Business Intelligence Process - Essay Example

? Contents Lessons Learned 3 Conclusions drawn 4 Counter agreements and Review of the original conclusion drawn 6 Reference 8 Lessons Learned First of all we will start with the case of the Marshfield Clinic. We can find that Marshfield is a highly successful clinic with over 50 locations and around 6500 healthcare and administrative staffs and more than 800 physicians. The clinic handles around 375000 patients every year. The management team of the clinic decided to create a paperless work environment and the staffs were provided with tablets to keep track of the various information about the patient. However the management team found that only gathering the patient data is not serving the purpose of efficiently running the business. Thus they opted for a pilot program via the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) which demonstrated 32 quality based parameters and the firm applied SAP Business Objects solutions to keep an eye on those parameters to improve the level of performance (Konitzer & Cummens, 2011). Next come the case of Exclusive Resorts, LLC which is the world’s biggest luxury destination resort with over 350 Sophisticated and discerning private dwellings around the globe. The resort serves almost a number of 3300 members and enjoys a continuous entry of new members. The company runs on a large scale with quality services and positive member responses. It also operates on the domain of managing and developing real estate projects and hence requires complicated financial management system and reporting approach throughout its worldwide branches where the properties are located. During the early days of the firm’s operations, the company preferred the implementation of Oracle software as its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. However with increasing growth and development, the company found the software to be unmanageable and complex for its multifaceted business needs. The firm decided to search for a further ERP solution which would be able to incorporate with the technologies easily and would assist the firm to improve its quality of services as well as its competitiveness paving the path for membership growth (Microsoft Inc., 2011). Thus we can learn from both the cases that in the recent days, technologies are becoming more upgraded while the business operations are getting more complex. Therefore a constant change is noticeable within the functioning of these firms which strives for excellent business services so that they can efficiently serve their customers. Therefore need for business intelligence to face the competitive environment and effectively cut the cost has become a significant part of every business. Business Intelligence can be defined as the tools, technologies and processes require for converting data into information, information into knowledge and knowledge into plans that drive profitable business action (Loshin, 2012, p.7). Conclusions drawn Business intelligence is the process of gathering large quantity of data, assessing the data and offering a high end report set that compress the fundamental nature of the data into the foundation of the business activities, making the management able to make basic decisions related to the business. It is the approach of getting the right access to the right information for making the right decision at the right time. (Stackowiak et al., 2007, p.3). It is the capacity of the business to extract performance based knowledge from the organization and market to support an improved decision making process as well as to excel their performance (Electro smart Ltd., 2011). The business intelligence system can be achieved with the implementation of various idea processing systems. Idea processing systems are regarded to be associated with the decision support system (Thierauf, 2001, p.95). In this context it is significant to discuss the importance of a decision support system. DSS is one of the significant technology solutions to the business sector which offers them a means of converting a rich source of business information into some concrete and beneficial outcome (Chaudhuri & et.al, 2001). An efficient tool of Business intelligence is the knowledge management system. In general, Knowledge Management is a multi faceted approach towards achieving organizational goals by making the best use of the gathered knowledge. Its main focus is on the process of acquiring, creating & sharing knowledge. It is supported by technical & cultural foundations. It protects intellectual abilities from decay, offers opportunities to make better decisions, adding value to the service or product, adapting flexibility and reducing cost of the company (mitpress, n.d.). Knowledge is the only base for competition is today’s time. Managing the knowledge means to focus on the exact part for retrieving the correct information, to update it on a regular basis, to test its authenticity & to share it with the intended people. Knowledge Management as a whole is a combination of people’s skill & the proper utilization of information. OLAP is another component of Business intelligence process. It is the means through which the business users can navigate their data. It gives a quick snapshot of the entire data but it doesn’t recommend the solutions for some specific problems (Berson, 2000, p.92). Executive Information system is another effective device of the business management concept which is referred to as a technology enabled system for providing the senior officials of the firm to avail a shared source of external and internal information that has been stored in an easily accessible graphical illustrations (King & O’Leary, n.d. ). An advanced form of business intelligence system that is widely used in the field of handling