Business Intelligence: Do You Know What to Do With Your Data?

Collecting data is important, but unless you have a plan to filter the noise in order to find out what your data is telling you – and acting on that business intelligence – then it’s just so many bytes.

Why Business Intelligence is the Answer to Big Data, Small Data and All Data Sizes In Between

Raw data can be very interesting, but unless you know what to look for, why it matters, and what to do about it, interesting won’t translate into business intelligence and strategic action.

Remember the phrase “garbage in, garbage out?” It was one of the early taglines applied to computerized data, pointing out that erroneous inputs would only lead to erroneous outputs, since computers will process data without question, whether it’s nonsensical or not.

Today, it might be more appropriate to think of the value of data in terms of relevance, not just accuracy. No matter how accurate the data available is, without an understanding of what matters, why it matters, and what you can do about it, business data is just so much noise. Conversely, by filtering out the noise and focusing in on the data that is important to your business, you can make intelligent assessments and execute strategic shifts in order to improve outcomes.

It’s Time for Big Data to Move Over and Make Way for Business Intelligence

What is business intelligence?

Wikipedia.com defines business intelligence this way: Business intelligence (BI) is a set of theories, methodologies, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information for business purposes.

Any number of formulas and processes might be applied to data in order to make business intelligence relevant for business leaders; such as:

• Multidimensional aggregation and allocation
• Denormalization tagging and standardization
• Real time reporting with analytical alerts
• Interface with unstructured data source
• Group consolidation, budgeting and rolling forecast
• Statistical inference and probabilistic simulation
• Key performance indicators optimization
• Version control and process management
• Open item management

Business Intelligence Tools Cut the Clutter and Tell You What You Really Need to Know

One of the most helpful tools business leaders can employ for business intelligence purposes is a filter. Filtering tools are programmed to be able to sift through all the ‘noise’ of raw and less critical data in order to bring the most important information to the forefront, usually displayed on some type of data dashboard.

Dashboards have been around for more than a decade as a business tool, but are perhaps coming into their own as a real time management – and even forecasting – tool, rather than just a reporting snapshot. Additionally, dashboards can be an efficient way for team members to assess the effects that their individual inputs are having, especially on a complex issue or where team members work independently or separated geographically.

We recently attended a lunch and learn hosted by Affirma (www.affirma.com), a technology consulting and staffing firm that assists companies like Microsoft, Boeing and the like. One of our most important take-aways was the realization that businesses of all sizes need to know not only what their most important metrics are, but also need to have an understanding of how they can leverage data to increase leads, improve conversions, spend money more efficiently, cut costs and operate more effectively.

Furthermore, having the ability to better manage and analyze data could be an invaluable tool to help a business discover trends and warning signs that could point to opportunities or problems earlier than they were previously able to perceive. The sooner that these signals are perceived, the sooner a business can take action in order to make the most of emerging opportunities or nip small problems before they become big ones.

Affirma is a leader in development and use of cloud-based computing, Sharepoint and other technologies. Their expertise led to development of a business intelligence tool they call Filter, which the company built in order to give business leaders a way to harness the power of data more efficiently and effectively.

Joel Wetzel, Affirma’s General Manager of Solutions describes these types of filters as noise cancellation tools. “We carry cloud-connected supercomputers in our pockets, so we built a an intelligence platform to take advantage,” said Wetzel. “Filter works on your behalf in the cloud, gathering and analyzing your business data. And when it finds a signal in the noise, it notifies you. Wherever you are, and with whatever device you are carrying. It’s noise cancellation for your business.”

What is Your Business Intelligence Telling You – and What are You Going to Do About It?

Ideally, you will use business intelligence to look for early warning signs that indicate problems are coming up, before they can hurt your business. You will look for trends that point to opportunities, or other markers that indicate it’s time to change course, implement corrective measures or take other strategic ‘if this, then that’ type of actions. For example:

• Signs that a location, division, or product is losing steam – or gaining ground
• Indications of customer or employee dissatisfaction
• Indications of a problem with production
• Warning signs that a vendor may not be able to fulfill current or future orders
• Trends pointing toward cash flow surplus or shortage that could impact operations
• Results that point to marketing campaigns which are missing the mark or coming in ahead of targets

The first step in moving toward this type of intelligence is to think about some of the problems you did not foresee in the past that hurt your business, opportunities you missed, competitors you would like to emulate (or overtake). Since hindsight is always clearer, look back to see where you missed data that could have helped you.

As you set goals for the future, shape your data, reports and dashboards so that you can see the types of markers that would have helped you prevent problems, overtake competitors or grow your business more quickly, so that you are ready – and waiting – the next time opportunity knocks!

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