Business intelligence in SharePoint - Business Intelligence in Microsoft SharePoint 2013 - page 5

The result of focusing on the wrong things
This is illustrated in the experience of a tragic airplane accident 2 that occurred more than 36
years ago. In the middle of the night, a Lockheed 1011 jumbo jet fatally crashed into the Florida
Everglades. All vital parts and systems of the airplane were working perfectly, and the plane
was only 20 miles away from its landing site.
During the approach, a green light failed to illuminate, and the pilots discontinued the ap-
proach. The aircraft was set to a circular holding pattern over the pitch-black Everglades while
the crew focused on investigating the failed light. The pilots became so preoccupied with the
light that they failed to notice the plane was gradually descending toward the dark swamp. By
the time someone noticed what was happening, it was too late to avoid the disaster.
The malfunctioning light bulb didn't cause the accident; it happened because the crew
placed its focus on something that seemed to matter at the moment, causing them to lose
sight of what truly mattered most.
The tendency to focus on the insignificant at the expense of the profound can happen not
only to pilots but to companies, departments, teams, and individuals. Sometimes the things
that distract are not necessarily bad; in fact, they often seem right.
As you will see, BI helps bring to life the mantra, “what is measured gets managed.” We
believe it is worth the time and efforts to ensure that you are measuring the right things. When
you know what to measure, you can stay on course and not be distracted by the insignificant.
What is BI? 2
Simply put, BI comprises the tools that help companies to execute performance management. Perfor-
mance management can be defined as a series of organizational processes and applications designed
to optimize the execution of business strategy.
In this topic, we extend this deinition of BI to include tools that help individuals, teams, and
organizations simplify information discovery and analysis, making it possible for decision-makers at
all levels of an organization to more easily access, understand, analyze, collaborate, and act upon
information—anytime and anywhere.
In this way, to improve organizational effectiveness, Microsoft BI tools make it possible for
you to create and manage information through an integrated system that includes core business
productivity features, such as collaboration tools, search capabilities, and content management.
This topic provides high-level information about the available tools so that you can determine
which tools can best help you reach your destination as an individual, team, or organization.
2 The Crash of Flight 401 (source: http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19721229-0&lang=en ).