Firms in Process Industries have made significant investments in information technology to increase the efficiency of their operations and supply chains. One side effect of these investments has been the creation of vast stores of valuable data. achieve insight, transparency and competitive advantage.
Business Intelligence
for Process Industries:
Actionable Insights for Business Decision Makers
by Don Tapscott
Brought to you by Business Objects (an SAP company), SAP and Intel. Business Intelligence for Process Industries: 1 Actionable Insights for Business Decision Makers
Executive Summary axes: (1) simplicity and relevance, (2) agility and (3) integration. FIRMS IN PROCESS INDUSTRIES have made significant investments in information technology to increase the First, new user-friendly interfaces and approaches to efficiency of their operations and supply chains. One side business intelligence provide easier access to relevant data effect of these investments has been the creation of vast and empower more decision makers. Second, new stores of valuable data. But most firms are overlooking or technology advances such as in-memory BI are providing underutilizing this potential goldmine: they're missing new levels of performance and helping users gain real-opportunities to analyze and redeploy their data to drive time insights into their data. Finally, in a world where the the next stage of innovation and competitive advantage. logistics of a distributed, global supply chain have created To take full advantage of this data, firms need a new new opportunities to tighten up alignment between supply generation of business intelligence (BI) tools and and demand, BI needs to be integrated into business applications to integrate cross-enterprise, inter-enterprise processes and be more widely distributed. All of these and externally available information with processes to systems must rest on a solid data foundation with aligned achieve insight, transparency and competitive advantage. master data: only then is that data trustworthy, and only Enterprises that effectively harness the vast quantities of then can decision makers be confident that they have a information that IT systems generate?both within the single version of the truth. corporation and outside its walls?are poised to gain competitive advantage. 2.0 Simplicity and Relevance Effective business intelligence is simple and relevant: 1.0 Value Proposition simple so that a large number of users have access to the Firms in process industries such as oil and gas, chemicals, information through an interactive, user-friendly interface pulp and paper, or mining today face multiplying business (regardless of the type or source of information), and challenges driven by phenomena such as globalization, relevant so that users can deploy the information to unpredictable input costs, fluctuating exchange rates and address immediate issues and support business decisions. geopolitical instability. In this rapidly changing environment, companies can't afford to be satisfied with 2.1 Simplicity traditional business intelligence systems that merely report In the past, BI implementations were often driven by on "what happened." BI systems need to answer more sophisticated "power users" in the IT department who timely questions: "what is happening now?" and "what created reports on behalf of business decision makers. will happen in the future?" Accurate answers to these These power users were technologically sophisticated and questions for all stakeholders, both inside and outside the were accustomed to working with complex data systems. organization, will drive superior performance and Their efforts, in conjunction with first generation business competitive advantage in the future. intelligence tools, brought real advantage to their firms. In addition, today's business imperatives mean that BI But this approach also introduced new challenges. has to go beyond its traditional role of helping to control First, the few power users were rapidly overwhelmed by and cut costs. BI data is now the basis for new growth demand for their services. As organizations became more strategies. This is true even in the process sector?think, data-driven and users began to see the value of their for example, of global industrial leader Rohm and Haas. business intelligence systems, they began to clamor for Mike Masciandaro, business intelligence director, agreed various new reports they required. This increased demand that "our main imperative is growing profitably. Of for reporting combined with complex tools created course, controlling costs is not off the table, but it's too untenably long wait times for BI-driven inform... [download for more]
