Sign in / up

back to article Business intelligence – still an oxymoron?

It’s been a while since we’ve asked any questions about business intelligence. To the infoliterati, it’s a specialist domain that needs many years’ experience before it even starts to make sense. To outsiders however, it’s about whether or not the right information is there at the right time – and quite frequently, often it's …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Blubster

    @Your survey

    "We are going to be using the term "business intelligence" (BI) in the remainder of this questionnaire"

    Wouldn't BS be more appropriate?

    The trouble with industry (mine included sadly) is that it's peppered with gobbledegook and meaningless jargon designed to give the users of such jargon an inflated sense of their own importance. It's about time they all climbed down from up their collective arses and started to speak/write in plain English.

    3 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Good point....

      Plain English appears to be lost in todays world. And it's pretty much been beaten by corporate BS.

      Looking at BI, when you can't work out how your business is doing without resorting to outside sources....you fail.

      0 0
    2. Astarte
      Reply Icon

      Buzzword Business

      The general subject has been a joke for years. Take a look at this very old Dilbert cartoon:

      http://christophercotton.com/monkeyboys/images/dilbert-buzzword.jpeg

      A few of us tried it during a series of meetings; it certainly encouraged us to pay attention for fear of missing something.

      0 0
  3. Tom 7
    Pint

    @Blubster

    The purpose of gobbledegook and meaningless jargon is to hide the complete lack of knowledge or logic in the users of the same. One thing I've found in implementing business logic 'in code' is that often (far too often) when you nail it down its shown to be wanting.

    The trouble with computer is they show these charlatans up for what they are - alas they have the power to ensure that the computer (and IT dept/contractor) take the blame.

    Beer - cos its only British business methods that could make the 5000 year old pub industry fail.

    0 0
  4. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge

    Specialist domain?

    "Business Intelligence" when distilled down to its essence is nothing more than understanding your processes. In that sense, its something that every mid or lower level manager needs to understand. Not just the specialists.

    The application of software to managing work flow has forced some of the inefficiencies of said flow out into the open. You can't code something until you understand it (in spite of many attempts to the contrary). That said, BI isn't exclusive to the IT department. Even if your work process remains better suited to a clipboard than a server, understanding its inputs and outputs is still the responsibility of its practitioners, not some consultant or unrelated department. Once its understood, that's when its time to do the paper vs computer trade study.

    1 0
This topic is closed for new posts.