Book Review - Business Intelligence Competency Centers
Category Book Reviews
When I think of "business intelligence", I tend to envision the gathering of competitive information. But it's really much, much more than that. The book Business Intelligence Competency Centers: A Team Approach to Maximizing Competitive Advantage by Gloria J. Miller, Dagmar Brautigam, and Stefanie V. Gerlach explores the subject and goes into what it takes to build a Business Intelligence Competency Center (BICC) at work...
Contents: Introduction; Business Intelligence in the Organization; Primary Functions of the Business Intelligence Competency Center; Planning a Business Intelligence Competency Center - Using the Information Evolution Model; Human Capital; Knowledge Processes; Culture; Infrastructure; Setting Up and Ensuring Ongoing Support; Cases from the Field; Ten Recommendations for a Highly Effective Business Intelligence Competency Center; List of Abbreviations; Additional Roles; Index
This book is authored by SAS employees, and the organization figures prominently in many of the examples and case studies. Even so, the content doesn't turn into a 200 page advertisement for the company. The significant issue for building a BICC (for me) was the emphasis on coordinating the use of data within the organization. Business intelligence encompasses the use of *all* the information in your company. The data marts that often end up as an IT resource should be the foundation of a BICC area. The goal is to have a single authoritative source for data and answers, and to eliminate the "one-off" areas of siloed information. The book goes into plenty of detail on how to design a BICC, what it takes to run one, and what type of changes a company will need to make to allow it to all work together. There's also a good series of questions at the end by which you can judge your potential options and plans.
This isn't necessarily a "fun" or easy read. It will appeal most to those who are already inclined to want to move down this path. It could well serve as your guidebook to manage the creation of your own BICC. And don't feel that you'll be steered down a specific software path (like SAS). For a book that's sponsored by a software vendor, it's more software-neutral than I expected...
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When I think of "business intelligence", I tend to envision the gathering of competitive information. But it's really much, much more than that. The book Business Intelligence Competency Centers: A Team Approach to Maximizing Competitive Advantage by Gloria J. Miller, Dagmar Brautigam, and Stefanie V. Gerlach explores the subject and goes into what it takes to build a Business Intelligence Competency Center (BICC) at work...
Contents: Introduction; Business Intelligence in the Organization; Primary Functions of the Business Intelligence Competency Center; Planning a Business Intelligence Competency Center - Using the Information Evolution Model; Human Capital; Knowledge Processes; Culture; Infrastructure; Setting Up and Ensuring Ongoing Support; Cases from the Field; Ten Recommendations for a Highly Effective Business Intelligence Competency Center; List of Abbreviations; Additional Roles; Index
This book is authored by SAS employees, and the organization figures prominently in many of the examples and case studies. Even so, the content doesn't turn into a 200 page advertisement for the company. The significant issue for building a BICC (for me) was the emphasis on coordinating the use of data within the organization. Business intelligence encompasses the use of *all* the information in your company. The data marts that often end up as an IT resource should be the foundation of a BICC area. The goal is to have a single authoritative source for data and answers, and to eliminate the "one-off" areas of siloed information. The book goes into plenty of detail on how to design a BICC, what it takes to run one, and what type of changes a company will need to make to allow it to all work together. There's also a good series of questions at the end by which you can judge your potential options and plans.
This isn't necessarily a "fun" or easy read. It will appeal most to those who are already inclined to want to move down this path. It could well serve as your guidebook to manage the creation of your own BICC. And don't feel that you'll be steered down a specific software path (like SAS). For a book that's sponsored by a software vendor, it's more software-neutral than I expected...
Bring your company to the next level you need business email hosting. Streamline your company files and documents with hosted exchange. In order to get a clearer understanding of what exchange hosting can do for your company, check out this site on business email hosting. A popular form of hosting that all the top level companies are using is Microsoft exchange hosting. Exchange hosting is also called cold fusion hosting and can be used to speed up business email systems.
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