Chapter 6 • Managerial Support Systems 229Today, an in-person implementation of ThinkTank
would look much the same as Figure 6.2. The difference is
that each participant’s PC uses only Web browser
software; the ThinkTank software is stored on a server,
which may be located in the same room or anywhere else
accessible via an intranet or the Internet. The participants
log into the ThinkTank Web site located on the server, and
the session proceeds as previously described.
Let’s consider some examples of the use of a GSS.
Several of the authors of this book were part of a group of
faculty members that used a GSS to arrive at a recommen-
dation for the name of a newly formed academic depart-
ment. The faculty members in the new department met in a
computer-supported meeting room and went through the
process of generating possible names for the new depart-
ment (over 20 names were suggested), then organizing and
combining names to get the total down to a more reason-
able number, and finally voting on the reduced set of
names. We are happy to report that the dean accepted the
recommendation.
Eastman Chemical is using GroupSystems to sup-
port creative problem-solving sessions to generate ideas to
better meet customer needs. In a recent GroupSystems ses-
sion, 400 ideas were generated during a two-hour session
with nine people. During the same GSS session, similar
ideas were combined and weighted voting was employed
to pick out the top ideas for implementation. According to
Dr. Henry Gonzalez, Manager of Polymer Technology at
Eastman, “We found that with GroupSystems, we had
more unusual ideas, a richer pool to choose from, and we
got to the point a lot faster.” Based on the company’s GSS
successes, Eastman purchased a second GroupSystems
license and upgraded another facility so that more people
can use the technology (GroupSystems Web site, 2010b).
Consumer-products giant Procter & Gamble incor-
porates the ThinkTank GSS in its “Innovation Gym” in
West Chester, Ohio, where people across the company get
together to brainstorm new products, solve problems, or
build better teams. “ThinkTank is a key tool in my interac-
tive toolbox,” according to Rick Gregory, Section Head,
Innovation Evangelist. Working with facilitators, groups
meeting in the Gym often use ThinkTank to brainstorm
ideas, group them into common “buckets,” build consensus
by discussion, and finally employ iterative voting. P&G
has found that there are significant business benefits to
using a GSS: Anonymity enriches the quality and quantity
of ideas, meetings produce more results in shorter periods
of time, and facilitators save significant time on postmeet-
ing documentation (GroupSystems Web site, 2010c).
Recent work in the GSS area has moved beyond
support of the traditional group session. The new focus is
to support the work team in all its endeavors, whether the
team is operating in a “same time, same place” traditional
meeting or in a “different time, different place” mode—
that is, as a virtual team. Because of the fact that the
ThinkTank software is stored on a server and accessed over
an intranet or the Internet via a Web browser, ThinkTank
also provides rich support for a “different time, different
place” meeting (or “same time, different place” meeting)
in which group members can participate in the group
session no matter where they are or when they are able to
contribute. GroupSystems also offers a hosted version of
ThinkTank, called ThinkSpace, for small organizations
and teams. The small organization or team can use a
session pass licensing model where each participant in a
session requires a session pass for the day. ThinkTank is
integrated with the IBM Lotus Sametime platform, so that
groups can move seamlessly from a group chat to an
organized collaboration session; more recently, ThinkTank
is also integrated with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.
In summary, group sessions benefit from ThinkTank’s
presence awareness (knowing who is online), agenda man-
agement, anonymous contributions, multiple voting tools,
and automatic documentation of the group’s proceedings.Geographic Information Systems
Geographic information system (GIS), spatial decision
support system (SDSS), location intelligence, geodemo-
graphics, computer mapping, and automated routing are
names for a family of applications based on manipulation
of relationships in space. Geographic technologies such as
a GIS capture, store, manipulate, display, and analyze data
spatially referenced to the Earth. As Figure 6.3 shows, aParticipants’ WorkstationsLocal Area NetworkPublic Display ScreenFacilitator’s
Workstation/
LAN ServerFIGURE 6.2 Group Support System Layout