ABSTRACT The conditions on the market are rapidly changing and businesses in Sweden need to seize signals of change in time, in order to have a strong market position. The ability to make the right decisions and react in time is vital due to the increasing competition and a mistake can have devastating consequences for a company. The aim of this thesis is to investigate what tools and methods businesses use to analyse the surrounding world, which has lead to following research question: How do businesses analyse the surrounding and predict trends and what factors in the society should a company be attentive to while performing an analysis? Analyses of the surrounding heritage from a term called Business Intelligence, which consist of internal and external factors. This thesis focuses of analyses of external factors, in other words the surrounding. These external aspects enrich the understanding of the internal factors and together they are the foundation that strategic planning originates from. An analysis can be performed in many different ways for instance with collaborations with consultants or by observing the society. A World Mapping method can be used to chart trends or important changes and a company can also try to identify unpredicted events by using the factor X-model. Theories by Bengt Wahlström have also been used in the study to display how trends can be analysed. This study will analyse large food producers who have established brands on the Swedish market. A qualitative approach has been conducted where six food supplier companies and three consultant companies specialised in analysing the surrounding have been interviewed. The method has been deductive where the empirical findings has been analysed with the theoretical framework. The outcome of the research shows that collaborations with consultants is a commonly used instrument and practical methods such as scenario planning and in real life scanning are preferred as visualising factors simplifies the managing of them. Media plays a significant role, both as a tool to search and track trends but also as a tool that can increase the affect of trends and unforeseen occurrences.

Researchers claim that to improve business and really make an impact on the market it is critical to develop organizational capabilities and create organizational learning. Business Intelligence (BI) has during the latest years gained lots of attention among organizations for being a tool that can help improve the business. However, even though organizational learning is critical at the same time as BI has become a main tool to improve the business the linkage between these two concepts has not been a topic for research. This thesis is taking an Organizational Behaviour Management (OBM) perspective when analyzing whether BI-tools create the right conditions for learning. A case study was made at Skanska Sverige AB where their three largest BI-tools were analyzed. The study was made in three steps; by an individual analysis of the tools, a questionnaire sent to all operational managers who uses the tools and by interviews with nine of these managers. The analysis of the tools indicated that the BI-tools at Skanska Sverige AB do not currently create the right conditions for learning. Few actions are taken because of the information in the tools.

Business Intelligence (BI) has become an essential part of the modern enterprise, and what used to be thought of as a luxury is now a matter of survival. Recent economic developments have forced companies to rethink their IT investment strategy. BI investments are now targeting the majority of people in the organisation instead of a select few. Thus, it is important to understand why users of a BI system choose to accept and use the system. Previous research has established the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as one of the most powerful and parsimonious models explaining user acceptance and usage behaviour of information technologies. This quantitative study replicates the original TAM study with the purpose to increase the understanding of BI usage, and investigates the behaviour of the users of the BI system QlikView in the case company GE Healthcare. The results showed a lower explanatory power for the model when compared to previous research. This indicates that how useful a user perceives a BI system to be does not affect the amount of usage to the same extent as predicted by TAM. Possible causes for this are discussed, with an emphasis on the influence of what tasks a user is confronted with and the measurement of system use.

