Business Intelligence in a Corporate Environment Essay Example for Free

duty recognition in a Corporate surroundings EssayThe purpose of this literature review is to deliver an over both perspective to the workings of crease instruction agency in a incarnate environment. With the on pitch of massive technological gains in the medieval decade the slaying of wrinkle apprehension has gr decl be accordingly. In the workplace the demand for credit line member improvement, responsive assembly line relationshiping, baseball swing edge foretelling, and national employment customer relations has triggered a fatality for a whole that watchs the melodic line unavoidably as well as the dissemble on order technology. This review testament center on the various argonas that argumentation organisation scholarship partakes in the workplace. There leave alone as well as be an idiom on ca utilize the longevity of these graphemes of building blocks. With these building blocks in the workplace interrogative moods concerning depa rtmental automation goals and the bear upon on the maturity date stages that argon involved with the existence of production line news social units. Finally, with the growth of info collection and ease of use, the security department and guidance of ships comp whatever schooling is intertwined with the operation of fear light.The Age of cultureThe Role of Shifting engineering scienceThrough emerge history technology has influenced the very fabric of business operations. The role of business countersign in this shift is the implementation and continuous improvement of that technology. This role is ever changing because technology continues to improve. While to more than(prenominal) or less the role of business recognition seems new and upcoming the usage and practice goes back to the earliest years of diligence. An example of this history would be in the automation assiduity. In years past large measuring rods of aim was do by hand. The role of the business analyst would be to collect and analyze the finished business performance from start to finish. Once this was done the analyst would narrow their focus to the individual in an tone- first to provide management with entropy to increase speed and efficiency. That role is now utiliseto analyze the administrations and machines that ar responsible for devising the products.While the example supra is simple the connection in the midst of the shift in technology and the role of business light is clear. With any business the desire for information is strong. To be free-enterprise(a) a follow inescapably to be aw argon of the business environment in which they go away. Business password serves to meet the information and improvement goals that drive the order to greater succeeder.For this literature review there is an hold write by Elliot poof that exemplifies the shift of technology and the role of business intelligence on it. magnate focuses on the large amount of com pany resources that be spent on the implementation, development, and management of business intelligence technology in the workplace. This attention has been drive by the increasing demand for much(prenominal) packet products and military force to manage them. Understanding this current shift King focuses on the role business intelligence has and allow continue to take in on the business that use selective information en mass.The denomination provides a scheme look at the history of selective information storage and mis designions be quiet to employee interest in accessing the entropy. This interest has more often than non been pushed down due to the complex nature of interacting with the information present within the entropy wargonhouse. With the explosion of the net and user assimilation to it these technical barriers are slowing beginning to fall (King, 1998).With the ease of use and judgement increasing employees are beginning to custody the rank of infor mation. This is where the role of business intelligence has thrived. Business intelligence has been implemented to bridge the gap between the employee and the business data stored in the warehouse. This is done through a variety methods that have do data more and more useful to the companies that have and utilize their data.King summarizes his clause with the attain fitting action that as the internet was openedfar and wide to all this should concept should be utilize to the data wareho development. While King understands that the two humanitys of technology are different he affirms that they are similar enough in nature that the resembling hail elicit be applied. Overall, the member provide a good look at how the shift of technology in business usher come forward fall the demand for remainss and the somebodynel that maintain and operate them (King, 1998). The impact of Business growthWith the growth of business the human has begun to shrink. No longer are companies th at employ a one hundred or even a honey oil considered to be impressive. In 2014 Bank of America was reembrasureed to have employed two hundred and eighty four thousand people to run its operations around the globe (Bank of America, 2014). The implications of companies of this size are amazing and have signifi ejecttly impacted the demand for business intelligence.To truly understand why a company would spend millions of dollars on business intelligence operations a simple example substructure be provided. For Bank of America individually employee is assigned a grotesque number or code that distinguishes him or her from the rest of the employees within the organization. On the other side of the t adequate to(p) each customer that has interacted with the bank is also assigned a unique identifier. If these are added together the quantity of unique entities starts to become astounding.The example above shows why a business like Bank of America would be heavily interested in util izing business intelligence as primed(p)s to manage the data associated with its business units. While the example provided only officees on parts concerning employees and customers the amount of data associated with those people can be mind boggling. For employees this data could be anything from human resource forms to holiday day requests. For customers the data could be products bribed, recorded securities industrying calls, net worksite interaction as well as