power (2007a).
Understanding Data-Driven Decision Support Systems 151
Ad Hoc Data Filtering and Retrieval
The system helps users systematically search for and
retrieve computerized data, filtering is often done using
drop down menus, queries are often predefined, and
users have drill-down capabilities. Users can often
change aggregation levels, ranging from the most sum-
marized to the most detailed (drill-down).
Alerts and Triggers
Some systems help users establish rules for email notifi-
cation and for other predefined actions.
Create Data Displays
Users can usually choose among displays like scatter dia-
grams, bar and pie charts, can often interactively change
the displays, may be able to animate historical data on
charts or other representations, and may be able to play-
back historical data in a time sequence.
Users have limited "working storage" for a data subset,
users can sometimes group data or change data formats.
In some systems, users can request changes to master
data definitions and data models.
Data Summarization
Users can view or create pivot tables and cross tabula-
tions. Users can create custom aggregations and calculate
computed fields, totals and subtotals. A pivot table sum-
marizes selected fields and rows of data in a table format.
In a pivot table, a user can view data from different per-
spectives and include various fields in the table. Users
can view a slice of the data, or drill-down for more detailed
data from a summarized value in a table.
Many data-driven DSS let users extract and download
data for further analysis, some systems allow users to
upload data for analysis in a user's "working storage."
Metadata Creation and Retrieval
Users should be able to add metadata to analyses and
reports they create and temporarily change labels and
descriptive information stored as metadata. Metadata is
an explanation of the data in a DSS data store. It provides
a context for decision support and helps users under-
stand the data in a system. Some metadata is used to
label screen displays and create report heading.
Report Design, Generation, and Storage
Users can often interactively extract, design and present
information in a formal report with tables, text, pie charts,
bar charts, and other diagrams. Once the user has cre-
ated a format for a report, it can be saved and reused
with new data. Reports can often be distributed using
print, Web pages and PDF documents.
Users can calculate descriptive statistics to summarize or
describe data, create trend lines and "mine" the data for
View predefined data displays
Data-driven DSS often have displays created by the DSS
designer. A system for operational performance monitor-
ing often includes a dashboard display. The term is a met-
aphorical reference to an automobile's dashboard. The
display integrates information from multiple sources/
metrics into gauges and dials that resembles the dash-
board of an automobile. A system for more long-term stra-
tegic performance monitoring may include a scorecard. A
scorecard is a table displaying performance metrics and
it may include indicators like arrows or a stoplight dis-
play. Bar and pie charts, scatter plots and two and three
dimensional maps may be used in predefined data dis-
plays.
View Production Reports
DSS designers may create and store predefined, periodic
reports as part of a data-driven DSS for users to easily
Specific data-driven decision support systems will have
some subset of the above features depending upon the
needs of users, the purpose of the system, the development
environment selected, and the resources expended build-
ing the system. Performance monitoring may emphasize
predefined data displays and production reports, while a
system focused on ad hoc queries for historical data analy-
sis would emphasize data filtering and retrieval, as well as
data summarization and possibly statistical analysis.
Decisions made using data-driven DSS can be adversely
affected by factors unrelated to the actual data so as
part of the design of such systems careful consideration
must be given to how data is framed and displayed.
A well-designed data-driven DSS emphasizes the design
of data displays and helps ensure that appropriate data is
retrieved.
Overall, with a data-driven DSS managers can more
easily access a single version of the truth, perform their
own analyses, have access to reliable, consistent and
high-quality information, make better informed decisions,
and have more timely information. To achieve these
results we need to build an appropriate DSS data store,
create a user interface with desired features, institute effec-
tive data governance and insure consistent data gathering.
In general, we should start a development effort by focusing
on the decision support capabilities and the features we
need and want in a new data-driven DSS.
Criteria for Evaluating Data-Driven DSS
When asked how to evaluate competing software products,
some people are quick to list criteria like ease of use, cost
of the package, capabilities, vendor reputation and ease
of installation. Although such factors are important and
need to be considered in most situations, this evaluation
question should be framed more broadly and some other
issues should be addressed before specific criteria are dis-
cussed (cf., Power, 2002b). Software selection is a sequential
decision process. Begin the process by specifying require-
ments and ask, "What functions and tasks will managers
perform with the data-driven DSS? When and how will it
be used?"
Then the first major issue is determining whether
buying a vertical market package or assembling and cus-
tomizing software for a data-driven DSS project is a more
appropriate response to meeting the identified need. It is
often hard to know where the dividing line is between
"buying off-the-shelf" and "building" because once the
customization for the data-driven DSS becomes signifi-
cant, and then buying a vertical market package has
been transformed into a development project (even
though that may not have been intended).
Second, if the decision is to buy "off-the-shelf," then
one must determine what products might meet the need.
It is important to recognize that one must identify com-
parable software packages. "Off-the-shelf" is often appro-
priate for task specific or vertical market data-driven DSS
software like web-based reporting software.
Third, once comparable products are identified then
one can ask, "which one is best in this particular situa-
tion?" At this point, criteria can be specified and prod-
ucts can be compared. Evaluators need to recognize that
dominant alternatives and dominating criteria exist in
situations. Sometimes one criterion is so important in
making a choice that all other criteria take on a second-
ary role. For example, the cost of the package may be so
important that relatively high cost packages have no
chance of being selected. In the same vein, some software
packages may be so appropriate and be such a "good fit"
with the perceived need that other packages receive little
consideration. For example, a manager developing a
small-scale, model-driven DSS may almost—without
explicit evaluation—"choose" to develop the application
in Microsoft Excel. Prescreen the list of possible DSS prod-
ucts to eliminate those that do not meet constraints like
the need to "fit" with other software or with existing pro-
cesses, or the need to meet special regulatory or legal
requirements. Also, eliminate products that do not meet
technical constraints in terms of operating systems or
infrastructure.
Fourth, if a dominant alternative does not exist, and
if no one criterion dominates all others, then six major
criteria should be identified and weighted for evaluat-
ing the comparable DSS packages. Criteria should be
generally independent of each other. Based on Power
(2002b), some criteria that should be considered include
1. Capabilities—examine the functions that a DSS
product can perform and how important they are to
the decision support need of targeted users. Deter-
mine if the package can be customized and in what
ways. Does it meet the need? Does it provide the
desired support?
2. Cost of the Package—examine the total cost of own-
ership including acquisition costs, implementation
and training costs, maintenance costs, and any
annual software license costs.
3. Ease-of-use—the ease of learning and using the capa-
bilities of a product to accomplish tasks. Ease of use
is in the mind of the user so ask users to assess this
criterion.
4. Ease of installation and operation—how easy is it to
configure, deploy and control use of a product. Is it
easy to transfer information to and/or from other
company information systems? Are there potential
technical implementation problems?
5. Performance—what is the speed or capacity of the
product when performing its functions. In addi-
tion, part of the performance criterion should be
software reliability.
6. Vendor reputation and reliability—the vendor mat-
ters, but in emerging product areas this criterion
can be difficult to assess. What kind of vendor and
technical support is needed and is available?
In the DSS literature, the debate has often been about
using rapid prototyping or a more structured systems
development life cycle (SDLC) method. With either
approach it is important to start with pre-design descrip-
tion and diagnosis of the actual decision-making process
(Stabell, 1983). This step creates a decision-oriented
approach to DSS development.
A related diagnostic activity is conducting a DSS Audit.
In general, it can be very useful to audit operational and
managerial decision processes. An audit can be a first
step in identifying opportunities to redesign business
processes and include new data-driven DSS in business
processes (cf., Power, 2002a). Rockart (1979) identified
an approach for defining decision-making data needs
that is appropriate for Data-Driven DSS and especially
Executive Information Systems. Rockart's Critical Suc-
cess Factors (CSF) Design Method focuses on individual
managers and on each manager's current hard and soft
information needs. Diagnosis of decision-making
should be followed by additional initiation and diagnos-
tic activities and preparation of a feasibility study of the
technical and economic prospects related to developing
a DSS. The feasibility study should include an evalua-
tion of competing software products. This study should
occur prior to actually committing resources to building
a proposed DSS.
Helping managers monitor operational performance or
gain "intelligence" from historical data is a worthwhile
purpose for data-driven DSS. Such systems will be espe-
cially important in global enterprises. These distrib-
uted organizations generate data in many operational
systems and the only way to gain a "single version" of
the truth is to create an integrated decision support
data store that is accessible to all decision makers no
matter where they happen to be physically located.
