From Business Intelligence to Intelligent Business

Summary

In this presentation, the speaker reflects on their transition from VP of Innovation to an independent consultant. They discuss the evolution of business intelligence, from decision support systems to intelligent businesses that integrate data and analytics for smarter decision-making. The future of business intelligence is framed as a shift towards businesses becoming self-sustaining entities that use advanced tools and data-driven processes. Human wisdom will still play a key role in strategic oversight, while automation will drive day-to-day operations. Governance, adaptability, and the right balance of people, tools, and data are crucial to this transformation.

Takeaways

• 🤖 The future of business intelligence is moving toward creating intelligent businesses, where decision-making is built into the processes, allowing businesses to function more autonomously.
• 💡 Business intelligence has evolved from 'decision support' systems to 'business discovery,' but the core goal remains helping businesses make better decisions.
• 📊 Every company is now a data company, regardless of industry, as data generation is integral to their processes and decision-making.
• 🧠 True intelligence is not just about having information, but also understanding, insight, and adaptability, enabling better predictions and decisions for the future.
• 👨‍💼 Human wisdom, gained from experience, remains essential in guiding businesses' strategic decisions, complementing the automated insights of intelligent systems.
• 🚀 Companies are transitioning from being 'data-driven' to 'analytics-driven' and ultimately toward becoming 'intelligent businesses' by applying advanced analytics and automation.
• ⚙️ Modern tools like in-memory computing and self-service analytics allow businesses to quickly set up data infrastructures, enabling rapid deployment and analysis.
• 📈 New developers should have knowledge of data analytics, as it is becoming a core competency for future-proof businesses.
• 🛠 Agile data storage and analysis solutions, like data discovery tools, provide flexibility for handling different business needs and allow for quick experimentation.
• 👥 Governance in data systems is shifting from gatekeeping to fostering collaboration, ensuring data is accessible to the right people while maintaining security and control.

Q & A

What was the speaker's previous role before becoming an independent analyst and consultant?

The speaker was the Vice President of Innovation at a company until last week.

What significant impact did the speaker believe they made during their six years at Click?

The speaker believes they made a tremendous difference in the world of business intelligence and analytics.

What does the speaker see as the future of business intelligence?

The speaker sees the future of business intelligence as moving towards 'intelligent business', where businesses themselves become intelligent entities with built-in intelligent processes.

What is the main difference between traditional business intelligence and the speaker's vision of 'intelligent business'?

Traditional business intelligence focuses on supporting human decision-making, while 'intelligent business' envisions businesses making decisions autonomously through intelligent processes.

According to the speaker, what are the key components of an intelligent process?

The key components of an intelligent process, according to the speaker, are insight, foresight, adaptability, and wisdom.

Why is wisdom considered a crucial component in the speaker's definition of intelligence?

Wisdom is considered crucial because it involves learned experiences, including from mistakes, which is a uniquely human element that cannot be replicated by machines.

What does the speaker suggest every company is today, regardless of its industry?

The speaker suggests that every company today is a data company because data is generated in every aspect of business operations.

What is the role of human beings in an intelligent business according to the speaker?

In an intelligent business, human beings provide wisdom and oversee the strategy and direction, while the business itself takes on insight, foresight, and adaptability through data and analytics.

What is the speaker's view on the current state of data infrastructure and its transformation?

The speaker views the current data infrastructure as having transformed significantly with advancements in in-memory computing, fast networks, and agile storage solutions, making it more accessible and efficient for business users.

Why does the speaker emphasize the importance of governance in the context of self-service analytics?

The speaker emphasizes the importance of governance to ensure that while data is made accessible and user-friendly, there is still control and oversight to maintain data integrity and security.

What is the speaker's advice for companies looking to transform into intelligent businesses?

The speaker advises companies to focus on strategies, people, and tools, and to embrace data and analytics to transform from data companies to analytics companies and eventually to intelligent businesses.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Transition from VP of Innovation to Independent Consultant

The speaker reflects on their recent career transition from Vice President of Innovation at Click to becoming an independent consultant focused on business strategy. They express gratitude for their six years at Click, highlighting the success and influence the company had in the business intelligence field. The speaker introduces the concept of the future of business intelligence (BI), explaining that while BI has evolved from decision support to modern analytics, it remains rooted in helping businesses make better decisions. They believe the next step is for businesses themselves to become intelligent entities, with processes and systems that operate autonomously.

