This anthology contains contributions addressing current challenges and approaches of intelligent decision support in organizations. The main foci are on:
- quantitative decision problems in transportation, production, finance and marketing
- business process optimization and information systems design
- special problems of intelligent decision support which have their source in areas such as human resources management, information management and economic theory.
More than 50 authors from Germany and abroad representing different research fields ranging from computer science over mathematics to economic theory have contributed to this anthology which is published on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Hermann Gehring, Professor of Information Systems at the University in Hagen, Germany.

Die Beitrge dieses Sammelbandes behandeln aktuelle Probleme und Lsungsanstze der intelligenten Entscheidungsuntersttzung in Unternehmen. Die Schwerpunkte sind:
- Quantitative Entscheidungsprobleme aus Transport, Produktion, Finanzierung und Marketing
- Optimierung von Geschftsprozessen und Gestaltung von Informationssystemen
- spezielle Aspekte intelligenter Entscheidungsuntersttzung, die u. a. den Gebieten der Personalwirtschaft, des Informationsmanagement und der Volkswirtschaftslehre entstammen
ber 50 Vertreter verschiedener Fachgebiete der Wirtschaftswissenschaft sowie der Informatik und Mathematik aus dem In- und Ausland haben zu dem Sammelband beigetragen, der aus Anlass des 65. Geburtstages von Hermann Gehring, Professor fr Wirtschaftsinformatik an der FernUniversitt in Hagen, herausgegeben wird.

For several decades research on intelligent techniques for decision-making has represented a particular challenge, originally taken up using modest hardware equipment, which we today would consider to be extremely weak. From earliest times onwards research which was concerned with the theory and practical concerns of decisions was advanced simultaneously in the fields of information technology, mathematics, operations research and business studies. The decision-oriented research streams within these d- ciplines only grew together as the years passed. Cross-discipline work from the field of business information technology, which served as a 'me- ing pot', especially contributed to this development. For more than three decades Hermann Gehring has worked in this field, both as a scientist and as a teacher, in order to advance, research and develop methods for the solution of problem situations which require intelligent techniques to s- port decision-making. He was particularly open as an interdisciplinary researcher towards modern methods which merged from various fields, actively working on the trend towards hybrid approaches for techniques in decision-making. On the methodical level Hermann Gehring was one of the first to see the potential of parallel processing and, long before the technological conditions were fulfilled, propagated its use for the solution of business decision problems. Two areas of application important for the scientific work of Hermann Gehring should be mentioned in particular. These are cutting and packing problems and transport planning.