Small and medium sized enterprises can also benefit
from data-driven DSS, but the data store is unlikely to
be a large-scale data warehouse. A database on a web
accessible server may provide the appropriate enabling
What have we learned over the years about building
data-driven DSS? One general conclusion is to identify
what decisions will be supported and who might use the
proposed data-driven DSS. A powerful sponsor increases
the chances that an enterprise-wide DSS will be successfully
built and deployed. Further, it is generally advisable to hire
outside expert advice for the first project (cf., Solomon,
2005; Power, 2002a).
Companies have an increasing amount of data in his-
torical data stores and that is creating storage and
retrieval problems. Sadly, much of the historical data is
of poor quality and source systems often need to be
updated and improved as part of a data-driven DSS
project. In some cases, new data collection systems may
need to be designed and implemented prior to imple-
mentation of a data-driven DSS.
The technologies for building data-driven DSS are
improving. Vendors have enhanced web-based interfaces
with dashboards, visualization and animation. New tools
simplify query development with pull down menus and
other structured approaches. In coming years, many
mainframe-based data-driven DSS will need to be updated
or replaced by web-based or web-enabled systems. The
Web 2.0 technologies, open source and new hardware like
tablet PCs and smart phones are the frontier for data-
driven DSS.
Daniel J. Power is a Professor of Information Systems and
Management at the College of Business Administration
at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa
and the editor of DSSResources.COM, the Web-based
knowledge repository about computerized systems
that support decision making. Dan writes the column
"Ask Dan!" in DSS News. He can be reached at
power@dssresources.com.
Alter, S. L. (1980). Decision Support Systems: Current Practice and Con-
tinuing Challenge. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Bonczek, R. H., C. W. Holsapple, & Whinston, A. (1981). Foundations
of Decision Support Systems. New York: Academic Press.
Codd, E. F., Codd, S. B., & Salley, C. T. (1993). Providing OLAP
(On-Line Analytical Processing) to User-Analysts: An IT
Mandate, E. F. Codd and Associates white paper (sponsored by
Arbor Software Corporation).
Dhar, V., & Stein, R. (1997). Intelligent Decision Support Methods: The
Science of Knowledge Work. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Gorry, A. & Scott-Morton, M. S. (1971). A Framework for Informa-
tion Systems. Sloan Management Review, 13(1), 56–79.
Hormozi, A. M., & Giles, S. (2004). Data Mining: A Competitive
Weapon for Banking and Retail Industries. Information Systems
Management, 21(2), 62–71.
Inmon, W. H. (1981) Database Machines and Decision Support Systems.
Boston: QED Technical Publishing Group.
Nylund, A. (1999, July). Tracing the BI Family Tree. Knowledge
Management, July 1999.
Power, D. J. (2002a) Decision Support Systems: Concepts and Resources
for Managers. Westport, CT: Greenwood/Quorum.
Power, D. (2002b). What criteria should be used for evaluating
DSS software packages? DSS News, 3 (8).
Power, D. (2006). What was the first computerized decision sup-
port system (DSS)? DSS News, 7 (27).
Power, D. (2007a) What are the features of a data-driven DSS?
DSS News, 8 (4).
Power, D. J. (2007b). A Brief History of Decision Support Systems.
DSSResources.COM, World Wide Web, Retrieved March 10,
2007 fromhttp://DSSResources.COM/history/dsshistory.html,
version 4.0.
Rockart, J. F. (1979, Mar./April). Chief Executives Define Their
Own Data Needs. Harvard Business Review.
Solomon, M. D. (2005). Ensuring a Successful Data Warehouse
Initiative. Information Systems Management, 22 (1).
Stabell, C. (1983). A Decision-Oriented Approach to Building
DSS," in J. L. Bennett, Building Decision Support Systems. Reading,
MA: Addison-Wesley, 221–269.
Watson, H. J., Rainer, R. K., & Koh, C. (1991, March). Executive
Information Systems: A Framework for Development and a
Survey of Current Practices. MIS Quarterly, 13–30.
Watson, H. J., Wixom, B. H., Hoffer, J. A., Anderson-Lehman, R.,
& Reynolds, A. M. (2006). Real-Time Business Intelligence: Best
Practices at Continental Airlines. Information Systems Management,
23 (1), 7–18.
... Thus, the service our software will provide is decision support. We use Power's (2008) definition of a DSS as an "interactive computer-based system or subsystem intended to help decision-makers use communication technologies, data, documents, knowledge, and/or models to identify and solve problems, complete decision process tasks, and make decisions" (p. 149). ...
Accessible decision support for sustainable energy systems in developing countries
Maria Hart
Sarah Eckhoff
Michael H. Breitner
With rising electricity demand through digitization and innovation, the urgency of climate change mitigation, and the recent geopolitical crisis, stakeholders in developing countries face the complex task to build reliable, affordable, and low-emission energy systems. Information inaccessibility, data unavailability, and scarce local expertise are major challenges for planning and transitioning to decentralized solutions. Motivated by the calls for more solution-oriented research regarding sustainability, we design, develop, and evaluate the web-based decision support system NESSI4Dweb+ that is tailored to the needs and capabilities of various stakeholders in developing countries. NESSI4Dweb+ is open access and considers location-specific circumstances to facilitate multi-energy planning. Its applicability is demonstrated with a case study of a representative rural village in southern Madagascar and evaluated through seven interviews with experts and stakeholders. We show that NESSI4Dweb+ can support the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and enable the very prerequisite of digitization: reliable electrification.
... This type of system enables users to extract information from large databases that otherwise would have remained hidden and unused; this information can assist in the decision-making process. The two main techniques being used to build a data-driven DSS are: online analytical processing (OLAP), and data mining [8], [9]. OLAP is based on queries; it enables users to interactively examine and manipulate the data collected in the data warehouses from different viewpoints. ...
A Decision Support System for Cyber Physical Systems under Disruptive Events: Smart Building Application
Mostafa Zaman
Roja Eini
Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are highly vulnerable to disruptions and disturbances during decision-making processes. An important challenge in CPS management is to anticipate, absorb, adapt to, and rapidly recover from unexpected critical situations. This study proposes a decision support system (DSS) for CPS management and planning under uncertainty. The DSS architecture is developed based on Markov Decision Process (MDP) and it reinforces the model-based CPS management system in making optimal decisions by taking into account a wide range of disruptive scenarios existing in CPS operation. In the event of a disruption, an initial decision is chosen randomly, and then it is optimized gradually over time by transiting to new states and finding decisions with higher reward values. Two factors are considered for determining immediate rewards in the support system: execution time and cost of the decision. The proposed decision support system is applied to tackle disruptions (including fire hazard, power outage, pipe burst, appliance malfunction, natural disaster, and compromised network) in a smart building case study. In contrast to the existing decision support systems presented in the literature, the proposed architecture is provided in a more integrated and generalizable manner that can be applied to various smart building decision-making applications during disruptive/critical events.
... Examples include reports on sales, working hours of employees, and consumption of raw materials [27]. The decision support system (DSS) can be generally defined as a class of computerised information system whose purpose is to enhance the ability of managers to make decisions [28]. Managers at different organisational levels employ such systems as support in making semi-structured and unstructured decisions [29]. ...
Perceived Importance and Barriers to ICT Integration into Sport Management
Darko Dukic
Goran Kozina
Bojan Bodražić
The aim of the paper is to explore the perceived importance and barriers to ICT integration in the management of sport organisations, as well as the extent of its use. The research was conducted on a sample of Croatian sport managers. The results indicate that they find ICT essential for efficient sport management practices. The study also showed that managers believe that ICT is used sufficiently in the management of their organisations, which should be taken with caution. The results partially support the hypothesis that there are serious barriers to the integration of ICT into sport management. Of all the barriers analysed, only the lack of funds for equipment purchases and software acquisition was identified as a significant obstacle. The findings of this study fill a gap in the existing literature and contribute to a better understanding of the process of ICT adoption and implementation in sport management.
... As summarized by Provost & Fawcett [45], companies can significantly improve their productivity, asset utilization profits, and market values with the use of data-driven decision-making practices. According to Power [84], a data-driven decision support system should link to a variety of data sources, be easy to use and understand, allow data manipulation, create flexible reports, and have strong analytical capabilities. Awan et al. [85] surveyed 109 companies from the Czech Republic and summarized that data-driven decision-making helps companies to make better and more effective decisions; however, strong big data analytics capabilities are required to fully utilize the benefits of data-driven decisions. ...
