Business intelligence or business intelligence bi

Something worse than not having information available is having a lot of information and not knowing what to do with it. Business Intelligence or Business Intelligence (BI) is the solution to this problem, because through this information it can generate scenarios, forecasts and reports that support decision-making, which translates into a competitive advantage. The key to BI is information and one of its greatest benefits is the ability to use it in decision making.

Currently there is a great variety of BI software with similar applications that can be used in different areas of the company, such as sales, marketing, finance, etc. Many companies have benefited from the implementation of a BI system, and it is also predicted that over time it will become a necessity for every company.

Keywords: Business Intelligence, Competitive advantage, Information, Applications, Solutions.

“In this new world, information reigns…” says Geoffrey A. Moore, Director of Chasm Group. We live in an age where information is the key to gaining a competitive advantage in the business world. To stay competitive in a company, managers and decision makers require quick and easy access to useful and valuable information about the company. One way to solve this problem is through the use of Business Intelligence or Business Intelligence.

Sometimes we have heard of business intelligence and we do not know what it means. Much is said about it, but few really know what it can do for your business. My intention with this article is to describe simply and briefly how business intelligence can benefit you and your company, so that the next time you hear this term in a meeting or conversation, you know what they are talking about and do not remain silent, in addition to considering the option of carrying it out in your company.

What is Business Intelligence?

Business Intelligence or Business Intelligence (BI) can be defined as the process of analyzing the assets or data accumulated in the company and extracting a certain intelligence or knowledge from them. The category of goods includes customer databases, supply chain information, personal sales, and any marketing activity or source of information relevant to the company.

BI supports decision makers with the right information, at the right time and place, enabling them to make better business decisions. The right information in the right place and time increases the effectiveness of any company.

“BI technology is not new, it has been around in various forms for at least the last 20 years, starting with report generators and executive information systems in the 80's…” Candice Goodwin affirms. The terms applications, solutions or business intelligence software are understood as synonyms for BI technology.

It may help you better understand the concept by using an example. A national hotel franchise that uses BI applications to keep a statistical record of the hotel's average occupancy percentage, as well as the average days of stay of each guest, considering the differences between seasons. With this information they can:

calculate the profitability of each hotel in each season of the year determine who is its market segment calculate the market share of the franchise and each hotel identify opportunities and threats

These are just some of the ways in which a company or organization can benefit from the implementation of BI software, there are a wide variety of applications or software that give the company the ability to quickly analyze why things happen. and focus on patterns and threats.

What can Business Intelligence do?

With BI you can:

generate global or sectional reports create a customer database create scenarios regarding a decision make sales and returns forecasts share information between departments multi-dimensional analysis generate and process data change the decision-making structure improve customer service

According to Kobana Abukari and Vigía Job, "BI is one of the most robust management initiatives that smart managers can employ to help their organizations create more value for shareholders."

BI has been very successful in giving companies an advantage over their competitors by bringing people and technology together to solve problems. The following is a list of the most common areas in which business intelligence solutions are used:

- Sales: Sales analysis; Detection of important clients; Analysis of products, lines, markets; Forecasts and projections.

- Marketing: Segmentation and customer analysis; Follow up on new products.

- Finance: Analysis of expenses; Purse rotation; Financial reasons.

- Manufacturing: Productivity in lines; Waste analysis; Quality analysis; Inventory turnover and critical parts.

- Shipments: Shipment tracking; Reasons why orders are lost.

Who needs Business Intelligence solutions?

If you can answer yes to at least one of the following questions, then you are a candidate to benefit from BI solutions.

Do you spend more time collecting and preparing information than analyzing it? Are you sometimes frustrated by not being able to find information that you are sure exists within your company? Do you spend a lot of time trying to make Excel reports look good? A guide to things that have happened when previous managers implemented a certain strategy? Not sure what to do with so much information available to the company? Want to know which products were the most profitable during a certain period? Don't know what they are the purchasing patterns of your customers depending on the zones? Have you lost business opportunities due to receiving delayed information? Do you work overtime at the end of the month to process documents or reports? You are not sure if your people are reaching the planned objectives ?NotDo you know if you maintain close communication between the various areas of your company towards a common strategy? You have no idea why your customers return merchandise?

Business Intelligence Software

These are the most recognized BI solutions on the market today.

SAGENT SOLUTION PLATFORM:

This integrated system extracts, transforms, moves, distributes and presents the key information for decision-making in the company in a homogeneous environment.

MICROSTRATEGY:

It provides solutions to clients of any industry and / or functional area in order to help them obtain greater knowledge about the information handled in their company.

BUSINESS OBJECTS:

Provides users with easy access to data, analysis of stored information, and reporting.

COGNOS:

It is software that offers analysis and decision-making functionality. It has a special tool for business modeling, forecasting, and what-if simulation.

BITAM / ARTUS BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SUITE:

Tool capable of grouping information and using it as an asset that will help the company to identify business opportunities, optimize the areas of finance, customers, internal processes, learning and innovation.

