Database Reference
In-Depth Information
The business value of Business
Intelligence
"Making better decisions faster" is a common phrase used to describe the purpose of
BI, but understanding how this purpose translates into value for the business is the
key in understanding why and how BI should be implemented.
Making better decisions is valuable for the strategic management of an organization;
making those decisions faster is possibly better, but strategic decisions tend to have
longer time frames. So, faster is often not always better or even necessary. Making
better operational decisions faster, given the much higher frequency and shorter de-
cision time frame, is of great value to the business. For this discussion we'll focus on
this less often considered operational value of BI.
Operational decisions are made every day by people at all levels in the organization.
The nature of these decisions vary greatly, including things such as troubleshooting
and resolving a specific question, finding a more efficient process for performing a
task, or determining an appropriate staffing level for the coming week.
Regardless of the specifics, operational decisions are generally concerned with im-
proving efficiency, increasing productivity, improving quality of the product, or lowering
cost. BI can provide the information necessary to identify opportunities for improve-
ment in these areas as well as to make informed decisions on how to implement these
improvements. But, the greatest value is realized only when that information is of high
quality and is available when needed. Poor quality or late information makes for poor
quality or late decisions.
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