A Data-Driven Decision Support System with Smart Packaging in Grocery Store Supply Chains During Outbreaks
Soc Econ Plann Sci
Ozgur Kabadurmus
Yasanur Kayikci
Sercan Demir
Basar Koc
The unexpected emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how grocery shopping is done. The grocery retail stores need to ensure hygiene, quality, and safety concerns in-store shopping by providing "no-touch" smart packaging solutions for agri-food products. The benefit of smart packaging is to inform consumers about the freshness level of a packaged product without having direct contact. This paper proposes a data-driven decision support system that uses smart packaging as a smart product-service system to manage the sustainable grocery store supply chain during outbreaks to prevent food waste. The proposed model dynamically updates the price of a packaged perishable product depending on freshness level while reducing food waste and the number of rejected customers and maximising profit by increasing the inventory turnover rate of grocery stores. The model was tested on a hypothetical but realistic case study of a single product. The results of this study showed that stock capacities, freshness discount rate, freshness period, and quantity discounts significantly affect the performance of a grocery store supply chain during outbreaks.
... In general, decision support systems are a subcategory of computer information systems that support decision-making activities and include five main types of decision support systems as follows [7][8][9]: ...
Decision Support System: Analysis And Design Methodology
Huweida Abdalaziz
Eiman Sahly
... At a broad level, BI can be viewed as a type of information system, a term used to describe the integrated organization and actions surrounding the collecting, storing, and processing of data, and the distribution of resulting information [19]. Similarly, it has also been described as a type of data-driven decision support system [20]. In addition to these organizational perspectives of BI, it has also been described in more data-centric terms. ...
Power Up: Combining Behavior Monitoring Software with Business Intelligence Tools to Enhance Proactive Animal Welfare Reporting
Jason David Wark
Animal welfare is a dynamic process, and its evaluation must be similarly dynamic. The development of ongoing behavior monitoring programs in zoos and aquariums is a valuable tool for identifying meaningful changes in behavior and allows proactive animal management. However, analyzing observational behavior data in an ongoing manner introduces unique challenges compared with traditional hypothesis-driven studies of behavior over fixed time periods. Here, I introduce business intelligence software as a potential solution. Business intelligence software combines the ability to integrate multiple data streams with advanced analytics and robust data visualizations. As an example, I provide an overview of the Microsoft Power BI platform, a leading option in business intelligence software that is freely available. With Power BI, users can apply data cleaning and shaping in a stepwise fashion, then build dashboards using a library of visualizations through a drag-and-drop interface. I share two examples of data dashboards built with Power BI using data from the ZooMonitor behavior recording app: a quarterly behavior summary and an enrichment evaluation summary. I hope this introduction to business intelligence software and Microsoft Power BI empowers researchers and managers working in zoos and aquariums with new tools to enhance their evidence-based decision-making processes.
... Each processor has a feature of a function. Using it to reveal was brought together the data [37]. Something that may be output and the researchers call it information [38]. ...
Understanding Data Toward Going to Data Science
Mahyuddin K. M. Nasution
Data in terms of term have filled the daily activities of human life. This term becomes important, when humans are increasingly dependent on technology called computers or computing machines in terms of calculating from speed side. Data is a picture of the world of life itself. Mastery over it becomes important and so important. Therefore, various scientific fields, mainly physics, are present, but focus on certain things from the data, which results in overlapping and inefficiency in the study. Data science emerged to reveal in an integrated manner about data so that the world need understands the data as a whole.KeywordsObjectScienceDocumentCovid-19FrameworkComputer science
Removing silos to enable data-driven decisions: The importance of marketing and IT knowledge, cooperation, and information quality
J BUS RES
Stefan Sleep
Prachi Gala
Dana Harrison
Business decision-making increasingly requires that the information technology (IT) and marketing functions work together. Despite their distinct objectives, marketing managers need improved access to data to drive strategy. Based on an absorptive-capacity perspective, this study examines how marketing and IT business knowledge at the executive level affect decision-making. Results indicate that IT business knowledge has a direct, positive effect on data-driven decision-making, and marketing business knowledge does not. In addition, information quality and marketing/IT cooperation have differential moderating effects.
The Task of Parametric Identification the Interval Models with Nonlinear Parameters
Mykola Dyvak
Andriy Pukas
Volodymyr Manzhula
Vadym Zabchuk
Bringing Big Data into Media: A Decision-Making Model for Targeting Digital News Content
Zhan Liu
Nicole Glassey
The purpose of this study is to investigate how big data analytics technology affects decision-making in the media industry, with a focus on digital newspapers. To achieve this goal, we propose a decision-making model to identify the relationship between audiences and news topics using big data analysis and classification, intending to help news practitioners optimize their marketing strategies. To evaluate our model, we conducted a case study using a Swiss local newspaper. Preliminary results indicate that audience reading time and volume have been significantly increased after implementing the decision that based on the model's analysis. The study also provides some guidelines for editors and journalists to target their digital news content.
What are the features of a data-driven DSS?
Editor, DSSResources.COM Data-driven DSS are the most common of the five types of decision support systems in the expanded DSS framework (Power, 2002). These systems provide operational and strategic business intelligence using internal company data and sometimes external data. Recall that features are identifiable capabilities or properties. A specific decision support system implementation will not necessarily have all of the features associated with a general category of DSS, but a comprehensive list of features can help in classifying and understanding computerized DSS. Just as we find with the facial features of people some data-driven DSS features are more pronounced than others in a specific system. In general, a number of major features are shared by such systems. Many identifiable features are found in powerful, data-driven DSS built using business intelligence and performance management software, report and query tools, OLAP tools, executive information system software, and data warehouse appliances and applications. Over the years, the development of very large database storage systems, multidimensional databases, parallel database systems, graphical user interfaces and the Internet have expanded the technical possibilities. Data-driven DSS emphasizes access to and manipulation of a time-series of internal historical company data, real-time operational data and sometimes external data. Most current systems emphasize historical company data. Simple file systems accessed by query and retrieval tools provide the most elementary level of functionality. Data warehouse systems that allow the manipulation of data provide additional functionality. Data-driven DSS with On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) capabilities provide the highest level of decision support linked to analysis of large collections of historical data or streams of real-time data. Early versions of Data-Driven Decision Support Systems were called Data-Oriented (Alter, 1980) or Retrieval-Only DSS by Bonczek, Holsapple and Whinston (1981).
Real-Time Business Intelligence: Best Practices at Continental Airlines
Hugh Watson
Barb Wixom
Jeffrey A. Hoffer
Anne Marie Reynolds
Data management for decision support has moved through three generations, with the latest being real-time data warehousing. This latest generation is significant because of its potential for affecting tactical decision making and business processes. Continental Airlines is a leader in real-time business intelligence, and much can be learned from how they have implemented it.
Executive Information Systems: A Framework for Development and a Survey of Current Practices
MIS QUART
R. Kelly Rainer Jr
Chang E. Koh
Executive information systems (EIS) are now successfully providing computer support for senior executives in a growing number of organizations. Previous attempts to support senior executives are discussed with a focus on why these attempts failed and what was learned that should be incorporated in future efforts. An EIS development framework is presented that includes a structural perspective of the elements and their interaction, the development process, and the dialog between the user and the system. Survey data from 50 firms having an EIS are presented and discussed in the context of the development framework. While most of the findings confirm conventional EIS wisdom, others are somewhat surprising, such as the significant role that information systems management often play sin initiating the development of an EIS or serving as its operational sponsor. The findings lead to additional suggestions for EIS research opportunities, as well as predictions about the future nature of EIS.
Decision Support Systems: Concepts and Resources for Managers
For MIS specialists and nonspecialists alike, teacher and consultant Dan Power provides a readable, comprehensive, understandable guide to the concepts and applications of decision support systems. Power defines DSS broadly: interactive computer-based systems and subsystems that help people use computer communications, data, documents, knowledge, and models to solve problems and make decisions. This book covers an expanded framework for categorizing Decision Support Systems (DSS), a general managerial and technical perspective on building DSS, details and examples of the general types of DSS, and tools and issues associated with assessing proposals for DSS projects. A glossary and DSS readiness audit questions give special, ongoing value to all readers. Free eBook at https://scholarworks.uni.edu/facbook/67/
A decision oriented approach to building decision support systems
C.B. Stabell
Foundations of Decision Support Systems
J OPER RES SOC
ROBERT H. BONCZEK
Clyde W. Holsapple
Andrew Whinston
Andrew Whin-ston: Foundations of Decision Support Systems
A New Framework for Management Information Systems
MIT SLOAN MANAGE REV
Michael S. Scott-Morton
Data Mining: A Competitive Weapon for Banking and Retail Industries
INFORM SYST MANAGE
Amir M. Hormozi
Stacy Giles
Data mining is proving to be a valuable tool, by identifying potentially useful information from the large amounts of data collected, and enabling an organization to gain an advantage over its competitors. This article defines what data mining is and covers the operations of data mining as have been classified throughout literature. It then focuses on the important uses of data mining, which include but are not limited to marketing, risk management, fraud detection, and customer acquisition and retention. Examples of how the banking and retail industries have been effectively utilizing data mining in these areas are provided.
