Intelligence & Performance Management
Putting business into business intelligence...
Many organisations find that they have mountains of data but little in the way of useful business information. Business Intelligence (BI) is a discipline that improves business decision making by employing fact based and data driven support systems. BI comprises the processes and technologies for collecting, managing and reporting decision oriented data. BI empowers business users and decision makers to solve everyday business challenges.
Business intelligence is a capability that when implemented correctly provides powerful insights and information on business performance. BI can be used in a variety of business and functional areas. Typical BI applications wouldinclude some of the following areas:
- Customer management
- Product pricing
- Supply chain pricing
- Operational cost management
- Service management
- Risk management
Curach Consulting offers a range of BI services from diagnostic assessments to full BI implementations. Regardless of the type or size of organisation, our focus is singular; ensuring business managers have the right information available to them when they need it.
Assessments and Diagnostics
The new best practice in designing and developing effective BI applications is to recognise the economics of BI. Given any functional and reliable business intelligence system, there is a point (which will vary slightly from one prospect to another) where incremental additions to the initial core application will increase total cost of ownership, with little if any marginal impact on business value. The key point is that there is a certain critical set of functionality required to deliver the majority of business benefits of business intelligence, and there is a point at which additional functionality will increase costs (in some cases very significantly) without additional business benefit.
At Curach, we recognize that the 80/20 rule applies to BI, and therefore our approach is to help a business discover their critical core set of business needs (the 20) and build the appropriate BI applications to address those needs in order to achieve the majority of the benefit (the 80).
Insight
The following Curach Consulting Insight describes our perspective on how to get value from investments in Business Intelligence: BI Assessment and Strategy
Success Stories
AIB
Curach Consultants were engaged by AIB Direct Banking to conduct a Business Intelligence Strategy and Assessment. The objective of the BI Strategy and assessment was to identify the 20% of metrics that will deliver 80% of the benefits. The team worked with senior management to identify the metrics, understand requirements for delivery, develop solution options and the Business Intelligence roadmap for delivery. On completion of the assessment our BI team conducted the detailed requirements and functional design for the solution.
The BI solution consisted of a consolidated data repository (Datamart) with Oracle Hyperion cubes and reports for delivery and presentation of information. This was viewed by Direct Banking as a key enabler for their new operating model and is expected to enable automation of info production which will ensure quicker turnarounds for information for management. It is also expected to focus the organization on the measurement and management of key performance indicators that will help realize its strategic goals thus increasing effectiveness within the business.