Key Points of Business Intelligence Strategies - Essay Example

Business Intelligence Strategies Name Class Unit Introduction Business intelligence is a very important part of the information technology. Business intelligence refers to the understanding of one’s business through analysing its operations. To appropriately analyse a business, one have to collect information continuously and store it in a way that makes it easy to access, process and make presentation. The results from the analysis are used in enhancing and improving business. The change in the economic climate has led to business intelligence becoming more prominent. The recent economic climate have been characterised by use of technologies by business in their operations with an aim of enhancing efficiency and effectiveness. Business leaders have identified that technologies have the capability to help organisations to gain insight in their decision making (Freeze & Kulkarni, 102). This essay will discuss effective use of IT in Business in order to achieve Business Intelligence excellence, develop the expertise and critical thinking skills that give managers the ability to develop effective business strategies and analyze the importance of ethics, culture and social behavior in strategic decision making. Autonomy and responsibility Business intelligence requires several technologies for it to be effective. The technologies used are; data warehouse, OLAP, Data Mining, interfaces, build and manage capabilities. The data warehouse is designed to support warehousing databases from the relational and multidimensional. The database provides transparent access of data to those who need it (Watson 52). OLAP is used in the data analysis. The support for OLAP is supposed to be provided within the database. Data mining involves gaining information through the use of patterns and algorithms. Open interfaces ensures that all components are connected together. Business intelligence is supposed to utilise standards based interfaces as they are easier to buy and create applications. Information technology (IT) plays a major role in building business intelligence as explained. IT has changed the business world and it has become a knowledge economy. IT has been an important tool since the evolution of the digital revolution (Watson 50). In business, IT help to create new culture and knowledge and makes individuals and groups more knowledgeable. This has enabled IT to be used as a tool for competitive advantage. The better the organisation uses IT to manage knowledge, the more it helps it in performance. IT has thus acted as a tool to help the organisations to be more intelligent and enhance competitiveness. In an organisation, it should not be only applied to the use of the best equipment but also to integrate the human element to the organisation (Freeze & Kulkarni 102). This enables the organisation to gain advantage of the enabling technology. The organisation is also supposed to combine it with the cognitive basis and creativity that is available in the organisation. To enable innovation and creativity, the organisation is supposed to come up with intelligent business. Through effective use of IT, it is possible to create business intelligence excellence (Watson 51). Self development Business intelligence creates a platform for effective decision making. New technologies have been leading to information overload in many companies making it hard for decision makers to choose the right information. Business intelligence has been used by firms to overcome overload and enable profound decision making. BI has been useful in processing, consolidating and retrieving data to make information. The system enables receiving the right knowledge to the right people in a timely manner. BI provides the decision makers with four vital prerequisites for critical decision making (Upton et al. 22). The four prerequisites are; having all information available, having consistent data across the organisation, making information easy to analyse and presenting the report in a user friendly manner. Business intelligence makes it possible to have efficiency in both IT and business side of the organisation. In IT, employees are freed in working on recurring tasks of creating and editing data reports. In the business side, the employees spend less time in the creation and analysis of the management reports. The data is made credible and can be easily downloaded. Having a proper BI is a vital requirement today for business decision making. The business is able to make a successful critical decision and gain a competitive edge (Park 51). The business is also able to identify new opportunities and ensure that they optimise their operations. BI helps the business to reduce the effort used in coming up with decision memos. This is through enhancing data collection and analysis. Business intelligence helps in coming up with a specific IT solution to the business problems (Upton et al. 26). The organisations are able to develop decisions through IT enhanced strategies which are capable of supporting certain decisions at a given operational level. IT support helps to illuminate issues which is vital when the management is faced with uncertainty. Decision maker is involved in decision development by selecting the right type of data which can help in make a certain informed decision. Business intelligence is thus about decision making and is broader than technology itself. The organisations are thus supposed to be competent in coming up with data warehouse and maintaining its quality. Having inconsistent data can lead to loss of confidence in the decision maker (Park 55). Role in context Making ethical decisions is very vital in an organisation. Using business intelligence, the decision made must comply with the organisations ethics and social responsibility. Making high standards ethical decisions ensures that the organisation is able to perform well (Toffler 36). Organisations are supposed to build their decision using ethical intelligence. An ethically intelligent organisation is able to create infrastructure that enables it to come up with ethical decisions. The organisation is also supposed to meet its social responsibility in the decision made. BI management professionals are at a higher risk on making unethical decisions in relation to consumers and other stakeholders. There is no any definite decision that a firm can make when it comes to ethical decision making. For example, data mining used by the BI professionals have been criticised as unethical. Use of BI presents more solutions than ever. Also, the increasing separation between firms and consumers has created a possibility for unethical decisions. The safety of the information on the databases is also subject to questioning due to increase in theft and malicious damage on the internet. Each organisation has their culture and deals with their ethics in own way (Toffler 36). The decision makers using BI have to ensure they follow the organisation culture and code of conduct when making a decision. Data mining accuracy should be maintained by the firm using BI. The firm has the capability to determine the level of accuracy of the data. The organisation has to make a decision regarding the level of accuracy they want depending on their operations. For example, hospital Information systems (HIS) have to use high level of accuracy. Reduction of accuracy in HIS can lead to jeopardising a patient life. There is need for the personnel in charge of the BI system to ensure data integrity and reliability. The managers have to work in close collaboration with the personnel to avoid making unethical decisions based on data accuracy (Toffler 36). Organisations are also supposed to refrain from unethical practices such as release of personal data. Data misuse in BI systems should be avoided at all times. The organisations are thus supposed to be proactive in dealing with ethical issues in their IT department. The IT personnel have the responsibility to ensure that data is not tampered with and is kept in an ethical manner. Decisions made regarding data collected have a great impact and should be carried out carefully (Clegg, Martin & Carl, 112). Conclusion Business intelligence is vital in decision making due to changes in the economic climate. Business intelligence requires several technologies which are data warehouse, OLAP, Data Mining, interfaces, build and manage capabilities. BI has been used by organisations to overcome information overload and come up with best decisions. An organisation using BI in their strategic decision making must be ethical and ensure they act according to social responsibility and organisation culture. Data integrity and reliability must be ensured to avoid compromising the decision being made. The organisation must refrain from activities which can compromise data being used. References Clegg, Stewart, Martin Kornberger & Carl Rhodes. “Business ethics as practice”. British Journal of Management, 17(1) (2007):107-122. Freeze, R. D., & Kulkarni, U. “Knowledge management capability: defining knowledge assets”. Journal of Knowledge Management, 11(6) (2007): 94-109. Park, Yong, Tae. “An empirical investigation of the effects of data warehousing on decision performance”. Information & Management, 43 (1) (2006):51-61. Toffler, B. M. “Five ways to jump-start your company’s ethics”. Fast Company, 75 (8) (2003): 36. Upton, Connor, Doherty, G., Gleeson, F., & Sheridan, C. “Designing decision support in an evolving sociotechnical enterprise”. Cognition, Technology & Work, 12(1) (2008), 13-30. Watson, H. J. “Tutorial: Business Intelligence-Past, Present, and Future”. Communications of the AIS, 25(1) (2009): 487-510. Read More