a host of other areas.In 2000 Deborah Rowe an article that centered on business trends pushing database management systems to greater growth. Rowe focuses on the datawarehousing concept that has proved to meet a large major(ip)ity of business demands in terms of information management. The focus of the article is to apologise how get on with is pushing for advance and better(p) systems for managing data. The article dialog about how increasing competition has created a lean environment for data management. Compa nies that are complacent with their data are either failing or catching on to the wish for better interaction and usage of their data. Rowe delves into the mould of choosing these systems from a integrated perspective.The challenges presented by this type of implementation are rather glaring. These challenges include upfront cost, long term cost, and mismanagement of data. If a company chooses to implement a product that its employees dont understand correctly the effects can be devastating on the business. Hiring knowledge qualified employees to manage and implement the product is all-important(a) to long term success. With all of these hurdles of implementing a DBMS system the t involve can be daunting.Rowe discusses how the task of purchasing and implanting a DBMS require to be done with great caution and a clear focus. If a business isnt able to look further down the road and consider how the DBMS can be use in the proximo it exit fail everlasting(a)ly. Having a perspec tive that encompasses as such(prenominal) of the companies goals and visions is little. This is why companies are eer looking for individuals that are able to focus on a detailed system but be able to at the same time look at the broader scope of the companys wants (Rowe , 2000).In summation the article leaves the reader with an interesting perspective on the increasing demand for these systems. Rowe concludes that the ERP industry will grow and tremendous pace in the future. With that growth the get hold of for knowledgeable employees that understand the systems use and can translate the data to doctor business needs will continuing to increase.The increasing integrated demand. At its very core business is driven by two simple concepts. These are the laws of receipts and expenses. In business these two laws drive companies on a day-after-day basis. Popular opinion about theseconcepts can sometimes s office in either direction. Proponents may adjust all of their gage int o tax income extension while others will focus on creating the perfect lean business model.Whatever the theory or opinion is the law of tax incomes and expenses will remain the same. As discussed in this review the expenses of implementing DBMS systems and employing extremely skilled individuals can be massive. To a company that purely focuses on the expense side of the comparability these systems may seem like a waste of precious assets. To others who understand the future and current impact of these systems the last to utilize them is an easy one.Like the concepts of revenues and expenses the goals of a company can dictate the perspective of business intelligence units. The reason demand has begun to steadily increase over the past decade is the potential to affect both the expense and revenue side of the business structure. Business intelligence units are designed to support departments in ways that can amplify their current revenue production and decrease their expense hab its.An article written by Ken Rudin explains how corporate demand for business intelligence in their companies is steadily increasing. Rudin run outs about how business intelligence has become a very high priority for business executives who understand the nourishs they can derive from business improvement. This demand has grown to the point where corporate leaders are focusing on moving past the traditional business intelligence processes (Rudin , 2007) .Rudin explains the implications of this progressive thought process by paralleling the impact of software applications that software products have had on industry to business intelligence services. The word is foc employ on how executives are looking into custom company unique(predicate) solution provided on an instant. This type business process software is highly intuitive and seeks to provide all of the necessary tools needed to crystallise an informed business decision.Examples of these on-demand solutions are softwares li kes SQL Server Reporting Services by Microsoft. This software allows for not only the dis caper of information but the real time interaction with the data that the web services are pulling their content from. Rudin discusses how these types of solutions are not only catching fire they are exploding all over the business world. This explosion of demand is driven by the complexity of the data world pulled as well as the cost associated with the data creation collected and stored.This cost and complexity comparability is what Rudin believes is the come across piece to business intelligence demand. Like the example of revenues and expenses the idea surrounding on-demand solutions is the same. The question asked is, What can these solutions do that allow a normal employee to do their job at a higher take aim which in turns into a higher rate of return for their employer?Concluding Rudins article he discusses that a key factor associated with on demand business intelligence solution s is the usability of the product. Having solutions created that users do not understand or lose trust in can be a major drain on process improvement. Rudin emphasizes that the development of these processes needs to be done in such a way that they take into government note the users that are interacting with them. This is essential to developing a trust relationship between the users and the product (Rudin , 2007). Business Intelligence ToolsThe Role of ReportingReporting is one the about essential pieces of and type of business process. If a company sells laundry detergent it needs to know how much product it has, how much product it has sold, and how much it should produce. These collar simple questions speak to the ramifications of good reporting data within a business.There is so much information that is gathered by companies with the singular intent of providing reports for business decisions. This gathering