Examples are airline reservation and credit card transaction processing system. Decision support systems have as their major purpose analysis, by sorting, summing, reorganizing and correlating raw data, and producing from this analysis new information. In this characterization information is distinguished from data. Data are just raw items of measured amounts, while information is the result of correlating data, and thus exists at a higher level. Decision support systems must also save the new information they create, and present it in useful ways to humans when requested.
Examples are customer spending pattern and airline seat utilization systems.
Process automation systems automate the execution of business processes or activities, thus freeing humans for other things. In the process, new data is generated and must be saved. They can be thought of as lying in an Information Processing Space, as depicted below. In particular, are they primarily transaction processing systems or process automation systems. Probably real ERP systems can be thought of as residing mostly in a region such as that depicted here.