Business Intelligence: the Changes in an Organizations Business Needs - Research Paper Example

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE CLINIC AND RESORT CASES ABOUT CREATING, IMPLEMENTING, AND USING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Introduction Business intelligence refers to a collection of decision support software technologies for enterprises, which are intended to enable managers, executives, and analyst to make faster, better, and well-informed decisions. Many industries have explosively adoptedthese technologies in the past two decades. The drive has been to reduce and leverage on the costs associated with gathering and storage of large business data for the purpose of analysis and review. Most business such as Marshfield Clinic and Exclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Club are aggressively leveraging their data assets through the experimentation and deployment of cutting-edge data analysis tools that can deliver new business functionalities such as better services to customers and personalized offers as well as drive business decision making. It is quite difficult to find an enterprise that has not tried several Business Intelligence technologies before settling for one that it considers meeting all its demands. There are lessons that are learned from such experimentation and deployment of BI technologies as is the case with Marshfield Clinic and Exclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Club.Exclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Club experienced several challenges due from the Oracle software their chose for their financial management and resource planning. The solution presented disconnected and multiple systems. This was also the case with the Salesforce.com, which is the solution Exclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Club chose for the field representatives for the management of customer accounts. Another challenge that Exclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Club faced was the inflexibility with the Business Intelligent solutions that it chose. Exclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Club learned some very important lessons such as the inflexibility, dis-connectivity, and multiplicity of the solutions they chose. This resulted in higher operational and ownership costs and yet the systems were not efficient enough to drive the company’s growing business needs. Discussion The Business Intelligence software such as the Oracle software, ER Compass and the Salesforece.com chosen byExclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Clubwere disconnected and many. This is because these solutions were hosted offsite such as the Oracle software, which was hosted on Oracle on Demand, and the Salesforce.com hosted on the Salesforce.com servers. The company also developed a system dubbed the ER Compass, which they were to use administrative purposes. All these three systems were disconnected and there was no integration. It was thus incumbent upon Exclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Club to look for ways of integrating the systems easily so as to deliver a BI solution that would cope with their growing needs and business challenges. The difficulties posed by their chosen solution thus prompted them to look for an alternative ERP solution that would facilitate easy integration with other system that they were using. This would help improve the company’s competitive edge as well as their member service while increasing the member growth. The ERP system adopted by Exclusive Resorts also faced the challenge of being inflexible. The system could not cope in meeting the growing needs of the company and it was thus very difficult for it to adapt to the changing business needs. According to Charles Livingston, Exclusive Resorts Senior V.P. of Technology, customization of the Oracle system to meet their changing business need was not an easy task. The system was not easy to use too and most employs especially from the Finance department found it very challenging. Accordingly, direct extraction of data for the production of concise business reports and integration proved to be very painstaking and difficult task. This required the company to purchase additional software that would help curb this problem. The use of this ERP system and the complexity of the cost structure cost Exclusive Resorts additional costs in form of licensing fees. The difficulties associated with the Oracle software as far as integration was concerned prompted Exclusive Resorts decision of looking for an alternative ERP solution that would allow for easy integration with other system and at the same time minimize costs such as ownership costs. The goal was to find a suitable BI technology that could not only reduce costs, but was could be easily integrated with existing systems while offering flexibility and extensibility as well. The shortcomings of the initial systems adopted by Exclusive Resorts’ required a solution that could comfortably carter for the future and current needs of the company. This meant that, Exclusive Resorts’ needed to acquire a system that was easily extensible, customizable and could be easily integrated with other existing system. This, they found in Microsoft Dynamics AX.Microsoft Dynamics AX has a layered architecture, which provides for great flexibility and at the same time minimizes the fragility of the application. Effort and the costs associated with upgrades, updates and customizations are greatly reduced which reduces the overall cost associated with the ERP as opposed to other systems. Microsoft Dynamics AX was being implemented on-premises and the company learned that its IT personnel could offer supportmanage it together with other existing systems. The capability of MS Dynamics AX of integrating seamlessly with other key business applications enabled the company’s staff to access its capability and data without being aware. The company was able to abstract data location by making it simply and quickly available to the users. The results of such seamless integration includes cost cuts through the reduction in processing time, data entry redundancy and allowing for self service. Duplicate entries has been eliminated thus reducing the billing time cycle, improving the satisfaction of members and reducing the overhead costs. Analysis and reporting capability provided by the MS Dynamics AX have helped Exclusive Resorts move forward with the business. MS Dynamics AX addressed Exclusive Resorts key business requirements with stand atone capabilities as well as offering them the much needed integration capability with other existing systems. It also offered the capability of adding third-party applications and customizations. This alternative solution seamlessly met Exclusive resorts specialized business needs. Exclusive Resorts got valuable knowledge and experience as far as key components and capabilities of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) are concerned. The significance of an ERP solution being flexible, extensible and can readily be customized and integrated with other systems are some of the important lessons learnt by Exclusive resorts. They also noted the importance of on-premise implementation of the solution, which allowed for localized support by the company’s IT staff. The reduction of costs associated with remote hosting of the solution was yet another significant lesson learnt. By choosing the ERP solution, several key benefits accrue which include direct return on investment through improved efficiency and competiveness. Extreme scalability and extensibility add up to the benefits that accrue from a better ERP choice. Conclusion As the business needs of an organization changes so does the business intelligence and analytics tools do. Business Intelligence should not be considered as a one-off project but rather as a lifetime business process and a business principle. Business Intelligence requirements changes and evolves with the changes in an organizations business needs. Most BI projects in many organizations have flopped because they have been construed as being technology driven rather than being Performance Managers. Failures and challenges such as those experienced by Exclusive Resorts and the Clinic could have been avoidedeasily by considering them as Performance Management programs. The capability of ERP solution as a BI tool to easily extensible, scalable, customizable and can be integrated with other systems not only goes a long way to improve the efficiency, reliability and the competitive edge of the business but also leads to reduction of costs associated with ownership, upgrades, updates, and customizations. The success of a Business Intelligence solution such an ERP does not entirely depend entirely on the capabilities and functionalities of the system but also those of the system users. Concepts such as being aware of any needed real-time data, where they are needed and being able to align business process and decision-making are also key. Finally, organizations can employ approaches such as creating concise environment, which would allow for creation and access of specific queries analytics and reports without any assistance from the IT staff. Ensuring a Business Intelligence environment that address various business problems, needs, and support the information needs of users would make those dependent on that information efficient and self-sufficient. . Reference Electrosmart Ltd. (2011) The Business Intelligence Guide. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/index.php. Konitzer, K. and Cummens, M. (2011) CASE STUDY - Using Analytics to Improve Patient Outcomes and Billing Accuracy at Marshfield Clinic.TDWI. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://tdwi.org/articles/2011/07/11/case-study-using-analytics-to-improve-patient-outcomes-and-billing-accuracy-at-marshfield-clinic.aspx Microsoft Inc. (2011) Exclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Club Generates Rapid ROI, Enhances Services, Takes Control of Business. Microsoft Case Studies. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Dynamics-AX/Exclusive-Resorts-LLC/Destination-Club-Generates-Rapid-ROI-Enhances-Services-Takes-Control-of-Business/4000009718 . Read More