is done in a way that the information collected in stored in some type of serverwhich houses a realistic warehouse. Like a physical warehouse it is critical to understand how and where something is stored so that it can be retrieved for future use.When it comes to reporting the challenge presented to businesses is the quantity and placement of their data. If a business is unable to utilize their data efficiently they are sacrificing business opportunities every plunk for the data is left idle. This quandary has been analyzed and the solution has been to purchase and employee people and products to provide this data in a useful format for business use.In a business intelligence unit a data analyst will focus on beginning(a) misgiving the overall goal of a report request. This is primary(prenominal) because the impact of creating something purely base on the request can lead to disastrous results. These can range from customers not understanding the terminology used within the reporting system to not grasping the capability or usage of the sy stem being used to provide the report.To devote sure these requests are understand correctly a business intelligence unit is commonly found implemented within a specific area of the business. This cultivates a broom knowledge between the highly technical nature of the reporting systems to the broad scope goals of a special business department. This type of side by side interaction can be a major benefit to not only getting more precise and accurate reporting it also serves as educating tool to the department through exposure.An article written in 2005 by Harry Debes explains this process in detail. The author of the article begins the discussion by emphasizing the importance of timely and accurate data. These two pieces are the bread and butter of business intelligence. The reason for this is that both factors are highly dependent on each other.Debes explains this concept by focusing on the energy securities industry and the application of business reports in this area of indus try. He shows that there various daily functions that are conducted that are in need ofconstant observe to allow for efficient operation. Some of the examples include repair requests, credit collections, meter usage, demand fluctuations, and around essential customers (Debes , 2005).All of the examples rallyd by Debes are common sense in nature but they require an blameless business process to strongly report on. Using the example of meter usage by having daily reports energy companies can identify issues establish on real time data and not be forced to swallow a catastrophe because of something as simple as mechanical fault. The problem could slowly be identified by a simple reporting tool that was programmed to expect a specific range of usage. If the range was violated the system would send an alert with a direct of priority found on the disparity of the ranges.The article written by Debes is a good example of how business intelligence reporting can be implemented in w ays that benefit the company at levels of the corporate ladder. From interactive financial data and forecasting to specific customer energy consumption and history authentic and accurate reporting in the energy industry is a very powerful tool that has been used and is being continuously improved upon for future endeavors (Debes , 2005). Impact of data driven ForecastingForecasting is an important an element of any business. At its most basic level it is simply looking to the future and make guesses to a specific result based on past and present data. This is where the role of business intelligence arrives. Data analysts like their namesake are paid to look at data and decipher how that data works and relates to the business.Once a data analyst is able to firmly grasp company data they can provide constructive advice based on the knowledge of that data. In addition to providing advice the data analyst can create reports that take past data and make estimations programmatically bas ed on definable trends. These reports can be provided through an assortment of softwares and displayed in formats that best fit the target audience.Having a system in place that looks to past data and provides usefulforecasts can not only give a company an idea of where they are passing they can also give an idea where their competition is exhalation as well. This ability to compare company performance to the market and project where the company is headed is critical. With timely and real forecasting a company can discern opportunities and threats within the marketplace before they even fare.With market competition becoming more and more intense the role of forecasting has been prioritized highly by most companies that operate on a large scale. This is clearly supported by an article written by Susana Schwartz about the greater need for more robust forecasting technologies. The concept of the article focuses on the bordering level of forecasting that business intelligence unit s are seeking to achieve.The author talks about how the undermentioned set of tools utilized by business intelligence units will be integrated into the business processes that have already been laid down. The key factors that are emphasized are the broad categories that these tools can influence. Examples of these are products such as SSRS by Microsoft, ARGOS by Ellucian, and APEX by Oracle.Each of these tools provide granular interaction with business process data while still being able to be applied to other categories. These tools are used to be the developing platforms that take the business process driven data and formulates it into reportable information used for forecasting. In the article these are the types of tools that Schwartz take ins when talking about integrated and real time driven tools (Schwartz, 2007).Concluding the article by Schwartz she emphasizes the foster of report generation. She talks about how even if the emphasis king be redundant the need to focus o n this factor is critical to accurate forecasting. This is because all of the past data collected is contained within the reports. Schwartzs realizes that for business units to understand any of the forecast data they need to be familiar with the data that has been collected and displayed within the provided reports (Schwartz , 2007). Data compendium and ImprovementThe