Integrate BI into your corporate performance

There is no doubt that most companies understand the importance of the right information at the right place,at the right person and at the right time. The economic pressure is a wake up call for companies to reevaluate their market position and their internal performance.

However, many companies still struggle day by day to deliver and regain actionable information from and to the workfloor. The volatile consumer demand does not leave much room for major flaws. Each decision becomes critical. To address this eminent problem, companies look for more and better information regarding their business processes. Only most companies lack a strategic approach to setup an company or supply chain wide business intelligence.

Business Model.
A business model as part of the business strategy and corporate performance maps out how an organization creates, delivers and captures economic forms of value. It includes purpose, strategy, structure, processes and policies. The essence of a business model is that it defines the manner by which the business enterprise delivers value to customers, entices customers to pay for value, and converts those payments to profit. If business intelligence is considered as a strategic value to improve the organizational performance, hence it needs to be included into the business strategy and modeling.

The obvious pitfall is the tendency of divisions and departments to develop there own business intelligence and purchase there own tools. Such approach prevents an organization to develop an integrated approach on customer intimacy and satisfaction. To break through the silo problem of organizations, Business Intelligence requires a executive sponsor that can drive the IT department to setup a company intelligence strategy. IT can deliver solutions to unlock the various data sources and offer applicable IT structures.

But the real answers need to be supplied by the operational departments. Besides the definition and implementation of departmental targets, they also need to agree on horizontal company wide targets and envision the separate contribution of each department to such targets. Such development will reveal the dependencies and possible conflicts between departments targets. At such time, overall defined board strategy can resolve such issues. Companies that are able to overcome these fundamental hurdles and work towards an efficient use of internal capabilities and information, will be able to maximize there business intelligence and achieve considerable results.

Business information.
One of the most important measurements for the operational performance of an organization is the ability to deliver the right information, right in time. This could be from real-time information up to yearly information. Not only towards customers, but also internally. Is all information provided in time to HRM or to Finance? Companies tend to focus on the operational departments such as production, transport or warehousing. But in a integrated approach of business intelligence, the accuracy towards and within other supporting departments is equally important.

Financial figures such as Operating profit, EBIT, C2C or Total landed cost are familiar to many companies. Advanced value chain analysis can deliver essential information about the components of such figures. Knowing the figures without knowing your business is pretty useless.

Such analysis will also supply critical information about your supply chain. From supplier up to sales pipeline information. Sales conversion ratings can deliver essential planning information and prevent sudden shocks in your supply chain. Sharing such information across the supply chain including partners will prevent stock out situations. It will contribute in such way to customer satisfaction and in time retention by your customers. Reliability is known to be one of the most important SCM parameters.

Alignment information
Closing the loop internally is often disregarded. Using a robust management system which uses the Denim circle, will enable organization to keep a constant track on there performance. A Management system links all elements necessary into play to control the operation in a effective and efficient manner. It links your defined goals down to the operational execution of work as clear specific workorders combined with targets and norms. As a result the proper reporting and follow up meeting will allow organization to keep the organizational performance at there fingertips. Most companies recognize and appreciate this concept, but all too often the process of KPI creation and alignment is treated as a stagnant process when in fact these metrics need to be living, breathing, and constantly evolving entities.

Analysis the results as a part of knowledge management will develop the level of your staff and increase the brilliance of your processes without you having the hire expensive experts. Most of the answers regarding operational issues are available within the organization, but need to be revealed. A proper business intelligence can increase the transparency of information and knowledge available in your organization. It requires an open exchange of information between business functions.

Steps to success.

• Incorporate your business intelligence into your business model and strategy
• Ensure an executive sponsor and drive for BI
• IT develops a integrated BI strategy roadmap to binds functions and business
• Develop business wide targets and KPI’s and relate business specific KPI with it
• Align information using a closed loop management system
• Increase the intelligence of your business using an effective knowledge management approach.

Sources:

http://www.digitalboardroom.com/index.html?menu_id=18&content_id=295
Operational intelligence. Michael Lock 2010. Aberdeen Research
@Vise Business consultancy – Operational performance & Management systems.

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