Organizational Dynamics of Implementing Business Intelligence - Essay Example

Organizational Dynamics of Implementing Business Intelligence Initiatives Business intelligence is the ability of a business to be able to extract actionable insight from business as well as market data, which is used to make better decisions in business; and to improve the corporate performance of the business. Business intelligence must exist for businesses in the world today to survive (Electrosmard Ltd). Almost every business today worth its salt is looking for the appropriate business intelligence technology in order to survive in today’s fiercely competitive world. Business intelligence also helps companies and businesses to survive during hard economic times. During such periods, it is not a surprise to find companies still spending on the processes of business intelligence because without such solutions, there is no business at all. In any case, there is a business; it is most likely on the decline in terms of productivity and revenues. Business intelligence is not a onetime thing; it is an ongoing process. Business intelligence goes on as long as the business is still running; the business intelligence continues to exist too. Business intelligence involves techniques based on computers that are used in the identification, extraction, as well as the analysis of business data (Electrosmart Ltd). The business data in this case could be revenue from sales made from given products, could also be sales that a given department has made, or the revenues that have been received from certain costs and incomes. A successful business intelligence process or unit has to have some qualities such as providing old, current, and views about future operations of the system. There are various functions associated with successful business intelligence process. Among them is reporting, the other one could be predictive analytics, the other could be data mining, and maybe complex event processing. The business intelligence technology implemented in an organization can only be beneficial if everyone knows the goals and aims of the business. With that in mind, it is easy to identify the business intelligence strategy to take with the technology to be put in place to help run the business. Business intelligence technologies are like decision support systems to organizations. In this respect, they are used to process certain information for the company, and the managers use the results they give and the management board to make critical decisions that affect the organizations current and future dealings (Microsoft Case Studies). Given that a business intelligence program is not a onetime thing, it is a principle that has to be instilled into the business; it is a lifetime process. In this regard, the technologies are implemented in a program that takes some time. The program for successful and effective business intelligence has to include: 1. The development of a business intelligence strategy 2. Assessment of the readiness of the business to the application of the strategic, readiness and maturity for the technology to be put in place. 3. Definition of the business intelligence policy 4. Governance of the business intelligence once put in place 5. Identification of the business intelligence opportunities; This further includes defining the requirements of the business; development of the blueprint of the business intelligence; selection of a vendor and evaluation of the business intelligence alternatives. 6. A portfolio of the business intelligence also has to be defined. This is the roadmap that has to be followed when deploying the business intelligence in a manner that is effectively incremental, as well as sustainable at the same time. There are various business dynamics driving businesses to look for new ways of sustaining their business activities. These are the reasons why business intelligence has been at the forefront of the needs of these businesses. Companies believe that in order to make it big in the business world today, there needs to be more that human resources at the disposal of the managers and the owners of the business for performance and production. Among the dynamics affecting businesses and influencing decisions into the development of the business intelligence programs are: 1. The rapid change with which the business environments are changing; everything in the business world is changing; User demands are changing, government policies are changing, markets are becoming more competitive, marketing and advertisements are taking a totally different way altogether and so on. Many companies and enterprises are realizing this fact and need to adapt is ever more obvious to most of these enterprises. 2. In corporate, governance is the next most important dynamics that come into play as far as business intelligence is concerned. There have been very many corporate scandals over the past decade. Therefore, a need for change is not just a necessity but also a must. There have been frauds as well in very many corporate organizations. Following these events, governments the world over, are demanding for new better ways in corporate organizations and companies. This is the only way companies can pick up from business threatening situations and go back to profit making ways with no problem. For this to happen, business intelligence has to be at the heart of plans for the revival of good business. 3. The demands of the stakeholders also affect the implementation of business intelligence programs. Among the demands of the stakeholders are that managers must deliver execution that can be predicted. Efficiency in operations must be seen, and accountability must also be seen in the corporate ways. All this add up to the need for business intelligence in performance management. 4. ERPs need to be expanded to do more than just managing transactions. This is because most of these ERPs do not give feedback on corporate and operational performance. 5. Over the past few years, data availability in enterprises has made it possible to implement business intelligence programs because the data is the heartbeat of the programs. This has consequently made performance management very much possible than it was before the explosion of information in corporate businesses. Apart from these drivers to the business intelligence, corporates have to do more to ensure success of the businesses. For instance, the business has to be driven in a forward-looking view. In addition to this, the management has to ensure that the business takes a view in alignment to the strategy of the company. Effective ways of making decisions has to be implemented at every level of the business or the company, or enterprise (Electrosmard Ltd). Instances of effective as well as ineffective management of business intelligence Business intelligence is seen in different aspects of a business. To begin with, for effective business intelligence management, it is wise to plan well ahead of demand; to plan to stay ahead of the demands of users. This will make the business intelligence tools to come in handy because information is available in time. If this happens, the business intelligence will be real time. Secondly, it is important to have an idea and know when and where real time data and information is required. This is a very critical angle of planning for business intelligence solutions. The other ways for ensuring effective management for business intelligence is educating the business, aligning decision-making and other business processes (Electrosmart Ltd.). Tactical and strategic decision support. It is also important to get the right people for the right jobs. Most companies make the mistake of deploying the skilled people to do the jobs and tasks out of their job description much to the detriment of the business. The organizational hindrances to the effective management of business intelligence include; 1. Power structure dynamics; this refers to the power struggles found in different levels of an organization or a business enterprise. Each person employed by a company always wants to be on the best available project and be better than other employees. This results into conflicts, which affects the positions available regarding business intelligence. 2. Recruiting and retention; employees may be frustrated by their immediate supervisors or bosses. They may have been the right people for the business intelligence solutions. Therefore, their loss could be detrimental since it takes a lot of consideration o find the right person to take over the duties of the departed employee. 3. Many companies do not always do skills and expertise of the individuals tasked with handling the BI solutions in the right way; This has affected the way these solutions benefit the companies and how they improve performance of the other employees and managers. 4. Formal training – is not always done in the right way. Conclusion Overall, business intelligence is necessary in today’s business world. Without it, it becomes difficult to survive, especially with the heavy competition in play in most industries. Works Cited Electrosmard Ltd. "BI Best Practices." 2011. The Business Intelligence Guide. 3 March 2012 . Electrosmart Ltd. "Drivers of Business Intelligence [BI]." 2011. The Business Intelligence Guide. 3 March 2012 . Electrosmart Ltd. "The Business Intelligence Guide." 27 February 2011. The Business Intelligence Guide. 3 March 2012 . Konitzer, Kate. "CASE STUDY - Using Analytics to Improve Patient Outcomes and Billing Accuracy at Marshfield Clinic." 11 July 2011. MicroStrategy Cloud. 3 March 2012 . Microsoft Case Studies. "Destination Club Generates Rapid ROI, Enhances Services, Takes Control of Business." 5 April 2011. Microsoft. 3 March 2012 . Read More