BI: Beyond reporting, to operational control

Market analyst companies forecast about the industry trends and give an outlook that forms the key element of vendors business strategies. But when it comes to enterprises and its core areas of operations, IT plays an enabling role in aligning business goals to give a tangible impact on the companys bottomline.

Enterprise computing in India is still very young as organizations aggressively started automating only from the late 1980s when global vendors started upping their ante in the domestic market. So one saw new age apps like ERP getting into the enterprise IT landscape for the first time. In many instances, Indian enterprises leapfrogged in IT as they did not have major standardized IT assets expect for peripheral administrative processes like payroll, finance, and HR. So when they embraced apps like ERP, they entered into the big league by skipping decades while the western counterparts needed to phase out the legacy assets accrued over decades. Indias key advantage is the absence of a legacy IT baggage that has augured well for adopting new age IT apps.

As we look at large IT deployments over the last 2 decades, the debate ERP and after has raged for quite some time. Once when an enterprise adopts ERP, the sequence was followed by CRM and in some instances SCM. But now after the economic meltdown, the strategies enterprises adopted were increasingly challenged and when they looked at better leveraging IT for more competitive advantage, the one big missing link was the absence of a proactive BI and analytics solution. So that acted as a tipping point for the aggressive adoption of BI and analytics that we are seeing today.

BIThe Business Enabler

Many organizations are seeing across the board benefits out of BI and analytics. As we look at global examples, take the case of New York fire department by using analytics not just to fight fire, but prevent them. In 2007, 2 NYC fire fighters lost their lives in a fire at the former Deutsche bank building which was scheduled for demolition. Fire investigators attributed the loss of life to a lack of timely information available to responding fire fighters. If the New York Fire Department (FDNY) had a system in place for collecting and sharing data in real-time, the accident could have been avoided, they concluded. The FDNY partnered with IBM to come up with a new Coordinated Building Inspection and Data Analysis System that rely heavily on predictive modeling to anticipate fire exposure, analyze possible impacts, and improve communication processes.

Another interesting instance is the city of Amsterdam in which IBM is helping the Dutch utility Nuon and the city of Amsterdam makes a smarter use of energy by enabling consumers to make more informed decisions about their energy consumption. The consortium will jointly implement an innovative energy management system based on smart metering and home energy management technology. It will enable 500 selected households to gain better insight into their energy consumption and help drive change in usage behavior. It is anticipated that as a result of the pilot, customers will be able to save on energy costs and realize a CO2 reduction of at least 14%.

Yet another instance, a life-saving one in which, Duke University Health System which analyzed close to 20 mn patient records using BI that provided new insights to keep patients at its 3 hospitals and 100 clinics healthier and more involved in their own care. For example, by sifting through patient records in only 1 hour, Duke was able to identify 120,000 patients with risk factors for complications from swine flu. These patients such as young children with respiratory problems and pregnant women were immediately notified by Duke that they were at risk and given priority access to the vaccine. Predictive analytics on the basis of large data sets is indeed transforming the healthcare industry.

These examples clearly indicate the far reaching ramifications of BI and analytics whether it is public or the private sector. Closer home in India, a lot of enterprises are increasingly turning the BI way and using it in many different ways. Take the case of logistics major Gati, which saw a significant tweak in its operational efficiency post the deployment of BI. We have deployed a Oracle BI and it has become a critical component of our operations. Earlier we used to get a lot of manual reports that needs to be painstakingly analyzed using conventional means. But now everything is at the click of the button and we get critical information on dashboards and are able to figure out what is happening in each operating units. We have seen wide ranging benefits from increased service levels to overall improvement in our operations, says GS Ravikumar, CIO, Gati.

Yet another organization that has leveraged BI to the fullest is Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services, which is one of the Indias leading non-banking finance companies. MFSLs rural financing is considered as the cornerstone of poverty reduction, rural development and inclusive growth in many parts of the country by providing loans to over 1,000,000 customers belonging to the low income groups. Suresh A Shanmugam, head, BITS, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services says, At Mahindra Financial Services, BI plays a transformational role given the reach and depth of our operations across India. It has taken us beyond the traditional MIS reports and we are able to use the data for actionable results. One of the biggest befits of BI is that we are able to access information anytime and that this makes for a whole lot of impact right from operational efficiency to business forecasting. Mahindra has gone in for the BI solution from MAIA intelligence.

Why BI?

As we look at the examples of enterprises that has deployed BI, the single biggest benefit they have derived was the BIs ability to consolidate and deliver information on one unified platform through dashboards. Before BI our decision making process was not that easy but after the BI deployment information, availability at a single point was indeed a boon. We are able to access so many things and are able to devise effective strategies, says GS Ravikumar.< /p>

Mani Mulki, group CIO, Pidilite Industries, also shares the same level of satisfaction when it comes to BI and analytics. We are one of the early adopters of BI and we deployed SAP business objects way back in 1996 when other companies were toying with the idea of going in for transactional ERP. My view is that BI is all about intelligence and hence any solution that just collates all the information is just a reporting tool. A good BI is one which enables new insights and improves the quality of overall decision making, says Mulki.

The demand for the deep analytical skills has begun to emerge as a strategic imperative as companies seek a competitive advantage in todays transformed global economy. In fact, 83% of the CIOs in the IBM Global CIO study last year identified business intelligence and analytics as #1 priority to enhance their organizations competitiveness.

Enterprises can no longer ignore BI and in a way it is becoming mandatory. CIOs need to deploy a solution that best fits their requirements. Moreover when a company goes from a transactional to an analytical one, it calls for whole lot of change management issues. Once these things are taken care, BI will deliver the required results, says Farhan Khan, AVP, IT, Radico Khaitan.

BI is for all verticals and things have come to a stage that enterprises cannot ignore BI any longer. All verticals are reaping the benefits. If we take IT as a vertical for instance, the IT companies are using it for the better understanding of the client requirements and also for effective people management. By using the BI, they are getting critical data on the market like the quality of service offered to attrition patterns within the company. Take the case of Mindtree which has gone in for BI from IBMs Cognos. The BI at Mindtree covers our critical operations and encompasses financial, operations reporting, and engineering metrics. It is indeed helping us in many different ways. However one needs careful planning for BI to work seamlessly with the organizations larger goals. One should have data warehousing as well as good reporting system for maximum benefits, says Sudhir Kumar Reddy, CIO, Mindtree.

Road Ahead

A lot of companies are now looking exclusively at the business outcomes. One needs technology and feeds to deliver a business outcome, but experts say that the companies are very focused on the end game. They will say, Were a telco and we need to reduce customer churn, so how do we do that? or Im a police chief and I need to do smart things to reduce crime in my area.

Clearly BI and analytics is increasingly getting meshed. So CIOs will look at solutions that have the ability to see patterns in vast amounts of data and extract actionable insights.