Decision support systems are designed to allow analysts to retrieve data quickly and easily. There are three major components of a decision support system: a data system, a decision-making system, and the user interface.
The data system is the knowledge base that acts as a data warehouse from which information is processed. The database may include receipts of raw materials, invoices, monitoring information, and customer purchases.
The decision-making system consists of analyzing and reporting tools. The analysis tools use business rules and logic in order to derive meaning from data. Reporting involves presenting data in different formats (such as tables, graphs, charts) and dimensions (comprehensive or user-defined reports).
The user should have an interface that presents the compiled data and processing details. The user interface should be customized to suit the user, may it be a stakeholder, an analyst, or the technical staff.