"Business Intelligence on a Budget!

Well... the course is drawing to an end! Hard to believe!

To put it all together this week we have a rather interesting assignment about business intelligence in the real world...

I searched the VCSU database and found a great article about a chain called Creativity Inc. Here is what I found out!

It broke down business intelligence into 7 small steps..

1) Consolidate your tools -

Many companies have multiple data warehouses. This poses a problem and leads to redundant processes. By consolidating your warehouses into one much larger it becomes more manageable. Standardize your tools and it well help you become more effective!

2) Let business take the driver's seat -

Understand the business first! It is important to know where the advantage to your business is going to come from. Once you understand the benefit, then configure the tools to help you out!


3) Use new data models for new markets -

"Right now, says Gartner's Hostmann, "there's a big strategy change in many organizations from high-value product offerings to low-cost offerings." But businesses that can't compete in the low-cost market must figure out a way to move up the value chain -- and they're using BI tools to get there."

4) Centralize business intelligence -

"To help find the right areas of focus, Creativity's Mulholland started an analytical center for excellence, a group that includes representatives from different parts of the business, from sales to operations. "You're trying to elevate the IQ of everybody in your company in terms of knowing the key business metrics and measuring them accurately and in a timely way across all areas of the business," he says.

Moving towards that goal, Creativity developed common tool sets and profitability models for its sales and finance groups. Reports are pushed to the desktops and viewed in dashboard applications. From there, Mulholland says, users "can go in and do further analysis.""

5) Put more data in your warehouse -

"When it comes to data warehouses, the current downturn is a great time for organizations to review what they're tracking and to add more data from business operations into the hopper to find additional savings. Just be very selective about what you add, experts advise."


6) Make better use of data you already have -

Once everything is consolidated and you are not having to go searching for data, use the tools at your disposal to their fullest extent. Look at improving your current tools!

7) Help users understand the data and not just the tools -

"Scaling up the number of users who have access to BI tools won't help unless people know how to use them. But that's not the biggest issue when it comes to educating the user. "The trend has been for the front end to get simpler and more intuitive," Millman says. And certainly dashboards have helped in that regard."

""It's really [about] teaching people to mine for value," Abbattista sums up. In that respect, he says, "I don't think we'll ever be done with our BI efforts.""

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These tools helped Creativity Inc. get back on track!



Thank you for a great semester! It has been great!


















Mitchell, R. L. (2009) BI ON A BUDGET. Computerworld, 43(28), 23-27