In accordance to the source ”˜BI Best Practices’ (n.a.) business intelligence strategy is the key element of this concept; it combines most effective techniques and technologies that are appropriate for any organization.
The components of business intelligence strategy are the BI vision that aims to drive the mentioned strategy; its objectives that have to relate to the corporate strategy of organization; BI Driversthat help to adopt a BI Culture; the BI lifecycle which is the definition of the application’s progression path; and finally the document that helps to organize these components which is BI strategy document. (”˜BI Best Practices’, n.a.)
Next element is BI program that consists of business requirements, identifying opportunities, BI iterations, Enterprise-wide BI Road Map (the document explaining how to combine strategic planning and tactic); long term BI strategy (because the business intelligence is a long run project). (”˜BI Best Practices’, n.a.)
Third crucial element of business intelligence application is the program best practices. It consists of the following parts that allow increasing the success of the business intelligence by improving all of its practices: BI Best Practices; BI Roadmap; BI Maturity Model (relates to the current competency lifecycle of the organization); BI and ERP systems; BI and business; Barriers to BI that slow down its adoption; BI and Cloud Computing. (”˜BI Best Practices’, n.a.)
And finally, fourth element of business intelligence application is the strategic performance which consist of BI Performance Scorecard that allows to measure strategy’s success and BI Excellence Survey Results that serve for benchmarking the progress of the organization.
- Business Intelligence Tools
It is known that the traditional approach of gathering the information could be defined as ”˜focused on technologies ‘. But according to the source ”˜BI Best Practices’ (n.a.), ”˜business intelligence requires a more ‘information’ based approach’. In the case of an information based approach the focus shifts from the actually tools (technologies) to the business decisions regarding operations and business performance that are being made by the management of the organization. Therefore, it has to be noted that business intelligence tools play important role in delivering better performance. Actually, these tools help to deliver the important information to decision-makers. And as a result, it influences the business performance by improving the decision making process, because it provides analytic capability and visual representation of data that are extremely important for certain organization.
- The case study by Microsoft Inc.: Successful implementation of the business intelligence applications at Exclusive Resorts, LLC.
The analysis of the case studies allows obtaining the practical knowledge and skills about the effective usage of the business intelligence systems. Microsoft Inc (2011) suggests the case of Luxury destination club Exclusive Resorts, LLC that was in search of ”˜the additional system flexibility to support the company’s complex business model’. Additionally, this organization aimed to ”˜reduce operational cost and enhance the quality of service.’ (Microsoft Inc 2011)
Microsoft Services were engaged in the project of implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX. Its capabilities include the following elements: accounts payable; accounts receivable; banking; fixed assets; general ledger; purchasing; and intercompany. The case study is provided by the company who implemented the business intelligence application (it’s not an independent analytical source of information) but, nevertheless, the client is clearly satisfied with new opportunities and improved decision-making process because it claims that ”˜member services are more responsive, efficient, and competitive, and company leadership can confidently direct the company’s growth.’ (Microsoft Inc 2011)
The case study by Microsoft Inc. (2011) also confirms that the company has managed to achieve the transition to ”˜dependable, scalable business technology that assists the company in meeting its objectives for customer service and organizational productivity’ which become possible through the effective adoption of the business intelligence application Microsoft Dynamics AX recommended by its developer Microsoft Services
Conclusion
This paper focuses on the research of business intelligence. A conclusion could be made that the business intelligence applications play vital role for business because of the current increased complexity of the management’s decision-making. The analysis of the common business intelligence application allows making a conclusion that that such applications are thoroughly designed and able to facilitate the decision making process, therefore they clearly should be adopted by the organization that have to operate in the unstable environment.
In addition, the following recommendations for the management of the organization that aims to adopt BI could be suggested:
- Management needs to pay extra attention to the issue of compliance of the business intelligence strategies and organizational culture;
- Management has to find the best was to blend existing (traditional) intelligence approaches and new business intelligence methods to get the most effective strategy that would lead to the improved decision making.