This dissertation develops a conceptual framework that includes the component parts of competitive intelligence (CI) activities, the antecedents of CI, and the bottom-line benefits of CI activities. Specifically, a five-phase CI process was constructed that included recognition, prioritization, collection, interpretation, and utilization. Antecedents included turbulence and competitiveness in the business environment, the use of information technology (IT) tools, and the dynamics and attributes of the strategic business unit (SBU). Also, we postulated that CI activities would predict an SBU's knowledge of the business environment, an SBU's relations with external constituents, relations within an SBU, an SBU's business performance, and an SBU's confidence in its strategic plans. The findings indicated that CI champion(s) and top management's support are very strong predictors of CI activities. In terms of tangible benefits, the study indicated that CI activities predict an SBU's knowledge of the external business environment, relations within an SBU, and product quality. In turn, an SBU's knowledge of the external business environment and product quality predict the SBU's business performance. Also, product quality and relations within an SBU predict an SBU's confidence in its strategic plans which in turn predicts an SBU's relations with its external constituents. In terms of managerial implications, this study provides very clear evidence of the benefits of CI activities. Furthermore, we found evidence of three key mediating variables; namely, an SBU's knowledge of its external business environment, relations within an SBU, and product quality. The results of this study provides very strong support for organizational efforts to improve CI activities. Moreover, of interest in an era of tight budgets is this study's providing solid evidence that CI is not a tangential activity to be supported only in good financial times. Rather, it is a basic intelligence activity that can facilitate the bottom-line performance of an SBU.

Decision makers require the right information at the right time, in the right place and in the right format so that they can make good decisions. Although business intelligence (BI) has the potential to improve decision making, there is little empirical evidence of how well this has been achieved. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the quality of decisions made using BI. The research question it addresses is what are the key antecedents of decision quality for users of business intelligence systems? The theoretical support for the model is developed based on the literature review that draws on decision support systems (DSS), group decision support systems (GDSS), and BI. Grounded on this literature review, the antecedents of decision quality are operationalized in this dissertation through independent variables such as the problem space complexity, the level of BI usage, the BI user experience, and information quality. The dependent variable is operationalized as decision quality and it captures the self-satisfaction with a decision made by users in a BI environment. The research model was tested using a survey of BI users whose names were provided by a marketing company. This research suggests that BI user experience is a more complex construct than has been initially thought.

Nowadays, managing business performance is becoming a relatively difficult and complex process for managers since it is undertaking major change both in research and practice. With the growing global interest in Business intelligence (BI), it has also been identified as an important role for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to satisfy their customer’s needs by analyzing through BI system. However, the limited financial resource and lack of human capital are becoming the constraint for SMEs to invest in Business Intelligence system; as well the return of their investment in BI system is still being considerable for SMEs to invest in the system. This study proposes an innovative approach for assessing and prioritizing the use of BI, which can help SME owners to prioritize their customer’s needs and communicate with their stakeholder by using Kano model. This paper is prepared in a way to define and convey the idea of Kano Model and its application to aspiring organizations.

Cílem této diplomové práce je porovnat komerční a OpenSource Business Intelligence řešení pro střední podnik. Za účelem srovnání byl vybrán databázový server MS SQL Server s Analysis Services a dva možné způsoby nasazení OpenSource technologií. Prvním z nich je komplexní BI řešení od společnosti Insight Strategy a.s. ?The Bee?. Druhým způsobem je řešení pomocí dílčích aplikací nalezených na Internetu a to pomocí aplikací Keetle, Firebird, Mondrian a Openi. Jednotlivá řešení jsou porovnána na základě předem stanovených a popsaných metrik. Hlavním cílem je ověření na fiktivní firmě zda OpenSource BI řešení fungují a mohou nahradit komerční řešení a zda je to z finanční stránky výhodné.

<p>Detta examensarbete på D-nivå beskriver skapandet av BI-applikationer och analys av tre</p><p>olika BI-system. Projekten har givits av Cederroth International AB som är ett av Sveriges</p><p>största företag inom dagligvaruhandeln. Uppsatsen ger en inblick i vad BI är och hur BI</p><p>fungerar i företagsvärlden. Det ges även en stegvis beskrivning i hur en applikation skapas</p><p>med hjälp av BI-systemet QlikView och analyser av BI-systemen QlikView, SQL Server 2005</p><p>och BusinessObjects XI om huruvida dessa uppfyller de funktionella kraven på ett BI-verktyg.</p><p>Bakgrundsinformation om Cederroth och dess system för affärsdatahantering ges också i</p><p>uppsatsen.</p><p>Den BI-applikation som beskrivs i denna uppsats involverar finsk återförsäljningsdata.</p><p>Stegen från grunddata till färdig applikation beskrivs och förklaras ingående i uppsatsen.</p><p>Analysen av de tre BI-systemen som därefter gjorts har beskrivits i en del där</p><p>grundinformation följs av en analys med hänsyn till de funktionella aspekterna i BI-systemen.</p><p>Denna analys resulterade i ett likvärdigt resultat för de tre BI-systemen. BI-systemen hade</p><p>dock olika lösningar på de funktionella delarna.</p>

Zugl.: Giessen, Friedberg, Fachhochsch., Diplomarbeit, 2007

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009. / Prepared for: School of Business. Bibliography: leaves 139-169. Also available online via the Internet.

Zugl.: Duisburg, Essen, Mercator School of Management, Diss., 2008.

I dagens affärsmiljöer är det kritiskt för organisationer att kunna ta del av sina affärsdata och använda denna för att fatta beslut och bli konkurrenskraftiga på arbetsmarknaden. Idag behöver människor i organisationer tillgång till data snabbare än någonsin vilket sätter en oerhört stor press på IT-avdelningen. Denna press gör att dem inte hinner med alla förfrågningar vilket leder till att dessa människor behöver få tillgång till och analysera data på egen hand för att fatta tidskritiska beslut. Denna miljö benämns self-service business intelligence (SSBI). Implementationen av SSBI visar sig vara svårare i praktiken än vad många organisationer räknar med då det finns många utmaningar. För att lyckas med SSBI är det kritiskt att organisationer lyckas hantera dessa utmaningar i praktiken. Denna studie besvarar frågan: ❖ Hur kan utmaningarna inom self-service BI hanteras i praktiken? Studien baseras på en litteraturanalys och en fallstudie med intervjuer för att undersöka hur erfarna människor i organisationer anser att dessa utmaningar kan hanteras i praktiken. Resultatet är en framtagen faktormodell som består av olika riktlinjer för hur respektive identifierad utmaning kan hanteras i praktiken.

This thesis deals with automating the financial data processing for the needs of auditors. In the theoretical part is described the process of transfering financial data between companies and standards defining their format. The following section describes the procedure for export of financial data from the SAP system and their transformation to the Business Intelligence tools, where is processing and visualization part. The main aim of the work is to design and implement BI application according to given specification. There is description of the general principle of Business Intelligence as well as the specifics of tools used, QlikView and Qlik Sense. The practical part of the thesis is focused on app features presentation and quantification of economic benefit for the particular company in comparison to the actual testing procedures used for financial data testing. The conclusion is devoted to analyzing the practical usage of the application and evaluation of set goals.