Comparex Africa, through its Customer Oriented Applications (COA) division, has launched a revised corporate education programme using a balanced and individual scorecard-based methodology that furthers the business intelligence (BI) principles developed by COA consultants and professional trainers.
The programme tackles the pressing issues of effective business intelligence, demonstrating on a case-by-case basis where business intelligence produces a glut of information and where it starts to add value to the decision-making process through selective and intelligent data extraction.
Based on the four key principles introduced by Cognos`s original Business Intelligence University (BIU) - offered exclusively by Comparex Africa COA - the programme covers:
* BI know-how: identifying and establishing the value of information and data;
* Problem-solving using skills from the know-how phase;
* Planning: When, where and how to distribute extracted information; and
* Communication: To whom and in what format to communicate the information and decision-making agenda.
COA senior business knowledge analyst Tony Gilbey says teaching business users practical ways of thinking in "multiple dimensions" furthers these and other concepts in the progression of corporate education.
"Traditional BI training skims over the fundamentals of BI know-how and problem solving, showing how to extract reams of data from a company`s systems with little or no emphasis on finding the right data for maximum effect on the company`s bottom line," says Gilbey.
"In effect, the BI know-how is lost in the process, so we`re looking to revitalise this aspect of corporate education in one-on-one forums with our key customers. We`re taking them past using their software to mine for data, and teaching them where to find the right information that can best be turned into the industry-specific knowledge that the business needs to build competitive advantage in its market space."
Gilbey says the end-result is a scorecard of the business that shows the true measurement of its ability to manage business performance, along with all the factors that impact on that performance.
"Consider the analogy of a motor vehicle`s temperature gauge as a `scorecard` of the engine`s performance, or well-being. Below the gauge, indicators such as `water level` and `oil level` present an array of factors that impact on the temperature of the engine, and by extension the car`s performance. It doesn`t help knowing that the temperature is stable or critical if the driver has no understanding of the relationship between the impact factors and the reading.
"In the same way, we`re working with customers to assist them to identify and manage the impact factors on their business that have the largest bearing on performance. Knowing which factors are important, and where to find the right data, can be the difference between spending millions on resources to extract data blindly in the hope of finding critical business information and spending wisely on extracting information that reflects the key performance indicators and the underlying impact factors that drive the business forward," Gilbey says.
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