1. Introduction
This article aims to give an overview of the importance of information flow in a company that currently wants to maintain a strong position in the market. Today's companies are judged not only on the quality of their products or services, but also on the degree to which they share information with their customers, employees, and partners. However, the vast majority of organizations have an abundance of data, but a dearth of knowledge. That is why the concept of Business Intelligence arises, which is a concept that tries to encompass all the information systems of an organization to obtain from them not only information or knowledge, but a true intelligence that gives the organization a competitive advantage over its competitors.The article handles various concepts from the approach of various authors, which enrich the general idea of Business Intelligence, mentions the general elements of Business Intelligence, illustrates the concept through practical examples, and finally marks the most modern trends in Business Intelligence and technologies. wireless transmission
Key Words: Intelligence, Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Data Mining, OLAP, Decision Support System, Federated Architecture.
Information is the most important asset in today's business. This is because the success of a business depends on how well it knows its customers, how well it understands its internal processes and how effective it is in carrying out all its operations (Anonymous, 2001). Adequate information is currently the only means by which an organization can learn about such issues.
Today's companies are judged not only on the quality of their products or services, but also on the degree to which they report to their customers, employees, and partners. The more widely available information a company has, the more valuable it becomes. When a marketing department has accurate information on the installed base of products and services, it is better able to develop better focused promotions. When customers can easily verify that a product is in inventory, they are much more likely to purchase. When the CEO has instant access to trend data, they can turn as little as 10 cents in a direction that leads to a profit of thousands of dollars for the company (Anonymous, 2001).This is just to cite some examples of the importance of information that is up-to-date, organized, focused and available at all times.
In addition to this, the advent of the Internet in our lives has resulted in a new paradigm that will radically change the way business will be done in the third millennium, and along with it, new empires will emerge that will lead the changes towards what has been done today. denominated as the e-conomy or digital economy (Ladislao, 2000).
Currently, the most profitable companies in our country, with which every company must associate in the future to continue growing (and eventually survive), are mostly Information Technology companies, whether consultants, software development, hardware or telecommunications. Which gives us an idea of how important these companies are for the development of any industry.
However, the vast majority of organizations have an abundance of data, but a dearth of knowledge. The most important performance metrics and information resources continue to be lost in a sea of numbers and disconnected systems. The vast majority of organizations have many dispersed systems, each of which has its own data sources and representation mechanisms. This makes keeping up-to-date information across departments and business units extremely difficult. On the other hand, the more integrated an organization is, the easier it is for any member of it to obtain the information that is needed, so that any individual is more empowered to make a better decision.
2. The new concept.
The changing economic environment and the systems problems described above prompted the emergence of the so-called Business Intelligence, which is a concept that tries to encompass all the Information Systems of an organization to obtain from them not only information or knowledge, but also a true intelligence that gives the organization a competitive advantage over its competitors.
Hackney (2001) tells us that Business Intelligence is made up of all activities related to the organization and delivery of information as well as business analysis. This includes Data Mining, Knowledge Management,
Analytical Applications, Reporting Systems and mainly Data Warehousing.
Michel (2000) states that the set of technologies that use Data Warehousing and OLAP (On-line Analytical Processing, combined with reporting tools, are referred to as Business Intelligence, because they help companies to gain intelligence in operations and performance.
Buksard, Mollot and Richards (2000) comment in their article that the need for new tools for accessing and reporting information, for various types of users, has driven the creation of new tools, collectively known as Business Intelligence. Business Intelligence is not a single technology or application. It is not a "thing", but rather a "suite" of products that work together to provide data, information and analytical reports that meet the needs of a wide variety of end users.
Business Intelligence is the ability to consolidate information and analyze it with sufficient speed and precision to discover advantages and make better business decisions. This definition is compatible with the current need of businesses that, faced with the pressure of becoming more competitive every day, in order to maintain themselves have the double task of not only remaining but also being profitable (Cano, 1999).
Finally, Gartner Group Vice President and Chief Research Officer Howard Dresner, quoted in Hilson (2001) agrees with the above definitions, adding, "Business Intelligence is simply the ability of end users to access and analyze quantitative types of information and being able to act accordingly.
Business Intelligence has taken the lead in the last two years, solution providers have more friendly technology and present data that is easier to analyze, betting on the massive adoption of such systems by organizations (Sullivan, 2001).
Companies currently use a wide range of technologies and products to know what is happening in the
organization. The most common tools (simple data query and reporting, online analytical processing, statistical analysis, forecasting, and data mining) can be used in a variety of ways. The goal of all this is to transform mountains of data into useful information for the company (McGeever, 2000).
The radical growth of new forms of computer-generated "intelligence" is one of two revolutions in IT today. The second is the Internet, which everyone already knows about (Martín, 2001). The two revolutions will support and amplify each other. The combination of both will result in a radical reinvention of business.
3. Elements of Business Intelligence.
The Business Intelligence market will grow to approximately 148 trillion levels, according to Survey.com. Knowing these trends, it is critical for any business, regardless of size, to have the best technology available. The emergence of these new technologies, as well as new web-based technologies, offer much greater capacity at a dramatically lower price than just a couple of years ago.
Today's Business Intelligence systems are built on a modern infrastructure, consisting of a federated architecture (also known as modular) that accommodates all the components in a modern business intelligence system (Hackney, 2000). These systems include:
to. Data Warehousing and Data Marts, data warehouse systems.
b. Analytical applications.
c. Data Mining, tools for data mining.
d. OLAP, analytical data processing tools.
and. Data consultation and reporting tools.
F. Production tools for personalized reports.
g. ELT, data extraction, translation and loading tools.
h. Systems administration tools.
i. Business information portals.
j. Database systems.
k. Knowledge management systems.
