Description
Business Intelligence A Framework For Corporate Knowledge
Business Intelligence and
Knowledge Management are twin
concepts gaining recognition.
However, as most concepts
endure varying definitions, these
are the most misunderstood and
misapplied bytheir practioners.
This is an age of “information
explosion” and organizations
need to process information, and
with access to a myriad of data,
their management becomes
critical for effective decision
making. Thus, monitoring
information and its management
forms a critical base in
understanding, the need for
organizations managing and
sharing 'intelligent' information to
foster 'knowledge' across all
levels.
Business Intelligence, therefore,
defines itself as a critical activityof
monitoring the environment, both
internal and external to the firm,
sifting information that is relevant
to the decision-making process of
a company. Access, Analysis and
Sharing information across the
organization is possible todaywith
technologyaided tools and
analytical applications. Advanced
computer technologywith the
internet permits organizations to
provide a “network “ for their
employees to deliver and service
ideas for the betterment of their
business relationships with
customers, partners, and suppliers
with limited restrictions on the
number of users. Relevant
information for a business is
“intelligence” and it becomes
“knowledge”, when effectively
managed. Knowledge
Management, therefore, focuses
on managing the diverse sources
of unstructured information that
provide this information to
decision-makers. Traditional
intelligence gathering applications
were largely structured,
numerical data stored in
relational databases or
specialized data mining software.
Two major reasons pronounce
the increased interest in Business
Intelligence: the information age
and the economy. In the
information age, information is
power. Companies that leverage,
exploit and maximize their
information assets have a
strategic advantage over their
competitors. Business pace is
therefore determined bythe speed
of information. Getting the right
information into the right hands at
the right time is essential.
In an effort to weather the
economic storm, companies have
focused strategies at reducing
costs and increasing revenue.
With Business Intelligence
systems, a companycan piece
together all cost information from
all internal divisions, identifythe
costs and provide a framework
for making cost reduction
decisions. In order to increase
revenue, firms focus on retaining
customers as well as acquiring
newones. Retaining customers is
always most attractive, but
understanding the profitabilityof
the customer base is the first step.
Firms first need to segment the
customer base on profitabilityand
retain the most profitable.
Business Intelligence aids this
segmentation.
This understanding and analysis
allowfirms to identifyprospective
companies encounter in the form
of documents, web content, e-
mails, presentations, including
the tacit knowledge people have
that can be shared through
digitallyenabled collaboration.
A product manager responsible
for deciding newproduct strategy
needs information inputs to aid
his decision-making. He would be
required to conduct in-depth,
competitive and market analysis,
processing information on
competitors' products, partner
activities, governmental policies,
and emerging scientific and
technical advances.
A vice president of customer
services responsible for
maintaining high levels of
customer satisfaction needs
information to quickly identify
emerging trends and patterns to
address themimmediately,
analyse his call centre volume,
and identifycausal agents
responsible for newproblems.
These two examples highlight the
need for competitive and business
intelligence applications that can
query, analyse and mine large
amounts of unstructured data,
discover analytical insights into
relevant trends, patterns and
relationships, and seamlessly
Sonali Hingorani
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
A FRAMEWORK FOR CORPORATE KNOWLEDGE
Business Environment
33
etting the right G
information into
the right hands
at the right time
is essential
TA S MA C MA NA GE ME NT R E VI E W
customers that are similar to their
current most profitable customers
and target them. A Business
Intelligence environment is the
enabler for these types of
activities. Customer information
gets consolidated throughout the
enterprise. Sales information,
contact history, customer service
information, channel preference,
revenue history, product
preference and demographic data
are all brought together.
l A logistics companyused to
have drivers manuallyfill out
reports on where theydrove and
with what type and load of cargo
theytransported. This information
was never available in real-time
and trucks would return empty
after dropping off a shipment,
because there was no systemto
identifyadditional delivery
opportunities. Deploying business
intelligence has quicklygiven the
companya means of tracking and
reporting on virtuallyeverything,
even down to howmanymiles per
gallon the trucks get, when
truckers drive at certain speed.
information is volatile, perishable,
scarce and costly, and most
professionals, who develop client
relationships spend 16%of their
workweek obtaining, reviewing
and evaluating information.