Ensuring A Successful Data Warehouse Initiative
Martin D. Solomon
Some guidelines regarding the risks and some processes that can be followed to help ensure a successful data warehouse (DW) are discussed. The guidelines discussed are for a large corporate DW initiative that will require a new infrastructure environment or to warrant analysis to determine whether it can be integrated into a comfortable environment. It is important to train users well in advance because one can also use this experience to confirm or acquire additional use patterns that may not have been identified. It is also important to focus the DW project efforts on data quality, delivery and training as well as obtaining the most comprehensive set of usage patterns possible.
JMWAIS
Joey F. George
J. McDermott
Ciara Heavin
A framework for knowledge discovery within business intelligence for decision support
R S Basra
Business Intelligence (BI) techniques provide the potential to not only efficiently manage but further analyse and apply the collected information in an effective manner. Benefiting from research both within industry and academia, BI provides functionality for accessing, cleansing, transforming, analysing and reporting organisational datasets. This provides further opportunities for the data to ... [Show full abstract] be explored and assist organisations in the discovery of correlations, trends and patterns that exist hidden within the data. This hidden information can be employed to provide an insight into opportunities to make an organisation more competitive by allowing manager to make more informed decisions and as a result, corporate resources optimally utilised. This potential insight provides organisations with an unrivalled opportunity to remain abreast of market trends. Consequently, BI techniques provide significant opportunity for integration with Decision Support Systems (DSS). The gap which was identified within the current body of knowledge and motivated this research, revealed that currently no suitable framework for BI, which can be applied at a meta-level and is therefore tool, technology and domain independent, currently exists. To address the identified gap this study proposes a meta-level framework: - 'KDDS-BI', which can be applied at an abstract level and therefore structure a BI investigation, irrespective of the end user. KDDS-BI not only facilitates the selection of suitable techniques for BI investigations, reducing the reliance upon ad-hoc investigative approaches which rely upon 'trial and error', yet further integrates Knowledge Management (KM) principles to ensure the retention and transfer of knowledge due to a structured approach to provide DSS that are based upon the principles of BI. In order to evaluate and validate the framework, KDDS-BI has been investigated through three distinct case studies. First KDDS-BI facilitates the integration of BI within 'Direct Marketing' to provide innovative solutions for analysis based upon the most suitable BI technique. Secondly, KDDS-BI is investigated within sales promotion, to facilitate the selection of tools and techniques for more focused in store marketing campaigns and increase revenue through the discovery of hidden data, and finally, operations management is analysed within a highly dynamic and unstructured environment of the London Underground Ltd. network through unique a BI solution to organise and manage resources, thereby increasing the efficiency of business processes. The three case studies provide insight into not only how KDDS-BI provides structure to the integration of BI within business process, but additionally the opportunity to analyse the performance of KDDS-BI within three independent environments for distinct purposes provided structure through KDDS-BI thereby validating and corroborating the proposed framework and adding value to business processes.
Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence (KMBI 2005)
April 2005 · Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Bodo Rieger
Over the past years, the term business intelligence (BI) accompanied a change of focus within management support systems (MSS). Since the early 1980s MSS established as a concept for integrated reporting and analysis tools to support management tasks, but primarily in a passive, retrieval oriented way and based on past data. BI, however, promoted an active, model-based and prospective approach. ... [Show full abstract] In BI, intelligence was often defined as the discovery and explanation of hidden, inherent and decision-relevant contexts in large amounts of business and economic data. In an enhanced view, the subsequent phases of business decision processes, e.g. in strategic planning and management, were also included. The successful implementation of BI increasingly required the systematic consideration and professional processing of knowledge types and sources, which so far had only been developed sparse, for example – to effectively represent and distribute the BI findings, both factual and model-like cognitions, – to instrumentally apply these cognitions to the modeling of decision support systems (DSS), – to effectively customize sophisticated methods like data mining or forecasting, and – to support the valid derivation and interpretation of action-oriented cognitions.
Business Intelligence (BI) system evolution: a case in a healthcare institution
June 2016 · Journal of Decision System
Ehsanur Rahman Safwan
Rob Meredith
Frada Burstein
Business Intelligence (BI) systems are an important part of many organisations' IT portfolios. While the evolutionary nature of other kinds of decision support technology has been noted, there is little research investigating the evolutionary nature of BI systems. This paper presents a case study of a BI system development in a large Australian healthcare institution and uses evolutionary ... [Show full abstract] theories from decision support systems (DSS) to understand the system evolution observed. The paper concludes that the theories describing evolution in DSS can also be effectively applied to BI as well. BI practitioners and developers should be aware of evolutionary triggers, as well as the different kinds of evolution that can affect BI system evolution.
Business intelligence tools for data analysis and decision making
Dejan Zdraveski
Every business is dynamic in nature and is affected by various external and internal factors. These factors include external market conditions, competitors, internal restructuring and re-alignment, operational optimization and paradigm shifts in the business itself. New regulations and restrictions, in combination with the above factors, contribute to the constant evolutionary nature of ... [Show full abstract] compelling, business-critical information; the kind of information that an organization needs to sustain and thrive. Business intelligence ("BI") is broad term that encapsulates the process of gathering information pertaining to a business and the market it functions in. This information when collated and analyzed in the right manner, can provide vital insights into the business and can be a tool to improve efficiency, reduce costs, reduce time lags and bring many positive changes. A business intelligence application helps to achieve precisely that. Successful organizations maximize the use of their data assets through business intelligence technology. The first data warehousing and decision support tools introduced companies to the power and benefits of accessing and analyzing their corporate data. Business users at every level found new, more sophisticated ways to analyze and report on the information mined from their vast data warehouses.Choosing a Business Intelligence offering is an important decision for an enterprise, one that will have a significant impact throughout the enterprise. The choice of a BI offering will affect people up and down the chain of command (senior management, analysts, and line managers) and across functional areas (sales, finance, and operations). It will affect business users, application developers, and IT professionals. BI applications include the activities of decision support systems (DSS), query and reporting, online analyticalprocessing (OLAP), statistical analysis, forecasting, and data mining. Another way of phrasing this is that BI applications take data that is generated by the operations of an enterprise and translate that data into relevant and useful information for consumption by people throughout the enterprise.
On the Development of Extended Communication Driven DSS within Dynamic Manufacturing Networks.
Sébastien Kicin
Christoph Gringmuth
Jukka Hemilä
The slow progress to date regarding inter-organizational collaborative decision management within manufacturing supply chains is due to a lack of common understanding of this concept, and the difficulty of integrating external requirements of customers and suppliers into opaque internal decision control. In this paper, we focus on the production management of dynamic manufacturing networks that ... [Show full abstract] is characterized by non-centralized decision making. We set out to clarify internal decision collaboration concepts based on research and technology led on collaborative work and enterprise modeling techniques, and discuss how IT can support and improve business and managerial decision-making within supply chains. This paper begins with examining the Communication Driven Decision Support System (DSS) concept and its integration within a supply chain point of view. A framework for inter-organizational decision support is then discussed and linked to the traditional Decision Support Systems and the overall Information Management solutions. We conclude that the effectiveness of supply chain collaboration relies upon two factors: the level to which it integrates internal and external decisions at strategic, tactical and operational levels, and the level to which the efforts are aligned to the supply chain settings in terms of the geographical dispersion, the demand pattern, and the product characteristics.


HOW DOES A 108-YEAR-OLD REAL ESTATE BRAND IN THE COUNTRY STAY FRESH AND RELEVANT IN TODAY'S RAPIDLY EVOLVING MARKET?
The Coldwell Banker® brand was started from the ashes of the great San Francisco earthquake that leveled the city in 1906.
Like many of today's great entrepreneurs, a young Colbert Coldwell -and later Benjamin Banker- saw opportunity where others couldn't and founded a real estate company based on the principles of honesty, integrity, and service. When people think about innovation and disruptive technology today, the technology startups of Silicon Valley are often the first thing that come to mind. In many ways, Coldwell Banker is the original Silicon Valley startup. Innovation has been part of the Coldwell Banker DNA for more than 100 years. We were the first real estate brand to launch a website, the first to introduce online property search, and the first to embrace video and mobile technology.
We've learned that the best way to stay on top of our evolving industry is to stay true to who we are as a brand.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BRAND'S MORE RECENT INNOVATIONS?
WHAT ROLE DO SALES ASSOCIATES PLAY AS THEIR CLIENTS SHARE COMMENTS ON THE NEW DIGITAL PLATFORM?
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BENEFITS THESE INNOVATIONS GIVE SALES ASSOCIATES?
CBx aids in creating listing presentations that stand out as listing experiences – full of tangible, data-driven information to help plan how a home will be sold.
a safe and secure place to host your life.
and can finally say that they are home.


