PQ Business Intelligence, a division of Q Data Consulting, has been appointed to run Cognos`s Business Intelligence University (BIU), the only company in the country to earn this qualification.
PQ Business Intelligence (PQBI) will run the two-day university every two months in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
"The courses are run in an executive-style workshop format," says PQBI divisional manager Gavin Lipshitz. "Students are required to run a simulated company for four quarters, to achieve certain business intelligence metrics, to identify key performance indicators and run the business according to a balanced scorecard."
Participation in the class is limited to 16 students, who are broken into four teams of four, with the teams in effect competing with each other.
"The course follows a case study approach to show the students how applying the right information through business intelligence can lead to better decision-making across the organisation," says Lipshitz. "Working as a multidimensional manager, students employ Cognos`s 24 Best Practices to coordinate decisions across marketing, sales, purchasing, production, distribution, customer service, HR/administration and IT. Each team submits its decisions and observes their impact on each of four fiscal quarters.
This allows students to experience first-hand the effects of their decision on the bottomline."
Lipshitz adds that BIU is of equal validity for implementation teams tasked with deploying business intelligence and to multidimensional managers who want to understand how the benefits of business intelligence apply to their jobs.
"The implementation team can use the working illustrations of Cognos`s 24 Best Practices as a guide in their own business intelligence implementation; to determine what data to deploy, in which departments, and to which end-users.
"Multidimensional managers can use the same 24 Best Practices to understand how to use information to make better decisions. Applying business intelligence tools in your area of speciality is key to mastering information that translates into bottomline results," adds Lipshitz.
For further information, contact Gill Staniland 082 829 8602, or visit http://www.pqbi.co.za
The Business Intelligence University costs R2 500 for the two-day course.
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