| Is business intelligence the answer to surviving the | | | | supplement and augment management skills of your |
| recent economic storm and a quick recovery? While | | | | company. Due to distinctly different needs of every |
| Wikipedia defines Business Intelligence as the "skills, | | | | organization, business intelligence is never a |
| processes, technologies, applications and practices | | | | plug-and-play solution. Of course, the beauty is the |
| used to support decision making," the key value for | | | | highly customizable, constantly evolving nature. |
| decision makers is the analytics. And in tough business | | | | The first step in implementing a successful BI solution is |
| climate, these stats are seem to be as valuable as | | | | identifying the problem you need to solve. While it |
| gold. | | | | sounds straight-forward, with so many offerings on the |
| It seems to make sense - in this case, the stats | | | | market its easy for an ambitious CIO to overwhelm a |
| support the stats. A new report from IBM, "Breaking | | | | company in ineffective data. |
| Away with Business Analytics and Optimization, found | | | | A few sample implementation examples include:o |
| that top enterprises are 15 times more likely to apply | | | | Determining when to run a marketing or promotion and |
| analytics to strategic decisions than their less | | | | who to target;o Identifying where to distribute key |
| successful competitors. And industry leading | | | | products and at which price point;o Or optimizing |
| companies are clamoring to hire analysts who can | | | | operational budget through identifying discrepancies |
| decipher the mass amounts of raw data being | | | | and reallocating resources. |
| collected and turn it int actionable information. | | | | After determining the key needs, the next step is |
| But, is the quest to capitalize on business intelligence | | | | finding a provider to partner with. While this is often |
| overshadowing the importance of good old-fashioned | | | | limited by any legacy systems, some of the key |
| management skills. And the science of intuition? Many | | | | business intelligence technology providers include: IBM; |
| industry experts are saying that too much emphasis is | | | | SAP; Oracle; Johnston McLamb & Kronos. After |
| being placed on new technology instead of solid | | | | signing on with the provider that can best meet your |
| decision making and best practices. | | | | needs, there are a variety of different solutions they |
| But, while the technology may be new, relying on data | | | | can implement to maximize your business success. |
| to analyze the past, make quick decisions in the | | | | With a clear goal in sight, the right partner and |
| present and forecast the future is as old as business | | | | technology on your side and, most importantly, a skilled |
| itself. The difference is now, the problems are much | | | | management team, your organization is poised to take |
| more complex. The key is using business intelligence to | | | | advantage of all BI has to offer. |