Business Intelligence and the Role of Data Scientists
Many companies are now turning to business Intelligence to aid in their strategic decision making processes. When a company can extrapolate the information gathered from the external environment and forecast it accurately, it will have a competitive edge over its competitors. The companies use Business Intelligence to: know the position of the company as compared to its competitors, strengthen the relationship between itself and its customers, know what the company is capable of achieving, and know what the other companies in the same business environment are doing and know the surrounding political and social environment.
Companies offering insurance services are using Business intelligence for purposes such as optimizing the time used to process claims made by customers’, assessing the risks surrounding their products, as well as ensuring regulations are followed, and no fraud is committed. It also helps in identifying activities that are inefficient as well as new business ventures that are available.
People involved in the restaurant industry are used to working on their gut feeling. However, the industry is growing rapidly, and when operating more than a thousand chains of restaurants, one can no longer rely on their gut feeling. They are, therefore, turning to business Intelligence systems to help in their decision making. When executives are provided with hard facts in the form of data, it becomes easy for them to decide where to locate new branches, which practices are attracting more customers and increasing the profits, which practices are not benefiting the restaurant and how the profits gained can be distributed among others.
The manufacturing industry has also not been left behind, and companies are also incorporating the Business intelligence systems into their operating systems. The system helps in handling the complexity that comes with the manufacturing industry while at the same time enhancing their agility. The companies are able to respond to the customers’ needs on time. When it comes to marketing their products, it is best for the manufacturing companies to spend as minimal time as possible and invest most of their time in increasing their productivity. They must also be aware of the changes taking place in the industry in order to adapt to the changes. All this is made possible by the use of Business intelligence systems.
A recent study has shown that the finance and banking system are implementing the business and Intelligence systems into their daily operating system. Banks and other financial institutions require information that is fact-based so as to reduce the risks, due to the uncertainty and changes that take place regularly in the financial world. A high technology business intelligence system will help a bank to understand the customer needs better and in return tailor its products to meet the requirements efficiently. It will also help analyze the data stored in the banks’ database and help in profiling the most profitable customer.
When it comes to E-Commerce, business intelligence systems are being used to enhance the business. The decision making process in an E-commerce environment requires a combination of many skills, determination and creativity. The people involved have to have the right information and on time. In order to achieve this, an efficient business intelligence system is implemented. The system will also help in identifying the customer’s needs and responding to them on time, recognize changes taking place in the market and optimize the operations.All these advantages being offered by the Business Intelligence process helps in eliminating the guesswork when it comes to making significant decisions.
Key performance indicators are used by the Business Intelligence systems, to determine the present business state of the company and come up with the best course of action. Companies are making data available more often than before so as to come up with better decisions and on time. Many companies are, however, wrestling with the various and a large amount of data streaming in their operations. The companies are, therefore, turning to data scientists to help in managing the data. The data scientist is, however, not only linked to companies with significant data.
Taking into consideration the article on Data scientists by the Harvard business review, a data scientist job is a profession that aims at making new discoveries in the world of data. Their sudden emergence in the market is a proof that many companies are struggling with large volumes of data that they are not accustomed to handling. A good data scientist must have a good business insight and good communication skills so as to communicate the findings to the company’s management. He/she must also be inquisitive and able to stare at the available data and be able to spot trends. Technologies such as Hadoop and cloud computing as well as other open source tools have emerged that enable taming big amounts of data. This is a very significant breakthrough for many companies. However, they still need people with skills to analyze the data and put it into good use. This is where the data scientist comes into play.
References
IBM. (2013).What is a Data Scientist. Retrieved Oct 31st 2013, from
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/infosphere/data-scientist/
Solomon. N. (2004). Business Intelligence. Retrieved Oct 31st 2013, from Communications of
the Association for Information Systems: http://site.xavier.edu/sena/info600/businessintelligence.pdf
Thomas. H, Davenport & Datil. D.J. (2012). Data Scientist: The sexiest job of the 21st Century.
Retrieved Oct 31st 2013, from the Harvard Business Review: http://hbr.org/2012/10/data-scientist-the-sexiest-job-of-the-21st-century/
