ABSOLUTE: AN INFORMATION VISUALIZATION SYSTEM for DECISION SUPPORT in SOURCING

ABSolute is a general-purpose, multi-dimensional decision support system which has a highly sophisticated visualization-based user interface for direct data manipulation. The interface and analysis facilities of this system enable the users to effectively view, explore, search, compare and classify data items to make discoveries, decisions or explanations about patterns, groups of items, or individual items with the highest level of confidence and knowledge. The usefulness of this system is demonstrated in solving a complex decision-making problem in a business environment: a bid evaluation and selection problem in corporate procurement using a RFQ (Request-For-Quotes) process.