Business Intelligence in Corporate Planning

 

Business intelligence (BI) is software that gathers business data and turns it into actionable insights that help corporations make informed business decisions (Magooze, 2022). Corporate planning helps organizations map out a course of action to gain exposure, strengthen brand identity, increase profits, or grow. It is a tool that helps intelligent businesses utilize their resources more wisely than their competitors (Bochnewich Law Offices, 2020). BI can greatly enhance the corporate planning effort by providing previously analyzed data that can then be used to help make informed decisions related to the corporate planning activity.

Unfortunately it has been said that the relationship between BI and corporate planning is in its infancy stage. According to Magooze, 2022, there are BI software solutions that are already available to the public that promises to enhance corporate planning by:

·        Obtaining recent market insights – BI software can gather data from competitors and use it to see if the company is using the same successful techniques, or if it needs to try another approach.

·        Providing customer insights – It can identify patterns in customer practices, buying patterns behavior, and identify bottlenecks within the company.

·        Streamline marketing – BI software can help determine which area of marketing the companies budget should go towards, whether it is social media, mobile, online campaigns, radio, print, or television marking.

·        Assisting in faster decision making – The software can provide access to the latest business data via charts, graphs, and reports making sure the planning is using current, relevant data.

·        Providing enhanced sales strategies – Sales data visualization is provided so that the numbers can be analyzed and in turn, the sales budget can be accurately planned to help meet business goals.

·        Analyzing internal human resource data – BI software can provide data on employee performance, turnover, and personnel leave which empowers the business to start training programs, employee rewards, or incentive programs to improve employee performance.

·        Analyzing inventory and finances – Software can be used to assist in supply chain operations and tracking inventory to provide more accurate reports, budget insight, and effective strategizing.

·        Saving time and money – BI software provides data collection, analysis, and visualization for the company, saving time and money that can be better used towards other areas of the corporate planning activity.

Knowledge management (KM) is a systematic process that helps users make more informed decisions by synthesizing and managing the knowledge that is embedded in multiple resources such as people, tools, processes, and relationships within the organizations boundaries (Joshi, 2019). An effective KM repository and solution is needed to help manage the massive amount of data and sources which are used daily to solve important business problems. Using KM will help ensure business intelligence data is accurately captured and therefor rendering far more useful input into organizations corporate planning activities.

 

References

Bochnewich Law Offices. (2020, November 23). 6 elements of successful corporate planning. Palm Desert Law Firm. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://www.btrustlaw.com/blog/6-elements-of-successful-corporate-planning/#:~:text=What%20Is%20Corporate%20Planning%3F,more%20wisely%20than%20their%20competitors.

Joshi, Y. M. (2019, February 22). Merging Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence 2.0. LinkedIn. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/merging-knowledge-management-business-intelligence-20-joshi

Magooze. (2022, June 7). The role of Business Intelligence in strategic business planning. Business Intelligence Solutions. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://www.canvasintelligence.com/the-role-of-business-intelligence-in-strategic-business-planning/