Since the early 1970s, decision support systems (DSS) have evolved significantly. In this paper, the design and implementation of MSMiner, a developing platform for DSS, is introduced. The system is constructed on a data warehouse and integrated with a number of data mining algorithms. It is well suited for on-line analytical processing (OLAP). The characteristics of MSMiner include the ability to support multiple data sources and data mining strategies, additional organizational flexibility in regard to data and mining strategies, and the powerful expansibility of data mining tasks. D 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.