Business Intelligence - Research Paper Example

Business Intelligence Business Intelligence practices and definition has evolved significantly over past decades. A decade and a half ago, the definition of an “intelligent organization” was one that incorporated and embraced collaborative sharing of knowledge through content management systems, intranets, and blogs. Today, however, business intelligence is an integral part of the tactical management tools in an organization, supporting decision-making on the daily operations to achieve corporate objectives. Thus, business intelligence refers to the process of analyzing huge organizational data stored in databases, tracking the performance of the business, identifying business trends and patterns, and helping users of business enterprise to make better decisions (Electrosmart, 2012). In recent times, organizations around the world are adopting different forms of BI as vehicles for attaining competitive advantage over their market niche. This is particularly so in restaurant chains, health facilities, and resorts such as Exclusive Resorts and Marshfield Clinic. Such businesses use the BI systems in making tactical decisions concerning their businesses, such as introduction of new product and services, removal of underperforming services and products, and identification of opportunities to improve inefficient processes. One of the most important components of BI is business analytics, an essential factor that determines the success capability of a business (Electrosmart, 2012). The analysis of the case study of Marshfield Clinic and Exclusive Resort provides four important lessons for companies wishing to adapt BI systems into their organizations: have a clear vision, good communication skills of employees, cooperative employees, and dedicated resources (TDWI, 2011). Considering the cases of Exclusive Resorts and Marshfield Clinic, evidently a company needs to have a clear vision on its perceived needs for the BI process. For instance, Marshfield Clinic already had a patient-care data collection system, though their main need was an analytical tool that was capable of combining user-friendly reporting and patient care metrics and placing them on the desktops of the physicians to enable them to make real-time decisions (TDWI, 2011). Despite the difference in the platform application, Exclusive Resort had a similar problem with multiple, disconnected, and inflexible technology that increased the cost of operation and difficulty in operation resulting from the expansion of the company’s business. According to the case study, Exclusive Resort actually had to purchase additional software to produce reports needed by the stakeholders and decision makers. The company embarked on the search for a Enterprise Resource Planning system that would integrate the existing technology and promote the competitiveness and quality of member services while encouraging the growth members (Microsoft, 2011). The two companies had clear understanding of the functionality and provision of the BI systems, as well as a clear expression from the different business departments on the types of decision expected from BI system. Another emergent issue from the two case studies was the importance of communication skills between the employees of the two companies. At Marshfield Clinic, the associate chief medical information officer Mike Cummens was quick to identify that the problem was not a patient-care data system, but an analytical tool that would enhance effective and efficient real-time decision-making by physicians. Having such an employee with good communication skills enabled the company to identify the real problem with its data collection system. The senior vice president of technology at Exclusive Resorts was also able to communicate the problem they had with their previous system, enabling the experts from Microsoft to design a solution that suits their needs. For a successful development and implementation of a BI system, the business must have strong links and communication among business departments and IT department (Vercellis, 2011). The business departments need to collect the requirements of their departments, as well as provide all necessary information to the IT department. An organization must have adequate and dedicated resources before embarking on efforts to BI system acquisition. This includes human and financial resources, as some BI systems may be relatively expensive to design and implement. Nonetheless, the successful implementation of these systems will recover the overheads, especially from the reduction in processing time and elimination of redundancy in data entry (Electrosmart, 2012). Considering the Exclusive Resorts, the project was relatively expensive in terms of initial capital. However, the installation of the new BI systems enabled the company to forgo numerous overhead costs such as the additional software products, redundant data entry, and long processing durations. The success of the BI system in Exclusive Resort was also a result of the dedication of the associate CIO (Microsoft, 2011). The case study shows that he attended several events organized by Microsoft to understand better the new system, similar to the case of Marshfield Clinic. From the two case studies, the importance of cooperative employees in terms of accepting change is evident. The successful development and subsequent implementation of a BI system depends largely on willingness of employees to coordinate and cooperate in embracing the changes in the working process. Therefore, a company must involve its employees in the initial stages of the project, clarifying its importance to the success of the company as a whole, similar to Exclusive Resorts and Marshfield Clinic cases (TDWI, 2011). Some critics may argue that such factor as availing adequate and dedicated resources for the project may be expensive, or that employees conventionally resist changes. However, carrying out a cost-effectiveness analysis of the previous system and the new system will show that the BI system is more cost effective. This is because it reduces long-term operational costs such redundant entry of data, purchase of additional software products, long processing time, and ineffective production of reports that waste time and other resources. The return on investment (ROI) in Exclusive Resort is an example of the cost efficiency of BI system (Microsoft, 2011). Indeed, employees do resist changes, but majority of such instances occur when such changes start without their involvement. Incorporating employees into the initial stages of the project assures the cooperation of employees as well as improve communication in the organization. More organizations are adapting BI systems as a tactical management tool into their organizations. However, this means that business will need to adapt BI tactics that are flexible to their needs as well as those of customers. In developing and creating BI systems, organizations need to assess their readiness in terms of four factors: clarity of vision, communication skills of employees, cooperation of employees, and adequacy and availability of resources. The popularity of the BI systems means that there are different BI solutions developed from difference aspects of competitive advantage (Howson, 2007). Therefore, it is important for an organization to identify its specific needs and the type of reporting and analytics that suits its objectives. The success of a BI system depends on how effective it meets the overall goals and objectives of that particular organization. References Electrosmart. (2012). The Business Intelligence Guide. Retrieved on March 24, 2012, from http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/About_Business_Intelligence.php Howson, C. (2007). Successful Business Intelligence: Secrets to Making BI a Killer App. New York: McGraw-Hill Prof Med/Tech. Microsoft. (2011). Exclusive Resorts LLC. Retrieved on March 24, 2012, from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Dynamics-AX/Exclusive-Resorts-LLC/Destination-Club-Generates-Rapid-ROI-Enhances-Services-Takes-Control-of-Business/4000009718. TDWI. (2011). Case Study: Using Analytics to Improve Patent Outcomes and Billing Accuracy at Marshfield Clinic. Retrieved on March 24, 2012, from http://tdwi.org/Articles/2011/07/11/CASE-STUDY-Using-Analytics-to-Improve-Patient-Outcomes-and-Billing-Accuracy-at-Marshfield-Clinic.aspx?Page=1 Vercellis, C. (2011). Business Intelligence: Data Mining and Optimization for Decision Making. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Read More