text:
This week's cinema highlights - 05.12.08
THERE are cartoon capers a-plenty in cinemas this week as the eagerly anticipated Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa hits our screens.
Following the adventures of New York Zoo animals Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria, this hilarious animated tale is packed with fun and laughter for children and adults alike.
Elsewhere in movieland, action and adventure are the name of the game in Transporter 3, starring Jason Statham, and Reese Witherspoon teams up with Vince Vaughn in the fantastic festive comedy, Four Christmases.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (PG): New release
In the highly-anticipated sequel to the 2005 animated hit Madagascar, New York Zoo animals Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo land in the wilderness of Africa, where Alex meets the rest of his family, but has trouble communicating with them after spending so much time at the Central Park Zoo.
Running time: 1hr 50mins.
Transporter 3 (15): New release
Frank Martin puts on the driving gloves to deliver Valentina, the kidnapped daughter of a Ukranian government official, from Marseilles to Odessa on the Black Sea. En route, he is faced with thugs who want to intercept Valentina's safe delivery as he tries not to let his personal feelings get in the way of his dangerous mission.
Running time 2hrs 5mins.
Changeling (15)
Angelina Jolie stars in this crime drama which sees a mother's prayer for her kidnapped son to return home answered, but it doesn't take her long to suspect that the boy who comes back is not hers...
Running time: 2hrs 40mins
Four Christmases (12A)
Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon star in this hilarious seasonal comedy following a couple's struggle to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas Day.
Running time: 1hr 50mins
My Best Friend's Girl (15)
Dane Cook stars as Tank, who faces the ultimate test of friendship when his best friend hires him to take his ex-girlfriend out on a rubbish date in order to make her realise how great her former boyfriend is.
Running time: 2hrs
Body of Lies (15)
Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a covert CIA operative working in Jordan searching for terrorists who have been bombing civilian targets.
Ferris uncovers information on the Islamist mastermind Al-Saleem (Alon Aboutboul).
He devises a plan to infiltrate Al-Saleem's terrorist network with the help of his boss back in Langley, Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe).
Quantum of Solace (12A)
Beginning just an hour after the events of Casino Royale have been resolved, James Bond (Daniel Craig) gets involved in a car chase in Italy and not long after that, he's off to Haiti to track down an MI6 traitor.
This time the ruthless villain is corrupt businessman Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) who is set on taking over the Bolivian water supply.
In the same vein as its predecessor, this is a less jokey Bond, with more the feel of its 21st Century thriller stablemates – particularly the Bourne trilogy – than the tongue-in-cheek, one eyebrow raised, of our favourite secret agent's '70s instalments.
And lads – if you do need to persuade your girlfriend along the cinema to see this – we are reliably informed that Daniel Craig gets his torso out again.
High School Musical 3: Senior Year / High School Musical 3: Senior Year Sing Along (PG)
Now seniors in high school, Troy and Gabriella struggle with the idea of being separated from each other as college approaches. Along with the rest of the Wildcats, they stage a spring musical to express their hopes and fears about their future.
Running time 2hr 15mins
Ghost Town (12A)
Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) is a man whose people skills leave much to be desired. When Pincus dies unexpectedly, but is miraculously revived after seven minutes, he wakes up to discover that he now has the annoying ability to see ghosts. Even worse, they all want something from him, particularly Frank Herlihy who pesters him into breaking up the impending marriage of his widow Gwen...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Yoga is an ancient practice that connects the mind and the body. The best part is that it can be followed by people of all ages. It encourages relaxation and also comes with several health benefits.
Yoga is often recommended as the go-to way for combating stress. It helps by releasing stress patterns, developing coping skills, improving one's connection to himself, promoting calmness, and sharpening one mentally. Yoga also lowers the stress hormone known as cortisol. Moreover, it also enables one to regulate his heart-rate variability better.
Not only does yoga bust stress but it also boosts your mood. This is because it promotes the release of serotonin which is the happy hormone. A study shows how yoga practice takes GABA levels higher. Over and above that, yoga also makes one feel more content which also improves one's mood and prevents depression and anxiety.
You don't have to practice any particularly challenging yoga poses to be able to lose weight. Gentle yoga works well enough in fueling metabolic activity in your body. Yoga also encourages weight loss by maintaining hormonal balance, reducing stress and discouraging overeating.
Yoga ups your energy markers. It is able to do so owing to its unique breathing strategies that make one feel fresher. Yoga awakens the body's energy centers known as chakras. The tree yoga pose is an example of one type of yoga that enables energy circulation throughout the body.
You must be knowing how inflammation stands at the center of several diseases and ailments. Chronic inflammation can cause heart diseases, diabetes, cancer, etc. They say yoga may be of help here as it may be able to curb inflammation. However, more research is needed to confirm this benefit of yoga.
Yoga may be of help in improving our sleep quality as well. Sleep deprivation is accompanied by numerous health concerns such as high blood pressure, fatigue, depression, etc. Studies show that yoga can help improve your sleep quality and duration as well.
Yoga also improves one's flexibility along with making one fit. Stretching helps tone muscles. Research also shows that yoga can improve one's balance. It may improve mobility in older adults. By bettering one's balance and flexibility, yoga can improve one's performance as well.
Studies show that yoga can improve heart health by decreasing a whole lot of risk factors that may lead to heart diseases. Yoga may help lower high blood pressure. However, yoga must be combined with a healthy lifestyle as well for noticeable results.
Yoga comes with several benefits. Incorporating this physical activity in your lifestyle can help improve your posture, flexibility, energy, sleep, mood, and even your cardiovascular health among other benefits.


text:
Successor Liability Risks in Asset Purchase Agreements
Samuel Hodson
Type: Law Bulletins
In theory, asset purchase agreements allow buyers to choose the assets they wish to buy and not assume the seller's liabilities. In reality, many buyers are being exposed to litigation concerning the debts and tort liabilities of their sellers. Over the past 25 years, courts around the country have issued decisions that have created minefields for asset buyers. The number of successful cases has been steadily increasing as have the settlements to avoid the risk, expense, and uncertainty of litigation. Prudent buyers are enhancing their diligence to identify these risks and negate contractual protections such as escrows, holdbacks, indemnification, seller covenants to maintain its business, and even insurance against claims migrating from the seller to the buyer.
Advising buyers on the risks of successor liability is challenging for transactional lawyers. Case law is of little predictive value because: (a) there are many factors used to determine successor liability; (b) the list of factors which may trigger liability has steadily grown (and may never be set); (c) unknown tort claims such as product liability may be litigated in remote jurisdictions and create a complicated choice of law questions, and (d) both trial and appellate courts have embraced novel theories to benefit claimants who are unable to collect from insolvent sellers. These risks are real and cannot be eliminated by simply structuring the acquisition as an asset purchase. The risks are enhanced when transactions involve a distressed or insolvent seller. When a seller has been dissolved or otherwise has insufficient resources to satisfy its retained liabilities (including contingencies) the buyer will face a greater risk of successor liability.
There are four general case law exceptions to the rule of buyer non-liability in asset transactions:
The buyer assumes the seller's liabilities expressly or impliedly.
The transaction in substance constitutes a merger or consolidation of the buyer and seller (de facto merger).
The buyer is "a mere continuation" of the seller.
The intent of the transaction is to defraud the seller's creditors.
The de facto merger theories are the most commonly cited by courts. Facts which support those theories include:
Continuity of management.
Same physical location.
Same general business operations.
Common equity ownership.
Assumption seller's ordinary course business trade debt.
Seller's dissolution following the sale.
This list is not exhaustive. No particular factor is sufficient to support liability and the absence of any particular factor will not necessarily defeat a claim. But, because those are fact-intensive inquiries, it is difficult or impossible to resolve those cases with summary judgment.
Identifying Successor Liability Risk
Additional factors that are likely to create or increase successor liability risk include:
(a) the buyer's exposure to "long tail" claims such as product liability, environmental torts, taxation, employment discrimination, health and safety, and data breach;
(b) the seller's dissolution or liquidation soon after the transaction;
(c) the seller's owners' receiving equity interests in the buyer (either expressly or in consulting agreements or employment contracts whose terms mimic ownership);
(d) the buyer continuing the seller's business with little change;
(e) the buyer marketing itself as a continuation of the seller or otherwise trading on the seller's goodwill; and
(f) the buyer's actual knowledge or imputed knowledge of claims combined with the buyer's failure to require the seller to make adequate provision for their satisfaction through insurance or escrow.
