Drama! Tears! Exhilaratus!

Yesterday I attended an Oracle Technology day. I was not only impressed by the presentation but also by the insight provided by discussions of similar minds. Reflecting back on the event and discussions I have with my good friend Mucheru a financial whiz, one thing is evident; any business that wants to thrive cannot afford not to measure the performance of its systems.

Organisations spend millions of dollars annually acquiring and/or upgrading information systems. The need of end-to-end solutions (different systems using the same underlying technology) to provide a business with the edge of over competition has never been necessary as it is now. These solutions provide a business with the following advantages:

• Broader, better and modular functionality
• Reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) through improved systems integration
• Consolidated support across multiple products
• Accountability

Despite all these benefits provided, organisations as well as those who develop these systems focus on service delivery architectures with minimal reporting and decision support tools. In the initial phase of automation any organisation seeks to computerise its operations, that is, shift from manual to computerised practices. With time there’s a shift towards improving the computerised processes as the organisation enjoys the benefits of the system. During this stage the company acquires additional functionality in terms of reporting and decision support tools. Sadly this marks the end of the growth for the system.

The aim of any system is to provide solutions to the business that will make the business better. In as much as process management and improvement is important to a business, the management information provided by the systems that support its operational activities cannot be underestimated. Better visibility of the business enables faster responses to improve operational efficiency. This can only be achieved by basing decisions on facts and logical conclusions drawn from the information provided by its information systems. As it stands currently in most organisations most of these decisions are made based on “best guess” scenarios.

This approach works well for start ups since they don’t have adequate information to base decisions on. With growth this trend changes and more and more decisions are made based on the operational information gathered. The aim of any business is growth. The business wires are full of mergers and acquisitions, expansions into new markets, strategic partnerships etc. This brings into focus two oftenly confused terms; Continuous and Continual growth.

Continuous growth is all about growth without evaluation. The risk lies in hitting a snag in your growth plans and not having a fall back stage. With continual growth, after certain growth the business revaluates its strategies and makes the necessary decisions. This is not possible without timely decision support information provided by the information systems. In evaluating progress the entire organisation, operational, tactical and strategic levels, look at the same information from different angles.

Service level architecture systems barely provide this information since they act as disparate systems. In order to make sound decisions based on facts, trends and other factors it is imperative to collate these disparate systems to a single system that will provide meaningful information to the business. This is the challenge of modern day businesses.

The solution lies in intelligent systems that will provide the business with a dashboard that collates information from disparate sources (operational systems) and present the same in a simple yet detailed manner. The common term for such systems is Business Intelligence systems. They have the capability to provide information based on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) defined by the business. The ability to view progress in terms of KPIs such as productivity, CRM, sales, personnel provides the business with the much required insight in decision making.

A business intelligence system is aimed to:

1. Protect existing investments
2. Extend the value of your applications
3. Evolve your business to the next level

Every business that has been operational for two or more years will require a business intelligence system. These systems and the technology are not one off and require constant re-evaluation to factor business needs.

There are several approaches to acquiring one. One is to build internal online analytical processing systems that gather data from the disparate systems. This approach entails acquiring particular skill sets, database architect, reporting analyst and basic infrastructure such as a database. The idea is to have the database architect build data warehouses, data marts and data cubes (the underlying technology behind business intelligence systems) from data within the disparate systems that will be used by the reporting analyst to provide the necessary business dashboards.

The second alternative is to acquire a customisable business intelligence suit. There numerous products in the market but before you go out and acquire one, here are a few pointers to consider apart from the obvious compatibility issues:

Customer Success

1. What’s the vendor’s customer base and experience?
2. What’s the vendor’s success rate across multiple industries?

Complete Solution

1. Does the vendor offer a complete suit in terms of applications, middleware, database and infrastructure?

Strong strategic roadmap

1. What’s the vendor’s acquisition plans or objectives?
2. How much does the vendor spend on R&D?
3. What sort of results has the vendor delivered with regards to market observations?

Business Intelligence systems are quickly becoming the new frontier for businesses. The abilities and growth of a business will develop and reveal themselves increasingly with the adoption of relevant technology.