Report on Business Intelligence and Business Analytics

Questions: 1. Definition of Business Goal?2. Role of Information System Strategy for Dealing with Competitive Force?3. Different kinds of decisions within the Business Environment?4. The Six Elements of Business Intelligence environment?5. Five Analytical Outputs of Business Intelligence System?6. Usefulness of Business Intelligence and Analytics Support on Decision Making?7. Benefits of Business Intelligence Techniques in Decision Making and Knowledge Management?8. Benefits of Intelligence Techniques for people working in groups?9. Different Types of Systems used for improving Enterprise-wide Knowledge management? Answers: Introduction Business intelligence (BI) is known as the system which plays a crucial role in strategic planning within an organization. According to Loshin (2012), the business intelligence system allows the business organization to store, gather, analyze and access the company data for making a decision. Business Intelligence consists of several methodologies, tools, and applications for collecting data from external sources (Laudon and Laudon 2013). Business analytics is known as the methodical investigation of an organizations data that concentrates on the statistical analysis. This report reflects the study of the business goal and the role of the information system strategy for dealing with the competitive force. It also comprises of different types of decision that are made with a business group. Then the report focuses on six elements of the business intelligence environment and five analytical outputs of the business intelligence system. The report concentrates on the usefulness of business intelligence and analytics support based on decision-making. It provides a brief overview of the benefits of business intelligence techniques depending on decision-making and knowledge management. The report emphasizes on the advantages of business intelligence for the people working in groups. Finally, the report focuses on the different types of systems that are used for improving enterprise-wide knowledge management. 1. Definition of Business Goal According to the given case study based on ethical and social issues in information system, the main goal of Facebook team is to collect many personal information in a technical manner and later on to sell those information to those advertisers who are advertising on the Facebook portal. 2. Role of Information System Strategy for Dealing with Competitive Force The five competitive forces in an industry include: Competitors within an industry. Danger for the new entrants within an industry including its markets. Danger with the substitute products that may capture the market share. Negotiation power of the suppliers. Negotiation power of the suppliers. For overcoming such competitive forces, a business organization needs to follow five information system related strategy. The five basic competitive strategies includes: differentiation, cost leadership, growth, innovation, and alliance (Laudon and Laudon 2013). 3. Different kinds of decisions within the Business Environment In a business organization, the process of decision making in the major factor where the managers get the opportunity to choose a single alternative among various options (Calof, Richards and Smith 2015). The different types of decision making in an organization are as follows: Business decision making: This kind of decision-making determines the business outcomes in a group. Personal decision-making: This decision-making process helps an organization to maintain a good relationship with the customer and the business organization by providing the outcomes (Sharda, Delen and Turban 2013). Consumer decision making: It comprises of choices for determining the usefulness of the business organization in purchase decisions that happens within the business context (Cook and Nagy 2014). Programmed Decision: When some routine problems arise, these types of decisions help to address standard responses (Laudon and Laudon 2013). Non-Programmed Decision: This type of decision-making process helps to solve non-routine problems that occur within an organization (Howson and Hammond 2014). Strategic Decision: Strategic decision helps to develop the entire strategies, goals, and policies of an organization. It helps to monitor the strategic presentation in economical, political, and competitive business structure of the organization (Wixom et al. 2014). Tactical Decision: This type of decision-making process helps to prepare short range schedules, budgets, and plans for optimizing the workloads of the employees and which in turn brings effectiveness in the overall organization (Loshin 2012). Operational Decision: This type of decision directs the usage of resources and enhances the performance of the task within fixed schedules and budgets (Petermann et al. 2014). 