Business Intelligence for competitive advantage
In the beginning, businesses used information technology for automating the processes primarily to reduce labor costs. Subsequently, information technology is used for delivering information with speed and accuracy.
Currently, businesses want to use the information effectively for competitive advantage to make better decisions that improve and optimize business processes, predict the market dynamics accurately, optimize forecasts to adequately maintain resources to name a few reasons.
Businesses reached a critical juncture in global competition and the business intelligence capabilities and analytic prowess will play critical roles in the most competitive sectors of global economy.
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.
A data warehouse comprised of disparate data sources enables the “single version of truth” through shared data repositories and standards and also provides access to the data that will expand frequency and depth of data analysis. Due to these reasons, data warehouse is the foundation for business intelligence.
As a Technical Architect, I am involved in the design and development of the Enterprise Data Warehouse at Target. I and many of my colleagues worked hard to make the business case of the importance of the data warehouse and its value addition to the company.
Technological developments and improvements have allowed for businesses to communicate information faster and better by the use of email, live chats, and video teleconferencing. These enhancements allow for a faster flow of information in which a business can easily distribute and receive responses in real-time from its customers. It helps employees to function more efficiently by using software programs such as word processing, spreadsheet tools, statistical analysis software and computer aided design programs. With the growth of the internet and social media, businesses expose its products to a larger customer base. Others advances such as inventory management software are able to track and fill orders, and replace stock when the volume fails a pre-determined quantity at much faster rates. Digital storage of documents and information on servers and multi-media storage
Smith, W., & Jewett, D. (2009). Tableau software and teradata database the visual approach to the active data warehouse. In Retrieved from http://www.tableausoftware.com/learn/whitepapers
Information Technology (IT) is a foundation for conducting business today. It plays a critical role in increasing productivity of firms and entire nation. It is proven that firms who invested in IT have experienced continued growth in productivity and efficiency. Many companies' survival and even existence without use of IT is unimaginable. IT has become the largest component of capital investment for companies in the United States and many other countries.
Companies have transformed technology from a supporting tool into a strategic weapon.”(Davenport, 2006) In business research, technology has become an essential means that many organizations use in their daily operations. According to the article, Analytics is a major technological tool used. It is described as “the extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, explanatory and predictive models, and fact-based management to drive decisions and actions."(Davenport, 2006) Data is compiled to enhance business practices. When samples are taken, they are used to examine research and understand how to solve problems or why situations are as they are. Furthermore, in this article, Thomas Davenport discusses analytics from a business standpoint. He refers to organizations that have been successful in their usage of data and statistical analysis. In addition, he also discusses how data and statistics can be vital in the efforts to improve the operations of businesses.
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.
Databases are becoming as common in the workplace as the stapler. Businesses use databases to keep track of payroll, vacations, inventory, and a multitude of other taske of which are to vast to mention here. Basically businesses use databases anytime a large amount of data must be stored in such a manor that it can easily be searched, categorized and recalled in different means that can be easily read and understood by the end user. Databases are used extensively where I work. In fact, since Hyperion Solutions is a database and financial intelligence software developing company we produce one. To keep the material within scope I shall narrow the use of databases down to what we use just in the Orlando office of Hyperion Solutions alone.
Chief Information officer ,Mr. Arun Kumar of ABC corporation was watching Television news and seen that huge IT giants like IBM are leveraging upon their existing database to manage and exploit their huge chunk of data to satisfy the needs of their customer in the most appropriate manner .So Arun was thinking of managing the data in his organization and leverage upon the optimal utilization of data so as to come up with best feasible solutions for his clients and satisfy the needs of his clients
Top-down, Bottom-up technology must be followed to get a successful BI. Business Intelligence System will fail without Executive sponsorship. Ideally, 1 or 2 executives are required in the system. The management support is MUST to undertake the BI effect from the grassroots. The step should be followed by the appointment of Chief Business Intelligence Officer (BIO).
The data warehouse can be generally described as a decision-support tool that collects its data from operational databases and various external sources, transforms them into information and making that information available to decision-makers (top managers) in a consolidated and consistent manner. (2:64)(4:82)
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.
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.
It takes a simple mind to run a simple machine, but a shrewd mind is needed to run an organization, association, or business. Business intelligence has become a big principle in industries throughout the years. “During the second half of the 20th century, the United States and Canada, Western Europe, as well as Japan and a number of other countries, have evolved from primarily manufacturing-based economies to more information-based societies” (Kara). A business needs to have a mission to be successful. To help accomplish missions for businesses, business intelligence is utilized. To run a productive organization effectively and efficiently, certain things need to be accomplished.
Business analytics depends on the type, quality and quantity of the data. The difficulty in ensuring the quality of the data is integrating data across different ...
Advances in technology have changed businesses dramatically, in particular the communication and information technology that are conducted in firms, which changed the appearance and pace of businesses over the past few decades. ICT in particular, has evolved a lot over the past 30 years; important information can be stored in computers rather than being in drawers enabling information to be transferred at a greater volume and speed (Guy, 2009). ICT has also expanded various forms of telecommunications and workload conducted in businesses, internet examples of this include: e-mails can be used to communicate with others...
In the first place, computer technology can not only improved quality of working but also enhance student’s learning. In the modern society, computer technology becomes more popular in many companies. The reason is that it is able to improve working efficiency and quality. If every worker has abilities to operate and use computer technology, they can save more time to do another things. This means individuals can spend less time on working to do the same quantity of works as before. Most importantly, improving working efficiency and quality is favorable for business operating in the future. For example, more and more companies like to use digital technology to analysis their data. Digital technology is a kind of computer technology that is always used in business. The information created by digital technology and used by others will grow faster than anything else. The Economist reported in 2010 that data management and analytics are worth more than $100 billion and are growing at almost 10% a year, roughly twice as fast as the software business as a whole (Orange, 2014). This is a dramatic increase in working efficiency that is caused by computer technology. Besides, computer technology could also be used to predict further performance of a company, which is