05:07

🧠 Defining Intelligence in Business

The speaker discusses their definition of intelligence in the context of business. They highlight that true intelligence goes beyond just knowledge or information; it requires understanding and insight. Intelligence allows individuals and businesses to predict the future and make better decisions based on this understanding. Adaptability is also crucial, as intelligence must be able to adjust to changing circumstances. Finally, wisdom, often derived from experience, plays a key role in guiding intelligent decisions, particularly in complex business scenarios. The speaker emphasizes that while AI can handle data and processes, human wisdom remains essential for higher-level decision-making.

10:08

📊 The Data-Driven Company: Becoming Analytics and Intelligence-Enabled

The speaker explores the idea that every company today is a data company, generating valuable data through processes, customers, suppliers, and even competitors. The next step for businesses is to become analytics companies, which involves analyzing this data to gain insights and foresight. The ultimate goal is for businesses to evolve into intelligent companies, capable of applying advanced analytics and adaptive processes. This transition can be achieved by focusing on people, tools, and data, empowering businesses to make better, faster decisions and gain a competitive advantage.

15:09

⚙️ Tools and Technologies for the Future of Analytics

The speaker describes the rapid advancements in technology that enable businesses to become more data-driven. They recount their own experience setting up multiple analytic tools in just a few hours, highlighting how far technology has come compared to past complex and lengthy processes. Tools like Click allow for quick and easy deployment of data analysis systems, making it accessible for business users. The speaker also explains how modern data infrastructures, such as in-memory computing and cloud storage, have transformed data handling, making it easier for businesses to access and analyze large volumes of data without relying heavily on IT departments.

Keywords

💡Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence (BI) refers to the technologies and practices used to collect, integrate, analyze, and present business information for better decision-making. In the video, the speaker explains how BI has evolved from decision support systems into a more sophisticated model, allowing companies to gain insights from their data. The future of BI, according to the speaker, will be in transforming businesses into 'intelligent entities' that can autonomously manage their processes.

💡Intelligent Business

An intelligent business is an organization that integrates intelligent processes and systems, enabling it to operate autonomously and make data-driven decisions. The speaker describes this as the future of business intelligence, where businesses have embedded intelligence and adaptability, and human involvement is focused on oversight, strategy, and the application of wisdom.

💡Adaptability

Adaptability refers to the ability of a business or system to adjust to changes in its environment or context. The speaker emphasizes adaptability as a critical component of intelligence in both humans and businesses, stating that businesses must be able to adapt to rapidly changing data and market conditions to stay competitive.

💡Insight

Insight is the understanding derived from analyzing data, which helps businesses make informed decisions. The speaker discusses how business intelligence tools help companies gain insights into their operations, customer behavior, and market trends, which are crucial for transforming data into actionable strategies.

💡Foresight

Foresight is the ability to predict or anticipate future events based on current data and trends. The speaker highlights foresight as a key aspect of an intelligent business, where understanding current conditions allows businesses to anticipate future outcomes and make better decisions to adapt and thrive.

💡Wisdom

Wisdom refers to the ability to apply knowledge and experience, often through human intuition and judgment, to make sound decisions. In the video, the speaker mentions that while businesses can become intelligent and autonomous, human wisdom remains essential in making complex, strategic decisions that require understanding beyond data and analytics.

💡Data Company

A data company is an organization that uses data as a central resource for decision-making and operations. The speaker asserts that every company today is a data company, as they all generate data through their processes, interactions, and customers. Companies that harness this data effectively can transition into analytics companies and, ultimately, intelligent businesses.

💡Analytics

Analytics refers to the systematic analysis of data to discover patterns and insights. The speaker explains that businesses must become analytics companies to gain insights and foresight, leveraging tools that allow them to make data-driven decisions. Advanced analytics, such as predictive modeling, is key to moving from being a data company to an intelligent business.

💡Self-Service Systems

Self-service systems are tools that allow business users to access and analyze data independently, without relying on IT departments. The speaker points out how the rise of these systems has made it easier for users to deploy, manage, and analyze data on their own, significantly lowering barriers to entry for businesses seeking to use data for decision-making.

