Decision Support Systems, Part 2 - Business Performance Analysis

In part 1, we described the approach to capture- Analysis on Customer defection characteristics
detailed information on 'how successful the business- Analysis on production quality on a specific product
was' for a given time interval. The next step is to- Analysis on a product introduction
analyze the performance "why has the business been- Analysis on a marketing campaign execution result
successful" or in lower level of detail "why didn'tAnalysis may help identify deviations from expected
product A sell as expected".Factors which havemeasurement values and alert the Business. For
contributed to the given business results are analyzed.example:
Some analysis methods may be predetermined.- Reduction in the consumption of services by a
However, as analysis proceeds, a need to applyCustomer, may be an indication that this Customer is
ad-hoc analysis may arise.about to defect.
The availability of detailed performance facts, captured- Revenue reduction of a Branch unit, may lead to
in their full 'dimensionality' (e.g. time, geography, product,actionable decisions Analysis needs change
Customer or Customer group, Business unit involved),dynamically, as the internal and external business
upgrades the analytical capability and allows complexenvironment change. The captured data level of detail,
fact processing in order to analyse complicates issues.should strike a balance between allowing in depth
Analysis may involve specific issues, like:analysis and keeping overhead cost related to data
- Why is revenue on a specific product or customercapture under control. The exclusive use of predefined
group, below expectations ?reports or queries, is not the best practice. A decision
- Profitability of a specific product or service -support system can contribute to the identification of
profitability comparison of various products ortrends, can enrich the view of facts (with richer
customer groupsdimensional data) and support the development of
- Why productivity of a specific product is lower thaninnovative strategy. The capability evolution, from
plannedsimple capture of facts to the ability to analyze them in
- Analysis on the Customer profile to build customerorder to identify trends, is of particular value to the
insightBusiness.