[Business Intelligence as an Effective Business Tool] [Student Name] [School] [Course/Number] August 22, 2012 [Instructor Name]

Purpose When we talk about a knowledge-based economy, a fast and complete understanding of business is very vital, because of the emerging laws of the competition, high intricacy and acceleration of change. The current study centralizes its attention on a term known as business intelligence (BI). Its the ability of the organisation to take all its capabilities and convert them into knowledge for managerial efficiency. The primary goal of BI is to provide the management with the data and insight which is essential in understanding companies most pivotal business prospects and threats and what should be the role of a company in the light of possible changes. BI mainly deals with a very ancient management problem, and it has been originated from in the different conventional methods. Although the term BI is popular and used in the corporate world and consultancy language, there has not been any concrete concept of BI. The thesis evaluates BI as an instrument for the management of business data in giant enterprises. The empirical goal of this study is to enhance general awareness and its progression, form and operation in giant corporate sector. At the same time, the thesis appraises strategies for the management of BI, merging of a BI procedure into strategic management and the usage of man power knowledge and skills. Adding to that the study
scrutinizes methods for evaluating Business intelligence, integration of a Business Intelligence process into strategic management and application of human-source intelligence. The study depends on three sources of information: case studies with observations and interviews, literature-based research, and surveys. The conceptual structure of the thesis is based on the conventional

management literature and the latest BI data management literature.

Introduction and Background

The concept of business intelligence (BI) is a management philosophy and a tool that is used to help companies to manage and refine business information and to make more effective business decisions (Ghoshal and Kim 1986; Gilad and Gilad 1986). An intelligent company assures that managers utilize the information refined and then modify the way the company behaves accordingly. BI produces up-to-date information for both operative and strategic decision-making. There is no common conception of the content of BI; on the contrary, each author promotes his own idea of its connotations (Gilad 1996, p. 4). The theory refers to different procedures, methods, products or instrument to help taking decisions quicker and better. By the usage of BI, an enterprise can not only learn to anticipate actions of consumers and competitors but also different phenomena and trends in its market areas. Generally, the attention intelligence activities is on collecting, accumulating and evaluating extrinsic data. Nevertheless an enterprise should take advantage of the present data and knowledge within the enterprise. Hence, data about an enterprise itself and regarding its environment is vital, if the enterprise has to comprehend its present and future prospect and business surrounding. By blending high quality intrinsic and extrinsic data with the present knowledge of decision maker, concrete advantage can be availed. As is noted in the previous paragraph, the concept of BI remains ambiguous. Some scholars think of BI as more like market intelligence or competitor intelligence, which aim to gather and analyze useful information concerning just the external business environment of a company e.g., the market situation, customers, and competitors (Sawka 1996, pp. 4752; Collins 1997, p. 14; Mendell 1997, pp. 115118). On the other hand, some Information and Communications Technology-focused actors in the information system market have used a BI-related concept in naming their data warehouse products and such (Kalakota and Robinson2001; Moss and Atre 2003). One cause for the discrepancy is that, though

intelligence activities, in one form or another, have existed as long as there have been companies, boundaries amongst different terms are not yet very well established. Several firms now offer BI consultancy, system development, and news services in Canada. The common mission of all of these actors seems to be to refine and provide relevant business information. In most Canadian companies, BI is used to refer to both informationtechnology-based systems and actual information management processes (Pirttimki, 2002). Liautaud (Siltala 2005, p. 10) states that Finnish BI markets have animportant role and are going to continue to do so in the future. One reason for this prediction of growth is that Canadas ICT infrastructure is among the most developed in the world. In addition, Liautaud (ibid.) notes that Canadian companies and even the public sector use ICT tools highly effectively in comparison to what average companies do globally. Knip and Fleisher (2005) also highlight Canada as one of the worlds most advanced countries for intelligence. Project and Study Details BI has been analysed in a constrained manner till today in the field of scholarly literature, though there has been a necessity of research for a long time. Hence, mostly the attention of this study is to supply business managers as well as the scholars with the developed comprehension of BI creating general framework of the present condition of BI in giant Canadian enterprises. The thesis also tells us the latest data and more accurate description of BI based theory and topics. The study is made up of 6 analytical papers, which are interrelated with one another with respect to subject matter, ways of research, times and information, and also the papers are designed freely to present accurate analytical goals in various academic works. The analytical procedures are entirely different from each other in all the six studies; the proceedings as well as the procedures are independent and are chosen to scaffold the different

goals of the 6 different studies. The papers form a central part of the aid of the dissertation. The samples used for analysis in the survey research would be the 46 largest Canadian companies by sales revenue in 2009 as well as the top 40 in 2011. The firms researched in both studies would be split into three groups by way of line of business: trade and services, industry and information and communication technology (ICT).

