Business Intelligence Applications

In this article we are going to take some time to discuss the various applications that are normally provided with Business Intelligence Systems.

Tools Used to Analyze Performance, Projects and Internal Operations

First we will look over the tools most commonly used to analyze areas such as performance or internal operations. These tools are helpful when a manager or executive wishes to view information pertaining to the general function of an area, this can range from the productivity to sales performance.

The first tool we will investigate is the Score carding tool. The Score carding tool was brought into Business Intelligence in 1992 by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton. This tool was designed to measure whether the actions of an organization were helping it to meet its objectives. This tool focuses both on the human and financial issues of a company. It is balanced to help provide a comprehensive view of an organization which in turn helps them to take actions that would be most beneficial to their business.

Now let us delve into Business Activity Monitoring. This tool concerns the aggregation, analysis, and presentation of real-time information about the activities within an organization and involving customers as well as partners. Business activities can be a business process that is a sequence of actions spanning numerous systems and applications, or it can be business processes that are orchestrated by the Business Performance Management tool. Business Activity Monitoring is a business solution chiefly intended to provide an actual summary of company activities to operations managers and upper management.

The goal of a Business Activity Monitoring tool is to provide up-to-date information about the status of an organization. This includes the status and the results of various operations, processes, and transactions. Some of the main benefits of this tool include; enabling the organization to make informed decisions, rapidly address problem areas, and re-position businesses to take complete advantage of emerging opportunities.

Next we will take a moment to look into the Business Performance Management tool we spoke of earlier. This application is a set of specific processes designed to aid organizations in optimizing their business performance. It is a framework for automating, analyzing, and organizing procedures, metrics, processes and systems that drive business performance. This application has been considered the next generation if Business Intelligence, it is designed to help organizations make efficient use of their financial, human, physical, and other resources.

Another application worthy of mentioning is the Competitive Analysis tool. Competitive Analysis concerns the assessment of strengths and weaknesses of an organization’s competitors. This analysis tool focuses on four main aspects. These aspects are competitor objectives, competitor assumptions, competitor strategy, and competitor resources and capabilities.

This also tool helps to create a competitor array. An array can include information pertaining to who the organization’s competitors are, who the company’s customers are and what they expect, the key success factors of the organization, rank of the key success factors, and the rate of each competitor against the key factors of the business. This tool is useful in helping an organization get a firm idea on who they are up against and what they will need to pass or match that competitor.

Let us look into Supply Chain Management tools. Supply Chain Management tools allow an organization to plan, implement, and control the operations of a supply chain. Supply Chain Management deals with all movement that concerns the storage of raw materials, work in process, and completed products from its point of origin to its point of consumption.