Besides the enormous cost of ad
hoc research conducted by
“information amateurs,” having
the best-possible business
intelligence available would be
crucial to a company's competitive
advantage. Educating sales teams
on newindustries, keeping
relationship managers up-to-date
on significant customer events,
analysing the financial health of
prospects and suppliers, mapping
corporate parents and
subsidiaries, following changes in
executive staffs all these combine
to sustain a good “customer-front
for an organisation. Why, then, do
corporations determined to arm
their professionals with
outstanding business intelligence,
often fail in their mission?
Their failure is not due to a lack of
database skills or people or
money. Instead, failure is largely
due to :
l Insufficient in-house content
expertise
l Inadequate business
information taxonomy
l Improve analytical tools
Improving Business Intelligence
Howcan businesses create
intelligence fromtheir data and
provide timely, accurate access to
their end users ? For this, let's look
at the business intelligence
process (Figure 1). This process is
dynamic and iterative. The
process begins with questions, the
answers to which invariablyresult
in more questions and subsequent
iterations of the process. So, the
What is more important is that,
trucks rarelygo emptyand that
means huge cost savings for the
company.
l A distribution companyused to
think customer satisfaction was
simplybeing nice to its customers
and having the sales
representatives take themout to a
fancylunch once in a while. After
deploying business intelligence,
this companynot onlytakes them
to lunch, but also shows thema
real-time report of the customer's
last two years worth of purchases
and plans with thembypooling
their purchases, to buyin larger
quantities and receive higher
levels of discounts.
The “Intelligence” Challenges
Companies knowthat accurate
information is their most
important asset capable of
shedding vital insight on current
and prospective customers,
competitors, partners and
suppliers. However, such
Business Environment
34
end of one cycle is the beginning
of the next, seeking further
clarification or leading to new
questions altogether.
Directing & Planning :
The Directing & Planning phase is
both the start and the end of the
process. It is the beginning
because it involves drawing up
specific requirements and the end
because answered questions lead
to more questions. The business
intelligence process begins, when
consumers (executives, line of
business leaders, etc.) generate
the questions that will help them
achieve their objectives. Who are
the most profitable customers?
What is the gross margin for each
product line ? Howmuch revenue
has been generated over the past
month ? These needs are
expressed as needs levied on
various analytic groups. The
analytic group uses the
consumers' needs to develop
specific requirements and in
giving planning and direction to
guide information gathering and
formulation of answers.
Information Gathering :
There are manysources of
information within companies
today. The automation of
business processes has created a
wealth of sources: Point of Sale,
Enterprise Resource Planning ,
Customer Service applications,
etc. Different systems create,
process and store different pieces
of information everydayand this
process is continuous. It is
important to understand that data
fromthese sources account as
information, and not intelligence.
Rawdata is often incomplete or
possiblymisleading. Information
becomes intelligence through
processing and analysis. The
Information Gathering process is
where the different sources are
examined to determine the
necessarydata sources to obtain
mining tools and techniques to
sort through the data and create
the intelligence. The end result of
this phase is the production of
“intelligent” answers, in the
proper context, with supporting
commentary. In some cases, this is
as simple as creating a report. In
other cases, it is a detailed
assessment of predictive indicators
for cross-sell campaigns.
Additional requirements mayalso
be generated during this phase as
analysts identifyother pertinent
questions to be answered.
Dissemination :
The dissemination phase is the
deliveryof intelligence products to
the consumers who request them.
This typicallyinvolves the use of a
Business Intelligence tool to
data to answer the questions.
Data Processing :
The Data Processing phase is the
integration of the rawdata into a
useable format for analysis. This
can be the creation of a new
database, addition of data into an
existing database or the
consolidation in some other type
of analysis system(i.e., utilizing
an analytic tool to extract and
manipulate data). This phase can
generallybe thought of as the
Extract, Transformand Load (ETL)
processing that occurs within
Business Intelligence
environments.
