Making the right decision every time is probably the
toughest challenge faced by any company director. Unless
'up to the minute' business information is available at
their fingertips the average company director simply has to
rely on guesswork. Okay, these may be 'educated' guesses
but, believe it or not, there is a much better way to run a
business.
Business Intelligence (BI) is all about getting things
right first time. In financial terms this makes sound
business sense. If there is nothing to fix then costs are
lower and profits rise. So what is business intelligence
and how can the average business person implement BI and
make it work for them?
Let us start with a brief definition of Business
Intelligence: In its broadest sense, business intelligence
is a wide range of applications and technologies which
gather, store, analyse and provide access to information
that will help decision makers make better business
choices. BI applications can include the activities of
decision support systems, query and reporting, online
analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis,
forecasting, and data mining.
Let us start with basic data gathering and analysis. These
days most businesses have websites that enables users to
complete an online enquiry form if they want more
information about products or services. The data gathered
by this process (often simply the enquirers name and email
address) can be stored in a database and used for marketing
purposes or market research.
Analysing stored data with specialist decision support
software can suggest a wide range of business options. For
example: geographical data and purchasing trends combined
can prompt effective marketing decisions it is logical to
sell beach towels alongside sun tan lotion in Brighton
rather than alongside fur lined boots in Helsinki.
Other information that a decision support application might
gather and present could include comparative sales figures
between one month and the next; projected revenue figures
based on sales estimates or the consequences of different
decisions based on past experience.
Decision support systems are designed to be easy to
understand and may present information graphically as three
dimensional models and may even include an element of
artificial intelligence as part of their analytical
processing capability. The most important characteristic is
that the system should allow the user to selectively
extract and view data from different points-of-view.
For example, a user can request that data be analysed to
display a spreadsheet showing a company's ice cream sales
on Brighton beach in the month of August, compare revenue
figures with those for the same products in September, and
then see a comparison of other product sales in Brighton in
the same time period. Data mining or the discovery of
relationships between data items is a powerful part of
Business intelligence operations and can offer a huge range
of decision making options. Investigation and research into
BI potential will quickly show that to stay competitive
executives always need to be making the right decisions.
Anything that helps them do this can only be good for
business.
Graham Baylis: Business Intelligence is all about making sure that a
business owner knows what is going on in their business.
This is just what Contemporary a leader in the field of
Business Intelligence offers. Training, hardware and
software can all be provided. http://www.contemporary.co.uk.