4. The Six Elements of Business Intelligence environment The six main elements that are present in Business Intelligence environment are: Data from the business organization: The business organization needs to deal with both the unstructured and structured data that are available in various sources including the Internet and mobile devices (Power 2013). The infrastructure of Business Intelligence: The business intelligence system is an efficient database system that captures each relevant data that are necessary to operate the business processes. The stored data is integrated and combined within the enterprise data warehouse (Calof, Richards and Smith 2015). Business analytics tools: Business analytics tools are some set of software that is necessary to analyze the available data, producing reports, track the business progression with the help of performance indicators (Laudon and Laudon 2013). Executive users and methods: The managers of any business organization enforce an order for the analysis of data with the help of managerial methods which helps to measure the progress of the group and to set up the strategic business objectives (Calof, Richards and Smith 2015). The business analytics itself can produce reports, online screens, and information without the help of powerful senior management team. Delivery platform- ESS, DSS, MIS: The delivery platform including the ESS, DSS, and MIS helps to deliver knowledge and information to several people and firms including senior managers, middle managers, and operational employees (Rausch, Sheta and Ayesh 2013). With the help of a single hardware and software tools present in the business intelligence and analytics packages, the information can be integrated into the manager's mobile platforms. User Interface: Presently, the business analytics software concentrates on visual techniques including scorecards and dashboards that are essential to deliver a report on iPhones, Blackberrys, organizations Web portal, and on different smart handheld devices (Howson and Hammond 2014). 5. Five Analytical Outputs of Business Intelligence System The five discrete outputs that a business intelligence system uses for providing real-time and correct information to users are: Domo: A unique business intelligence solution provides business data without the involvement of IT (Laudon and Laudon 2013). Without digging the masses of the report, it quickly contains all the correct data to the user in real-time. QuantConnect: It is a browser oriented algorithm investment and trading which performs as a back-testing platform. This business intelligent tool is specially designed for financial engineers who allow them to code algorithm within the browser-oriented IDE (Sallam et al. 2014). It also helps to back test the investment strategies of the financial engineers and allows them to play out in real-time. Cyfe: It provides all in one dashboard for business intelligence starting from social media to marketing, infrastructure, and analytics (Minelli, Chambers and Dhiraj 2012). Cafe combines all the information that is required by the user in an easy to view format and helps to analyze dashboards. RetailMETRIX by PivotLink: It is a demanding real-time retail analytics that especially concentrates on the customer's viewpoint. The RetailMETRIX provides sixty primary performance indicators, which enables the retailers to analyze operations, sales, and plans (Sharda, Delen and Turban 2013). It also helps to manage the supply chain within a series of reports and dashboards. RetailsMETRIX helps the business organization to understand their retail and customers. Birst: It provides business analytics, dashboards, and self-service reports within real-time. Brist provides the ability to collaborate, customize, and distribute the real-time business intelligence to the users in any business organization (Sharda et al. 2014). With the help of Brist Live Access, the user can query and analyze the data when extraction is not available. 6. Usefulness of Business Intelligence and Analytics Support on Decision Making The advantages of using business intelligence and analytics in decision making are as follows: Improves the Business Productivity: Business intelligence and analytic support help the business organizations to save the cost and time. It also provides efficient reporting to improve the overall business productivity (Howson and Hammond 2014). The business intelligence system can gather vital information after interacting with customer and thereby present information which is easy to execute, understand, and communicate. Easily Accessing of Crucial Information: The business intelligence gives vital information to the business organizations for improving the decision making skills and to produce a competitive compensation (Laudon and Laudon 2013). Good Return on Investment: The business intelligence provides a substantial return on investment which specifically reduces the cost, improves the margin, enhances the revenue structure, and to force cost avoidance (Sharda et al. 2014). Moreover, the use of business intelligence can improve the business process efficiency, increase employee productivity, increase customer satisfaction, provides better strategic decision-making. Knowledgeable Decision Making: The use of business intelligence and analytics helps the business organizations to make informed decisions by providing crucial information based on the present and past performance of the business organization (Winter, Marjanovic and Wixom 2013). 