Managing Risks in a Transaction
The purchase agreement must clearly define the liabilities included and excluded in the transaction as well as the seller's obligation to indemnify the buyer for retained and non-assumed obligations. Acquisition subsidiaries are useful to trap successor liability claims at the subsidiary level and protect the core business of the buyer. Cash transactions reduce the risk of liability based on grounds of "continuity of ownership" and also create liquidity to satisfy the seller's current and future creditors. While the risk of unknown liabilities is lower in asset acquisitions than in merger or stock transactions, the strongest defense is robust and organized diligence. Where potentially significant liabilities may be imposed on a buyer long after the transaction closes (such as product liability and environmental clean-up costs) proper pre-closing investigation can identify and quantify the risks. Once identified, the risks can be allocated and mitigated through measures such as indemnification for liabilities that come to light immediately after closing and insurance coverage for other claims.
Using Insurance
Insurance is an important but often overlooked source of protection (particularly for tort negligence and strict liability claims). Buyers may need to engage experienced insurance advisors to review their seller's existing and past insurance policies and claims histories. Policies written on an "occurrence basis" will likely remain available to the seller after closing for claims occurring prior to the closing. The buyer may negotiate with the seller to be named as an additional insured on these occurrence-based policies. For policies written on a "claims-made" basis, the buyer may require the seller to purchase tail coverage for the applicable statute of limitations period. So-called "tail coverage" insurance pays claims for pre-closing occurrences that are discovered during the post-closing period. Other special insurance coverages may be available including representation and warranty insurance (which covers losses resulting from a breach of a representation or warranty in the purchase agreement) environmental insurance (pollution legal liability and remediation costs), successor liability insurance, fraudulent conveyance insurance, and litigation and contingent liability insurance.
A seller's creditors are not parties to the asset purchase agreement and are not bound by it. (Sales governed by bankruptcy court orders pursuant to 11 U.S.C. 363 and other judicial sales may be an exception to this rule.) The acquisition agreement alone cannot provide complete protection for the buyer. The asset purchase agreement assigns responsibility between the parties for the seller's obligations. An indemnification right may be of little value when assets are being purchased from a distressed or insolvent seller. Creditors will seek redress wherever they can make a colorable claim and courts have been open to some very novel theories of recovery. When a seller is distressed or insolvent, this risk must be identified and quantified. The sales price should reflect both the cost of defending these claims and the possibility that they may be successful. In many circumstances, insisting on a sale utilizing a receivership, bankruptcy, or other judicial means to obtain the protection of a court order may be the only prudent option to acquire assets from some companies.
Perhaps the strongest protection for the buyer is to have a viable seller after the transaction to both respond to post-closing indemnification claims raised by the buyer, and to satisfy claims of other creditors (including governmental agencies) that may seek payment from a "successor." When feasible, buyers should require sellers to remain in existence until applicable limitations periods expire and maintain insurance coverage for current and pre-closing liabilities. When dealing with solvent sellers, buyers should require adequate reserves for pre-closing claims and contingent liabilities, including reserves to cover deductible amounts and self-insured retentions. Unfortunately, sellers able to meet these demands are the least likely to present successor liability issues for their buyers, and the best value for assets are often from desperate sellers.
The most troublesome evidence in successor liability cases often comes from careless conduct by the parties both during the negotiations and after closing. To preserve relationships with a buyer's vendors, employees, and customers, parties often characterize the sale as "a seamless continuation" of the seller's business. These communications may be formal such as letters and website notices or as casual as emails attempting to comfort co-workers worried about termination or customers concerned about their orders being completed. Undisciplined communications may support an implication that a buyer is assuming the seller's obligations to the recipients, even if the acquisition agreement clearly provides otherwise. The importance of proper characterization of the deal needs to be stressed to all employees and agents of both the buyer and the seller.
Jurisdiction and Forum
The outcome of a case seeking successor liability may be determined by which state's law applies and what court considers the case. The governing law applicable to the acquisition agreement may not be relevant, because the injured or aggrieved party in a successor liability case is not a party to the acquisition agreement. When arising in the context of product liability claims, tort choice of law principles generally requires application of the law of the location of the injury and not the location where the product was manufactured or where the seller or buyer may be doing business. The factors considered and their relative weight in successor liability cases differ from state to state.
For example, Texas has eliminated successor liability for seller liabilities which are not assumed in purchase agreements. Delaware courts use the doctrine of de facto merger sparingly and only in very limited contexts. But in Indiana, after a state representative's health club closed, the state adopted a statute which obligates all future operators of health clubs on at a particular address to honor memberships sold by previous tenants. Medicare reimbursement rules and unemployment insurance underwriting rules also may have the effect of making a buyer suffer for the sins of its seller.
Purchasing assets rather than equity is not a risk-free way to avoid successor liability. By employing proper planning, robust diligence, and contractual protections (including indemnification, escrows, holdback, and insurance), however, buyers can lower the risk of being liable for the debts and obligations of their sellers. Often the risks are too serious to complete a transaction without the comfort of a court order. In these transactions, the parties should consider using bankruptcy, state receivership, or other judicial sale vehicles.
New Legislation Allows Small Businesses to Defer Rent Up to Four Months in Bankruptcy
New Bankruptcy Preference Defense for Commercial Landlords and Vendors


As we all know, there are good things and bad things about drinking beer.
The good: it tastes good, and it feels good. It calms you down, and relaxes your body and mind.
The bad: hmm, thinking about it now, I have a hard time coming up with any bad things. At all.
This German brewery got tired of beer commercials that featured unrealistically attractive supermodels. So they decided to use normal men to represent their customers in a more realistic way: as men with beer bellies.
And the results are as refreshing as a cold beer on a hot day!
Naked pregnancy photos where women tenderly caress their big bellies are becoming more and more popular. The German brewery decided to imitate these with their own models.
But instead of caressing pregnant bellies, these men are holding something that they've spent a lot of time raising and feeding – their beer bellies.
The company's slogan is naturally "Brewed with love".
I think their ad campaign is ingenious!
Don't be shy, SHARE if you too support the beer belly!


In search of the canary tree : the story of a scientist, a cypress, and a changing world / Lauren E. Oakes ; illustrations by Kate Cahill & cartography by Erik Steiner.
Publication Info New York : Basic Books, 2018.
SCIENCE / Global Warming & Climate Change.
SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Biology.
SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Botany.
Contents Ghosts and graveyards -- Stand still -- Fear and forests in changing climate -- Solving puzzles -- Countdown -- Thrive -- Coveted -- Apart and a part -- Saturation point -- Measured and immeasurable -- The greatest opportunity -- The sentinels.
Abstract Several years ago, ecologist Lauren E. Oakes set out from California for Alaska's old-growth forests to hunt for a dying tree: the yellow-cedar. With climate change as the culprit, the death of this species meant loss for many Alaskans. Oakes and her research team wanted to chronicle how plants and people could cope with their rapidly changing world. Amidst the standing dead, she discovered the resiliency of forgotten forests, flourishing again in the wake of destruction, and a diverse community of people who persevered to create new relationships with the emerging environment. Eloquent, insightful, and deeply heartening, In Search of the Canary Tree is a case for hope in a warming world.


Accident By Design: The Truth About Train 92, and Why 3 Veteran Engineers Died at Aldershot East, February 26th, 2012 Dave Berard A deeper look into the Train 92 accident by a former railway accident investigator, and why federal investigators sold a failed investigation to the people of Canada.
"Railroad Collisions, A Deadly Story of Mismanaged Risk" George Swimmer - Citizen-advocate George Swimmer spent twenty years investigating the causes behind railroad collisions. What he discovered is a tangled mess of both inadvertent and intentional mismanagement. In Railroad Collisions, Swimmer reveals his findings. He faults the railroads themselves for poor risk management, but the industry is by no means the only culpable party. The Federal Railroad Administration's timid dealings with railroad companies impairs meaningful changes, while the National Transportation Safety Board's findings in many of their accident investigations are woefully, fatally incorrect.
Boomer - Railroad Memoirs Linda Niemann University of California Press Berkley, CA 1990 This classic account of self discovery and railroad life describes Linda Grant Niemann's travels as an itinerant brakeman on the Southern Pacific. Boomer combines travelogue, Wild West adventure, sexual memoir, and closely observed ethnography. A Berkeley Ph.D., Niemann turned her back on academia and set out to master the craft of railroad brakeman, beginning a journey of sexual and subcultural exploration and traveling down a path toward recovery from alcoholism. In honest, clean prose, Niemann treks off the beaten path and into the forgotten places along the rail lines, finding true American characters with colorful pasts―and her true self as well.
Brotherhoods of Color: Black Workers and the Struggle for Equality Eric Arnesen Harvard University Press 2002. This sweeping narrative re-creates the heroic efforts by black locomotive firemen, brakemen, porters, dining car waiters, and redcaps to fight a pervasive system of racism and job discrimination fostered by their employers, white co-workers, and the unions that legally represented them even while barring them from membership. Decades before the rise of the modern civil rights movement in the mid-1950s, black railroaders forged their own brand of civil rights activism, organizing their own associations, challenging white trade unions, and pursuing legal redress through the courts.
