Intelligent Enterprise

BENCHMARKING REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCCESS

The selection of operational BI solutions and integration with business process and business rules management systems plays a crucial role in the ability to turn these strategies into profit.

The aggregated performance of surveyed companies determined whether they ranked as Best-in-Class, Industry Average, or Laggard. Each class shared characteristics in five key categories: (1) process (the ability to detect and respond to changing conditions without placing additional burdens on the organization); (2) organization (corporate focus and collaboration among stakeholders); (3) knowledge management (contextualizing data and exposing it to key stakeholders); (4) performance management (the ability of the organization to measure the benefits of technology deployment and use the results to improve key processes further); and (5) technology (the selection of appropriate tools and intelligent deployment of those tools).

These characteristics serve as a guideline for best practices, and correlate directly with Best-in-Class performance across the key metrics. Based on the findings of this Competitive Framework and interviews with end users, Aberdeen's analysis reveals that Best-in-Class companies have developed capabilities at levels far above Industry Average and Laggard companies. Specifically, Best-in-Class companies have achieved significantly faster time-to-decision capabilities by succeeding in three areas: automating the delivery of tailored information for individual consumption, managing training and education to build knowledge resources, and understanding the performance metrics that drive process efficiency and improvement. The following provides factual context and a roadmap for how to achieve Best-in-Class performance.

Process Management Capabilities Click Image to Enlarge

Process. Best-in-Class companies are more likely to automate their operational data processing and analysis activities (see "Best-in-Class Process Management Capabilities" chart at right). By letting the data do the work, Best-in-Class organizations are able to arrive at key insights faster, deliver critical information to the right people at the right time, and in 29 percent of cases, produce analysis required for rapid decisions and actions. Many of the companies interviewed are starting to automate actions based on changing operational data. This capability is becoming prevalent within financial services organizations where fluctuations in currency, stock valuations, and key index metrics happen at second and sub-second intervals. Manufacturers are also beginning to deploy technologies that automatically analyze production, yield, waste, and quality control metrics.