ORACLE9 I APPLICATION SERVER:

It allows you to access, analyze and share information and make accurate decisions based on data quickly.

Business Intelligence components

All BI solutions have similar functions, but they must have at least the following components:

Multidimensionality: multidimensional information can be found in spreadsheets, databases, etc. A BI tool must be able to gather information dispersed throughout the company and even in different sources in order to provide departments with the accessibility, power and flexibility they need to analyze the information. For example, a forecast of sales of a new product in various regions is not complete if the historical behavior of the sales of each region and the way in which the introduction of new products has developed in each region is not also taken into account. question.

Data Mining: Companies usually generate large amounts of information about their production processes, operational performance, markets and customers. But the success of business generally depends on the ability to see new trends or changes in trends. Data mining applications can identify trends and behaviors, not only to extract information, but also to discover relationships in databases that can identify behaviors that are not very obvious.

Agents: Agents are programs that “think”. They can perform tasks at a very basic level without the need for human intervention. For example, an agent can perform somewhat complex tasks, such as preparing documents, establishing flow charts, etc.

Data Warehouse: It is the response of information technology to decentralization in decision making. It places information from all functional areas of the organization in the hands of the decision maker. It also provides tools for search and analysis.

Real-world examples of Business Intelligence application

Twentieth Century Fox uses BI to predict which actors, storylines and films will be popular in which neighborhood. By avoiding certain storylines in specific cinemas, the company has savings of approximately $ 100 Million dollars around the world each year. They use the same technology to select alternative "traliers" (shorts prior to the presentation of a film) for each film in each theater and thus maximize sales. A movie can have several different "trailers", each one can be perceived differently by different types of audiences.

Jhon Deer BI systems don't predict the future, they plan for it. This agricultural equipment manufacturing company improves its business by giving customers a wide variety of options in the products that they may require, obtaining millions of permutations for each option. This is great for marketing but not so great for manufacturing. John Deer solved this problem by employing computerized intelligence that learns to "create" agendas better than human beings would. Farm equipment now flows more smoothly through the production line.

As well as these cases, there are a large number of cases of successful application of BI systems, which have provided true intelligence to the business, providing not only a notable efficiency and competitive advantage, but in the long run it can be the difference between survival or disappearance of the company.

The future of Business Intelligence

The following are opinions of executives of US companies about what they expect to happen in the short or medium term with respect to BI, collected by Mitch Betts in March of this year.

In approximately five years, we will see a dramatic 40% increase in the number of end users using BI tools… –Frank Gelbart, CEO, Appfluent Technology Inc., Arlington, Va.

In a few years, competitive advantages will come from using BI to understand consumer behavior and preferences at a narrow level of segmentation, even individual to make tailored offers… –Jeff Zabian, Vice President, Seurat Co., Boulder, Colo.

Within two to three years, companies will abandon the traditional method of doing business with quarterly adjustments. Instead, they will use BI and develop administrative tools as a strategy to respond to real-time changes in the market. –Rob Ashe, President & Chief Operating Officer, Cognos Inc., Burlington, Mass.

Users will demand greater integration between the numbers and their interpretation. Likewise, all BI applications will include content management or knowledge management tools. –Brian Hartlen, Senior Vice President, Comshare Inc., Ann Arbor, Mich.

Business is a war! As in any war, survival depends on the ability to act quickly in a changing environment. BI will be like a central control command to track variables such as operational development, market conditions and the development of competitors, all of them in real time. –Sol Klinger, Director, Sterling Management Solutions Inc., Princetown, NJ

By improving the selection of who to direct marketing messages to, BI can save more than $ 200 billion a year from wasted advertising and direct marketing… –Dave Morgan, CEO, Tacoda Systems Inc., New York.

BI information enables a company to grow and exploit future opportunities, and at the same time, is the target for corporate espionage, crime and computer terrorism… –Ryon Packer, Vice President, Intrusion, Inc., Richardson, Texas.

conclusion

Today's business environment demands an increasingly efficient application of available information. BI, as its name implies, generates knowledge to the business, which is derived from the correct use of the information generated inside and outside the company. BI is a tool that makes the right information in the right place available to users. There are multiple benefits offered to companies, among them is the generation of a competitive advantage. There is a wide variety of BI solutions that, in sum, are very similar, but to be considered complete, it must include four components: multidimensionality, data mining, agents and data warehouse. There are already many companies that have implemented BI solutions and have benefited enormously, the next one may be yours.The best way to summarize all of the above is through the phrase of Bill Gates, Director of Microsoft, "BI helps track what actually works and what doesn't."

Bibliographic references

Net Library. Goodwin, Candice. "Technology: Business Intelligence - Assault on the data mountain". Proquest. Accountancy, (May 07, 2003). Abukari, Kobana; Job, Watcher. "Business Intelligence in action". Proquest. CMA Management, (May 07, 2003). Betts, Mitch. "The future of business intelligence". Computerworld. Tupson Technologies.