💡Governance

Governance in business intelligence refers to the framework and processes that ensure data is managed securely, accurately, and efficiently. The speaker discusses how governance used to be about restricting access to data but now emphasizes allowing access while maintaining control. This shift supports the broader goal of making data available to more users within the business while ensuring compliance and data integrity.

Highlights

Transition from Vice President of Innovation to independent analyst and consultant, advising companies on business strategy.

Reflection on six successful years at Click, making a significant difference in business intelligence and analytics.

Introduction of the concept of 'intelligent business,' where businesses will become intelligent entities with automated processes.

Shift from traditional decision support systems to business intelligence.

Transcripts

so I'm I was introduced as the vice

president of innovation decided quick

but in fact I was until last week and

now I have a doodle and I moved in as an

independent analyst and consultant and

advising companies with business behind

strategy and I had six fantastic years

of click where I think we've made a

tremendous difference in the world of

business intelligence and analytics and

it's very appropriate for me but my

first presentation as a if it ended

should actually be to an audience in

India where I have had so much time and

so much success is so much appreciation

all the work that's done here so today I

want to talk about the future of

business intelligence of what that what

that actually means it's quite a big

subject as you can imagine but I think

you can sum up the future of fitness the

challenge is very simple this think a

little bit about the past past of his

intelligence was that we used to call it

decision support many years ago we

thought that position support long

before we call it business intelligence

we talked about decision support systems

and then we added data warehouses and

the marketing people started to talk

about business intelligence and then

they started talking about discovery and

business discovery but you know what we

still do decision support the paths of

business intelligence is still about

supporting business users to make better

decisions even though we talk about all

the new technologies big data and so on

when you apply business intelligence to

that you're essentially so

people taking decisions but I think we

can go beyond that I think the future of

business intelligence can be summed up

very simply as intelligent business

we're going to move businesses from the

organizations which are human beings

made all the decisions and drove the

business in a very structured way to

businesses which are themselves

intelligence which had intelligent

processes built into the business and

work human beings have instead the

insight to the oversight of the strategy

and direction to tactics of the business

but the business is selling they

actually become almost like an

intelligent entity of its own with their

own rules and its own functions and it's

all instructors and we can already see

this in many of the fancy services

business that many intelligent

manufacture and increasingly in online

businesses of all sorts do marketing and

crisis a group of offers in an

intelligent way so I'm very excited by

the future of business intelligence as

we move into this new model of business

now what we actually mean by intelligent

business what a bunch of intelligence I

think it's important to break this down

and of course there's many definitions

of intelligence I have my own son a

little pattern that I use to describe an

intelligent process and it simply this

intelligence involves in something if

you don't understand something they do

not really good intelligence you can

have a lot of knowledge a lot of

information then you're not really

intelligent but I was a kid very small I

used to

I love like a lot of children I like

dinosaurs and I knew the names of all

these dinosaurs I could I was six years

old I can tell you what the throat the

source was whatever attacked Bella Terra

Heineken or whatever a bankable star

restore and tyrannosaurs and I have

spent all these words truth was I didn't

the way that they kept her dinosaurs

I just do the names of all these things

I do inside perspective of course I was

kind of probably a pretty smart kid but

that's not really tells don't say so

it's elegance for me is don't just facts

and information it's understanding and

insight from that other an understanding

an insight we then get for something the

ability to predict what's going to have

to understand what the future Michael

and therefore to make better decisions

for the future and if you can understand

what we are today what's happened in

subtle and if you can understand what

may happen in the future for stuff and

you need a third quality to be

intelligent

and that third quality is adaptability

you have to be able to adjust you might

see the car racing towards you but if

you don't get under the weight you have

to be able to acquire there's a fourth

part which in some ways I don't think

office Bachmann challenges I actually

take you with offices be something else

but it's wisdom human wisdom the wisdom

that we learned from our parents

learn from our colleagues and visitor

that we learned before experienced

mentors that wisdom is not just in sight

before psychic ability it comes from

having to see that many times comes from

having learned from it comes from having

learned from many of bitter mistakes and

you can build that into a business Solis

that's a human element and so for me the

intelligent business has insight and

foresight and adaptability today but we

still need human beings of those roles

because it's only human beings I can

bring wisdom and if you think of the

language we structure data in our

businesses this is foreplay we can use

data to make decisions if you go to the

bank that amazing I suppose there's a

very good chance that that just it's run

