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Case Analysis: Implementing Business Intelligence in SER

Q1. Why SER implemented a BI system

Business intelligence (BI) refers to the process through which organizations employ technologies and strategies for analysing historical and current data with the aim of bettering strategic decision-making as well as offering a competitive advantage.  In the case of SER, there are several reasons for which they implemented BI systems. First, the company was instituted in the late 1800s but had little made use of its valuable data (Zamora & Barahona, 2016). According to the case study, the company had long kept data that it had not properly used to inform its decision making process. Therefore, the implementation of the BI system would help it effectively and productively use the accumulated data to its advantage to make informed decisions, assist in verifying its productivity, and to aid it in determining all the crucial variables that could forecast its yields and harvest (Puklavec, Oliveira & Popovič, 2018). Additionally, before the implementation of the system, SER faced some problems with regard to appropriate employment of data/information. Not only were some of its departments provided with useful and sufficient information and data, but were also given the opportunity to decide what was useful and not. This slowed down the process of decision making since the process of evaluating a huge set of data would take unprecedentedly long (Borissova et al., 2020). Similarly, the logistics and flow of people, resources, and information throughout SER’s departments in the most apt way was lacking (Pham et al., 2016). Thus, having a system that would handle huge information, generate synthesized information for quick decision making, and aid the productivity and competitiveness of SER would be sufficient motivation for the employment of BI system by SER.

The implementation of BI system by SER was also informed by economic crisis that faced the world in the year 2008 which significantly caused changes in the costs of business depended equipment, like fuel, as well as a fall in revenue on products (Zamora & Barahona, 2016). With the fall in prices, SER was encouraged to employ/implement more effective and efficient business tools while increasing their overall productivity to raise their profit margins.

Similarly, SER implemented BI system since BI systems would present them with opportunities for lowering their products’ prices while increasing their performance and productivity everyday (Borissova et al., 2020). Initially, the company’s top management had to review data and records, which process often took long, before deciding the next step of action for maximizing SER’s outputs and resources. However, with the implementation, the company would easily be guided into making good decisions quicker about planting, harvest, nutrition, and transportation, among other activities (Puklavec, Oliveira & Popovič, 2018).

Q2. What to consider when implementing BI

Implementing a BI system in an organization can propel the company to the next greater level, if and only if it is done properly. A BI system can offer a company a seamless platform that assists the company’s employees to get real-time intuition from the company’s various spheres, and attain operational excellence (Borissova et al., 2020). It can equally empower a company’s crucial stakeholders to execute ad-hoc assessment to discover development and growth openings and assess data for purposes of validating their gut feeling. Nonetheless, to realize these, proper implementation of a BI system is needful.

There are various things that must be considered when implementing a BI system. First, there is a need to identify the challenge a company is trying to accomplish or surmount (Puklavec, Oliveira & Popovič, 2018). If a company hurries to implement a BI system without clearly defining why it needs a particular BI system and where and/how to leverage it so that it can benefit the company’s operations, the system is not likely to solve the intended challenge (Zamora & Barahona, 2016). Another factor that should be considered is that a company should not purchase a BI system for general use. Pham et al. (2016) reason that a company should buy systems for targeted problem solving as opposed to general usage. BI systems are as good as they are used to the advantage of a business. Having a system that has amazing abilities, yet undefined to achieve a company’s needs then the system is as good as nothing.

Legal requirements and security are other factors that should be taken into consideration when implementing a BI system since they go a long way in ensuring an organization’s data governance (Borissova et al., 2020). Not all members of an organization should have access to all organization’s data. Restrictions and limitations to safeguard the organization’s and its customers’ data must be considered when implementing a BI system.

A company must also obtain buy-in from a BI system’s end users. Implementing in a system that a company’s end users are going to fail to embrace or going to reject will hinder import of the system’s capabilities (Borissova et al., 2020). Companies ought first to help their end users with vivid information and knowledge on how the system would help them in executing their jobs more accurately, efficiently, and save them time (Pham et al., 2016). Otherwise, a great BI system would only make little or no impact on a company.