Analysis & Production :
The analytic group leverages data
Figure 2 - Business Intelligence process within an organisation
Business Environment
35
Consumers
Data Processing
Data Integration -
Making the data usable
Information
Gathering
Data Sources
Analysis &
Production
Report Creation
Directing &
Planning
Analytic Groups
Executives, LOB,
Division Heads
Dashboards,
Reports & Charts
with Web access
Requirements
Dissemination
Consumers
Customer Service
Sales & Marketing
Line of Business
Executives
Finance
Dissemination Questions
Directing &
Planning
Analytic Groups
Analysis &
Production
Data Mining
Ad Hoc
Analysis
Standard
Reporting
Information
Gathering
Data Processing
Data
Mart (s)
Data
Warehouse
Extract,
Transform,
Load
Household,
Enhance
Finance Legacy
OLTP Customer
Databases
Back-Office Applications
External Applications
Suppliers
Partners
Overlays
Figure 1 - Business Intelligence Process
TA S MA C MA NA GE ME NT R E VI E W
publish an executive dashboard,
standard reports or the abilityto
activelyreviewthe data. This is
used for intelligence that is self-
explanatory. Other products are
delivered in presentation form,
allowing the consumer to directly
interact with analysts in a more
collaborative fashion.
Figure 2 shows, at a conceptual
level, howthe Business
Intelligence process fits within an
organisation. Each phase of the
process, highlights the
components of each as it relates
to a business. Say the head of
mortgage for a financial services
firmasks the question, “How
manymortgages were sold to
existing customers?” The analytic
teamfor the mortgage group
directed to answer this question
starts the Business Intelligence
process. The teambegins by
understanding what information
theyneed to answer the question.
The data theyneed is being
captured throughout the
company; theyjust need to
determine where it is and howto
get it. At this point, Information
Technologymaybe involved to
help identifythe appropriate data
sources.
Once the data sources are
identified, the teamworks to
extract and integrate the
information. In some cases, the
data required is housed within a
single database and no data
integration is needed. The next
step is the analysis and
production. Utilizing the data, the
analytic teamwill look at the
mortgages sold and identifythose
who were sold to existing
customers those individuals, who
currentlyown one or more
products.
The answer is then provided back
to the consumer (head of
mortgage) who, in reviewing the
answer, nowmayask, “Howdo
we sell more mortgages to
insights into their environment
and enabling themto act with
focus and speed.
References:
Venkata R.
Leveraging Unstructured
Information to Enhance Business
Intelligence
Best Practices in Business &
Competitive Intelligence
Volume II
A Special Supplement to KMWorld
/ J anuary2003
Volume 12, Issue 1
Fahey L.
Competitors : Outwitting,
Outmaneuvering, and
Outperforming,
WileyPublications
Leonard M. Fuld
The NewCompetitor Intelligence:
The Complete Resource for
Finding, Analyzing, and Using
Information about Your
Competitors,
WileyPublications
Vitt E., Luckevich M.
Business Intelligence Misner,
Microsoft Press
Robert Marcus, Beverley Watters
Collective Knowledge,
Microsoft Press
Porter M.
Competitive Strategy: Techniques
For Analyzing Industries And
Competitors,
Free Press
existing customers?” And the next
iteration of the process is born.
The analytic teamthen moves
back to understanding the
attributes of mortgages holders
who have other products and can
identifyprospects for cross-selling
the mortgage product.
In Conclusion:
Business intelligence applications
that can integrate knowledge
extracted fromunstructured
information, which constitutes
85%of corporate data, enable
companies to act faster and
smarter. Taxonomyand
categorisation platforms that can
organize, classifyand leverage
high volumes of unstructured
information extend the reach of
business intelligence applications,
enabling themto query, analyse
and mine this previously
inaccessible information.
Integrating these newcapabilities
directlyinto business decision
processes will directlybenefit
companies, providing themcritical
Business Environment
Business
intelligence
applications that
can integrate
knowledge
extracted from
unstructured
information,
which constitutes
85% of corporate
data, enable
companies to act
faster and
smarter.