Det första systemet som skapades för att integrera alla affärstransaktioner var ERP-systemet som skapades 1960. Detta system samlar verksamhetens data i olika databaser och för att kunna hantera och analysera denna data har utvecklare skapat ett BI-system. Detta system extraherar data och omvandlar den till användbar information som kan bidra till en underlättad och förbättrad styrning. Författarna av viss litteratur påstår att information är viktig för alla verksamheter då det är avgörande för ett beslutsfattande. Med hjälp av ett BI-system kan verksamheten få denna efterfrågade information samt att chefer med hjälp av systemet kan fatta taktiska och strategiska beslut.   Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva högskolor och universitets förväntningar på ett BI-system och jämföra dessa med de fördelar som viss litteratur utlovar. Vi genomförde studien på två lärosäten, Högskolan i Halmstad och Göteborgs universitet, för att se vilka förväntningar de har på ett BI-system samt om det liknar eller skiljer sig med det som viss litteratur utlovar.   Denna studie har genomförts utifrån en kvalitativ metod där vi har undersökt de utvalda lärosätenas förväntningar på ett BI-system. Vi har gjort det genom att utföra besöksintervjuer samt en mail- och telefonintervju med de ansvariga och användarna av lärosätenas BI-system.   Resultatet som vi kommit fram till i denna studie är att många av de utlovade fördelarna som kan utläsas i viss litteratur stämmer överens med respondenternas förväntningar. Dessa förväntningar är bland annat att via ett BI-system förbättra verksamhetens styrning, underlätta kontrollen på strategiuppfyllelse samt få ökad tillgång till viktig information. Förväntningarna kan även utläsas i viss litteratur men vi kan även utläsa skillnader som till exempel är åsikter angående utbildning i systemet, mätning av systemets effektivitet samt problematik med systemet.

The global economic environment nowadays becomes so competitive, all enterprises suffer a challenging and confronting adversity. Due to the knowledge economy era, all enterprises need to emphasize the internal information management and application. Therefore, the Business Intelligent (BI) software turns into the best solution for an enterprise. As each enterprise has different structure and behavior views, the BI definition is required to adapt to the enterprise environment. To resolve this problem, an enterprise must increase the business cost, and system managers are demanded to modify the programs repeatedly. Our research aims to assist the BI software by defining a model of Architecture-Oriented Business Intelligent (AOBI) which helps analyze and design the software with ease. The AOBI model is to describe the structure and behavior in one unity. Using this approach of structure and behavior in one unity, developers would devise and adjust the BI software more flexible and adaptable. This study distinguishes into three parts. The first part is to introduce the architecture theory. The second part is to explain how to build up an architecture model. The third part is to propose an AOBI model. Inside the thesis, BI structure elements, operations, and structure and behavior in one unity are elaborated. Also, using AOBI model assists system developers to construct the BI software for an enterprise. In the future, we would further our efforts on the implementation, testing, cost and performance management of the AOBI software. The BI software contains other software, for example, Key Performance Indicator, Data Warehouse, Data Mart, Data Mining and On-line analysis processing, etc. We may construct the above software using the architecture model, too.

<p>Inledning</p><p>Organisationer inom den offentliga och privata sektorn gör dagligen informationsuttag genom att använda olika datorbaserade verktyg för att kunna fatta bättre beslut genom det beslutsunderlag som tas fram. Dessa system används på olika nivåer i en organisation.</p><p>Problemdiskussion</p><p>Komplexiteten och intensiteten på marknaden är inga nya fenomen i dagens affärsmiljö då det ställer höga krav på beslutsfattarna. Därav finns det ett behov bland beslutsfattare att använda ett datorbaserat verktyg för att svara upp mot de höga kraven som ställs.</p><p>Syfte</p><p>Denna studie utvärderar analys- och rapporteringsverktyget QlikView och hur införandet av detta system i Jönköpings kommun påverkar första linjens chefer inom två av kommunens förvaltningar. Olika nyttoeffekter kommer att identifieras och utvärderas för att förstå vilket mervärde QlikView kan ge beslutsfattarna.</p><p>Metod</p><p>Kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder har använts för att utvärdera faktorer i samband med införandet av QlikView. Dessa metoder har använts för att få en så rättvisande bild som möjligt av verkligheten. Kvalitativa intervjuer har utförts med olika nyckelpersoner och generaliserbarheten av studien har styrkts genom intervjuer med andra kommuner. Författarna har även utfört en gruppintervju med företaget QlikTech i Lund. Slutligen ingår även en observationsstudie i undersökningen.</p><p>Slutsats</p><p>Analysverktyget kan medföra olika nyttoeffekter som med stor sannolikhet kommer att realiseras vid användandet. Olika positiva effekter som är identifierade är tidsbesparingar vid informationsuttag, effektiv analys av information och en bättre kontroll av verksamheten. För att dessa nyttoeffekter ska realiseras så måste också användarna aktivt stödja denna förändringsprocess.</p>

