tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8719059857879290926Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:37:48 +0000Beyond delivers applications integration, development and support solutions with particular emphasis on Oracle E-Business and Business Intelligencehttp://wegobeyond.co.uk/blog/noreply@blogger.com (Beyond Systems Ltd)Blogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8719059857879290926.post-434607541086017613Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:35:00 +00002009-01-07T09:37:48.153Z<div><br /></div><div>The competitive world of business has been described many times as a jungle and in the current economic climate we can clearly see natural selection at work. For many companies ‘Survival of the Fittest’ will be an appropriate tautology for the next few years.  Organisations must adapt to these lean times by minimising costs and maximising profit or perish.  There has never been greater pressure on businesses to gain insight to enable critical business decisions to be made. </div><div><br /></div><div>Oracle Business Intelligence Applications offers a pre-built and proven decision support environment enabling information to be gleaned from across the enterprise.  As a means of developing a strategic business intelligence solution this goes a long way to delivering a best practice model.  This is true even if not all your constituent applications are Oracle-based. Oracle Business Intelligence Applications is definitely a cost-effective way of creating the basis for strategic decision support.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, gaining the buy-in and budget for such a large scale solution is not easy when senior managers have such a keen eye on costs.  This is where the case for an evolutionary approach can be made.  By beginning with rapid delivery of business critical insight using Oracle Business Intelligence plus an agile design and development approach the business users and key stakeholders can quickly understand and accept the benefits of the new technology. Once the approach is accepted the business has the opportunity to evolve as quickly as is necessary setting its own priorities.</div><div><br /></div><div>Possible evolution might be:</div><div><br /></div><div>Stage 1 - Rapid delivery of a business intelligence solution using BI SE1/EE to resolve a specific high priority information requirement</div><div>Stage 2 - Incorporate the key problem areas within the organisation, perhaps including the conversion of existing Oracle Discoverer end user layers to Oracle BI.</div><div>Stage 3 – Integrate multiple data sources and proactive notification or rectification</div><div>Stage 4 – Extend to include pre-built Oracle BI Applications</div><div>Stage 5 – Optimise performance by monitoring and improving solution architecture</div><div><br /></div><div>N.B. These stages do not necessarily have to be sequential and optimisation of performance will probably be on-going.</div><div><br /></div><div>Using this evolutionary process for the development of a strategic business intelligence infrastructure for Oracle E-Business clients, organisations can engage at the stage of evolution that is most appropriate for them.  In order to manage the implementation of such an approach, it is important to consider the value of a methodology that allows for a rapid and agile delivery and the encouragement of positive user adoption.  This “Agile” methodology is a topic that we shall expand upon in a future blog entry.</div><div><br /></div><div>John Parrott, Beyond Systems</div>http://wegobeyond.co.uk/blog/2009/01/evolution-of-intelligence_07.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Beyond Systems Ltd)0