36
Sonali Hingorani
Programme Director, TASMAC
lll
doc_144024931.pdf
Business Intelligence A Framework For Corporate Knowledge
Business Intelligence and
Knowledge Management are twin
concepts gaining recognition.
However, as most concepts
endure varying definitions, these
are the most misunderstood and
misapplied bytheir practioners.
This is an age of “information
explosion” and organizations
need to process information, and
with access to a myriad of data,
their management becomes
critical for effective decision
making. Thus, monitoring
information and its management
forms a critical base in
understanding, the need for
organizations managing and
sharing 'intelligent' information to
foster 'knowledge' across all
levels.
Business Intelligence, therefore,
defines itself as a critical activityof
monitoring the environment, both
internal and external to the firm,
sifting information that is relevant
to the decision-making process of
a company. Access, Analysis and
Sharing information across the
organization is possible todaywith
technologyaided tools and
analytical applications. Advanced
computer technologywith the
internet permits organizations to
provide a “network “ for their
employees to deliver and service
ideas for the betterment of their
business relationships with
customers, partners, and suppliers
with limited restrictions on the
number of users. Relevant
information for a business is
“intelligence” and it becomes
“knowledge”, when effectively
managed. Knowledge
Management, therefore, focuses
on managing the diverse sources
of unstructured information that
provide this information to
decision-makers. Traditional
intelligence gathering applications
were largely structured,
numerical data stored in
relational databases or
specialized data mining software.
Two major reasons pronounce
the increased interest in Business
Intelligence: the information age
and the economy. In the
information age, information is
power. Companies that leverage,
exploit and maximize their
information assets have a
strategic advantage over their
competitors. Business pace is
therefore determined bythe speed
of information. Getting the right
information into the right hands at
the right time is essential.
In an effort to weather the
economic storm, companies have
focused strategies at reducing
costs and increasing revenue.
With Business Intelligence
systems, a companycan piece
together all cost information from
all internal divisions, identifythe
costs and provide a framework
for making cost reduction
decisions. In order to increase
revenue, firms focus on retaining
customers as well as acquiring
newones. Retaining customers is
always most attractive, but
understanding the profitabilityof
the customer base is the first step.
Firms first need to segment the
customer base on profitabilityand
retain the most profitable.
Business Intelligence aids this
segmentation.
This understanding and analysis
allowfirms to identifyprospective
companies encounter in the form
of documents, web content, e-
mails, presentations, including
the tacit knowledge people have
that can be shared through
digitallyenabled collaboration.
A product manager responsible
for deciding newproduct strategy
needs information inputs to aid
his decision-making. He would be
required to conduct in-depth,
competitive and market analysis,
processing information on
competitors' products, partner
activities, governmental policies,
and emerging scientific and
technical advances.
A vice president of customer
services responsible for
maintaining high levels of
customer satisfaction needs
information to quickly identify
emerging trends and patterns to
address themimmediately,
analyse his call centre volume,
and identifycausal agents
responsible for newproblems.
These two examples highlight the
need for competitive and business
intelligence applications that can
query, analyse and mine large
amounts of unstructured data,
discover analytical insights into
relevant trends, patterns and
relationships, and seamlessly
Sonali Hingorani
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
A FRAMEWORK FOR CORPORATE KNOWLEDGE
Business Environment
33
etting the right G
information into
the right hands
at the right time
is essential
TA S MA C MA NA GE ME NT R E VI E W
customers that are similar to their
current most profitable customers
and target them. A Business
Intelligence environment is the
enabler for these types of
activities. Customer information
gets consolidated throughout the
enterprise. Sales information,
contact history, customer service
information, channel preference,
revenue history, product
preference and demographic data
are all brought together.
l A logistics companyused to
have drivers manuallyfill out
reports on where theydrove and
with what type and load of cargo
theytransported. This information
was never available in real-time
and trucks would return empty
after dropping off a shipment,
because there was no systemto
identifyadditional delivery
opportunities. Deploying business
intelligence has quicklygiven the
companya means of tracking and
reporting on virtuallyeverything,
even down to howmanymiles per
gallon the trucks get, when
truckers drive at certain speed.
information is volatile, perishable,
scarce and costly, and most
professionals, who develop client
relationships spend 16%of their
workweek obtaining, reviewing
and evaluating information.
