The purpose of this article is to give a brief overview of the role that business intelligence can play in the effective administration of an entrepreneurial adventure. In the briefest manner possible, I will attempt to explore some of the broader themes that run through this concept.

Many business people will know their bottom line. Occasionally this is just a case of instinct and talents. Alternative the director may have to attend a course or undertake significant management training to acquire these skills. A good manager will understand exactly how and when to maximize their business profits. Some might even have a very sophisticated outlook on things such as human resource management, contracting and cost based pricing. However the total sum of all the information that a business needs to functional decisions is called business intelligence.

Unfortunately in the current world of fast technology and extreme deadlines, there can be a tendency to ignore or even de-prioritize the business intelligence aspect of an organization’s general fabric. This is really about knowing your market, who and what you are up against as well as the ramifications of some of the decisions you make or choose not to make.

Admittedly it is a tedious process of research and may require a dedicated in-house or external provider to look at the data. There also needs to be a mechanism for storing and sharing the information that has been obtained. However economies of scale and the resultant structural efficiencies will normally offset some of the bureaucratic baggage that comes with some of these high end concepts.

For the prudent manager, technology will play an invaluable role in increasing the speed with which the relevant information can be gathered as well as the accuracy and relevancy of that information. Technology can also be used to disseminate the information and lessons learned in a bespoke way to each unit depending on their own specific requirements. Furthermore the idea of using technological tools will be particularly effective if, as is the case in most instances, the budgets for the business intelligence team are derived from strategic rather than project specific funds.

In conclusion for those organizations that intend to make business intelligence a reality for their day to day activities, it will be important to sell the concept to the key stakeholders such as decisions makers and end users. Resistance will be limited if the people on the frontline can see the results and positive impacts of some of the decisions based on business intelligence. In fact the failure to gain awareness about the issues raised may lead the business to close down due to bad results. I would go as far as arguing that the understanding and use of business intelligence is an essential aspect of a modern business.

The ability to make accurate and defend-able predictions will depend also on the ability to use mathematical computations methods such as data mining in order to collate relevant transactional and situational information. This is collectively known as business intelligence. Without the essential elements of information gathering, information processing and finally transferring that information to the decision makes, predictive analysis will not be effective.

There are some industries which virtually rely on predictive analysis to carry out their business. This normally occurs where risk is a fundamental aspect of the products that they sell. Examples include the insurance industry and credit facilities. In any given market segment, there will be quite a high number of potential applicants and business opportunities. Such businesses will need to make fairly accurate decisions about their potential customer if they are not to suffer significant loss.

A case in point is the application for car insurance where the insurer will use business intelligence to work out which particular customers are less likely to overburden the insurance company based on behavior patterns within their characteristic group as well as their own past conduct. If the insurance company gets it wrong, they will be exposed to high risk or even face law suits for discrimination. In this case business intelligence is being used to make day to business decisions even outside the strategic lines of management.

Generally speaking, the type of business intelligence that organization use will fall into the 3 main categories.

1. The 1st category includes the ones that predict customer behavior based on existing data about them and their peer groups.
2. The 2nd category includes the ones that describe customer behavior and preferences.
3. The 3rd category involves making a final decision about the customer based on both the predictive and descriptive elements of the model.

These classifications are just summaries of what can be an exhaustive analysis of data from a very wide spectrum of information both from within the firm and from industry resource centers. The companies that can consistently balance out these three elements will make good decisions most of the time and will consequently improve their bottom line. Once can then see that if senior executives neglect to streamline the quality of their business intelligence, they will be outperformed by more diligent competitors.

In conclusion it is evidently clear that many businesses rely on the ability to predict the behavior of both their customers and their computers. In order to make accurate predictions, they need to access accurate raw data and process it into meaningful messages for the decision makers. Market intelligence enables the organization to streamline data patterns and disseminate them in a useful format.