Brownie the Boomer - The Life of Charles P. Brown Edited by H. Roger Grant. Northern Illinois University Press. Dekalb, IL. 1991 (original text 1930). An itinerant railroad worker, or "boomer," Charles Brown hopscotched across America 1900 to 1913 seeking work wherever opportunities arose. He held a variety of jobs - fireman, brakeman, switchman - for the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Wabash, and New York Central until he was disabled at age 34 in a railroad accident. In this sometimes tragic, frequently funny, behind-the-scenes account of railroading, Brownie reveals the reality of working conditions for the railroad laborer at the turn of the century .
El Tren Pasa Primero Elena Poniatowska (Spanish) A young man from Oaxaca, Mexico learned at an early age that he was gifted, not with beauty or physical strength, but with willpower, the force of the spoken word and a constant eagerness for knowledge. The story of his life is a journey that starts with the whistle of a train .... It is also the place in which his ardent speech to his railroad brothers resulted in a fight that would upturn a country and a regime.
Faces of Railroading: Portraits of America's Greatest Industry Carl A. Swanson Kalbach Books. Milwaukee. 2004. A glorious photographic tribute to the people who made railroading the greatest industry America has ever known, this book celebrates those who made the nation's railroads the envy of the world. Although its magnificent machines and inventions are often romanticized and celebrated alongside its most eccentric pioneers and tycoons, it is the faces of an unsung workforce that best personify this great industry. Readers will glimpse their own family history as they join train crews in the locomotive cab and at the back of the caboose.
Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow Dee Brown Holt. New York. 1977. History of the building of the transcontinental railroads, starting in 1854 and proceeding in detail until the 1890s, then hurriedly summarizes until the 1970s. And Brown shows, repeatedly and at length, how the railroad builders screwed and continue to screw the American public and workers time and again. Featuring archival photographs, a vivid re-creation of the heyday of American expansion brings the transcontinental railroads to life, including all of the heroes and villains, laborers and presidents, engineers, bankers, and politicians who contributed to the drama. Reprint. 12,500 first printing.
Old Rails' Tales: Anecdotes, Stories & Memoirs - On the Road and in the Yard Allan Allen. Trafford Publishing. Victoria, BC. 2005. True on-the-job stories by six generations of steam engine rails and was reviewed by New York Times as one of the best books of the year. There are stories from Southern Pacific, Western Pacific, Santa Fe and Amtrak and stories by the first women engineers in California on the road and in the yard.
Power at Odds: The 1922 Shopmen's Strike Colin J. Davis University of Illinois Press. Urbana and Chicago. 1997. Outlines and describes the development of how a mass strike of nearly halfa million railroad shopmen went on a generalized strike that had the potential to change the nature of rail labor relations in North America.
Prarie Whistles: Tales of Midwest Railroading Dennis Boyer. Trails Books. Black Earth, Wisconsin. 2001. A collection of oral reminiscences drawn from Midwest railroaders during the 20th century. All aboard for a glimpse of life on the rails! Weaving together tales of railroading days gone by, this collection of personal reminiscences will delight any fail fan or traveler. Featured are stories of conductors, porters, carmen and tower operators from around the Midwest.
Railroading in Texas - One Man's Memories Fred W. Picker. Dorrance Publishing Company, Inc. Pittsburg. 1996. Historical account of one man's experience of 36 years as a railroad conductor in Texas.
Railroad Voices Narratives by Linda Niemann - Photos by Linda Bertucci Stanford University Press. 1998. An evocative and honest portrayal in words and images of railroad life in America, Railroad Voices is a collaboration by two of the first women to work as railroad brakemen. Linda Niemann hired on the Southern Pacific in 1979 in California, and Lina Bertucci hired on the now-defunct Milwaukee Road in 1974.
Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class Larry Tye. Holt. New York. 2004. An engaging social history that reveals the critical role Pullman porters played in the struggle for African American civil rights. When George Pullman began recruiting Southern blacks as porters in his luxurious new sleeping cars, the former slaves quickly signed up to work aboard the trains full of white passengers, making the Pullman Company the largest employer of African American men in the country by the 1920s. Pullman porters played important social, political, and economic roles, carrying jazz and blues to outlying areas, forming America's first black trade union, and acting as forerunners of the modern black middle class. Tye draws on extensive interviews with dozens of porters and their descendants.
The Boomer: A Story of the Rails Harry Bedwell 1942. This is an episodic story about Eddie Sand, a skilled telegrapher who booms around the country working at various depots, towers and shanties plying his craft. The author - Harry Bedwell - was a lifelong railroad man who wrote sixty short stories and this one novel, considered by many to be the best railroad novel ever published.
The Hoghead - An Industrial Ethnology of the Locomotive Engineer Frederick C. Gamst Holt, Rinehart and Winston. New York. 1980. "... the occupation and life of the locomotive engineer and his fellow workers in an exposition of the ethnological (social and cultural anthropological) study of industry." One-time locomotive engineer turned university professor Fred Gamst explores the day to day life and psychology of the railroad engineer.
The Great Labor Uprising of 1877 Phillip S. Foner Pathfinder Press. New York. 1977. Outlines the Railroad Strike of 1877 and how this first generalized strike of U.S. workers spread across the entire country. Starting in the small West VIrginia town of Martinsville and quickly spreading across the B&O to the Pennsylvania RR, the Midwest and to the Pacific Coast, the strike - led by railroad workers - included workers from numerous industries in a general uprising against oppression and exploitation of the working class.
The Pullman Case: The Clash of Labor and Capital in Industrial America David Ray PapkeUniversity of Kansas. Lawrence. 1999. Account of the great strike waged against the Pullman Company by the American Railway Union (ARU in 1894), led by Eugene V. Debs and others.
The Working Life - A Worker on the Transcontinental Railroad James Barter The men who built the Transcontinental Railroad between 1863 and 1869 labored twelve hour days building bridges, blasting tunnels, and laying rail beds in the midst of freezing winters and hot summers while fighting Indians and dodging dynamite explosions. This book honors the tens of thousands of mostly immigrants by describing their day-to-day lives while constructing the greatest railroad of all time.
From the Cab: Stories from a Locomotive Engineer Doug Riddell. 1999. The author takes the reader through his railroad career as fireman, brakeman, conductor, freight engineer and Amtrak engineer. He learns how the newly merged Seaboard Coast Line and Seaboard Air Lines operate, works as a brakeman, and enters engine service to become an engineer. Riddell's stories provide insight into the hardships of a railroading life. "Most outsiders have no idea the price railroaders pay for the few minutes they sit in a warm locomotive cab or caboose instead of hanging on the side of a boxcar whose grab irons and stirrups are coated three inches thick with ice, or marching two miles toward the rear of a freight train in a snake-infested swamp during a drenching rain."
Working for the Railroad: The Organization of Work in the Nineteenth Century Walter Licht1989.
Walter Licht chronicles the working and personal lives of the first two generations of American railwaymen, the first workers in America to enter large-scale, bureaucratically managed, corporately owned work organizations.
Working on the Western Maryland - A Collection of Employee Interviews Wes Morganstern Western Maryland Historical Society. 1999. Various accounts of work and life on the Western Maryland Railway by a wide array of workers from various crafts and unions. They recount their working lives through steam and diesel from the war years, on through until the 1980s, from the days of the independent Western Maryland, then Chessie System, and finally with CSX. The general theme is one of deep satisfaction with the railroad in the days of the WM, discontent with the encroachment of the Chessie, and outright hostility once the CSX assumed control in the 1980s.


text:
The Brief: Oct. 6, 2010
Controversy could thwart Cameron Todd Willingham's day back in court.
by David Muto Oct. 6, 2010 7 AM Central
THE BIG CONVERSATION:
That's because a key prosecutor is asking District Judge Charlie Baird — who was set today to re-examine the conviction of Willingham, the Corsicana man executed in 2004 for killing his three daughters in an arson blaze — to recuse himself from the case.
The Tribune's Brandi Grissom reports that in 1995, Baird sat on the court of criminal appeals that reaffirmed Willingham's death sentence — a fact that troubles Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson, whose office originally prosecuted Willingham. Thompson filed a motion Monday looking to disqualify Baird on those grounds, as well as for, Thompson says, Baird's reported opposition to the death penalty.
The case has made headlines for years, with investigators alleging that faulty science was used to convict Willingham, whose family, seeking to restore his name, pushed for a petition requesting the so-called court of inquiry into Willingham's guilt.
