One of the by-products of Internet business is information - huge
amounts of it. Mike Thompson from the Butler Group has some tips on
how to make your data deliver results
The role of Business Intelligence (BI) has to be clearly defined
within an organisation. The competitive use of information is
widely held to be a key differentiator in today's new markets. The
greatest demand that any BI strategy will have on an organisation
is the buy-in it requires at all levels of the workplace.
It has to be recognised that the BI which we are talking about
here is not the simple presentation of reports, but the building of
a deep-seated intelligence culture.
We can define the issues and problems in the following
terms:
- How to get the right information to the relevant person(s) in
the shortest possible time.
- Ensure that personnel do not sink under the weight of
information overload.
- Querying open sources for information.
By taking the issues and problems separately, we can start to
understand how an implementation should work. We will also see that
issues do not exist in isolation, they form interconnected parts of
an integrated whole - a true BI implementation.
It has to be recognised that any information is only as good as
the person who receives it. Information alone can be seen to be
useless. It is the use of information that turns it into
intelligence that can be used to advance the business case.
Defining informational end points is not a simple matter. While
it is easy enough to see that the results of a marketing campaign
should be presented to the marketing department - giving them the
ability to respond to any anomalies, there has to a deeper level of
understanding of the total business process, in order that this
information can be routed to other, less obvious recipients.
Take, for example, a manufacturing and selling organisation. The
product is manufactured on site, and is sold through a direct
marketing/sales channel. Given that inventory control systems are
so important to the financial well-being of a business, it should
be clear that personnel tasked with inventory management are also
aware of the effect of new marketing campaigns.
Information that shows a marketing campaign is being successful
is not there just to make the department who are running the
campaign feel better. It is there to allow the inventory management
team to be aware of future production requirements. Information has
to be part of an internal workflow, with clearly defined
distribution points that take in the whole of the business
processes. It should almost go without saying that
this informational flow is worse than useless if the information
is not delivered in a timely manner. Reaction is the key to a
successful e-business, and intelligence based on information is
only usable if it can be implemented with as little latency as
possible.
How it works
There are some parameters to work within when implementing a
business intelligence strategy:
- Any organisational security policy must be adhered to
- Protection of the nature and confidentiality of the information
requirement
- Provide filters to information that does not directly relate to
the request
- Ensure that these filters do not create too tight a boundary to
any request, to obviate the possibility of relevant information
being missed
- Create a solution that empowers the user
Heavy Weight: Is your company suffering from Information
Overload?
Having defined the necessity for ensuring that all relevant
personnel have the information they require, the easy answer is to
define too many end points. This is the dreaded 'information
overload', which has so many negative effects that it has to be
given a high priority of concern when defining the end points.
Information should be used to empower the workforce, not create
stressful situations. Overloading recipients has precisely the
latter effect by:
- Seemingly increasing the perceived workload.
- Making the workforce feel inadequate by presenting information
that they do not understand (even though they would not be expected
to).
- Creating confusion by blurring the edges of role
responsibility.
As an example of this, and by way of a small test, it is worth
considering your attitude to information distribution. When
information is passed through your organisation is it done in a
manner that clearly defines whether it is for informational
purposes only, or whether it is to be acted upon? The former is
designed to help people increase the own personal knowledge base,
the latter is to enhance their business process.
The bad news is that you have failed the information overload
test, if you have ever sent an email to more than one person
requesting action.
Open information: Querying the use of multiple
Sources
Until now, we have concentrated on the presentation of
information to relevant personnel. We also have to allow for
employees looking for information. Good BI comes from having and
employing a variety of sources, both internal and external.
Defining external sources and managing them is an important issue
that needs to be addressed in the following terms:
- Source relevant informational sites.
- Implement policy on access and usage.
- Tie information from these sites into internal sources to
create a larger information source.
- Define those sites that are not to be used.
- Manage external-source access in terms of roles and
responsibilities.
- Create a structure for ensuring source relevance is
monitored.
The plethora of information sources available demands a
structured approach to access. Without correct management the BI
strategy can become bogged down in conflicting messages. It is an
extension of personal usage of the Internet for information. Most
of us have favourite sites, but we tend to accept that sites which
have provided useful information in the past will continue to do
so. But as the business model grows and evolves, so the need for
different intelligence sources changes.
Any failure to recognise this change will leave an organisation
isolated in terms of its BI strategy, which ultimately will lead to
the whole business strategy being put under threat by this single
element.
Master plan: the importance of Implementation
Earlier, we detailed some key points on implementation. Th
over-riding factor is to retain sight of why we need a BI solution
in the first place, and what use we are to make of it. BI will
underpin the whole overall strategy of e-business organisations. It
will affect the business down throught the layers from concept to
implementation - from master plan to individual process.
BI will also spread across the whole of the organisation. Every
employee will be touched by it in some way, and if it is correctly
implemented, it will allow them to perform to a higher level with a
lessening of pressure and workload.
Finally, BI will be reflected in the positioning outside of the
organisation. Utilising BI internally will create a reflection in
the organinsation. Utilising BI internally will create a reflection
in the market place of an 'intelligent' organisation. This is the
differentiator that was mentioned earlier.
BI becomes a key driver for both better employee and customer
relationships, as long as the implementation follows sensible
guidelines, and the system is managed with exactly the same care
that would be devoted to other more accepted resources.