business intelligence &cloudcomputing

8/3/2019 Business Intelligence &CloudComputing

1/15

Business

Intelligence &CloudComputing

1


2/15

Business Intelligence

The following excerpt comes from an email from IBMpromoting their Cognos BI software:

On a smarter planet, the businesses that out-

perform will be driven by analytics. And IBMCognos 10 will be leading the revolution frommaking decisions simply based on historical datato predicting the future.

BI has replaced the term decision support systems(DSS)

A DSS is a computer system at the managementlevel of an organization that combines data,sophisticated analytical models, and user-friendlysoftware to support semi-structured andunstructured decision making.

2


3/15

Business Intelligence Definitions

Piccoli

BI is the ability to gather and make sense ofinformation about your business. It encompassesthe set of techniques, processes, and technologiesdesigned to enable managers to gain superiorinsight and understanding of their business andthus make better decisions.

Watson (2009, 391)

Business intelligence (BI) is a broad category ofapplications, technologies, and processes forgathering, storing, accessing, and analyzing datato help business users make better decisions.

3


4/15

Other Definitions of BI From Valacich & Schneider (2009, 312)

BI is the use of information systems to gather and analyze

information from internal and external sources in order to

make better business decisions. Business intelligence also

refers to the information gained from the use of such

systems. The need for BI is so that businesses can engage in

(1) continuous planning and (2) respond to threats and

opportunities.

Laudon & Laudon (2010, 226) define BI as:

Once data have been captured and organized in data

warehouses and data marts, they are available for further

analysis. A series of tools enables users to analyze these

data to see new patterns, relationships, and insights that are

useful for guiding decision making. These tools forconsolidating, analyzing, and providing access to vast

amounts of data to help users make better business

decisions are often referred to as business intelligence (BI).

4


5/15

Key Performance Indicators

Watson (2009) also discusses the phrase keyperformance indicators or KPI. In 1979, Rockartintroduced the concept of critical success factors(CSF). CSFs are critical measures that indicate afirm is on track to be successful. CSFs have beencritical components in executive informationsystems. Today the dashboards and scorecardsthat display how a firm performs have their origins

in Rockarts concept of CSF. KPIs are similar to the vital signs a doctor looks at

when examining a patient to determine the healthof the patient

5


6/15

Aspects of BI

A great deal of BI activity is related to data mining

Classification

Clustering Associations

Forecasting

BI also includes querying and report generation

BI also includes Online Analytic Processing (OLAP);Excel pivot tables on steroids

6


7/15

Aspects of BI

A great deal of BI activity is related to data mining

Classification

Clustering Associations

Forecasting

BI also includes querying and report generation

BI also includes Online Analytic Processing (OLAP);Excel pivot tables on steroids

7

7


8/15

BI and Business Analytics (BA)

From Simcar (2009)

The burgeoning field of BI/BA is the latest battlefieldfor corporations seeking to gain competitiveadvantage, or simply to survive in a fiercelycompetitive business environment. The focus is oncollecting data in real-time about a firms manybusiness processes (such as filling orders, hiring

employees, or purchasing supplies) and keepingtrack of exactly how the firm is performing in theseareas. Managers can react quickly to rapidlychanging circumstances as the need arises. This is thefield of descriptive analytics [or core analytics]. Themost sophisticated firms are attempting to go

beyond this and determine the effects of potentialchanges in their business processes. This is the field ofpredictive analytics. It allows firms to anticipatecustomer needs, create opportunities and beat theircompetition (293).

8


9/15

Core Analytics and Predictive Analytics

9


10/15

The Content Basis of BusinessAnalytics

10


11/15

BI References

Davenport, T. H. (2006). Competing on Analytics. HarvardBusiness Review, 84(1), 98-107.

Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2010). Managing

Information Systems (11th

ed). Pearson Education Inc.:Upper Saddle River, NJ. Piccoli, G. (2008). Information Systems for Managers. John

Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ. Sircar, S. (2009). Business Intelligence in the Business

Curriculum. Communications of the Association forInformation Systems, 24, 289-302.

Valacich, J., & Schneider, C. (2009). Information SystemsToday. Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ. Watson, H. J. (2009). Tutorial: Business IntelligencePast,

Present, and Future. Communications of the Association forInformation Systems, 25, 487-510.

11


12/15

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing refers to a model of computingwhere firms and individuals obtain computingpower and software applications over theInternet, rather than purchasing their ownhardware and software. The cloud can bethought of as a synonym for the Internet.

Examples of cloud computing

Software as a service (SaaS)

Utility computing Platform as a service

Managed service providers

12


13/15

SaaS and Utility Computing Software as a Service (SaaS): In this application, a company

provides customers access to software/applications on asubscription basis. The customer does not have to invest inhardware or software to run the application. The providermaintains the application and the hardware. Data resides onthe providers computers. The companies that provide thisservice are called Application Service Providers (ASPs).Providing enterprise applications has been a typical service.The reduced cost of this option makes enterprise applications

such as ERP, SCM, and CRM available to small and mediumsized firms. Google Apps and Zoho Office are examples of thistype of cloud computing.

Utility computing is a variant of cloud computing where acustomer can purchase their computing services (e.g.,processing power, storage, etc.) from remote providers andpay only for the amount of computing power they actually use(or can be billed on a subscription basis). Amazon, Sun, and

IBM offer this type of cloud computing.

13
http://www.google.com/apps/http://www.zoho.com/sharepoint/http://www.google.com/apps/http://www.zoho.com/sharepoint/http://www.zoho.com/sharepoint/http://www.zoho.com/sharepoint/http://www.zoho.com/sharepoint/http://www.google.com/apps/


14/15

Platform as a Service and Managed ServiceProviders

Platform as a service is a variant of SaaS where a company delivers adevelopment environment as a service. The customer builds anapplication that can run on the providers infrastructure and isdelivered to the companys users via the Internet from the providerscomputers. Examples of this are Force.com, Yahoo Pipes, and theGoogle App Engine.

Managed service providers (MSP) take on some of the day-to-dayrelated IT management responsibilities of a firm as a way to improvea firms effectiveness and efficiency with respect to day-to-dayoperations. The person or organization who owns or has directoversight of the organization or system being managed is referred toas the offer-er, client, or customer. The person or organization that

accepts and provides the managed service is regarded as theservice provider. Typical types of services are virus scanning servicesfor email, managed security services (SecureWorks, IBM, andVerizon), and anti-spam services (Postini).

14
http://www.salesforce.com/platform/http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/http://code.google.com/appengine/http://www.secureworks.com/http://www.google.com/postini/http://www.google.com/postini/http://www.secureworks.com/http://code.google.com/appengine/http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/http://www.salesforce.com/platform/


15/15

Strategic Implications of CloudComputing

Positives Cloud computing can reduce infrastructure expenses

relating to hardware, software, and people

You only pay for what you use Negatives

You dont control the infrastructure Privacy and security considerations Internet access must be reliable and service provider

must be competent Not advisable for firms in the strategic quadrant of the

strategic grid In the future, firms will most likely use a combination of

cloud computing and their own infrastructure

15

business intelligence &cloudcomputing

Documents