A decision-analysis approach to optimize marketing information system configurations under uncertainty

Information systems aid managers in their marketing decision making as they enable marketers to understand their customers better and come up with effective solutions to satisfy their needs, and provide the computer-based tools, models and methods to analyze the data. In addition, information systems can also be central to the provision of customer-relationship management tools. Thus, we suggest that the design and configuration of these systems must reflect assessments of cost-benefit tradeoffs beside satisfying technical and functional requirements. In this study, we develop a framework for an economics-driven assessment of alternatives for designing marketing information systems. The framework defines different design strategies that consider uncertainties in utilization, cost and performance differentials between technologies, and penalties resulting from delaying implementation. Our evaluation highlights conditions under which one design strategy will outperform others.