Business Intelligence: An Oxymoron?

An old joke has it that the term “military intelligence” is an oxymoron – and in light of the current global financial crisis, it is tempting to put “Business Intelligence” in this category as well. Our inability to predict or deal competently with major events, from wars in the Middle East to the meltdown of global financial systems, shows just how ineffective our Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing strategies or “fit-for-purpose” reporting systems can be in responding to events as they unfold in this complex world. We are now confounded by the facts: we cannot predict the future; the largest military powers cannot conquer and control much weaker opponents; economists cannot adequately monitor essential financial systems. Automated trading systems, whose rules we once thought we understood and controlled, seem to have taken on a life of their own.

In my view, unless talented analysts are given unfettered access to whatever corporate data they require and the ability to analyze it as they see fit in the context of the many external data sources that are available, we will continue to find ourselves unprepared to deal with the unexpected. Implemented correctly, corporate Business Intelligence (BI) systems can support an organization’s best analysts as they challenge traditional business dogmas and develop a practicable way forward based on the facts, as recorded in detailed corporate data. To achieve this, IT departments need to stop acting as “data jailors” who strictly control which data will be accessible, in what form, and start empowering creative thinkers to realize their maximum potential, be it in marketing, manufacturing, distribution or some other field. In order to do this, however, IT departments need to start acting more like a power utility service: enabling “decision support” (to revive an older term for Business Intelligence) by providing corporate information or raw data as required, in the right amounts at the right time, while also serving as “consultants” who help end users access the data they require, when and how they need it.

In this series of blog posts, I will be discussing how an effective information infrastructure for decision support can be implemented without resorting to a “rip and replace” strategy that would involve completely scrapping the existing data warehouse. As the foundation of an optimal system for enterprise data management and decision support, I will be proposing the concept of Data Warehouse as a tiered architecture that combines three database models/technologies to support both standard reporting and “power analytics” as well as highly accessible storage of massive amounts of granular data to be used by the reporting and analytics engines.

Arthur Ritchie