to an algorithm and it's infinite of the

sites but you can double girls because

that's an easy decision to automate you

can plug in some rules and you get an

answer but the bank has tactical teams

which are sent from headquarters and

management's about targets that they

need to reach and incentives that we do

and that may be done by human beings but

increasingly even those systems can be

automated incentives can be managed in

an automated way or in adaptively

senior directors of the bank the people

who decide what new markets we're going

to enter all your products are we going

to create hope you services to do that

doesn't just come from information that

has come from data

it comes from wisdom

insight and also comes a human risk T

the ability to make really big tough

decisions so an intelligent business

doesn't replace newbies but he uses

human beings in a new way it uses human

beings for the qualities of wisdom but

the business itself can take on the

insight foresight maneuverability

through the verification of data and

analysis and that's very important for

us because I would tell you that every

company today is a data company don't

care what you do don't care what your

business is every one of your customers

isn't either come we all have David even

as individuals we have people I walk

around with my iPhone in my pocket and

is constantly generating data even if

it's just a number of steps that taketh

away every business to take generates

data we have data about our processes we

have data stuff data about our suppliers

we have data about customers we have

data Alabama competitors their social

media there's market information whether

information is a company and they don't

think of themselves as a theater company

then they're losing a competitive

advantage because it's companies to know

the inoculator

I know limiting advantage

better go to see some every company no

matter what you do is the data company

any in a company and therefore become an

analytics car because what's an

analytics company it's just a company

that buys insight and foresight

intelligence and that mobility to the

data they're going if you've got data

they analyze it and providing the

analytic tools that will help you to

make make better decisions now you

become an analytics every company every

one of your customers can move from

being a data company being an analytics

and then take it further if you're an

analytics company and you start to apply

advanced intelligence you start to apply

advanced analytics to this problem

started bottling now you've become

intelligent now you're building in the

rules and adaptability to do that so

this is not some pipe dream about what

happens in the future you can do

everybody easily from being a data

company being an analytic company to be

an intelligent and it requires some very

simple steps that require some very

simple tools and materials that we can

get there simply by applying I think

three things that are very important by

focusing on key strategies people and

tools and data these are the three

elements that are necessary to any

intelligent

the first problem of people is actually

solving itself because almost every new

computer science student comes out of

the college anywhere in the world is now

not only studying elements of ITV and

elements of administration and

management of programming most everyone

is coming out with some understanding of

these data and analytics and you know

advanced analytics and global in its

abilities a few years ago the number one

concern of IT managers was security

David a number-one concern of IT

managers is high commission data

parameters and so this feeds back into

universities and back into colleges they

need to supply people with those tools

so although today people with analytic

skills may be expensive and special

people in the workforce very quickly

very quickly in the next few years this

will become a beast level of experience

the customers at our company tonight

advise I have a very simple rule that I

tell the mind which is do not employ any

new developer who does not have some

data mining some predictive analytics

some big data or some analytic knowledge

if you don't have my other dates don't

have them as a developer there's plenty

older developers at your company who've

already go advanced development skills

what you need is that new level is good

just in the same way as a few years ago

you wouldn't employed somebody who

didn't have the ability to work at a

vigilant market didn't have the ability

to work in robot 11 days you would want

the developers and good experience at

work get mobile devices in a future do a

private developer because

experience of it is because analytics is

the next goldmine that will transform

our businesses so the new workforce is

coming and over the years that done more

and more agile so nowadays we have these

self-service systems lightly highly

adaptable easy to deploy easy to learn

business users can spin up their own

systems especially uncluttered with

almost no barrier to entry it just get

started I've said that last week and

just doesn't experiment I decided on my

first date I've denied your home in your

business what was I going to do in the

first day accepted and I set up five

virtual servers with five different

analytic tools somewhere just to see

what the experience was like and I was

done by lunchtime

by lunchtime I hate who stole the final

in existence and was running the boat

out as a clothes rack space now when I

worked at Microsoft at the data mining

team if I wanted a new server I had to

sign the requisition and get my manager

to approve it and then it would be two

weeks until the balsa right and it was

expensive process and I need to install

the software during all those clicks to

install the software routine you know a

long time into you all day need to

install one server never take you two

weeks to Lourdes or a server my first

day of business I said on five server

before lunchtime

that's been the tools that we have and

the analytic tools that are there -

