Introduction
The Business Intelligence system is integrated with analytical systems that provide the function answers to various business needs. The analytical systems that should be contained in the BI should be highly developed, performance-based, tightly integrated, and readily available for use in analytical and warehouse purposes. Examples of software that should be integrated into the BI to offer analytical solutions to their users include Excel, Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005, ProClarity Analytics 6, dashboard, and Microsoft Office PerformancePoint. The applications are performance-based and once they are integrated into a business intelligence system, they assist the employees in planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, processing, and scorecard their actions with the help of Microsoft office system and SQL server technology. This greatly enables businesses to become more competitive and enhances the realization of their objectives (Morooney, 2005).
Business Intelligence program implementation
The process of deploying BI programs in any organization is likely to experience some opposition just like the implementation of any other change process. The best strategy to adopt in deploying the BI program in any organization is first to communicate the idea of the impending change to all those employees who will be affected by the deployment. This is important to psychologically prepare the staff. The implementation process should be carried out systematically. The process can be enhanced by selecting a team from every department which will be assigned the responsibility of overseeing the change process within the organization
Developing an atmosphere of change
It is generally accepted that there is no single strategy that can be employed to successfully deriver BI in an organization. The implementation of BI will involve a series of processes that are employed to create a conducive atmosphere for the change process. Since the initiation of BI in an organization is likely to change a lot of processes in the manner in which information is sourced, retrieved, and analyzed, it is important to create an atmosphere where the change process will be encouraged and appreciated as a forward step towards the realization of the organization goals. Because the change process will entail retraining of the staff to equip them with the new skills needed to adequately adapt to the new technology, everyone should be involved so that they feel they are an important part of the change process. This will bring the aspect of shared responsibility which will create a favorable context for change. Failure to ensure a favorable environment for the change process will result in resentment which will greatly affect a smooth change process.
The management should develop a vision which they should effectively communicate to the rest of the staff. This new vision will act as the guide in the realization of the change process. The vision should reflect the overall goal of the change process and the means through which it will be realized. The vision should be tailored to be simple for all the staff to understand and recite such that they can be in a better position to communicate it more effectively (OnTime BI, 2008).
The planning process and allocation of resources also play an important part in the implementation of the BI. The change process should be accompanied by the selection of a team that will be assigned the responsibility for overseeing the implementation process. The selection of the team should be done strategically to ensure that it is comprised of all relevant members from all the departments who can be in a position to influence the members in accepting the change process. The team should meet occasionally to review their progress and make appropriate amendments to the areas they are failing.
Implementation of the BI will be accompanied by retraining of the affected staff to equip them with the necessary skills to enable them effectively assimilate the new technology. They should be given appropriate practices to help them become competent and efficient with the new technology. Through the adaption of all these strategies, the implementation process of BI will be effectively realized (Deloitte, 2008).
BI system application to deliver analytics in an end-user package
Any BI system needs to ensure that it meets certain requirements such as high speed, visual interactive analysis from a variety of data sources to guarantee efficiency. The BI uses different techniques to enhance its effectiveness so that to maximize its utility to business entities. For instance, it occasionally employs the concept of embedding technology into core applications and business processes. This helps in enhancing efficiency and particularly in enabling those in the management to be in a better position to collect appropriate data and execute appropriate analyzes so that to forecast accordingly which gives the business a competitive advantage.
Alternatively, it is often used as a container particularly where organizations opt to use a dashboard. The dashboard enables users to have a central location to access their presentations, documents, and dashboards. Through this mechanism, single sign-on is allowed where users do not have to use multiple passwords and log to multiple applications. This is ensured by users being authorized to access a variety of related and unrelated information from a pivotal point
Currently, the BI is composed of an integration of relevant SaaS Applications that are highly integrated with internet technologies to provide the users with various interfaces that makes them more interactive to optimize their efficiency.
Problems and challenges related to implementing Business Intelligence
The deployment of BI has a major challenge related to developing BI with unstructured data. Approximately 85% of the data stored in BI exists as unstructured data and therefore accessing data in BI which is mostly stored as unstructured data becomes very difficult. For instance, a simple search of unstructured textual data such as the word apple results in all the links where the word is referenced (Deloitte, 2008).
Literature review
Both the contemporary literature and the seminar literature on the success of BI indicate that it is very instrumental in enhancing the performances of businesses. One limitation that is cited by both is its inability to account for the stakeholders’ perspective towards the success identified (Finney & Corbett, 2007).
The literature review involves a review of the work of other scholars. A literature review informs a scholar of what has been covered in a certain field. After reviewing the literature, the scholar becomes more knowledgeable on the topic. From the review of the literature, the scholar can identify what has been covered on the topic and thus, locate any gap that may exist. This becomes an important step for the researcher since the gap identified allows him/her for his/her future research to build on the knowledge of other scholars.
Reference List
Deloitte. (2008). Bussiness Intelligence. Web.
Finney, S. & Corbett, M. (2007). ERP implementation: a compilation and analysis of critical success factors”, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 13 3, p 347.
Morooney K. (2005). Business Intelligence Program Review. Web.
OnTime BI. (2008).BI Implementation. Web.