BI IN PRACTICE

CONTACT

	cepe@sisorg.com.mx
	México: 01 (55) 5256.4517 Monterrey: 01 (81) 8347.0027 Austin: 1 512 234.3474
	México, D.F. Tamaulipas No. 150 Despacho 501 5°piso Torre A Col. Hipódormo Condesa. C.P.06100 Monterrey, N.L. Calle IV No. 1214 Fracc. San Jerónimo C.P. 64640 Austin, TX 3925 W Braker Lane, Suite 3.8096 Austin, TX 78759

WHAT IS BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE?

At SIS we define Business Intelligence (BI), as a business practice that optimizes the decision-making process at companies, improving significantly their results by means of streamlining their market-approach strategies, optimizing their operating processes and making the best use of their financial resources through timely and well-informed decisions.

The implementation of this business practice begins by pinpointing the data that provides the highest value at the moment of measuring the strategic performance of the business. This process, commonly referred to as "Strategic Planning", not only delivers the mission, vision, goals, and strategic initiatives to be implemented, but also, at the moment of its full elaboration, even delivers the specifications in terms of the way the strategic performance of the business is to be measured.

Once the key indicators that will measure the strategic business performance have been defined, they have to be fed by the data generated during the business operation. Throughout said process, the hard data, step by step, start adding value, until, in the highest point of the chain, they become decision makers with more assertive and better informed decisions. When the data has reached the necessary level to support the decision-making process of the business, we establish that we have reached the level of "information", that is to say, the data was turned into information.

The different pieces of information, one way or another, aim at measuring the performance of some initiative or task within a specific strategy, or as part of the company in general, showing the results from all the different angles the business has. When an analyst has the capacity to visualize information from different angles, so that he can analyze all the possible scenarios before making a decision, we say the information has become knowledge.
 
The knowledge of the business in its entirety, allows analysts, by means of a better informed and more timely decision-making process, to optimize the business’ critical processes, and the penetration strategies and market approach, so that, in the short term, the benefits of Business Intelligence strategy that has been adequately implemented, can be measured directly in the profit-and-loss statements of the companies. In this point we say that knowledge has turned into Action.

However, this is where it all begins. The company, while being part of an ecosystem with a life of its own (Market, suppliers, staff, government, etc), is vulnerable to the changes that take place in its environment and will need to adapt to them if it is to survive. This adaptation process demands that the company reinvents itself, defines new strategies, new initiatives, and looks for competitive advantages in the most remote places of the operation. This will consequently impact directly the amount of data required to support effectively the decision-making process. It is then, that the Business Intelligence initiative turns into a continuous process that comes to life and needs to transform and reinvent itself as the business demands.

Likewise, the decision-making process does not only have to do with the strategic measurement of the business, but with the execution of each and every tactic and its implementation. Therefore, the decision-making process is not exclusive to the high management, but rather to the staff in charge of the operation of the business. Consequently, supporting the decision-making process of the different needs throughout the organization represents the biggest challenge for the business intelligence of the company.

At SIS KLE we have wide experience in the development and implementation of Business Intelligence initiatives at various companies in the financial, retail, logistics, distribution and telecommunication sectors. If you would like to learn more about the way we conceptualize this kind of initiatives, please contact us.