core of what business intelligence does is data analysis and improvement. Both of these factors contribute to each other in a neer ending spiral of push and pull. When data is analyzed it is used to improve a process which in turn is analyzed. With this concept firmly in place understanding the role of business intelligence becomes clearer.As the facilitator of analysis and improvement business intelligence units are responsible for the flow between the two actions. When a department senses a need for analysis or improvement the business intelligence unit is used to facilitate that action. This indebtedness to faci litate these actions is what drives the demand by corporate leadership. As expressed earlier in this review having units that are constantly looking at moving the expense line down and the revenue line up is very beneficial a corporate entity.An article that was created in response to a seminar on business data analysis describes how this process is essential to the strategy development and future address of companys based on data analysis. The article provide insight into a bring together areas within the sphere of data analysis. One of these is building the foundations and structure of the husbandry within the company to watch over the data and make decisions off of it (Computer software .., 2012).This whole concept of creating a decision based culture is driven by the need for action in the market. If a company fails to take action on its corporate strategy it will fall behind its competition fairly promptly. The article discusses how through data analysis an attitude of dec ision making individuals can be created to promote action.The key of this data driven culture is the analysis that goes into making the data credible. Without credible data the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively is crippled. If employees cant trust the data they are working with they will begin to question the entire infrastructure based on a single data set. In addition to data analysis the article talks aboutimproving recruitment through data analysis tools. universe able to create a clear picture of who a person is before the expense of bringing them in for an interview can be a great time and money saver. This is done through congenital and external data analysis (Computer software .., 2012) .Once research is done on an individual the business intelligence units can categorize potential recruits and provide reports based on recruiters specifications. If an office manager needs someone with trio years of experience and a knowledge of a specific software system a tool can be created to provide that data in real time to the inquisitive party.When it comes to data analysis and improvement making sure that they are used in conjunction is essential for seamless implementation and continued success. An example of poor usage is providing a complicated and detailed report within a system that cant handle the data correctly. Even though the data itself is good the system used for improvement is poor. This can create animosity towards certain products and mistrust in data (Computer software .., 2012). Data managementThe term data management is something that has been thrown around industry the past few years. When this happens the real meaning of the terminology begins to take on a life of its own based on the perception of those trying to comprehend its true meaning. A clear way to explain what the definition of data management is to show the similarities between an industries accepted practice. Like employee management data management requires a certain style to correctly guide the direction of the data. In a department mountain a manager may spend time developing a plan that their employees will play specific roles in. The same is true with data management. Depending on the setting and usage data is set off in specific formats to meet highly granular needs. A good example is list of information that is associated with a companys employees. The data will stay the same but it requires a level of management to break into specific formats to meet different needs. The human recourse department might need the list as a reference sheet to pull information about quickly and efficiently. That same information could also be used by the employee development department to conduct surveys andgauge employee satisfaction.These examples are very simply but they do provide a good idea of how managing data in a succinct and efficient way can broaden its usage and usability immensely. There is an article written in the ledger of Digital A sset Management that describes the role of business intelligence on data management. This article provide a brief look into how the emergence of big data has pushed an emphasis on utilizing business intelligence units to provide levels of data management. The article talks about how business intelligence is beginning to play critical role in the storage, maintenance, and usability of the data. These three factors are critical in guaranteeing the reliability of information collected and scrubbed for company use. The first of these factors briefly mentioned is the storage factor. Arguably the most important of the three storage is the bucket where all unstructured and structured data is stored (Jordan Ellen , 2009) . Within the context of the article the authors describe how storage is the first step that business intelligence units have to consider when managing data. The tasks associated with this piece range from creating feeds to port information from various databases to creatin g tables and views within specific schemas.Within these tasks the question that is constantly asked is the question of available space. This question permeates each of the three factors but is most prevalent at the initial of data management. The second piece is the maintenance portion. This factor is most prevalent once data has been stored and refined into a usable manner. The article shows how this responsibility is what keeps business intelligence units in a critical role to companies data management needs. The tasks that pass away with data maintenance can range from eliminating old data, archiving, inputting new systems, and creating methods to encourage more efficient data retrieval and reporting. The final factor addressed in the article is the factor of usability. This