customers is the customer relationship management approach. CRM is set of business tactics and often it is considered as a bundle of distinct software techniques and equipments, with the objective of cost reduction, enhancing revenue, recognizing opportunities, offering customer value and retaining customers (Grant & Anderson, 2002). Business Intelligence also contributes towards performance management of the firm. Corporate performance management has been generated out of the requirement for practically managing the performance of the personnel of the firm for achieving business optimization (Research & Markets, n.d.). Business process reengineering is also an efficient tool of business intelligence within which focuses on going back to the fundamentals and reassessing the very roots of the enterprise to achieve extraordinary improvements in contemporary and significant parameters of performance namely quality, cost, speed and service (Subramanian & et. al. 1999). Management information system is a renowned approach of developing data into information which is subsequently communicated to the different departments for facilitating proper decision making. Real time business intelligence is the method of allowing the systematic operation of the activities of extraction, transformation and loading in an extremely swift mode. Real time refers to attaining zero time delay within a system and having access to data whenever needed (Azvine & et. al. n.d.). Another vital tool of BI is the supply chain management, where supply chains integrates the activities of the firms required for designing, creating, delivering and using a product (catalogimages.wiley.com, n.d.). Counter agreements and Review of the original conclusion drawn Thus at the concluding part it can be stated that On one hand it is true that the business intelligence software have become an inevitable part of the business world of recent times, which helps the firm in accessing the relevant data whenever needed, utilizing those data in improving performance and putting an essential focus on the cost cutting aspect of the business activities. On the other hand it can be said that the people of the organization should be provided with efficient training for teaching them the skills of handling the software. It is true that how much efficient the software is, it requires to be installed by some people. Therefore it is necessary on the part of the people to know the functions of the software or else the software would become useless. However it’s also true that the people of the organization would tend to stick to older methods until and unless new technologies are introduced. They should be kept well informed regarding the usage of the new technology and they should have the feeling that the management is trying its best to provide them with a comfortable environment at the workplace and its working towards making their jobs easier. Thus the introduction of technology, the training and the motivation among the people to utilize the software effectively are the three main factors for making a business intelligence system successful and thus it is always necessary to strike a balance among the three. Reference 1. Azvine & ET. Al. (n.d.) Real Time Business Intelligence for the Adaptive Enterprise. Retrieved from http://bingo.crema.unimi.it/turing/MATERIALE/admin/allegati/architetturaBT.pdf 2. Berson, A. Smith, S. and Thearling, K. (2000) ‘Building Data Mining Applications for CRM’, Tata McGraw Hill: New Delhi. 3. catalogimages.wiley.com, (n.d.) Basic Concepts of Supply Chain Management. Retrieved from http://catalogimages.wiley.com/images/db/pdf/R0471235172.01.pdf 4. Chaudhuri, S & et.al, (2001) Database Technology for Decision Support Systems. Retrieved from http://infolab.usc.edu 5. Electro smart Ltd. (2011) The Business Intelligence Guide.  Retrieved from http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/index.php 6. Grant & Anderson, (2002). Customer Relationship Management: A Vision for Higher Education. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/pub5006f.pdf 7. King, D. & O’Leary, D. (n.d.) Intelligent Executive Information System. Retrieved from https://msbfile03.usc.edu/digitalmeasures/oleary/intellcont/AI%20and%20Executive%20system-1.pdf 8. Konitzer, K. and Cummens, M. (2011) CASE STUDY - using analytics to improve patient outcomes and billing accuracy at Marshfield clinic. TDWI. Retrieved from http://tdwi.org/articles/2011/07/11/case-study-using-analytics-to-improve-patient-outcomes-and-billing-accuracy-at-marshfield-clinic.aspx 9. Loshin, D. (2012) Business Intelligence: The Savvy Manager's Guide. USA: British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. 10. Microsoft Inc. (2011) Club Generates Rapid ROI, Enhances Services, Takes Control of Business. Microsoft Case Studies. Retrieved from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Dynamics-AX/Exclusive-Resorts-LLC/Destination-Club-Generates-Rapid-ROI-Enhances-Services-Takes-Control-of-Business/4000009718 11. Mitpress, (n.d.) Introduction to Knowledge Management. Retrieved from http://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/content/9780262015080_sch_0001.pdf 12. Research & Markets, (n.d.) Business Intelligence: Corporate Performance Management. Retrieved from http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/1055897/ 13. Stackowiak, R., Rayman, J. and Greenwald, R. (2007) ‘Oracle Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence Solutions’, Wiley Publishing, Inc: Indianapolis 14. Subramanian, M. & ET. al. (1999) BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING: A CONSOLIDATED METHODOLOGY. Retrieved from http://webs.twsu.edu/whitman/papers/ijii99muthu.pdf 15. Thierauf, R.J. (2001) Effective Business Intelligence Systems. USA: Greenwood Publishing Group. Read More