Business Intelligence: Trends, Impact, and Practical Applications

This report explores the latest trends and impact of Business Intelligence (BI) on the industry. It covers research-informed literature, types of BI tools, practical applications and deployment, skills required for professional practice, and more. The report emphasizes the importance of BI in decision-making, improving efficiency, and gaining a competitive advantage.

DATA HANDLING AND
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Research-informed Literature......................................................................................................3
Knowledge and understanding of the subject..............................................................................3
Types of business intelligence tools............................................................................................4
Analysis.......................................................................................................................................4
Practical application and deployment..........................................................................................5
Skills for professional practice....................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
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INTRODUCTION
The report is on research conducted on current trends in Business Intelligence. The article
‘Realising the impact of business intelligence utilisation’ has been the base for the study. The
report goes through five sub-sections for completion.
Research-informed Literature
As per Liang and Liu (2018), Business Intelligence is a process that is technology driven for data
analysis and information which is actionable is delivered which assists managers, workers and
executives in making informed decisions of business. Being part of the BI process, organisations
do data collection from IT systems that are internal and other sources which are external,
preparing for analysis, running queries against data and creation of visualisations of data, reports
for making the result of analytics available for users of business for decision-making that is
operational and planning strategically.
According to Richards and et.al (2019), BI initiatives is driving business decisions better and
enabling organisations for bringing increase in revenue, improving efficiency in operations and
gaining advantages that are competitive over business competitors. For achieving the goal,
incorporation by BI for running analytics combination, reporting tools and data management,
plus methodologies for analysis and data management.
As said by Liang and Liu (2018), the BI architecture has inclusion of more than the software of
it. It is stored in data warehouse built for an organisation or in data marts which are smaller for
containing business information subsets for departments individual and business units tied to an
enterprise software of data.
Knowledge and understanding of the subject
Business Intelligence is a process which is technically driven for data analysis and information
actionable being present for assisting in decision-making for managers, the concept has become
prominent in big data availability. The integration of business intelligence is in work practices
which are regular and as a suitable tool for extraction of ‘big data’ in a way speedier for making
decisions which are correct. Dimensions include integration of data, capabilities which are
analytical, business process’ content quality and culture of decision-making.
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Business intelligence adoption is there in large organisations like companies which are public
listed and is unclear of the organisations for gaining system’s full benefits which can be brought
potentially. The study says that business intelligence mere adoption without utilisation
perpetually in business process which are important shall not be translated in business value.
Business intelligence impact strategically may be observed if use of it is by organisation across
the functional areas (Richards and et.al., 2019).
Types of business intelligence tools
It is a combination of broad set of data analysis and applications which have been designed for
meeting the information needs. The techniques used in Business Intelligence are as follows:
Ad hoc analysis: It is also known to be ad hoc querying and is a foundation element of BI
application and forms a feature of BI tools of self-service. This is a process of running and
writing queries for analysation of issues in business. The ad hoc queries are created typically on
fly and end up running regularly with result of analytics incorporated in reports and dashboards.
Online analytical process: OLAP tools help users for data analysis in dimensions multiple which
is suited in particular to calculations and queries which are complex. In past, data was taken from
data warehouse and storage is there in OLAP cubes, however, it is possible for running OLAP
against database (Božič and Dimovski, 2019).
Analysis
Business Intelligence use has a prominent and positive correlation with routine impact and
performance of organisation innovatively which is the impact on sales and marketing and the
impact on internal operations and management and procurement impact. Business intelligence
use assists organisations in helping organisations determining the trend of sales, monitoring of
requests of customer and complaints, anticipation of behaviour of consumer and demand in
market like reaching basic goals of reduction of costs, improvement in productivity, development
of product and increase in income.
Malaysian public listed companies being in an upcoming market of Malaysia which supported by
private investment and household spending grew to 4.9 percent, contribute significantly in
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economy of Malaysia. The use of business intelligence can have an impact strategically on the
performance economically of the public listed companies. The companies improve efficiency of
costs and on garnering more of revenue, financial performance of the organisation can be further
improved.