concept is what non-IT personnel will focus most of their attention on when looking at data resources. Business intelligence plays critical role in getting the data into an understandable and usable format a t the customer level. This is the delimit piece of business intelligence focus. Employers look specifically for individuals who are able to translate the technical data from a database perspective and be able to make that information as clear as possible for non-information technology users (Jordan Ellen , 2009). Internal talksWhen considering things that business intelligence employees should do well is internal communications. In umteen companies business intelligence units will be the ambassador between the data and the customer. These individuals are responsible for understating the customers needs from an IT perspective. Once the needs have been holdd the customer needs to be made aware of how close or far away from their original needs are to the ones seen by the business intelligence personnel. Being able to discern what a customer needs is extremely important. The emphasis placed on cultivating effective communications between all parties is absolutely critical to getti ng the information needed to create or improve business processes. There are so more adverse situations that occur within corporate setting that could have been avoided by simply establishing channels of communications with involved parties. A good way to do this is to provide updates on the progress of the project. This can done by collaboration software, email, phone calls, and cheek to face interaction.By establishing a working and efficient internal communication structure customers are more at ease with the progress and process being developed. This is essentially a status gauge that shows that all parties are involved and have a say in what is happening. An article released by press outfit gives a good example of how companies are understanding the importance of internal communications and the role of business intelligence in it. Based on the trends within industry the article shows how the shift of technology has modify the way internal communications are done between IT and the various corporate departments. What has occurred in late(a) years is the need for new strategy development with business intelligence as key factors in these strategies (Business intelligence..,2001). From a corporate standpoint these new strategies have ushered in a different perspective of IT individuals in the workplace. No longer are individuals that work with databases left out of conference calls and meetings that determine company direction.The article clearly explains that the need for individuals with technical and corporate goal understanding need to have an opinion in new processes and strategies. These individuals are becoming more and more important because of their perspective on how technology is being used in the marketplace. The final portion of the article by press wire addresses an important decision thetransitioning companies have to make. The authors emphasize that decisions makers need to reshape their perspective of units like business intelligence and truly grade the opinions that are being shared. If this perception of the average IT worker from the 1970s continues to permeate a companys upper level management the likelihood of less opportunities and more threats to occur is much more presumable than competitors who are understand the shift (Business intelligence..,2001). Business Intelligence OutlookFrom a sustainable field outlook the question has been raised is whether business intelligence as a field is here to stay. In any profession this question has been and will be asked as the world changes. No profession is one hundred percent guaranteed that the field will continue to be useful to the society in which operates. This simple faithfulness puts into perspective the fragility of any profession.In regards to business intelligence determining whether the field is going to progress for years to come is difficult. Currently, the demand for business intelligence employees and or software is currently high. With many heigh t competitors in various industries searching for ways to cut cost and improve efficiency the current market outlook is good.On the flip side of this equation the risk for business intelligence to improve itself out of a job is a definite possibility. With new softwares being created the technical barrier created by big data is beginning to slowly fall. The threat to the field is that companies will purchase a customer based software that provides cookie cutter reports that can be used by non-IT users to make business decisions.An article by the journal of Journal of International Technology and Information Management touches on this topic and describes how measuring the effectiveness of business intelligence on a company can determine its future market outlook. The authors take a detailed look at how in some situations a business intelligence department has been effective for some companies while for others the effectiveness has been limited (Vinekar,Teng, subgenus Chennamaneni , 2009).The important factors that the authors cite for effectiveness center on corporate understanding of the role of business intelligence, implementation, delimit goals, and perceive value opinion. Each of these factors are cited because of they are all touched at the inception of the business intelligence unit within the company. Without these factors being addressed correctly the ability for a business intelligence unit to operate effectively is severely hampered.The first of these factor is the identity of the department. Just like meeting a person for the first time the impression created on the meeting is what defines the perception of the relationship. The article talks about how it is the responsibility of those implementing the unit to clearly lay out the benefit that the department will bring to the company as a whole. These individuals include directors and manager.This push stage is the first step in gauging whether business intelligence will be effective within a comp any. If corporate leaders understand the benefit of the unit and put their support behind it the initial reaction is more likely to be positive than negative. The caution that is applied to this variety is that if