Does your organization consistently make smart business decisions—day in and day out? Are your sales associates equipped with up-to-the-minute information about their customers’ preferences and buying habits—and your inventory levels? Can your marketing organization spot new trends or opportunities in fast-developing markets—and respond in time to give your business a competitive edge? Does management have the information it needs on a real-time basis to make critical decisions that can add to the bottom line—or is that information buried inside a monthly report? Considering the billions of dollars that have been invested in information systems over the past few decades, one would think that most mid- to large businesses would be able to capture, manipulate and extract the right kind of information they need at precisely the right time to make a knowledgeable decision. But it rarely happens that way. Instead, much of the information that could help drive smart, real-time business decisions lies trapped in departmental systems used by only a few individuals—instead of benefiting everyone throughout the entire enterprise. Tapping into an organization’s internal knowledge base—and getting the right information to the right people at the right time—is part of a global effort to transform the huge amounts of data being generated and accumulated in database servers into timely, accurate and useful “business intelligence” (BI). Today, companies are investing millions of dollars trying to improve the flow of information throughout their organization—and many are far from satisfied with the results. Part of the problem is that information is disseminated across several areas of the organization without a common value proposition—so one part of the business doesn’t realize the potential value of the information they have gathered. Also, the business may not have deployed the proper systems to capture, analyze and disseminate information to the right people quickly enough for it to be valuable, since information that is useful one moment can quickly lose its value. Learning a customer’s favorite color AFTER they’ve left the store won’t help a sales associate make the sale. But successful BI implementations can have powerful results. In Europe, a bank used BI analytical tools to uncover a coding error in its ATM system that was costing it a $1 million a day. A telephone company was able to figure out why it was late on 64 percent of its installations. A hospital discovered that sick children always die when six things happen. And a major retailer uncovered customer behavior patterns that were used to dramatically increase its sales. Business intelligence is driven by several different types of information, which not only provides a solid return on a business’ IT investment, but also puts the organization out in front of its competitors. For it to be useful, BI must be complete, proper, timely and useful. Failure to meet any of these criteria can render the information ineffective or worthless. Here’s a quick look at the importance of each of these criteria: Complete Information. Companies cannot afford to miss any important information sources if they want to make viable decisions that lead to specific business outcomes. Typically, information analysis tools are often focused on finance and sales. However, in using more complex organization models, you cannot forget the impact on the supply chain players, internal resources or the different levels of the distribution chain. For instance, if you want to discontinue a product with minimum losses, you must understand the impact on the current stocks, sales orders and demand supplies. Proper information. Once you know the sources of data needed, it’s time to capture, filter, clean, integrate and deliver the information to be analyzed. Challenges often arise in terms of the quality of the information, as well as integrating different information sources into one common result. Data quality procedures and integration models and architectures are required to avoid these challenges—and you must also have accurate estimates of the capacity of information on any given system, so the reliability of information can be assured in both normal and extreme situations. Timely Information. Delivering information in a timely manner can be a difficult objective to achieve. Depending on the usage, time requirements are different for historic analysis, online indicators, and forecasting, but they must be managed to align with business needs and expectations. Trade offs and prioritization of tasks enter an organization’s BI strategy here, as economic pressures require well planned IT investments. Useful information. Having too much information can be just as useless as too little, leaving employees to spend hours looking through hundreds of reports. Usefulness is about having the right level of detail about relevant topics and delivered to users in a clear and easy format. Clearly, there’s no single solution that delivers everything an organization needs for every situation; the answers are much more complex. In order to define a successful business intelligence strategy, companies need to consider the different needs and purposes of information inside the organization, selecting those solutions and models that best suit the business strategy and provide a return on investment. Here are some preliminary questions that will assist enterprises in the design of a complete BI strategy: - What information sources does the company utilize? Identify internal and external sources of information as well as current information challenges that you want to address. In addition, is there an existing corporate data model that represents your company’s information needs?
- When do users need this information? Different deadlines are required with varying information across a business. In complex environments, deadlines are managed in parallel: some information is required daily, weekly, monthly, or in special one time only cases. Having the capacity and flexibility to provide solutions for those situations is key in order to respond quickly to critical problems.
- How should the information be delivered, both internally and externally? What mechanisms are in place to deliver information to users today? Are they push or pull mechanisms? Can users subscribe to specialized reports? Which channels are available? (paper, mail, intranet, Client/Server application.)
- Which organization should be used? Is it a large and internal IT department? Are there consultants in-house helping on certain projects? Is there an Information Center organization responsible for BI in your company? Can a portion of the information strategy be outsourced in order to optimize existing assets?
- Which technology solutions are currently in use and which new ones can help solve some of the previously defined needs? Complex environments require multiple solutions in parallel covering anything from data transformation to storage and analysis, to exploration and advanced data mining solutions. In addition, trying to obtain maximum return by extending a pre-existing inadequate solution can be even more expensive in time and quality than choosing different tools.
A strategy for utilizing business intelligence is critical for any company that wants to keep up with today’s information-saturated economy. Complete, proper, timely and useful information can be utilized efficiently and deliver a solid ROI if companies define their needs before implementing a solution. This approach to information management can bring significant rewards to those companies that are willing to first define existing information sources, uses and technologies across the organization—and then search out a solution to fill those gaps and needs. About the authors: Carles Balcells is a Manager and Pragnesh Shah is an Experienced Manager with Accenture’s Communications and High Tech industry. Talk to someone about this topic  To Top
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