7. Benefits of Business Intelligence Techniques in Decision Making and Knowledge Management The modern business organizations are getting benefits by implementing the use of business intelligence in decision-making and knowledge management. The lists of benefits are as follows: With the help of business intelligence system, the business organization can track the customers buying habits, sales, and operational parameters, and the inventory turnover (Sallam et al. 2014). The business intelligence system dramatically and consistently supplies easy access to the most significant trends. The business intelligence system is important for any business organization to recognize the problems that occur within the organization and provides best possible solutions to solve the business related problems (Minelli, Chambers and Dhiraj 2012). The techniques of knowledge discovery including data mining and online analytical processing help the business organizations to acquire an individual's hidden knowledge during the process of decision-making (Wixom et al. 2014). Business intelligence systems like Online Analytical Processing helps in demanding analyzes and dynamic reporting 8. Benefits of Intelligence Techniques for people working in groups The people working as a group in any business organization takes the help of business intelligence systems to enhance their decision making power in an efficient way. The business intelligence system helps to eliminate several types of guesswork in an organization. In improves the communication skills of various departments within the organization during coordinating activities (Chiang, Goes and Stohr 2012). Business Intelligence allows the organizations to react quickly to the change in financial conditions, supply chain operations, and client preferences. Business intelligence specifically increases the coordination factor within the working group and which in turn improves the overall performance of the organization (Rausch, Sheta and Ayesh 2013). The information is known as the second important factor of any organization and thus having proper information and securing that information is very crucial which can be fulfilled by using the business intelligence systems (Petermann et al. 2014). 9. Different Types of Systems used for improving Enterprise-wide Knowledge management The various types of systems available which can improve the enterprise-wide knowledge management are as follows: Intranets: The Intranet is classified into two different areas: the web server which is a content repository and the technological infrastructure including the IP networks, HTML format, and universal web browser (Winter, Marjanovic and Wixom 2013). This web server and web browser allows better access to the information for the knowledge workforce and increases the additional skills for the developers of applications. Document Management Systems: The document management systems are a storehouse of corporate records and which stores explicit knowledge (Petermann et al. 2014). The document management systems are also used for controlling the document creation processes and their reviews. Hence, the document management systems are the most critical enterprise-wide knowledge management system (Power 2013). Information Recovery Engines: The technology of information recovery have added several features in their systems which include natural language querying, applicability ranking, and summarizing which increases the speed of finding the information. Workflow and Groupware Systems: Different business organizations use groupware systems for communicating and collaborating within the workgroups. The groupware enables formal conversations when the group members are unable to communicate in real time (Cook and Nagy 2014). For this reason, groupware and workflow systems are used by the business organizations for improving the enterprise-wide knowledge management. Data Mining and Data Warehouses Tools: Many business organizations are creating the data warehouse and they are providing their managers with various data mining techniques for optimizing the relationship between the internal processes, customers, and suppliers (Fisher, Drucker and Czerwinski 2014). The leading business organizations are focusing on maximizing the usage of data mining and data warehousing tools because the knowledge oriented organization are making decisions depending on the increasing complexity of data (Loshin 2012). The knowledge management systems need to supply meaningful access for the data warehouses to support the standard procedure including Structured Query Language and Open Database Connectivity. Conclusion After the analysis of the comprehensive report, it can be concluded that an information system strategy plays a crucial role for overcoming from the five competitive forces. The five analytical outputs of business intelligence system include Domo, QuantConnect, Cyfe, RetailMETRIX by PivotLink and birst. The advantage of using business intelligence and analytics on decision making involves improving the company productivity, quickly accessing of valuable information, right return on investment, and intelligent decision making. References Calof, J., Richards, G. and Smith, J., 2015. Foresight, Competitive Intelligence and Business AnalyticsTools for Making Industrial Programmes More Efficient.Foresight-Russia,9(1), pp.68-81. Chiang, R.H., Goes, P. and Stohr, E.A., 2012. Business intelligence and analytics education, and program development: a unique opportunity for the information systems discipline.ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems (TMIS),3(3), p.12. 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