Public listed companies are also being subject to public concern pertain to business operations.
They have to follow a sustainable approach in business operations and think carefully of the
environmental impact while balancing profit. It has been analysed that use of business
intelligence may strengthen environmental performance in the public listed companies of
Malaysia. The companies may observe the impact strategically of diminishing impact of
corporate in environment (Božič and Dimovski, 2019).
It has been also observed that use of business intelligence can assist public listed companies in
contribution to human capital and raising employees’ morale.
Concluding the analysis, it may be said that business intelligence has helped the public sector
achieve growth through its real-time innovative methods. Efficiency has improved due to
business intelligence in companies. It can be recommended that specialised staff can be hires by
the companies for further progress.
Practical application and deployment
Use of business intelligence has a significant correlation and impact on routine performance with
impact on sales and marketing, impact on internal operations and management and also impact
on procurement. BI being applied practically is done in the form of applications given below:
A) Mobile BI: The mobile business intelligence makes BI dashboards and applications on
tablets and smartphones. They are utilised for viewing data than analysing it, the mobile
tools are made with emphasis on usage. For instance, mobile dashboards display data
visualisations and KPIs which can be viewed on the device screen easily (Rikhardsson
and Yigitbasioglu, 2018).
B) Real time BI: In these applications, data analysis is done with its creation. This method
tells of the current performance of the companies and of the financial markets. Example
can be taken of the stock market operations. This process has involvement of data
streamlining and supporting analytics decision making with credit scoring, trading of
stocks and promotional offers being targeted.
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C) Operational Intelligence: The form of real time analytics helps in information delivering
to frontline employees and workers in operations. These applications are made for
helping in decision-making of operations and making fast action on issues. Example can
be taken of call center agents for resolving problems for logistic managers and customers
for easing distribution bottlenecks (Arnott, Lizama and Song, 2017).
D) Software as service BI: These tools make usage of cloud computing systems for
delivering data analysis to users in service form which is priced typically on basis of
subscription. The option enables organisations for deploying applications on cloud
platforms of different types to be taken as an example.
Skills for professional practice
For professional practice in BI, these skills can help achieve a successful career:
a) Problem-solving: Business Intelligence is not about data analysis, it is about creation of
strategies of business and solution of business problems of real world.
b) Specific knowledge of industry: There is requirement for having a grasp of dynamics of
industry and proper domain knowledge can help in achieving success. Technical
knowledge of cloud computing is a must.
c) Data Analysis: One has to be good at examining different data sources for making
decisions which are better. Online tools such as OLAP being known how to use by
candidate can help in ease of understanding of BI operations (Rikhardsson and
Yigitbasioglu, 2018).
d) Communication skills: In BI, there are opportunities of front end, and there is
responsibility of explaining technical concepts to people from non-technical background.
e) Business acumen: There has to be good knowledge possession in candidate of business
models and tailoring efforts for gaining value that is maximum from KPIs.
CONCLUSION
The report discussed on all the five sub-sections and emphasised on business intelligence and its
impact on industry. Trends and impact of BI were also emphasised in report.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arnott, D., Lizama, F. and Song, Y., 2017. Patterns of business intelligence systems use in
organizations. Decision Support Systems, 97, pp.58-68.
Božič, K. and Dimovski, V., 2019. Business intelligence and analytics for value creation: The
role of absorptive capacity. International journal of information management, 46, pp.93-
103.
Liang, T.P. and Liu, Y.H., 2018. Research landscape of business intelligence and big data
analytics: A bibliometrics study. Expert Systems with Applications, 111, pp.2-10.
Richards, G., Yeoh, W., Chong, A.Y.L. and Popovič, A., 2019. Business intelligence
effectiveness and corporate performance management: an empirical analysis. Journal of
Computer Information Systems, 59(2), pp.188-196.
Rikhardsson, P. and Yigitbasioglu, O., 2018. Business intelligence & analytics in management
accounting research: Status and future focus. International Journal of Accounting
Information Systems, 29, pp.37-58.
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