Organisations have long understood the value of intelligence. What is new, however, is today's tough business environment, which is compelling organisations to strategise about enterprise-wide intelligence.
"The business milieu, which is characterised by a host of new codes of practice and legislation, as well as potential penalties, is putting severe pressure on businesses," says Bill Hoggarth, managing director of SAS Institute SA, leader in business and analytical intelligence.
"Banks can lose their licences if they do not have sufficient capital reserves, while individuals can lose their freedom if they sign off inaccurate statements, even if they do this unknowingly. This is driving the need for an intelligence strategy."
Says Hoggarth: "Most of the new regulations are underpinned by sound business practices.
"It does make sense for banks to carry enough capital reserves to cover operational and market risk, while it is prudent to protect against financial crimes and terrorism.
"In the rush to comply and avoid penalties, however, many organisations face a dilemma: should they comply at minimal cost and overhead, or should they use this imperative as an opportunity to leverage the data collected by delivering value to other areas of the business as well."
Hoggarth believes the latter course of action to be wise. Organisations have to make large investments in systems that enable them to be compliant, so it makes sense to ensure these investments result in strategic benefit to the business at the same time.
"With an intelligence strategy, the 'Know your customer' imperative for financial services organisations, for example, can be exploited to ensure the enormous amount of customer data collected enables marketing to better target its activities," he concludes.
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