there isnt top down approval the unit will not succeed. The authors strongly emphasize the need for an executive push at the inception of the business intelligence unit (Vinekar,Teng, Chennamaneni , 2009).The second factor discussed by the authors is the implementation strain of a business intelligence unit. This is the first step to making a concerted effort for a business intelligence impact on a company. The authors talk about how this phase needs to be handled in a way that allows for immediate impact. The wise for this approach is that if the business intelligence unit can prove its value at inception the perceived value of the unit will be cemented in its early success.With this approach the authors also caution at the risks involved. If the unit is not lively t he likelihood of error is high. Just like theperceived value of the unit based on a positive rollout the same can occur for a negative one. The authors are inflexible in their idea that to make a good impact the unit needs to be prepared and aware of the tentative situation in which the unit is placed on the onset.The third factor is defined goals. The unit needs be able to clearly express their goals for improving the companys internal and external business processes. The article describes how the focus of the department needs to be grounded in the goals and direction set at the onset. This allows for an immediate understanding of what the unit hopes to achieve. The authors caution that without clear goals for the department the unit will not be able to work succinctly.The final and most important factor discussed in the article is the perceived value opinion of the business intelligence unit from the rest of the company. This perceived value is critical for unit to be able to pro vide opinions and trusted data. The reason cited by the authors why this value opinion is most important is because the opinion can be had by every employee within the company. The simple truth is that with more eyes watching the unit there is a higher level of critique applied to the actions done by the business intelligence unit (Vinekar,Teng, Chennamaneni , 2009). Departmental Goal ImpactIn most businesses the unit structure is scattered out into various departments that meet company specific needs. Examples of these include accounting, budgeting, marketing, human resources, RD, and many more. These departments all do things that are subject specific but require a certain level of overlap with the rest of the company. For example the budgeting and accounting departments are joined at various stages of the financials that the company uses.Having an understanding of these departments is very important from the perspective of the business intelligence unit. The reason business int elligence units need to grasp the subject impact as well as overall impact of departments is because the processes built usually touch more thanone specific department. What this means is that a data analyst needs to be able to determine what is best for not just one department but for all parties involved.With a macro perspective of the company the business intelligence units are able to impact broad free radicalings of departments. This in itself is a big benefit to the company as a whole. The reason for this is because the improved processes help promote better interaction between departments. This is like connecting various standalone silos to each other with an agreed on process.An article that addresses this departmental impact comes straight from the Business Intelligence Journal. The whole premise of the article is the authors argue that by assimilatory business intelligence units into departments these units can change the departments core business practices. This can be done by embedding individuals from the business intelligence department into other departments through the company (Elbashir Williams , 2007).The authors lay out a plan for making sure the company gets the best benefit when the embed business intelligence personnel in a different department. The authors talk about how it is important to make sure an understanding of the units function is clearly laid down before the unit is implemented. The importance of this is that the departments understand the business intelligence units are not directly under the units they are embedded in.The article makes it clear that to make the relationship work between the BI unit and the department the BI unit cannot be under the department they are servicing. The rational for this is that if the BI unit is under their own department they will be less inclined to esteem a department when building a business process for multiple departments. This is important because it allows the business intelligence employees to say no to things that might be requested out of ignorance or selfishness.The second step for success when embedding a BI unit is to establish therelationship. The authors describe how important it is to set up the way communication is supposed to occur. In most situations it is important to have the directors of the department as the individuals responsible for setting up the proper channels. The benefit of this is that it forces employees to acknowledge the support of the departments directors. This means the BI unit will be able to get the information they need from department employees to formulate effective business process improvements (Elbashir Williams , 2007).The final piece that the article discusses is how much leeway the BI unit has to make departmental decisions. In some cases the BI unit make most improvement decisions based on technology understanding and departmental trust. In others the unit has little leeway and requires approvals from the department t o enact improvements. Whichever way the process is set up it is important to have that clearly explained and understood by all parties involved to avoid mental confusion (Elbashir Williams , 2007). Tiers of maturity. In the business intelligence community there are various levels of maturity associated based on the length of time the unit has been in service to the company. Each of these levels are determined based on the progress the unit has made. These level begin at inception and end at forecasting. It is important to bonk these levels to determine the progress the department is making in the company that it is being