BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (BI)

Business Intelligence (BI) represents the tools and systems that play a key role in the strategic planning process of the corporation. These systems allow a company to gather, store, access and analyze corporate data to aid in decision-making.

Generally these systems will illustrate business intelligence in the areas of:

Customer profiling
Customer support
Market research
Market segmentation
Product profitability
Statistical analysis
Inventory and distribution analysis

Most companies collect a large amount of data from their business operations. In most cases, a company will either hire an outside agency or create their own dedicated BI group. This group will then gather information from inside the company about how well the company has been performing and where improvements may be made. The group then looks to outside sources, which may include public records of other businesses in the same sector, market analysis by third-parties, and customer survey information. The group may then dig further into specific competitors; both by examining their public information and business model, and in some cases by using an industrial spy to covertly gather information.

Although traditional business intelligence systems were delivered via host terminals or paper reports, the typical modern deployment of a BI application is over the web, via Internet or intranet connections. It is also possible to develop interactive BI applications optimized for mobile devices, smart phones, and e-mail.

Well-designed BI applications can give anyone in a company the ability to make better decisions by quickly understanding the various “information assets” (customer databases, supply chain information, personnel data, manufacturing, sales and marketing activity, etc) in the organization and how this information interact with each other, and once a BI system is in a place, a company can expect to find improved turnaround times on data collection, ideas for new business initiatives, more targeted marketing campaigns, a much more precise picture of customer needs and desires, and a strong understanding of how best to compete with top competitors.

As a conclusion, BI is more exciting if you have to humanize data using the right technology and digital tools, as Albert Einstein was once quoted, “Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. Humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant. Together, they are powerful beyond imagination”, with the right BI you can empower your business whether it a small, medium or large-sized organization. There are still many people in the Malaysia who were completely unaware about the importance of business intelligence in making the right decision because the cost of wrong decision is becoming more expensive nowadays…….