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September 20, 2007
The blessed trinity of Business Intelligence
In the Netherlands there has been a lot of discussion about THE definition of Business Intelligence. Especially on the www.computable.nl/BI blog there have been many entries on this subject. Everyone has a different definition and all of them have merit. Here is the one that I often use. It is still way to long but I am pretty sure it covers the entire spectrum: Business Intelligence enables the consumer to make processes, strategy or objectives - accountable, adjustable of adaptive resulting in a more efficient commitment of the scarce company resources and a better performance. This must by done by making univocal and reliable information available in the desired form and environment and based on
internal and external data from past, present and future.
Organizations can make great use of the mandatory data they provide for compliance reasons (internally and externally). They can shift from distrust (what have you done) to trust and from looking back (lag) to looking forward (lead).
This is made possible by using Corporate Intelligence (know yourself), Customer Intelligence (know your customers) and Ecosystem Intelligence (know your stakeholders). In other words, from inside out. Having a robust master and metadata management layer in place provides the possibility to have this much coveted single version of the truth.
This can be represented in a pyramid which bears resemblance to Mazlow. On the lowest level (compliance) the focus is on the past and compliance (what has happened). On this level information within the company has been made explicit, placed in a central storage area (often a datawarehouse) and is used for reporting past performance. Best know examples are: Enterprise reporting, financial reporting and consolidation, SOX, IFRS.
On the next level (Corporate Performance Management) the link is being made between the data that originates from the compliance level and the corporate strategy. Data will be used for making the performance measurable against set goals and targets. This can be used to better steer performance. Know examples are: Dashboards, Scorecards and other KPI measurement instruments.
On the top level (Collaboration) the data will be used to support the execution of the strategy. Everything revolves around the possibility to constantly adapt to changing circumstances by seeking alliances with relevant stakeholders. Known examples are: CRM, Pricing, loyalty.
This means that on the lowest level the focus is on:
Lag (past performance)
Distrust (what have you done)
Few people (knowledge workers often finance)
Financially orientated (often mandatory)
Focus is internal only
Data is often structured
Resulting in low effectivity and effiency
And on the highest level the focus is on:
Lead (Near) Realtime (future performance)
Trust (sharing with stakeholders/partners)
Many people (information democracy)
Pervasive (integrated in the companies DNA)
Focus in on internal and external
The data can be structured and unstructured (document warehouse)
Resulting in high effectivity and effiency
Posted by Jorgen Heizenberg at September 20, 2007 9:00 AM
