Whats in Business Intelligence for me?

A good decision is a strong start of every business project. Every manager has to make

fact-based decisions according to the Big Data. However, big data is dirty, there is some

inaccurate, incomplete or incorrect data which may confuse managers. It is not only hard but

also time-consuming for people to make good choices in a short period of time because of the

complexity of Big Data. Therefore, people need Business Intelligence to assist them to make the

right decisions in specific circumstances. One of most important job for our Information Systems

student in the future is to make optimum plans for companies with the help of Business

Intelligence. The core of Information System major is data analysis with Information

Technologies, and Business Intelligence is just the way to convert abstract data into detailed

plans. In other words, in order to ensure that companies are moving in the right directions, we

need Business Intelligence.

Business Intelligence includes all kinds of applications and technologies for gathering,

storing, analyzing data to help business users decision making. Among these applications, the

application which interests me most is the Decision Support Systems(DSS). Decision Support

System, just as its name suggests, it support the users to make good decisions with the models

and data. Models are something represent abstractions based on reality and experience. This

system simplifies the processes of making decisions both in work and in daily life.

Business Intelligence is very common in business world. For example, every time

consumers make a purchase, there will be a record in Amazons database. By the data

collected from every purchase, the system can tell the managers which ones are the most

popular products recently and which ones are not. Then managers would increase the

production of the products in great demand and decrease or stop the production of the

unpopular goods. Moreover, the managers can use Data Mining to find some unknown patterns

about the consumers behaviors. In the Beer and Diapers Theory, we cannot find any
connections directly between beer and diapers, but the data tells us that husbands usually take

one bottle of beer after they buy the diapers for their babies. Then what the supermarket should

do is to put the beer close to the diapers. As a result, both of the two products sales will

increase.

As we can see in Excel, there are many tools provided to help us make scientific

analysis to optimize decision-making such as Sensitivity analysis, What-if analysis and Goal-

seeking analysis. These tools use existing models to get the given objectives like minimizing the

fixed cost to run a factory or maximize the profit. These objectives are the goals of our plans.

For instance, if a motor company produces two kinds of cars which are Car A and Car B. Each

kind of cars has its unique cost and price. We should take the limited budget into consideration

as a constraint. It is easy for managers to get the demand of Car A and Car B by analyzing the

purchase history from the database. In this way, we build a model. This model also be built by

Excel right after we input the data. There are two constraints, the first constraint is that the cost

cannot exceed the budget, the second one is that the sale of Car A divided by the sale of Car B

cannot exceed a certain ratio. This ratio, in this example, is the average sale of Car A divided by

the average sale of Car B in one year. In most cases, the constraints and the formula are

derived from the data in a very complex process because of the incredible volume of data, but

manager can get the information they want from Digital Dashboard, which is also an application

of Business Intelligence. The last step to get the best solution is to input the variances,

constraints and formulas into the Excel, then the suggestions will be given by Excel

automatically to reach the objectives. In this question, Excel will give the managers the certain

numbers of Car A and Car B that they should produce to maximize the profit. Above is one of

the example of how the Decision Support System works.

The process of decision-making becomes faster and more convenient with the help of

Business Intelligence. Once you input the relevant data, Decision Support Systems will show
you the specific kinds of information you want to know in order to make right decisions. The

system will give you some recommends based on the trend of the related data. Many

departments including Accounting, Finance and Marketing apply Business Intelligence in their

work to increase their work efficiency now.

Although there are lots of benefits to use Decision Support Systems, many problems

may occur if we are overly dependent on this system. Decision Support Systems make

decisions by the relevant data. If we input the incorrect data into the system. It will absolutely

give us some bad suggestions which may mislead the companies to a wrong direction. For

instance, a company get a data sheet about the relationship between employees shoe sizes

and their work efficiency. If we think about this data sheet by common sense, there is no

connection between the two variances. However, if the managers analyze this data by Decision

Support Systems without thinking, the problems arise. The system may show that the bigger

shoe sizes the employees have, more efficient they would be in their work. This conclusion is

ridiculous but it is just the thing you can get in the data. According to this conclusion, the

managers will hire the people with the big shoe sizes. And this decision will be a huge failure on

human resource management.

Business Intelligence has created lots of new job opportunities these years such as

Business Intelligence Analysts, BI Data Warehouse Developers and Business Intelligence

Engineers.

As a student in Information System, it is important to understand Business Intelligence

because BI is one of the foundation for us to analyze data in business. That is to say, whether

you can get jobs is relevant to the skills you master in Business Intelligence. To make a good

decision, you must combine your business expertise with the technologies in Business

Intelligence.
 In conclusion, in this era of information explosion, Business Intelligence will play an

increasingly important role in the future. Business Intelligence should be grasped by every

departments in every company. But remember, Business Intelligence can never take the place

of humans wisdom, we need both of them to get a practical solution.

 References

i. Kelly Rainer, Brad Prince and Hugh Watson. Management Information Systems Third

Edition University of Cincinnati Digital Technology in Business IS 2080C, P503-516. Wiley

Custom Learning Solutions,2015. Print. 06 Mar. 2017.

ii. ProjectEngageGuru. AI Expert System Project. YouTube. YouTube, 24 July 2013. Web.

06 Mar. 2017. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg6hLmuyQ54

iii. S.H. Ghodsypour and C. OBrien. " A decision support system for supplier selection using an

integrated analytic hierarchy process and linear programming. International Journal of

Production Economics, P199-212. Elsevier B.V., 1998. Science Direct. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527397000091

iv. Craig, Terence. "Tales of Beers and Diapers." Big Data Big Analytics. Big Data Big Analytics,

02 Mar. 2011. Web. 06 Mar. 2017. Retrieved from

https://blog.patternbuilders.com/2011/03/02/tales-of-beers-and-diapers/
v. "Goal-seeking Analysis." Computer Business Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

Retrieved from http://www.computerbusinessresearch.com/Home/decision-making/goal-

seeking-analysis