Select Computing - Business Intelligence
Clients:
US Health and Human Services
As businesses mature, the focus of management shifts from managing operational tasks to managing the process. The automation of operational tasks is accomplished using transactional systems with user front ends and database structures designed to optimize the management of atomic transactions. Managing the business process, however, depends upon abstracting operational data in order to determine trends. Once a trend is identified, steps can be taken to mitigate its side effects or to take advantage of its benefits. The effect is an agile, vibrant and competitive business that is responsive to its customers and the marketplace.
An important market driver is the trend towards web-based self-service. Customers expect more visibility into the handling of their transactions which in turn lowers customer service costs. Partners expect greater visibility in operations to optimize coordination of business activities. These new requirements are also addressed using the same techniques and underlying technologies originally developed for business intelligence..
Application systems that enable this business intelligence represent a specialized type that combine a number of different technologies. This combination is required to address the often disparate sources of data and the flexibility needed to present the data to its user. Through the Epiphany project management practice, The SCI Way stipulates the method for undertaking projects.
Often, business intelligence application incorporate web-based reporting. As web browser technology becomes ubiquitous and sophisticated, it is the optimal mechanism to deliver and present information on numerous types of devices, with the complexity of presentation distributed to the end-user device itself. Advanced solutions empower the end-user with multiple information delivery mechanisms, including self-service reporting and integration with office automation tools. Sophisticated implementation further expand on the interface by providing analytic dashboard that abstract large volumes of data into actionable indicators or scorecards.
Organizations usually concentrate on implementing single transactional application at a time. Even in the broadest thinking organization, shifts in the marketplace result in new requirements for system solutions. Most common, as organizations implement off-the-shelf solutions, the resulting collection of legacy custom system and package solution inherently contains redundant data. Creating the information platform of a business intelligence solution requires the identification and access of the right data from the right source at the right time. Specialized middleware solutions exists to enable data access across multiple technology platforms and its integration into a meaningful information base for business intelligence.