Deliverables The key focus of this study is not on any particular intellectual techniques, ways or set up; but this study targets to create new and strong understandings on BI in Canada. Though the primary scope of the academic work is very large, the study sites some example and discoveries of empirical studies in this area. . The observed data of this study is based on two single-case studies and two surveys. In the surveys, I plan to approach companies from the top 50, by sales revenue, in Canada. Also, the companies studied in the case studies will be large-sized. There has been relatively little academic research into Business Intelligence in Canada and in global level. Steadfast intellectual literature and academic work are not in depth and they serve only business goals. Eventually, maximum publication in that place depends on consultant work. Because of that, there has been a pivotal necessity of scholarly BI research. This study examines Business Intelligence as a tool for handling business data in large Canadian companies. The primary goal of the study is to amplify the general awareness of BI and its development, form and utilisation in large Canadian enterprises. In addition to that, the evolution of BI is also demonstrated. Limitations & Obstacles

I intend to survey the top Canadian companies by sales revenue in for my research. Not only that, the enterprises which will be observed are large. So the scope of the thesis is restricted to large Canadian enterprises and the result cannot be extended to small enterprises in Canada or enterprises present in other countries, without any in-depth analysis. The research, however, does give examples of the usage of intelligence happenings in a small but competitive and developed country. The study on the whole does not highlight any particular industry but the of scope of the case studies is limited. Despite of the constraints, the focus of the research is kept as broad as possible. Actually the study offers goals which could be applicable to Canadian enterprises and enterprises in other corporate sectors or countries. Proposed Time-line It would take about two months time to do a serious research, explicit analysis of the subject matter and to accumulate information so as to complete the entire project. References Ghoshal, S. and Kim, S. (1986). Building Effective Intelligence Systems forCompetitive Advantage.Sloan Management Review. Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 4958. Gilad, B. (1996). Strategic Intent and Strategic Intelligence.Gilad, B. and Herring, J. P.(Eds.).The Art and Science of Business Intelligence Analysis. Part A: BusinessIntelligence Theory, Principles, Practices, and Uses. JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, pp.321. Gilad, B. and Gilad, T. (1985).A Systems Approach to Business Intelligence.BusinessHorizons. Vol. 28, No. 5, pp. 6570. Gilad, T. and Gilad, B. (1986). SMR Forum: Business Intelligence the QuietRevolution.

Sloan Management Review. Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 5361. Collins, R. J. (1997). Better Business Intelligence: How to Learn More about YourCompetitors. Management Books, Chalford, UK. Mendell, R. (1997). Using Intelligence Wisely.Security Management.Vol. 9, pp.115118. Sawka, K. (2000). Are We Valuable? Competitive Intelligence Magazine.Vol. 3, No. 2. Kalakota, R. and Robinson, M. (2001).e-Business 2.0: Roadmap for Success.AddisonWesley, Boston. Moss, L. and Atre, S. (2003). Business Intelligence Roadmap: The Complete ProjectLifecycle for Decision-Support Applications. Addison-Wesley, Boston. Pirttimki, V. (2002).Liiketoimintatiedonhallintasuomalaisissasuuryrityksiss.Master of Science Thesis.Tampere University of Technology, Department ofIndustrial Engineering and Management, Tampere, Finland. Siltala, T. (2005).BI kohentaasuorituskyky.Tietoviikko. No. 15, p. 10. Knip, V. and Fleisher, C. S. (2005).As the Globe Spins: A Benchmark Examination ofCI in 15 Key Countries.Presentation at SCIPs 20th International AnnualConference & Exhibition. Chicago, April 69.