Knowledge support systems for 'smarter' pricing and resource allocation

The role of knowledge support in decision-making is examined. An architecture for knowledge support for product pricing and resource allocation at the tactical or management control decision-making level in companies is presented. It is a hybrid of a decision support system and an expert system. Two concrete systems devised to implement this approach are described. One is Price-Strat, system for tactical pricing. The other is TAPS (targeted allocation of promotional spending), which makes managers to look at the total budget allocation process. It is emphasized that Price-Strat and TAPS are first attempts at providing such knowledge support and leave much room for improvement through further research.<>