they're also changing when we sell

service you can get up and running with

a tool and click before lunch

it's a tremendously high performance -

and those are the tools that we're done

used to there are the tools of your

business users demand that's the tools

that they are expecting to use because

we made a lot of college no matter the

IT still but I learned the business

there are many you see using those tools

the next thing we need is data and the

data infrastructure has gone through a

similar transformation data used to be

the domain of IT because all the IT

under student gets so much data together

into one place i tangled up or the cops

handle the storage how to handle the

query and how to structure it in order

to get the best performance out of it

but nowadays with in-memory computing

remedies the fast networks nowadays with

agile solid-state storage or hybrid

cloud storage you can throw almost any

amount of data you can query that made a

really quick movement and the visual

content to make it very very efficient

for businesses to this one this is no

longer the domain of the IT department

is business users can do this on their

own and what that means is that we

transform the way in which we think

about business data storage the data

warehouses - the same you still need the

data warehouse for your central system

of record for your financial data for

your HR diva for maybe your course sales

systems that need to record very large

amounts of data and very importantly

need to believe it over a long period of

time in a warehouse is there at all just

to store a large amount of data but to

store an archive of data over many years

that you can go back and examine your

sales over a 10-year period local bank

but the taxman comes up as a question go

back and examine the system twelve years

ago and tell them exactly what the

status of the system

whereas deserve of history there above

structure and there about having that

that rigid system system that doesn't

change over many years precisely because

it's being designed to represent the

core function of the business but at the

front end for business users are facing

challenges that change every game they

need something for death and the

discovery of the model and time extender

we'll be talking about today it's

actually a very effective way of

presenting data in a very diverse form

to business users if you work with a

tool like click at the front vent then

you have a beta layer where you can make

some very smart decisions already using

data lots of data in there you can

analyze it's almost like a cache but the

front end the clear system but when you

have to start taking larger data

warehouse extracts but you have to start

reading data in from many different

sources and when you have to start

serving more than just one to other

words your business users aren't just

using click they're also using Excel

using perhaps they'll specialize to

between graph analysis or for doing

prediction and saying the insurance

market some specialized the garment that

you've got they need a data store which

could serve all of those users

you still need to start your core

business intelligence functions but you

may need to start other functions to

that that's where the public becomes

available and it's not the data

warehouse that solves those problems

because neither warehouse is designed to

solve the problems how do I store highly

structured data over a long period of

time in order to give business

continuity over my core systems but

they're not providing they hide my

spittin up quick data analytic to run

this quarters campaign I want to run

something for the winter campaign I want

to say it outside

suitable customer analysis I want to

track the performance of that campaign

by the way to that and then throw that

system away when the winter camping is

over that's what a technology like the

discovery opportunity

so people tools and data are the core of

that system but the first thing that we

mustn't forget is governance but ever I

talked to IT about a self-service

question I always get back is only yes

but we can't manage that it escapes if

you get a business usually language

that's again queer tools likely with

governance systems built it and an

infrastructure like the discovery hub

where data can be centralized but still

imagine it gives you control of

governments governance is not about

governance used to be about stopping

that that's happened I used to say that

the change in governance in nineteen

world is from being aged keepers to show

huge engage peepers job is to keep bad

people up and so government's was

entirely represented as a way of

building a wall around their data to

prevent people getting in so that they

needed to get out but if you think about

that if you completely talk about it I

give you I give you access to my data I

control the data and I let you live

model tweets everybody in your business

as a bankers there are systems

but the information that we need for

analytics the information that we need

to make better decisions we should be

acting instead of gatekeepers Ashok

users say come and look at our game it's

great to become a truck and even learn

things from here the job of the shop

keeper isn't the stop by people getting

in is to make sure the right people good

they welcome the people in because they

make the data available to in a way that

people want to use them and that's when

you turn a business would be just a data

business into an analytic business when

there's a dynamic that says we want you

to do this

so that's a very brief but I think a lot

of material in a sense for you to think

about but the future of business

intelligence for me let's just put it as

simply as this the future of business

intelligence is intelligent business how

about your buddy here by today I think

is a really important step towards

taking not just use every single one of

your partners and customers and all the

organizational members that turn towards

intelligent business and I hope you

enjoy the rest of the day