Billions wasted on Business Intelligence Solutions?

Brand Killer Robots reveal::

Much is placed on the need for more accurate, more concise, more timely reporting mechanisms for supporting business decision making. Much is placed on the analyst to define and assimilate the supporting business intelligence technology and the nature and scope of the resulting data output. Much is placed on the need for the executive team to have the very best decision support systems at their finger tips.

Billions are spent on extracting, importing, processing and representing this data.

Billions are spent on ensuring analysts have everything they need to do their jobs effectively.

The world is an analysts paradise, with a wealth of data at their finger tips.

All they need do is reflect the integrity and substance of the matter, without tainting it with bias or incompetence in any way.

As time goes by, we begin to see teams of analysts grow in the centre of the organisation. These analysts become the nerve centre of the organisational intelligence highway. Their distilled reports are fed straight up the spinal cord of the business, right into the executives memory banks.

Billions are spent on building external Business Intelligence sources and feeding them into the correct entry points in the organisation. Which are again fed into the belly of the organisation where the analysts live and then reconsituted and fed up to the brain.

There is no garbage here, there is simply distilled information coming fast in and fast up....

But what of the questions of why and how much?

A recent study of 10 major organisations revealed that none of them had an expert capability for analysising the analysis techniques used and for assessing the effectiveness of the methods applied for modeling and presenting the data to corporate executives. Neither did any one of these organisations conduct return on investment studies for their B.I.

Worst of all was none of the company directors studied understood in detail how metrics and indicators were derived from the data!!!!!

Lastly, it was found that none of the companies had an active programme for brainstorming new metrics and indicators and refining existing ones.

So we ask, Are Billions being wasted on Business Intelligence Solutions?

Why industrial espionage is getting easier thanks to Business Intelligence Software!

Brand Killer Robots reveal::

I was invited to a presentation once by one of the worlds leading experts in the development of business intelligence tools, otherwise described as the technology and practice of applying information to make decisions. I learned quite rightly that in order for information to be usable, it must be trusted, timely, relevant, easy-to-use, and in context. I learned that executive dashboards could be used to put information in context, and in an easy-to-understand format.

I learned that different tools share the same answers to the same questions, gain more value from your information investment, and make better decisions.

It was truly the answer to the totally "information empowered"enterprise, where the personnel had the answers at their fingertips and the executives could spin problem models around in every which way and paint pictures on the data points and set traffic light indicators where numbers went above and below the pre-set threshold.

One of the people presenting was a young man from a blue-chip insurance company. His job was to tell a story to the audience, from a customers perspective about how the company he represented had maximised the return on investment(ROI), from implementing these tools across about 40 different locations across the world.

He had prepared an excellent presentation and even showed us how it was possible to slice and dice a high level data cube, whilst connected via the Internet, using a wireless laptop connection. In fact he got so carried away that he spent over an hour taking questions on the numerous features that were available in the analytical software. Essentially he was showing us a high level snapshot of underwriting performance data, categorised by Broker, Product and Sales Location.

Once he had finished he asked the audience if they had any questions. It seemed appropriate to stand up, as the previous questioners had done before. Bear in mind that there were about 200 other people in the room, most of whom were from the banking and insurance industry.

"Yes", he said, "what is your question?". I felt myself getting ready to sit back down again, in shame of the question i was about to ask. But i decided to stay standing given i had been invited to share my opinion as a security consultant - and i just couldn't help myself but to ask...

"Well", i said, "is it ok to ask a question on the security aspects of your presentation?"

To which he replied.. "yes of course".

"Well", i said "Why is the Loss Ratio at 95% on your Label V Taxi insurance product, when i know for a fact that a motor insurance underwriter not that far away is flying at around 70%?" I said, "don't you guys know how to run a motor insurance business?".

To which there was a gasp, a series of muffled chuckles, an uncomfortable silence (which seemed to take an age to revive), followed by a rather hurried end to the proceedings.

My point was of course less to do with showing them how stupid they were by using live data in a presentation to competitors and more to do with the dangers of using BI software. By dragging and dropping a few dimensions over a fairly simple data cube, it is possible to gain access to data that in the past would have been locked behind green character based screens, in the bosses head - or better still - locked away in 100 cupboards upstairs.

That's why corporate espionage is getting easier. Thanks to Business Intelligence Software.