Copyright 2000 Markku J. Saarelainen
INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS BEHAVIOR NEWSLETTER
December, 2000
by
Markku J. Saarelainen
Business Intelligence System - The strategic information for your top management ?
Is your top and middle management served adequately by your organization, or are they
only provided the information that is inadequate, inaccurate and untimely for
satisfactory decision making purposes? In fact, your organization may provide for some
critical decision making purposes the information that may be misleading and
incomplete, which then may cause disastrous decisions affecting the whole
organization. There can be several reasons for his problem including, but certainly
not limited to, 1. an inadequate system for the information gathering, 2. inadequate
internal controls, 3. unreliable and/or incomplete personnel, 4. communication gaps
between information gatherers and analysts and the executive management, and 5. a
wrong focus and/or scope in the collection process. Whatever these reasons and causes
are, this should be eliminated by analyzing the situation first and then initiating
necessary actions to eliminate the main causes and to facilitate continual improve!
me!
nt. It is essential for an organization to understand that the quality of the
information and decision making processes shall determine the overall quality and
success of your organization and a successful achievement of its established mission
and defined objectives. (See GSSN May and June 1995)
There are several ways to define quality of the information. Whatever the
definition, the information has to satisfy its users unique and specific needs and
requirements. In most cases, some basic requirements include 1. accuracy and
reliability, 2. timeliness, 3. dissemination to the right user group and 4.
dissemination using the right delivery channel (presentation). To satisfy all these
four criteria, the collection and dissemination process has to be interfacing and
functioning closely with the overall strategic and tactical decision making process.
The Business Intelligence System (BIS) can be developed, implemented and then used to
disseminate the information at a certain time to the right user groups in the right
format through the most suitable and reliable communication channels.
The structure and specific elements of the BIS are important. The executive management
should establish and define a policy for its business intelligence system. This policy
may include some specific objectives and goals that may be relevant to the user
satisfaction, ethics, internal management processes and the overall external
competitive environment. The management should define its commitment to the system and
assign the BIS Officer / Manager (Management Representative) who is responsible for
the establishment, implementation and then maintenance of the whole BIS. In addition,
the management should define some additional key responsibilities, roles,
interrelations that may be relevant to the implementation and use of the BIS. These
responsibilities may include assignments for internal system auditing and the
Information Security System (see the GSSN October 1995) Administration. The BIS
Manager should define the basic structure of the system in the BIS Manual (this manu!
al!
and any other documentation may be stored and controlled in many different ways) and
identify any key processes that require additional documentation, implementation and
auditing. The documented BIS can refer to many specific methods and techniques for.
information gathering, 2. storing, 3. analysis, 4. dissemination, 5. training, 6. BIS
auditing and assessment and 7.
continuous improvement. In addition, the BIS Manual should address many important
ethical and legal elements of the BIS system and the use and protection of this
system.
The use of computers and electronic information processing systems helps and improves
the implementation of the BIS. It is no longer necessary to rely on hard copies of
documents, but these can be stored and maintained in the computer systems and
relational databases, where the information analysis is much faster, easier and more
accurate than it has been before. In
addition, it is possible to store and maintain more information, while at the same
time minimizing the size of the storage place and location. The BIS Manager can
utilize many LAN/WAN applications for providing the nformation for the decision
making purposes in a timely manner. In addition, the BIS Manager together with MIS/IT
personnel can develop the Distributed Information Management and Processing systems
that can be used to analyze the data and information in many different
relational databases and storage locations. In fact, the BIS system may have elements
in one part of the world, but may be used for decision making purposes in another
part. The current communication technology makes this available and attractive for
many global businesses and companies. However, there are also some side effects of
this electronic revolution. The business environment has become more competitive and
speed in the decision making is essential and critical, which has established new
and demanding requirements for the business management to establish necessary BIS
systems. Whatever the BIS system, some fundamental requirements are similar: 1. BIS
Policy, 2. BIS Manager / Officer, 3. BIS structure and manual (the system
description), 4. defined BIS subsystems and key processes and 5. the Information
Security System (ISS).
Copyright 2000 Markku J. Saarelainen
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