First, notice that I didn't say "Business Intelligence Solution." Too many companies (us included, sometimes) talk about providing solutions to their clients, as if to say, "Here, Mr. Smith. Take this - it's the solution to all your problems." The reality is that BI is a business approach; it's a mentality that says, there is value in all of that data I collect to help me pay taxes, and I'm going to start using it. To talk about a BI solution as if it is a comprehensive way of resolving all business issues is foolhardy.
So back to the original question - what's the value of implementing BI?
In my experience working with small and mid-sized businesses, I have become convinced that the real value of Business Intelligence lies not in the possibility of implementing a 'closed loop' automated decision making process; it is not (at least not always) in delivering personalized dashboards to all employees across the organization. The most significant benefit, whether we're dealing with operation reports, Balanced Scorecards, or something in between, lies in the fundamental ability to access information faster and easier, to support decision-making by people.
What does this mean? Well to me, it means that before going down the path of implementing any particular Business Intelligence technology, it is critical to have a sound grasp of what information is not readily available, and how that is impacting your business.
Let's look at an example - A salesperson is reviewing their client list, to determine how to focus efforts. Should the focus be on the clients that are high volume, profitable customers? Well, you should certainly make efforts to keep those clients happy, yes, but probably not too much action is required. How about the clients who purchase the occasional product, and cause no problems but also generate little profit. Probably not a candidate for much attention. But how about the client who purchases a modest amount of low margin product, and always seems to have delivery or other problems - how about them? That's definitely somewhere for the saleperson to focus. Why? Because we should be working on either a) Helping our customer understand the value and benefit of the other products; b) finding out the root cause of, and resolving, the delivery/service issues to make the client happy, or c) 'firing' the client, to focus efforts on better business relationships.
So here's the next question - could a software product automate the process of closing customer accounts? Well, yes, it is possible. But would you want it to? I can tell you that if I was ever on the end of an automated email saying my account was being closed, I might be a tad upset!!!
The software should help identify the accounts falling within a set of pre-defined conditions, to draw them to the attention of the salesperson. The salesperson then should have all of the appropriate information to connect with the customer, to see if the business relationship can be made more successful FOR BOTH PARTIES. Maybe the customer's concerns are valid, and this is an opportunity to improve service that helps all customers. Maybe the customer never realized the value offered by other products or services, and the salesperson can educate them. And maybe, sometimes, closing the account is just the right thing to do.
The point I'm trying to make here is that the Business Intelligence tool should provide purely objective information (sales, margin, errors, complaints) in a way that it can then be effectively used by the salesperson to make a subjective decision. Decision-making does not happen in a vacuum, and much to the chagrin of some of my peers, we need to recognize the intangible value of a human perspective. Putting blind faith into ANY technology systems without appropriate human monitoring is a recipe for disaster.
This from a guy who believes in the value of Business Intelligence for all businesses!!! :)
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