Applying Conventional Wisdom: From a Business Intelligence

Applying Conventional Wisdom: From a Business Intelligence Perception

This study intends to examine closely that which is considered as "conventional wisdom" or that which has always been held to be the move with most acumen in a set of circumstances or when deciding upon some critical issue. Is the application of such wisdom, conventional in nature, such that is actually aligned and coherent with what is known as 'business intelligence'?

Business Intelligence: What Is It?

Business intelligence (BI) is described as "…an umbrella term that refers to a variety of software applications used to analyze an organization's raw data. BI as a discipline is made up of several related activities, including data mining, online analytical processing, querying and reporting. Companies use BI to improve decision-making, cut costs, and identify new business opportunities. BI is more than just corporate reporting and more than a set of tools to coax data out of enterprise systems. CIOs use BI to identify inefficient business processes that are ripe for re-engineering." (CIO Drilldowns, 2012, p.1)

II. Business Intelligence Tools

The CIO Drill Downs report states that with the Business Intelligence (BI) tools available today individuals can "…jump in and start analyzing data themselves, rather than wait for IT to run complex reports. This democratization of information access helps users back up -- with hard numbers -- business decisions that would otherwise be based only on gut feelings and anecdotes." (2012, p.1) Business Intelligence (BI) is such that has been reported as holding "great promise, implementations can be dogged by technical and cultural challenges. Executives have to ensure that the data feeding BI applications is clean and consistent so that users trust it." (CIO Drill Down, 2012, p.1)

IV. Companies Using Business Intelligence Strategies

Companies that use business intelligence include Hardees's, Wendy's, Ruby Tuesday and T.G.I. Friday's because it is expedient in making decisions about strategies, products and store performance. BI is used tactically in such as "renegotiating contracts with food suppliers and identifying opportunities to improve inefficient processes. Because restaurant chains are so operations-driven, and because BI is so central to helping them run their businesses, they are among the elite group of companies across all industries that are actually getting real value from these systems." (CIO Drill Down, 2012, p.1)

V. Benefits of Business Intelligence

Business intelligence benefits are reported to be inclusive of those stated as follows:

Greater ability to access and analyze data without IT involvement

Faster and more collaborative decision making

Improved performance metric tracking

More accountability, with visibility into key performance indicators by line of business

Faster response times, when exceptions and events occur (Businessintelligence.com, 2012)

Information Builders website reports that business intelligence is "a broad category of computer software solutions that enables a company or organization to gain insight into its critical operations through reporting applications and analysis tools. Included in BI applications are such as the following:

(1) tabular reports;

(2) spreadsheets;

(3) charts, and (4) dashboard. (Businessintelligence.com, 2012)

Traditional business intelligence systems were such reported to have been delivered "via host terminals or paper reports, the typical modern deployment of a BI application is over the web, via Internet or intranet connections. It is also possible to develop interactive BI applications optimized for mobile devices, smart phones, and e-mail." (Businessintelligence.com, 2012) Business Intelligent applications provide the organization stakeholders the potential to make more strategic decision through the ability to "quickly understand the various 'information assets in the organization. (Businessintelligence.com, 2012) Included in these assets are such as "… assets can include customer databases, supply chain information, personnel data, manufacturing, and sales and marketing activity, as well as any other source of information critical to your operation. BI software allows you to integrate these disparate data sources into a single coherent framework for real-time reporting and detailed analysis by anyone in your extended enterprise -- customers, partners, employees, managers, and executives." (Businessintelligence.com, 2012)

WebFOCUS is a BI system that claims to reduce "the cost and time for development and deployment of BI applications, while providing powerful, scalable, enterprise-wide BI solutions." (2012) It is reported that the WebFOCUS.ebFOCUS BI software will empower the organization in its efforts to:

Process requests quickly, intelligently, and efficiently

Respond faster and more efficiently to changing conditions affecting your organization

Make your greatest asset -- information -- part of your organization's natural culture

Transform raw data into intuitive, illustrative enterprise reports quickly and easily

Enhance reporting systems by incorporating transactional forms, as well as data maintenance and update capabilities. (WebFOCUS, 2012, p.1)

VI. Business Intelligence: Raising the Quotient

It is reported that ones' business intelligence quotient can be raised through the following:

(1) Encore the fact that BI is everybody's business: This is reported as a key driver in adoption of BI and all users being empowered by a BI solution.

(2) Data, Data, Everywhere -- But unable to find what one is seeking resulting in the adoption of BI.

(3) Enumerate the potential of BI "as an innovative invention of a superior customer experience... BI helps in providing autonomy to the customer/end-user by way of self-service functionality combined with interactive and responsive controls that place the power to drive the business solution in those users' hands. And companies should focus on differentiating between customer and end-user in terms of Power Users and contextual business roles. This is the new dynamics of being "customer-centric."