How do you make your business decisions? Facts or intuition...
How do you measure performance? Actionable metrics or gut feel...
Do I have good business intelligence? What is it?
If you Google ‘Business Intelligence’ the top search Wikipedia offers this insight:
“Business
intelligence (BI) mainly refers to computer-based techniques used in
identifying, extracting, and analyzing business data ... BI uses
technologies, processes, and applications to analyze mostly internal,
structured data and business processes. Business intelligence aims to
support better business decision-making...” But even this explanation is
out of date as external and unstructured data are falling within the
scope.
In simple terms business intelligence encapsulates the
interaction and collaboration of data, technology, processes and people
to give a competitive edge ...and every business is at a different stage
in their BI strategic evolution. There are significant benefits from
getting this right and threats for poorly executed or zero strategy.
Assessing the four key ingredients in turn:
The volumes of data
available to companies are expanding at rates never seen before. The
traditional internal sources are being augmented by large volumes of
external and unstructured data from web and social media sources and
data coming from the adoption of new technologies such as RFID and smart
sensors. The key challenge is how these rich data assets can be
translated into business value.
The technology landscape
is moving rapidly with virtualisation, cloud computing, the Web 2.0
technologies (social networks, wikis and blogs) and software capable of
analysing huge data sets at a transactional level. The growth in mobile
devices is driving the way in which data is consumed by the customer and
is increasing the need for companies to provide Mobile BI. These
technology changes have made BI, once the reserve of large companies,
accessible to all. But technology is just an enabler in this journey.
Getting your business processes
aligned to your business model and operating as efficiently as possible
has always been a critical success factor. The advances in both data
and technology are challenging some of the traditional business models
and processes. Customers are becoming more demanding and the speeds at
which decisions need to be made are shortening.
It is the role of people
that ensures whether these three factors can be harnessed successfully.
These people include all stakeholders in a business...including
shareholders, management, staff, customers and suppliers. The
organisational agility of SME’s put them in a strong position to take
advantage of an increased focus on their BI strategy.
UKITA can
help with guidance on how to assess the options and implementation of
successful business intelligence and data strategies. If you would like
more information, email andrew.corbett@ukita.co.uk - As Sherlock Holmes
said “Give me data dear Watson!! I can then make an informed deduction!”
Thanks to Peter Dean - peterdean@bi-strategy.co.uk - from Business Intelliegence and Strategy for the use of this piece. http://www.bi-strategy.co.uk/
