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Lessons Learnt: Critical Analysis of Case Studies
Essay Instructions:
In this module's case, you're going to explore some of what passes for conventional wisdom in the domain of business intelligence application, probably noting in passing that first, much of the advice may be contradictory although delivered with great passion and enthusiasm, and second, most of it manages to avoid any real confrontation with traditional management structures and decision procedures and priorities, concentrating instead on ways of manipulating information to presumably work around the organization rather than allow itself to point out shortcomings in the organizations themselves. This is not a course primarily about organizational politics—there is plenty of time in the rest of your program to come to terms with the old reptilian sub-brains of the organization that perpetuate power differentials, reward distributions only vaguely related to organizational priorities, suboptimization of organizational resource utilization, and all of the other weirdnesses that pretty much guarantee performance and satisfaction shortfalls and failures. But, as you may have surmised, even though it's not our main focus it is the key subtext for all these issues. Unless we openly acknowledge that decisions are largely political (in either the organizational or national sense) and that information is often more useful as a cloak for political priorities than as a substitute for them, the only ones we're going to fool are ourselves.
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Lessons to be learned from the Clinic and Resort cases about creating, implementing, and using Business Intelligence (BI)
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Lessons to be learned from the Clinic and Resort cases about creating, implementing, and using Business Intelligence (BI)
Introduction
In today’s modern world of business, businesses have limited choices not to engage in the use of information systems when it comes to decision-making. In fact, information stands out as one of the most important assets for any business enterprise that aims to realize competitive advantage in the market place. For any information to be useful in a business setting, it has to be sufficiently managed; or rather organized, stored and strategically utilized. As it is, the concept of Business Intelligence Systems (BIS) has gained unmatched relevance and importance in business enterprises of all fields of operation and in all modesty. Concisely, BIS involves aspects of electronic reporting and sharing of information as well as analysis capabilities that culminate in desirable Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) practices while maximizing Returns on Investments (ROI) (Liebowitz, 2006).
Business Intelligence is an overall term that refers to an assortment of tools, architectures, applications, mechanisms and databases that facilitate flow and processing of information within an organization. They guarantee that appropriate decision-making is undertaken based on available data and time limits. This in turn results into invaluable benefits to the company in terms of cost reduction and value creation in addition to effective planning and forecasting of activities and or processes. BI offers organizations the much-needed capability to analyze and assess trends within the business environment hence ensuring sound decision-making and ultimately improved overall performance (Liebowitz, 2006).. One cannot decline to accept that pieces of information relating to customer needs and preferences, product development, competitors and suppliers among other aspects of the business environment remain crucial for the realization of success by any given company. This is mostly because such will enable the company’s executives to make wise decisions with the intention of realizing profits.
Lessons Learnt: Critical Analysis of Case Studies
To offer an enhanced comprehension of Business Intelligence (BI), this paper draws focus from two case studies regarding the use of business intelligence by Marshfield Clinic and Exclusive Resorts Club. Both organizations are based in the United States with the former employing ‘SAP BusinessObjects’ BI software and the later using ‘Microsoft Dynamics AX’ as its BI platform.
It is clear that many organizations have come to realize the need for ‘Performance Management Solutions’ by use of Business Intelligence mechanisms. In today’s world, almost all aspects of professional interaction are conducted on the electronic platform. Ranging from documents transfer and storage, the use of e-mails, blogs and websites has become invaluable and unremitting. Without doubt, conducting business on this electronic platform has resulted in numerous benefits that include reduction of overall costs and expenditures as well as the creation of value in terms of delivery. More than ever, it is now easier to negotiate contracts with both clients and suppliers, owing to the use of BIS, these systems aid in ensuring all aspects of professional interaction are subject to specific checks and balances, eliminating over reliance on human capital-, which is subject to unlimited errors, in the process. As a feature of vast importance, contemporary Business Intelligence Systems (BIS) allow for visual interface of real time or regularly ‘automated’ updates of data. This enables business executives to analyze and access relevant data with much ease and speed, hence facilitating timely and pertinent decision-making (Chingmei, 2011).
In addition, BIS is useful in presenting vast amounts of analyzed data as clear information organized as meaningful reports, diagrams, charts or graphs. This enables a company’s human resources to spend little time doing their own analysis if information. In the case of Executive Resorts, Microsoft Dynamics AX has enabled the company’s management to be agile and proactive in acting upon shifting market trends and conditions based on available information. A comparison of this current form of BI with the former- Oracle System indicates notable differences that relate with specific business needs of Executive Resorts.
SAP BusinessObjects on the other hand has given great support and operational strength to Marshfield’s internal enterprise environment. As such, users are empowered with easy access to patient care data. This is especially vital, considering the urgency that is occasionally associated with accessing patient data within the healthcare environment. SAP BusinessObjects has proved to be an important tool for improvement and optimization of overall performance within the industry. The clinic’s operational efficiency has improved greatly since it shifted to having electronic patient records. Considering that most users of information systems in many companies are not ‘IT’ professionals, it is important that these systems be designed with interfaces that are user-friendly and highly comprehensible. Additionally, the use of gadgets like tablets at Marshfield demonstrates mobile Business Intelligence.
It is important to note with particular importance that BI tools equip an organization’s human resources with reliable strategic and tactical frameworks for analyzing organizational needs, especially when time is at hand. Such analyses have many benefits, all of which contribute to realization of value, efficiency and effectiveness (De Voe, & Neal, 2005). A specific lesson that stands out from the beforehand mentioned cases, is the apparent significance of the role of Information Technology (IT) in companies in today’s business environment. Both businesses reflected upon in the culmination of this paper rely on the mentioned Business Intelligence Systems for the management of their core business operations. For these companies and many others, it occurs as an impossible contingency for them to operate without making use of Business Intelligence System (BIS). The same goes for stakeholders including customers, suppliers and employees among others.
Both businesses mentioned in this paper require provisions for real...
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