Of course, an organization can implement each of these tools separately and achieve a good level of intelligence, or implement a complete Business Intelligence solution that many providers currently offer.
4. Some practical examples of real Business Intelligence implementations.
The question of who are profitable customers and which ones are problematic for insurance companies was finally resolved: the female population group whose age ranges from 25 to 39 is the one that registers the least number of claims for car insurance; while men between 18 and 25 years old are a real threat because it is precisely in this population group that the highest number of car accidents is reported.
It was not a group of ex-professors trained researchers who found the answer. The Data Mining technique was simply used in the company's global Data Warehouse, which is integrated, in turn, with a decision support system. Solution: The insurance company in question determined to design a special insurance plan with attractive incentives and discounts to retain its profitable clients, that is, women between 25 and 29 years of age, it was also decided to create specific products to stimulate the entrance of new clients with these characteristics. Instead, for risky clients, young people between 18 and 25 years old, the insurance company decided to significantly increase the cost of insurance. A business decision based on the use of technology.
Beyond the formal definitions, the example described summarizes the application in a specific case of Business Intelligence, a mandatory topic in the field of the integration of computer solutions and a factor of change in the way of conceiving the application of technology at the level business. (Cano, 1999).
Twentieth Century Fox uses Business Intelligence to filter millions of postal zone recipients and predict which actors, storylines, and films will be popular in each neighborhood. Bypassing certain arguments in specific cinemas, the company has savings of approximately $ 100 Million dollars around the world each year. The same technology can select alternative “traliers” for each film in each cinema to help maximize sales. A film can have different «trailers», each one can be perceived differently by different types of audiences (Martín, 2001).
Jhon Deere Business Intelligence systems do not predict the future, they plan it. This agricultural equipment manufacturing company improves its business by giving customers a wide variety of options in the products they may require, resulting in millions of permutations for each option. This is great for the marketing area but it is a real headache for the manufacturing area. Deere found the solution using computerized intelligence that learns to "breed" agendas much better than humans would. Agriculture equipment now flows much more smoothly through the production line, months in advance (Martín, 2001).
As well as these, there are a wide variety of cases of successful large-scale application of this type of system, which have conferred true intelligence on the business, providing it not only with marked efficiency, but may eventually make the difference between survival or disappearance. of a company.
5. Business intelligence anywhere, anytime.
Currently accessing key business information anywhere, anytime is becoming the highest priority for many businesses. That is why Business Intelligence providers, whose products analyze a large amount of sales data, customers, personnel, among many others, are adding wireless capabilities to their software (Williams, 2000).
There are several providers of this type of technology, among the most prominent we can mention Information Builders Inc., who launched "Tell Me by E-mail", which gives customers access to information through cell phones, Pda's and others. wireless devices. Hummingbird Ltd. released "Business Intelligence Suite 7.0" that allows information to be exported to Palm VII devices. There are other companies that are moving towards this new telematic information market, such as MicroStrategy, Cognos, Informatica, Oracle, among others.
Another important provider of this type of solution is Business Objects, which offers «Web Intelligence Wireless Edition» that provide consulting reports and analysis by wireless means using any device compatible with wap (wireless access protocol). The benefit of this solution, according to Business Objects executives, will be the ability to receive and interact with the organization's Business Intelligence in real time, which is invaluable for the new generation of mobile executives. (Latting, 2000)
Another traditional competitor in the market is Informix, which offers "Visionary 2.0" which is a somewhat different solution, since it is designed to be coupled with any solution compatible with the ODBC standard, to provide information with visually rich analysis.
All this will allow a business not only to survive, but will give it an important competitive advantage in the new economy, where the big one will no longer devour the boy, but the agile one will win over the slow one.
6. Bibliographic References.
Anonymous (1999). The critical role of business intelligence in e-business. New York, Information Builders, Inc. Retrieved June 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web
Buskard, D., Mollot., & Mollot, M. (2000). Business Intelligence made easy. Retrieved on May 10, 2001 from ProQuest Direct on the World Wide Web
Cano, C. (1999) Business Intelligence, technology-based business decisions: critical path of modern business. Retrieved on June 5, 2001, from ProQuest Direct on the World Wide Web
Hackney, D. (2000). Your Business Intelligence arsenal. Telephony. Retrieved on May 10, 2001, from ProQuest Direct on the World Wide Web
Hilson, G. (2001). BI market fraught with instability. Computing Canada. Retrieved on May 10, 2001, from ProQuest Direct on the World Wide Web
Latting, M. (2000). Business Intelligence vendors expand online capabilities. InfoWorld. Taken on. Retrieved on May 10, 2001, from ProQuest Direct on the World Wide Web
Ladislao, U. «The new business paradigm», Mundo Ejecutivo, Vol 21, Núm 6, México, DF. June 2000, pp. 3.
Martín, J. (2001). Alien Intelligence. The Journal of Business Strategy. Retrieved on May 10, 2001 from ProQuest Direct on the World Wide Web
Michel, R. (2000). Business Intelligence solutions. Manufacturing Systems. Retrieved on May 10, 2001 from ProQuest Direct on the World Wide Web
McGeever, C. (2000). Business Intelligence. Computer World. Retrieved on May 10, 2001, from ProQuest Direct on the World Wide Web
Sullivan, T. (2001). Business Intelligence keeps tabs on the Net. InfoWorld.. Retrieved on May 10, 2001, World Wide Web http: // www Infoworld.com
Williams, A. (2000). Business Intelligence goes wireless. Informationweek. Retrieved on May 10, 2001, World Wide Web http: // www Informationweek.com