Besides the enormous cost of ad
hoc research conducted by
“information amateurs,” having
the best-possible business
intelligence available would be
crucial to a company's competitive
advantage. Educating sales teams
on newindustries, keeping
relationship managers up-to-date
on significant customer events,
analysing the financial health of
prospects and suppliers, mapping
corporate parents and
subsidiaries, following changes in
executive staffs all these combine
to sustain a good “customer-front
for an organisation. Why, then, do
corporations determined to arm
their professionals with
outstanding business intelligence,
often fail in their mission?
Their failure is not due to a lack of
database skills or people or
money. Instead, failure is largely
due to :
l Insufficient in-house content
expertise
l Inadequate business
information taxonomy
l Improve analytical tools
Improving Business Intelligence
Howcan businesses create
intelligence fromtheir data and
provide timely, accurate access to
their end users ? For this, let's look
at the business intelligence
process (Figure 1). This process is
dynamic and iterative. The
process begins with questions, the
answers to which invariablyresult
in more questions and subsequent
iterations of the process. So, the
What is more important is that,
trucks rarelygo emptyand that
means huge cost savings for the
company.
l A distribution companyused to
think customer satisfaction was
simplybeing nice to its customers
and having the sales
representatives take themout to a
fancylunch once in a while. After
deploying business intelligence,
this companynot onlytakes them
to lunch, but also shows thema
real-time report of the customer's
last two years worth of purchases
and plans with thembypooling
their purchases, to buyin larger
quantities and receive higher
levels of discounts.
The “Intelligence” Challenges
Companies knowthat accurate
information is their most
important asset capable of
shedding vital insight on current
and prospective customers,
competitors, partners and
suppliers. However, such
Business Environment
34
end of one cycle is the beginning
of the next, seeking further
clarification or leading to new
questions altogether.
Directing & Planning :
The Directing & Planning phase is
both the start and the end of the
process. It is the beginning
because it involves drawing up
specific requirements and the end
because answered questions lead
to more questions. The business
intelligence process begins, when
consumers (executives, line of
business leaders, etc.) generate
the questions that will help them
achieve their objectives. Who are
the most profitable customers?
What is the gross margin for each
product line ? Howmuch revenue
has been generated over the past
month ? These needs are
expressed as needs levied on
various analytic groups. The
analytic group uses the
consumers' needs to develop
specific requirements and in
giving planning and direction to
guide information gathering and
formulation of answers.
Information Gathering :
There are manysources of
information within companies
today. The automation of
business processes has created a
wealth of sources: Point of Sale,
Enterprise Resource Planning ,
Customer Service applications,
etc. Different systems create,
process and store different pieces
of information everydayand this
process is continuous. It is
important to understand that data
fromthese sources account as
information, and not intelligence.
Rawdata is often incomplete or
possiblymisleading. Information
becomes intelligence through
processing and analysis. The
Information Gathering process is
where the different sources are
examined to determine the
necessarydata sources to obtain
mining tools and techniques to
sort through the data and create
the intelligence. The end result of
this phase is the production of
“intelligent” answers, in the
proper context, with supporting
commentary. In some cases, this is
as simple as creating a report. In
other cases, it is a detailed
assessment of predictive indicators
for cross-sell campaigns.
Additional requirements mayalso
be generated during this phase as
analysts identifyother pertinent
questions to be answered.
Dissemination :
The dissemination phase is the
deliveryof intelligence products to
the consumers who request them.
This typicallyinvolves the use of a
Business Intelligence tool to
data to answer the questions.
Data Processing :
The Data Processing phase is the
integration of the rawdata into a
useable format for analysis. This
can be the creation of a new
database, addition of data into an
existing database or the
consolidation in some other type
of analysis system(i.e., utilizing
an analytic tool to extract and
manipulate data). This phase can
generallybe thought of as the
Extract, Transformand Load (ETL)
processing that occurs within
Business Intelligence
environments.
