In The Know

Ok, so those of you who know me know I love technology and the last two years, I’ve really had the incredible opportunity to work in geography information systems (GIS). GIS is one of those unsung heroes of industries, because of the latest technologies that has taken the world by storm; technologies like GPS, location based services, and other mapping technologies. Great stuff! Anyway, GIS is really a major player in the intelligence world which is a great segway into what I really want to discuss.

Today, the word “intelligence” is not so secretive anymore. A great number of organizations use the term “intelligence” as a way to describe how they are learning about their own business practices, technology and their environment. Similar to what we think of government agencies like Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or Naval Intelligence, these organizations are also learning about, from and trying to understand specific business targets like countries, threats and individuals. The CIA has many “intelligence” officers that execute and perform certain tasks that will help the CIA learn more about their business targets.
Similarly, organizations are now searching for people to fill the position for business intelligence (BI), an unconventional practice in the private sector, but have been around for a very long time in the government space. In my opinion, organizations should have invested time and money into this type of positions a long time ago. Maybe if the big financial institutions had intelligence analyst then we would have learned that greed has its limits.

In short, intelligence analysts are a worthy cost effective way to keep business practices, IT infrastructure and spending in sync with each other. They (IAs) are a critical component to maintaining internal strategies and progressively promoting products and services efficiently that will return great value in customer satisfaction and revenue. Whatever business you are in, be sure that business intelligence is an invaluable learning tool that will allow you to understand your customers and business practice that supports better decision-making.

There are many conventional BI tools and techniques such as OLAP, data mining, and other DSS (decision support systems) that lends themselves to gathering data, interpret data and help management and executives make sound decisions based on this data. Data warehouses or data marts are often used to house all this data generated from customer, vendors, contractors and others. Even the top research companies such as Gartner and Forrester may use BI to tools to create competitive intelligence for new market entrants and customer buying trends. Regardless, intelligence is extraordinarily valuable in business.

As a final note, going back to an earlier notation that intelligence analysts are desirable in today’s market now more than ever. Has the economy along with buying and spending trends of our top financial corporations responsible for companies going back to basics? Probably, but let’s not forget that BI is a true foundation of successful and consistent growth, but it is not a definitive science. Customers are finicky and so is the market. Organizations do not solely depend on BI, but it does provide for sound and at times, non-volatile way of decision-making in times where emotional and reactive decisions are often the preferred approach.