Baird wouldn't comment Tuesday on any potential ruling, but as Grissom notes, he has appeared willing to review the unanimous 1995 ruling of which he was a part. "It just seems to me like the enormity of the issue ... is just as large as it [gets] in the criminal justice system," Baird said. "The seminal issue of, did we wrongfully execute someone, is just overwhelming."
As of late Tuesday, the hearing remained slated for today. Read Grissom's full report on the matter here.
CULLED:
Skepticism is mounting over the border lake attack that left a U.S. man dead last week. With his body yet to be found and his wife, who survived the alleged attack, on a media blitz Tuesday, some began to suspect, among other things, a botched drug deal.
Texans seem to like the idea of levying sin taxes — on alcohol, gambling and marijuana — to cover the state's budget shortfall, according to a Texas Lyceum poll released Tuesday. Expect numbers from Lyceum on the governor's race today.
Attorney General Greg Abbott's call on Monday for a moratorium on home foreclosures didn't stop proceedings in a number of counties across the state, including Harris and Tarrant.
"If we had that kind of money … we'd have fancier headquarters and would probably be doing TV and radio and all sorts of fun things. …" — Bill Fairbrother, chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party, which assured the Austin American-Statesman on Tuesday that a $5 million doughnut purchase listed on its latest finance report was a typo
MUST-READ:
Perry: Newspaper endorsements a waste of time, The Associated Press
Media awash in nasty ads from governor candidates, The Dallas Morning News
Palin mixes politics, motherhood at Houston fundraiser, Houston Chronicle
Budget cuts imperil Texas HIV drug program, The Dallas Morning News
Polling: A Survival Guide, The Texas Observer
Partisan Battles Plague Voter Registration Drive, The Texas Tribune
Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here.


text:
SLCH Receives Healthgrades® Patient Safety Excellence Award; The Only Hospital in NYS to Receive Four Years in a Row!
About Us | News | 2014 | June | SLCH Receives Healthgrades® Patient Safety Excellence Award; The Only Hospital in NYS to Receive Four Years in a Row!
Jun 20, 2014 Hospital
Newburgh: St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital (SLCH) has received the Healthgrades® Patient Safety Excellence Award for the fourth year in a row. SLCH is one of only 35 hospitals across the nation, and the only hospital in New York State to receive this distinction in each of the last four years. SLCH has also been ranked among the top 5% in the nation for patient safety in both 2013 and 2014.
Of over 4,739 hospitals evaluated by Healthgrades only 381 received the 2014 Healthgrades Patent Safety Excellence Award™ . Healthgrades® patient safety ratings examine 14 different types of serious and potentially preventable complications. Healthgrades® uses Medicare inpatient data from the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) database and Patient Safety Indicator software from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to calculate event rates for patient safety indicators.
"We have an outstanding team here at SLCH, and to receive this award yet again, speaks volumes to the level of care provided to our community," said Robert S. Ross, SLCH President and CEO.
For more information about Healthgrades® patient safety measures and other quality designations achieved by SLCH, please click here. To download a full copy of the report or to receive information about hospital and physician quality, visit: www.Healthgrades.com/quality.
"Each member of the St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital team plays a key role in helping us to achieve this distinction," said Christine Jelalian, MD, SLCH Medical Director. "Patient safety is at the core of what we do and remains our number one priority."
During the 2014 study period, Patient Safety Excellence Award hospitals showed better than expected performance in providing safety for patients in the Medicare population, as measured by objective outcomes (risk-adjusted patient safety indicator rates) across 13 of the 14 patient safety indicators defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). If all hospitals performed at the same level of award recipients, 266,813 patient safety events among Medicare patients in U.S. hospitals could have potentially been avoided.
"Healthgrades is dedicated to providing quality information that helps consumers make decisions based on objective data leading to the best care for themselves and their families," said Evan Marks, Executive Vice President, Informatics and Strategy, Healthgrades. "Consumers can rest assured that a hospital recognized with a Healthgrades 2014 Patient Safety Excellence Award has demonstrated an established commitment to patient safety."
St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital (SLCH) is a not-for-profit community hospital with campuses in Newburgh and Cornwall, NY. The hospital is dedicated to serving the health care needs of the Hudson Valley and aspires to excellence in the delivery of compassionate and comprehensive health care services. SLCH offers comprehensive cardiac, stroke, cancer and orthopedic services and a full range of other clinical offerings. For more information, go to http://www.stlukescornwallhospital.org/ or http://www.facebook.com/#!/stlukescornwallhospital


Gold? A precious journey in the world of luxury.
It is unique and irreplaceable and is at its best during the holidays, bringing out the hidden diva in every woman.
Oro?Un viaggio prezioso nel mondo del lusso.
Unico ed insostituibile, dà il meglio di sé durante il party time, raccontando la diva nascosta in ogni donna.
Come ho già detto... adoro questo colore e credo che sia perfetto da sfoggiare durante questo periodo pieno di feste e cene.
Hi dear, this gorgeous gold inspiration brought such sparkle to my day, I think i looked over them 3 times, the Balmain and Elie Saab outfits are beautiful!
gorgeous pieces, loving gold at the moment.


With peak fall colors showing up around the mountain, there's no better time to look back on the stunning golden hues from the last couple years!
Our guests love exploring the stunning mountainside among the changing aspens, on foot, on the scenic chairlift, and by ATV. And this year, we've added to the fun with Inferno Mountain Coaster! Zip along the thrilling twists and turns, right through the colorful trees!
Fall colors won't stick around for long–plan your trip today and receive 25% off your stay! Rooms start at just $49 per night. Book now!


FRAMINGHAM, Mass., April 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nicholson Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, a family-owned home service company and recipient of the Angie's List Super Service Award for the eighth year in a row, is recommending that MetroWest homeowners be proactive with their cooling equipment this spring and schedule an HVAC tune-up well before hotter temperatures arrive.
Nicholson Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning offers MetroWest homeowners five reasons to schedule an air conditioner tune-up before the summer heat arrives.
"Many homeowners forget to schedule their annual air conditioning maintenance and just turn the unit on when summer arrives," said Mike Nicholson, owner of Nicholson Plumbing, Heating, & Air Conditioning. "The HVAC unit has likely been dormant over winter and turning it on without prior inspection can have costly results. These issues can be avoided simply by scheduling a spring air conditioning tune-up, and there are many benefits to doing so that will last through summer."
Reduces potential for summer breakdowns – As the HVAC system lies dormant over winter, mechanical and electrical problems can develop unnoticed. Starting a unit for the first time during the summer heat will put excessive strain on the equipment and can quickly turn any developing issues into major problems. Getting a tune-up early can identify and correct these issues before they worsen and ensure smooth operation during the hottest days of the season.
Increases overall lifespan of equipment – Without annual maintenance, minor problems can begin to add up and reduce the overall lifespan of the cooling unit. Scheduling regular tune-ups can correct these individual issues before they cause major components to fail.
Improves energy efficiency – Tune-ups include replacing filters, cleaning the internals and lubricating the mechanical parts of the system. The smoother the system can operate, the more efficiently it can cool the home. This directly translates to reduced energy consumption and lower monthly bills.
May be required for the equipment warranty – Many HVAC equipment warranties actually require that annual maintenance and checkups be performed since regular maintenance can prevent breakdowns and failures that the manufacturer would otherwise be required to pay to fix. If an HVAC unit breaks down more than a year after the last tune-up, the warranty may very well be void.
Improves indoor air quality – Dust, debris and other particles can build up inside the cooling unit during the winter season. Turning the system on without thoroughly cleaning it first can introduce these particles to your living spaces. Getting a tune-up will include cleaning the system and removing these particles before they begin to cycle through the home.
"We want MetroWest homeowners to enjoy the warmer weather and not have to worry about their air conditioners breaking down in the middle of a heat wave," Nicholson said. "Being proactive and scheduling an HVAC tune-up now can save money and grant a valuable peace of mind for the entire summer season."
For more information about HVAC maintenance, call Nicholson Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning at (508) 881-1500 or visit www.nicholson-hvac.com/heating/rebates-more/.
Based in Holliston, Massachusetts, Nicholson is a family-owned, full-service residential plumbing, heating, and air conditioning company proudly serving all of the MetroWest area and beyond. Nicholson takes an all-encompassing approach to ensure clients reach the highest possible level of comfort, while staying within their budget. The company offers a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee and Solid Warranty. Winner of the 2018 Best of Houzz Award for Customer Service, Nicholson has also been honored with the Angie's List Super Service Award for eight years in a row, the Carrier 2018 Presidents Award, as well as the 2016 Carrier DCNE Outstanding Performance Award. For more information, visit Nicholson at http://www.nicholson-hvac.com/.