Assignment on Business Intelligence and Data Analytics

Running head: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND DATA ANALYTICS
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND DATA ANALYTICS
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND DATA ANALYTICS1
Executive Summary
The global economy is advancing largely and it is with reference to this that, all the business
enterprises would be essentially required to come up with the technology to deal with the
competition. This may assist them in gaining a competitive business environment. The focus
of the report is to highlight the way in which the different business intelligence and the Data
analytics generally have an impact on the business functions. The report follows a systematic
format whereby the Introduction is followed by the analysis of the Business operations and
the concepts have been discussed. This is then followed by the discussion on the impact of
business intelligence and data analytics on the business functions. Certain recommendations
for the same have been provided.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND DATA ANALYTICS2
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Current Business Intelligence and Data Analytics.....................................................................4
Description.........................................................................................................................4
Critique...............................................................................................................................6
Advantages.........................................................................................................................7
Business Functions.....................................................................................................................9
Human Resource Management..........................................................................................9
Marketing.........................................................................................................................10
Finance.............................................................................................................................10
Production........................................................................................................................10
Impact of business intelligence on business functions.............................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................16
Recommendations....................................................................................................................16
References................................................................................................................................19

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND DATA ANALYTICS3
Impact of business intelligence/data analytics on business function (human resource, finance,
marketing, production, etc.
Introduction
Globalization has changed the business era entirely and it is due to this reason that, it
becomes increasingly critical for the different organizations to step up their operational
procedure and improve the overall competitive environment (Moro, Cortez & Rita, 2015).
Therefore, it can be considered increasingly important for the organizations to undertake
considerable measures and adopt the advanced technology so that they will successfully be
able to compete with the different competitors present in the external environment of the firm
and along with this, will be able to make the operations more efficient. The business
Intelligence technology can be mentioned to be highly efficient as they assist in assisting the
top managers, the operational employees as well as the senior management in not only
improving operational measures but also take critical decisions, cut the costs of the firm or
identify those lagging procedures, which require re-engineering (Wang, Kung & Byrd, 2018).
The business intelligence is beneficial for the firm as it assists an organization in
understanding the needs of the various customers rather effectively, allows to drive
performance and the revenue earned by the business, grade the leads of the firm, identify the
different sales trends, provide the personalized services rather efficiently and lastly gain a
competitive sustainable advantage (Wamba et al., 2017). Hence, this paper is focused towards
highlighting the manner in which the different enterprises present in the economy tend to
make use of the current business intelligence as well as the data analytics. Additionally, a
critique of these tools along with the advantages of the tools shall also be presented. This will
then be followed by the discussion on the manner in which the business functions are greatly
affected by the business intelligence. Certain set of recommendations shall also be provided.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND DATA ANALYTICS4
Current Business Intelligence and Data Analytics
The concept of Business Intelligence combines the elements of business analytics,
visualization of data and infrastructure in order to aid a business organization to make data
oriented decisions (Sauter, 2014). The technologies and strategies utilized by business
organizations for the purpose of data analytics are comprised within the scope of business
intelligence. Data analytics further involves the process of collecting, transforming, cleansing
and modeling of data for evaluating significant information to produce data oriented
decisions for business organizations (Fan, Lau & Zhao, 2015).
Thus, it can be said that the concepts of business intelligence and data analytics are
interrelated to enhance the decision-making processes conducted to improve the efficiency of
business functions and operations (Duan & Xiong, 2015). The function of data analytics is to
convert the gathered raw data into useful and structured information. Hereafter, it is the role
of business intelligence to utilize technology and strategies to process and analyze the
information and data for the purpose of decision making.
Description
Business Intelligence is often considered to involve a variety of elements and process
pertaining to the gathering and processing of data (Laursen & Thorlund, 2016). These
processes in turn help in the improvement of the performance of the business organization.
One of the preliminary functions of business intelligence is data mining, which
includes the process of using statistics and databases to determine the trends of business in
various sectors. For example in the retail industry, the process of data mining involves the
collection of data to produce useful information about trends in product sales, customer
preferences, periods of peak traffic, supplier demands and the like to aid the organizations in
the sector to strategize their business activities accordingly (Raju, Bai & Chaitanya, 2014).

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND DATA ANALYTICS5
Following the process of data mining, business intelligence involves reporting of the
gathered information to the stakeholders of the organization, to enable them to analyze the
trends perceived and make appropriate decisions (Wixom et al., 2014). Based on such
decisions, the performance history of the organization and its functions is compared with the
goals and predictions of the decision taken. For example, in the retail sector, the process of
benchmarking performance standards based on previous history and the evaluation of current
trends helps the organization to establish sales and overall performance targets.
Establishment of performance targets and benchmarking is followed by a process of
statistical evaluation to ensure that the targeted outcomes are achieved by the organization.
This process further engages in the comparison of the previous records of performance with
the current trends and performance of the organization to produce useful data regarding it
utilization of resources and returns from it. Such data is then visually analyzed and
communicated to the members of the organization to provide them with an insight about the
efficiency of the business activities (Larson & Chang, 2016). Finally, the data is then utilized
to make decisions regarding the future prospects of the organization and changes in its
operations.
Data analytics, on the other hand, involves certain processes that help in the
transformation of raw data into comprehensible patterns of information for the purpose of
decision making by business entities. These processes include the collection of the inputs
required for analysis. Data is then collected from a variety of sources following methods such
as open-ended surveys, direct observation, interviews, focus groups and the like. The data
thus collected is then processed in an organized or structured manner for further analysis.
Following this process, the structure is cleansed of any repetitions or errors and then explored
for the establishment of useful information (Choi, Chan & Yue, 2016). The product of the
analysis is then utilized for decision-making. For instance, in the retail sector, data analytics