Business intelligence is a concept that has emerged more recently and can be defined as the unification of people, process and technology to drive a business forward (Cates, Gill & Zeituny 2007). It can be further broken down into a process of collecting data, mining the data, turning it into information, which is then used for knowledge to aid in the decision making process (Shollo & Kautz 2010) at the correct time, place and medium (Yeoh & Koronios 2010). A stakeholder is anyone who holds an interest in a company. There are four types of stakeholders primary, secondary (Mishra & Mishra 2013), internal and external (Simmers 2004). When designing a business intelligence strategy all stakeholders are important and their interests should be considered (Simmers 2004). Therefore getting input from users is one of the important steps in the larger process of creating a business intelligence strategy. Gathering input form a wide range of stakeholders regarding the business intelligence strategy has the potential benefit of better decisions, which leads to improved efficiency and then increased profits. However, focus on a business driven strategy must be maintained throughout the process as it can deviate. Also user adoption of the strategy is also extremely important to keep in mind. Body Businesses are driven to be more competitive in their market place and try and do this through collecting and analysing data. Business intelligence systems process historical as well as real-time data to generate information (Bara et al 2009). This allows them to make better decisions and predict market trends (Simmers 2004). A business intelligence system that has been well designed allows the ability to analyse information for achieving... ... middle of paper ... ...ness instead of focusing on just the current need. (Boyer 2010 p53) The adoption is an important consideration because if a system is not used it is a wasted investment. There are four key elements in analysing adoption for a BI strategy as outlined by Yoon (2014) being technology, individual difference, social influence and situational constraints. Input from the casual user so that a system can be effectively designed for them to use and adapt to make the introduction of the BI system one that please other stakeholders desires. Conclusion A business intelligence strategy should be based on input from a wide range of stakeholders, because their input is valuable as it creates better decisions, improved efficiency leading to increased profits. The focus on the strategy must remain business driven throughout the process for it has the greatest chance of success.
Traditional business intelligence tools are being replaced by data discovery software. The data discovery software has numerous capabilities that are dominating purchase requirements for larger distribution. A challenge remaining is the ability to meet the dual demands of enterprise IT and business users.
Adoption of new technology is affected by the perception of benefit, compatibility with workflow, ease of use, leadership presence and their support to gain buy in from end-users. In an unsuccessful adoption of new technology there is an underappreciation of the impact for the organization, the number resources required, and leaderships inability to communicate transformational change. In cases where technology adoption was successful staff were engaged early on by leadership as key users (Gagnon et al., 2012).
Decision making refers to the process of finding and selecting options according to the priorities and values of the person making the decision. Since there are many choices involved, it is important to identify as many options as possible so as to pick the option that best fits a company’s target, goals, values and vision. Due to the integral role of decision making in company growth and financial progress, many firms such as Amazon.com and EBay are pumping in huge investments in business intelligence systems, which are made up of certain technological tools and technological applications that are created for the purpose of facilitating improved decision making process in business. In this paper, I take a critical look at Decision Support Systems and how they affect organizational Decision making.
Regarding to organizational stakeholders, there are three main groups of stakeholders: customers, employees and investors. The company attempts to link stakeholders’ needs and expectations to the company’s goals. For customers, the company must treat them fairly and honestly. For employees, the company needs to treat them fairly, make them a part of the company and respect their needs. For investor, managers should comply with the accounting procedure, do not manip...
Stakeholder analysis is important for successful implementation of projects and/or strategic activities within any organisation. It is used to analyse the stakeholders in order to understand them and classify them according to their power, influence and interest. Stakeholders are people who have an interest in a commercial entity including those within the organisation and outside. These include the boss, senior executives, customers, suppliers, government, your co-workers, the team and others. All these people are important in the implementation and success of strategy.
Stakeholders’ analysis is the analysis which tells that how the company is dealing with the people which are directly or indirectly related with the company’s operations. These are called stakeholder and they include the employee, society, suppliers, buyers, shareholders, got and other tax related companies.
First of all, business intelligence analysis requires the capturing of information and storing in a single location for effective data analysis. Currently, data analysis is supported by transactional systems, business specific data marts, and other ad-hoc processes. Information is distributed making it difficult and time-consuming to access. Business teams have adapted to this environment by creating user maintained databases and manual “work-arounds” to support new types of reporting and analysis. This has resulted in inconsistent data, redundant data storage, significant resource use for maintenance, and inefficient response to changing business needs.
Stakeholders are individuals, groups, and organisations with the power to influence the delivery of an organisation’s strategy and thus the organisation’s performance and/or a significant interest in an organisation’s strategy and thus the organisation’s performance (Wisniewski, 2001; Ackermann & Eden, 2011). In the context of the draft BSC to be developed, however, the analysis shall focus on relatively aggregated stakeholder groups. Firstly, the aim of this stakeholder analysis is not to pinpoint individual persons as stakeholders who may then be managed more easily than large organisations, but to identify rather broad stakeholder groups interested in Zara’s performance. Secondly, addressing
For the past couple of decades the majority of businesses have wanted to construct a data-driven organization or company. Furthermore, companies around the world are considering harnessing data as a basis of competitive advantage over other companies. As a result, business intelligence and data science use are popular in many organizations today. The increase in adoption of these data systems is in response to the heavy rise in communications abilities the world over. Which, in turn ,has increased the need for data products. Indeed, the Data Scientist profession is emerging to be one of the better-paying professions due to the urgent need of their labor. This paper is going to discuss what business intelligence is all about and explain data science that is usually confused to be similar to business intelligence. I will tackle a brief overview of data scientists and their role in organizations.
Friedman, Uri. “Big Data: A Short History.” foreignpolicy.com. Foreign Policy, 8 Oct. 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Companies are able to become analytic competitors through various activities. One of the first steps to becoming a competitor is the widespread use of modeling and optimization. Instead of following basic statistical information, it is wise to look for ways to enhance profitability. To become successful at this, organizations use both internal and external information retrieved from outside sources for a vivid understanding of their consumers. Secondly, an enterprise approach is necessary. Through this approach, employees become proactive at finding out what items or processes are effective. A good example would be of how the article talks about UPS’s approach for assessing problems,” The UPS Customer Intelligence G...
Zeleny, M (ed.) 2000, The IEBM handbook of information technology in business, Thomson Learning, London.
Business intelligence, or BI, is 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. Data mining is the process of sorting through large amounts of data and picking out relevant information. It is usually used by business intelligence organizations, and financial analysts, but is increasingly being used in the sciences to extract information from the enormous data sets generated by modern experimental and observational methods.
Curtis G. & D. Cobham (2002: 4th edition) Business Information Systems: Analysis, Design and Practice. Essex: Pearson Education Limited
Paige B., Brian D. and Cameron W. (2012). Business Driven Information Systems, 3rd Canadian Ed. 300 Water St, Whitby, ON L1N 9B6, McGraw Hill Ryerson Ltd