utilized in.These levels are broken out into three specific categories. These are the inception phase, the break even stage, and the forecasting stage. Each of these stages is unique and presents its own set of challenges to the business intelligence unit. The most critical phase is the inception phase. Since this phase is what spawns the impact that the BI unit makes it is critical that it goes well.During the inception phase of the unit the challenges presented center on assimilation to the company. The unit must be able to find their place within the work environment if they are going to effective in the company. By analyzing company needs prior to actually meeting and planning with departments the unit can have a head start on how to make an immediateimpact on their departmental customers.The second tier is thoroughly described in an article by a group of authors writing for Information Technology and Management. This group of authors describes how the second phase of maturity is centered on getting to a point of break even. This term refers to the business intelligence unit being able to complete/automate enough critical tasks that they are able to look begin forecasting (Zeng Duan, 2012).During this second phase the authors stress the importance of consistency and performance. These two ideas are what the authors believe drive the un it towards a proactive mindset and away from a reactive mindset. This transition of thought processes is what make this phase important. Once a unit can break though to a state of mind that is forward looking they can begin to develop ideas that will prevent problems before they happen and predict future opportunities before they occur (Zeng Duan, 2012).The final phase is briefly addressed in the article and deals with the forecasting and future opportunities phase. This is tier of maturity that each business intelligence unit strives to get to at some point in its existence. With this phase the unit is able to think more creatively and follow leads and trails into data that could provide beneficial to the company (Zeng Duan, 2012).The conclusion makes a final point in regards to the level of maturity. The point made is that these levels once win are not concrete. With the ever changing needs of the company as well as the creation of new technologies the department can easily wav er between different tiers. The authors suggest that having a proactive approach is the best way to stay at the highest level of maturity for the longest periods of time (Zeng Duan, 2012). market perspectiveThe final point of this literature review centers on the industries perception of business intelligence as a whole. This perception is what drives the demand for business intelligence within the workforce. Ifindustry believe the benefit of a business intelligence department is greater than the cost then demand for these units will be high. If the value garnered is perceived as minimal then the field will falter. The real question that the marketplace has been ask falls on longevity. There has been speculation the technology will eventually push this field out into the cold. This would be done by platforms that mimic the various functions and responsibilities that are currently being held by business intelligence employees. If this happens the need for large quantities of analy sts would no longer be needed. An article written by Chen talks about the perspective of business intelligence by outside entities. He looks at how a business intelligence unit can provide a free-enterprise(a) emolument to a company based on the agility it pass ons.He argues that by having units that can provide data quickly the competitive advantage created is enough to sway popular opinion into the positive (Chen, 2012). Chen talks about the need for business intelligence units and his belief that the agility of these units will continue to drive demand. His entire argument is based on the units ability to adapt to new technology and processes quickly enough to afford decision makers consistent windows of opportunity. Chens belief is that no matter how advanced technology gets the need for individuals to understand and communicate it to decision makers will always be needed. Chen concludes by describing how business intelligence units need to maintain a high level of flexibilit y. He addresses the issue of complacency and warns that if laziness locomote into the department then shifting technology will engulf the department. The real value is the ability to quickly analyze and develop a well thought out process that improves the current one using the existing resources at their disposal (Chen, 2012).ConclusionBusiness intelligence at its very core is business process improvement. This can be done through many different ways but the concept never changes. An individual working in a business intelligence department always ask the question, How can I make this process better? This simple phrase is the core of what business intelligence is and what it will always be. There are many companies that understand the importance of business intelligence. These companies have realised how important it is to strive for a lean workenvironment. This is achieved by isolating areas of work that can be automated or improved through the efforts of business intelligence uni ts. The impact that can be made by tasking a unit to think through a process from every perspective and redesign it to meet current needs can be a massive benefit.In conclusion, there are many areas in which business intelligence can be utilized to benefit a company. From data management to data security business intelligence departments are meeting the needs of companies as straightaways technology moves faster and faster into the future. It remains to be seen whether these units will become a staple of the workplace but their current impact has been instrumental to the information technology industry as a whole.ReferenceBank of america company statistics. (2014, March 3). Retrieved from http//www.statisticbrain.com/bank-of-america-company-statistics/ BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Internal communication probity is critical to business success. (2001, Jun 29). M2 PresswireRetrieved from http//search.proquest.com/docview/444695082?accountid=12085 Chen, X. (2012). 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