Chapter 5 – Business Intelligence

 

Welcome again guys, in this chapter we'll look at business intelligence. 

Business Intelligence definition: is the way businesses gather, store, access and analyse data they collect over time. 

 

In doing these things, businesses streamline their decision-making process. This is crucial in the business world. Management's primary job is to make decisions, and they've got to make good ones to see their business succeed. A decision is typically seen as a choice between two, or maybe more, pathways. The process of making a decision involves identifying what the problem is, what the options are to addressing the problem and then choosing one of the options and how to implement the solution.

The following are incentives for businesses to implement IT to help this decision-making process:
- the amount of options open for consideration is on the continual climb
- the vast majority of decisions are pressured to be timely
- each decision now carries more complexity than ever before
- managers and other personnel within a business can be widely dispersed, making it difficult to come to a consensus regarding decisions
- the information needed to make effective decisions can also be widespread

We should also look at decisions made at the different levels within a business. Some decisions are made regarding operational control and are concerned with tasks on the job-floor; tasks needing to be done as effectively and efficiently as possible. Management control is another branch of decisions and involves getting resources and utilising them uber-efficiently to accomplish goals. And the last decisions are to do with strategic planning. These decisions set long-term goals to encourage growth.

There are three main applications used for analysing business data:
- Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) - this provides its users with a view of what has happened in the past and what is happening in the present day and into the future. OLAP is structured in such a way to allow quick-fire answers to various questions
- Data mining - this involves seeking valuable information from within a sizable database, warehouse or mart. Data mining is used mainly for forecasting trends and behaviours and identifying what were unknown patterns
- Decision Support Systems (DSS) - these combine models and data to analyse problems by getting users involved. These typically have three supported analysis methods, sensitivity, what-if and goal-seeking analysis

The last thing we'll see today is the different BI applications, specifically used to present findings:
- Dashboards - these provide fast access to information and management reports, both being time-accurate. They also boast usability and graphic support
- Data visualisation technologies - these involve presenting data in visually appealing formats. This makes IT applications a very viable and attractive option, with it also being understandable for users

 

 

Reference from:

Management Information Systems 1st Edition

Gray, H., Issa, T., Pye, G., Troshani, I., Rainer, R. K., Prince, B., & Hugh J. W. (2015). Management information systems. John Wiley.