Analysis & Production :
The analytic group leverages data
Figure 2 - Business Intelligence process within an organisation
Business Environment
35
Consumers
Data Processing
Data Integration -
Making the data usable
Information
Gathering
Data Sources
Analysis &
Production
Report Creation
Directing &
Planning
Analytic Groups
Executives, LOB,
Division Heads
Dashboards,
Reports & Charts
with Web access
Requirements
Dissemination
Consumers
Customer Service
Sales & Marketing
Line of Business
Executives
Finance
Dissemination Questions
Directing &
Planning
Analytic Groups
Analysis &
Production
Data Mining
Ad Hoc
Analysis
Standard
Reporting
Information
Gathering
Data Processing
Data
Mart (s)
Data
Warehouse
Extract,
Transform,
Load
Household,
Enhance
Finance Legacy
OLTP Customer
Databases
Back-Office Applications
External Applications
Suppliers
Partners
Overlays
Figure 1 - Business Intelligence Process
TA S MA C MA NA GE ME NT R E VI E W
publish an executive dashboard,
standard reports or the abilityto
activelyreviewthe data. This is
used for intelligence that is self-
explanatory. Other products are
delivered in presentation form,
allowing the consumer to directly
interact with analysts in a more
collaborative fashion.
Figure 2 shows, at a conceptual
level, howthe Business
Intelligence process fits within an
organisation. Each phase of the
process, highlights the
components of each as it relates
to a business. Say the head of
mortgage for a financial services
firmasks the question, “How
manymortgages were sold to
existing customers?” The analytic
teamfor the mortgage group
directed to answer this question
starts the Business Intelligence
process. The teambegins by
understanding what information
theyneed to answer the question.
The data theyneed is being
captured throughout the
company; theyjust need to
determine where it is and howto
get it. At this point, Information
Technologymaybe involved to
help identifythe appropriate data
sources.
Once the data sources are
identified, the teamworks to
extract and integrate the
information. In some cases, the
data required is housed within a
single database and no data
integration is needed. The next
step is the analysis and
production. Utilizing the data, the
analytic teamwill look at the
mortgages sold and identifythose
who were sold to existing
customers those individuals, who
currentlyown one or more
products.
The answer is then provided back
to the consumer (head of
mortgage) who, in reviewing the
answer, nowmayask, “Howdo
we sell more mortgages to
insights into their environment
and enabling themto act with
focus and speed.
References:
Venkata R.
Leveraging Unstructured
Information to Enhance Business
Intelligence
Best Practices in Business &
Competitive Intelligence
Volume II
A Special Supplement to KMWorld
/ J anuary2003
Volume 12, Issue 1
Fahey L.
Competitors : Outwitting,
Outmaneuvering, and
Outperforming,
WileyPublications
Leonard M. Fuld
The NewCompetitor Intelligence:
The Complete Resource for
Finding, Analyzing, and Using
Information about Your
Competitors,
WileyPublications
Vitt E., Luckevich M.
Business Intelligence Misner,
Microsoft Press
Robert Marcus, Beverley Watters
Collective Knowledge,
Microsoft Press
Porter M.
Competitive Strategy: Techniques
For Analyzing Industries And
Competitors,
Free Press
existing customers?” And the next
iteration of the process is born.
The analytic teamthen moves
back to understanding the
attributes of mortgages holders
who have other products and can
identifyprospects for cross-selling
the mortgage product.
In Conclusion:
Business intelligence applications
that can integrate knowledge
extracted fromunstructured
information, which constitutes
85%of corporate data, enable
companies to act faster and
smarter. Taxonomyand
categorisation platforms that can
organize, classifyand leverage
high volumes of unstructured
information extend the reach of
business intelligence applications,
enabling themto query, analyse
and mine this previously
inaccessible information.
Integrating these newcapabilities
directlyinto business decision
processes will directlybenefit
companies, providing themcritical
Business Environment
Business
intelligence
applications that
can integrate
knowledge
extracted from
unstructured
information,
which constitutes
85% of corporate
data, enable
companies to act
faster and
smarter.
36
Sonali Hingorani
Programme Director, TASMAC
lll
doc_144024931.pdf