<p>The main purpose of this research is to use Hermeneutic research approach to find out how Decision Support System (DSS) is used in banks and financial services. The research started from one stance, from which the further process could be extended to reach more complete picture of Decision Support System’s usage in strategic decision makings in banks. The research is also trying to find out the drawbacks and benefits of the DSS which have been used nowadays in banks. Furthermore, the future improvements of using DSS to make better decisions related with moral and different environments are also being discussed in the research findings.</p><p>During the primary data collection, resources from different channels have been used to support the research. The primary data sources include lectures and discussion in three banks’ visiting opportunities in Stockholm, Sweden, one interview with IT Vice president from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, New York, two interviews with a professor and a director respectively from Lund University and Financial Services Innovation Centre in University College Cork, Ireland.</p><p>Experiences from both academic and practical have been shared to strength the research’s validity and trustworthiness. Hermeneutic research approach addresses through the whole research process which needs to be open-minded and flexible.</p><p>Unawareness of DSS for people who are working in banks is one of the issues today. Different embedded models regarding various functions are not so clear to bank staff; thus there is a gap between human decisions and system decisions. There is a variation of requirements between central banks, retail banks, commercial banks, investment banks. Hence there should be a differentiation when implementing a system. Banking systems are widespread systems which are influenced by environment factors, political, economic, socio-cultural and technological variables.</p>

This thesis is written at the department of Business Studies at Uppsala University. The study addresses the differences in possibilities and difficulties of implementing business intelligence (BI)-systems among small IT-enterprises. BI-systems support enterprises in decision-making. To answer the aim of this thesis, theories regarding organizational factors determining a successful implementation of a BI-system were used. Theories regarding components of BI- systems, data warehouse (DW) and online analytical processing (OLAP) were also used. These components enable the decision-support provided by a BI-system. A qualitative study was performed, at four different IT-enterprises, to gather the empirical material. Interviews were performed with CEOs and additional employees at the enterprises. After the empirical material was gathered an analysis was performed to draw conclusion regarding the research topic. The study has concluded that there are differences in possibilities and difficulties of implementing BI-systems among small IT-enterprises. A difference among the enterprises is the perceived ability to finance an implementation. Another difference is in the managerial- and organizational support of an implementation, but also in the business need of using a BI- system in decision-making. There are also differences in how the enterprises use a DW. Not all enterprises benefits from the ability of a DW to manage complex and large amounts of data, neither from the advanced analysis performed by OLAP. The enterprises thus need to examine further if the use of a BI-system is beneficial and would be used successfully in their company.

M. Tech. Business Information Systems / Companies that can effectively manage available information as they generate competitive intelligence without experiencing information overload are leaders in their industry. The research focus on how to avoid or manage causes of information overload while using Internet technologies to gather or collect intelligence during the competitive intelligence gathering. Furthermore, this study focused on this issue in the context of competitive intelligence as its field of application. The objective of this study was to develop and test a model to be used for developing guidelines for avoiding or managing causes of information overload when using Internet technologies to conduct the competitive intelligence process.

Mine to Mill optimization is considered as a key concept for metal mining recently. Targeting operational best practices on a highly varying environment is challenging. Impact of underperformed basic operations such as drilling and blasting will sustain this inefficiency in mineral processing. Data provided for each of these operations from software and hardware utilized on field reached a level where advanced data analytics becomes applicable. In order to represent the operations as close to reality, an integrated layer of data where transactional and process based data lives is crucial. Data warehousing and data mining are alternative tools that rely on a robust data structure. Data mining utilizes the integrated data layer for pattern discovery within the data itself. Relations that are unknown for now can be investigated by data mining algorithms that rely on vast amount of data. Empirical equations that are based on a limited set of data could be improved by using data mining algorithms. The main objective of optimizing the mine to mill value chain also challenges the concept of providing real-time feedback. This research proposes a data-driven mine-to-mill framework for modern mines.