IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 7, Issue 2, No 1, March 2010 www.IJCSI.org 38

## 2.3 Web-Based Tendering

The advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has opened up a broad exploration to the use of Web-based technology in tendering processes. The necessity of devising strategies to automate current business processes in order to incorporate the technology in day-to-day business processes is become crucial [38, 46]. This can be seen from various existing electronic tendering applications in many countries such as United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Europe, and Taiwan [47]. Online tender management systems have been developed using Internet technology such as ePerolehan [48], Tender Direct [49], e-Construction [50], MERX [51], e-Procurement [52], e-Procurement System [53], Public Contracts Scotland [54], Tender Electronic 

Table 2: Summary of Electronic Tender Applications between countries 

![0_image_1.png](0_image_1.png)

| Electronic Tender Application   | Tender Display             | Online Tender Forms   | Download Tender Documents   | Upload Tender Documents   | Online Bidding   | Tender Evaluation Tools   | Tender Award Notify   |    |
|---------------------------------|----------------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------------|---------------------------|------------------|---------------------------|-----------------------|----|
| Country Malaysia                | ePerolehan                 | √                     | X                           | √                         | √                | √                         | X                     | √  |
| Tender                          | √                          | X                     | X                           | X                         | X                | X                         | X                     |    |
| Direct  eConstruction                                 | √                          | X                     | X                           | X                         | X                | X                         | X                     |    |
| Canada                          | MERX                       | √                     | X                           | √                         | X                | √                         | X                     | √  |
| Andhra                          | Tender                     |                       |                             |                           |                  |                           |                       |    |
| Pradesh                         | Management  System         | √                     | √                           | √                         | √                | √                         | X                     | √  |
| Chhattisgarh                    | eProcurement  System                            | √                     | √                           | √                         | √                | √                         | X                     | √  |
| Europe                          | Public  Contract  Scotland | √                     | √                           | √                         | √                | √                         | X                     | √  |
| Tender  Electronic  Daily (TED) | √                          | X                     | X                           | X                         | X                | X                         | √                     |    |
| UK Tenders                      | √                          | X                     | X                           | X                         | X                | X                         | X                     |    |
| Direct                          |                            |                       |                             |                           |                  |                           |                       |    |
| United                          | FACNET                     | √                     | X                           | √                         | √                | √                         | X                     | √  |
| States  Japan                   | JETRO                      | √                     | X                           | X                         | X                | X                         | X                     | √  |

designed for managing government tenders. Table 2 compares electronic tender applications that have been developed in several countries such as Malaysia, Canada, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Europe, United States, Australia, and Japan based on their preferences in tendering process. Most of public sectors offer tender advertisements, online tender forms as well as download and upload related tender documents through online Web services. However, none of these applications include evaluation of tender documents electronically and with support of decisionmaking process. This only benefited clients and consultants for example in terms of reducing printing costs but the evaluation part requires group of decision makers to do the assessment process manually. Lack of computerized evaluation tools in current Web-based tendering applications requires decision maker to manually screening for criteria to be evaluated for each tender documents. It is impractical and time consuming for human to manually process the information. Thus, the adoption of ICT in construction industry remains low and at the same time encourage to the increasing use of large volume of unstructured tender documents. 

## 3. Decision Support Systems (Dss) 

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![0_Image_2.Png](0_Image_2.Png)

The main purpose of developing DSS is to support decision makers in decision-making process in order to handle complex problem environment. DSS have been applied in various research area of applications as discussed by Power [59]. This section explains the overview of DSS technology in terms of its definition and categories. 

## 3.1 Definition Of Dss

DSS definition is evolving from theory to practice as well as the improvement of various supporting technologies such as minicomputers and user friendly software applications. There is no standard and universal definition of DSS as different people with different background have different views on DSS [60]. Different researchers used a variety of overlapping terms such as online analytical processing (OLAP), executive information system (EIS), group DSS, knowledge discovery systems and business intelligence (BI) for computer-based system which capable to support decision maker or manager in making decision instead of DSS. Less use of DSS label in trade journals and vendors website show the emergence of other new marketable terms [61]. Thus, DSS often passed through some stages of development with name changes. Kopackova and Skrobackova [62] argued that scientific researchers 