Business Intelligence Competitive or Business

Business Intelligence Competitive or business intelligence contributes to the strategic plan of an organization by providing needed information so that the business can accurately judge the market, market needs, and apply their own resources using hard data rather than suppositions. Business intelligence will provide factual information about customers, competitors and industry trends so that decisions can be made proactively rather than reactively.

Since almost every business has a limited amount of cash resources, applying fact-based business intelligence is a more positive way to make decisions than simply reacting to competitive pressures or individual stimuli (e.g. one customer complaint causing a change in business vs. A data base and statistical analysis over time of customer comments). Competitive intelligence is a key element in the marketing mix, in fact, so vital, that in many cases it is simply assumed (Bangs, 2002).

SAP Crystal solutions has developed several tools to aid in the gathering and dissemination of business intelligence for organizations of several sizes -- from those with a few desktops to those with a LAN/WAN system and power users. Their Crystal Interactive Analysis, module, for instance, appears simple, but it is a powerful tool that delivers a number of self-made and ad hoq question and answer report generators based on the use of a wide variety of databases.

Briefly using this tool, one immediately finds that it is intuitive, and different from other data query programs in that the user can combine data from a number of different sources into one, or several, interactive documents. The point, of course, is that certain patterns, trends, or even additional questions are uncovered based on the intelligent way the system is tasked to find particular information. For instance, one might not see patterns in spreadsheets but, by adding them to the particular data mix, several areas of inquiry are uncovered.

One of the more powerful ways this product might be used seems to this reviewer is a locus for competitive intelligence. For instance, as the popularity of the Internet grew, and marketing became a necessity, not an option, it was obvious that the Internet was also a superb tool for gleaning more information about the consumer. Here was a relatively captive audience with which one could collect volumes of data very quickly and inexpensively.

Too, internet transactions are far more dynamic and less predictable than their physical counterparts -- clicking through and ordering a product has different barriers to entry and psychological pressures than the traditional sales and marketing format. However, collection of information about customers, necessary as it in any form of relationship marketing, has different challenges on the Internet than in face-to-face marketing and/or data collection and research programs.

First, web clients may often be anonymous -- consumers may be whomever they wish to be over the Internet and the researcher has no way of verifying such. Second, consumers are increasingly wary of providing personal information about themselves over the Internet for fear of cybercrime, misuse of data and even companies purporting to be market research and collecting information for something entirely different.

Thus, the trust and accuracy level diminishes on both sides when someone is not physically present -- even though the amount of data collected and the cost per collection is quite low (Lee, 2001, 12-14). Sources of consumer information, then, must be vetted in a way to preserve their authenticity -- that information may be gathered from the network but contains only limited information (Network information). The researcher can glean a number of environmental variables and make numerous qualitative leaps (e.g.

If client visits site A, B, and C, they are a likely/unlikely candidate for product A; so if 250,000 people visit sites A, B, C, but not D, and only 10,000 visit D, client of D. may need to rethink position). This is the true power.