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Project Presentation

The feasibility of applying Business Intelligence


to meet the information needs of serviceoriented Small to Medium Enterprises in the
Western Cape

Presented by Rory Coert

Introduction
Business Intelligence
Service-oriented Small to Medium Enterprises
Research Problem:
Feasibility of applying BI to meet the information needs of
service-oriented SME's in the Western Cape

Research Objective:
To clarify:
The ICT infrastructure currently in use by SME's
The informational needs of SME's
The value placed on effective decision supporting information by SME
owners

Introduction cont.
Significance of Research:
Research for the use of Developers

Research Question:
How suitable will a BI system be in addressing the
informational needs of service-oriented Business to Business
and Business to Customer SME's in the Western Cape?

Research Background
Business Intelligence
Decision support tool
Acquisition, processing and analysing of large
quantities of data
Time constraints, monitor competitors, process
information from different perspectives.
Creates an effective decision making and strategic
thinking environment

Research Background cont.


Strategic Level:
Decision makers set precise business objectives and follow
the progress on achieving those objectives
Perform and compare different reports based on historical
data

Tactical Level:
Manage marketing, sales, finance, customer, logistic,
production or capital management
Help organisations achieve strategic objectives

Operational Level:
Perform Ad Hoc Analyses and Queries

Research Background cont.


Small to Medium Enterprises
Medium Enterprises: annual turnover < R25 million, asset
value < R5 million, employs 51-200 employees
Small Enterprises: annual turnover < R5 million, asset value
< R1 million, employs 5-50 employees
Micro Enterprises: annual turnover < R1.25 million, asset
value < R0.25 million, employs 1-4 employees

Owners make all ICT procurement decisions


SMEs in SA use non-ICT methods
Owners must operate on all management levels
4 kinds of SME that can benefit from BI

Research Methodology
Research Type:

Qualitative

Research Approach:

Field Interviews
Of three SME owners

Sampling Technique:

Snowball Sampling

Method of Analysis:

Analytical comparison
Using Method of
Agreement and Difference

Findings
ICT Use
Medium Enterprises make extensive use of ICT to support
business administration
Small Enterprises do not make extensive use of ICT
SME owners make all decisions regarding ICT procurement
It is preferred that ICT costs are once-off

Information Needs
SME's need Product and Stock data to be current and
monitored
Medium Enterprises also need Customer data to be
processed
Time constraints on information usually weekly

Findings cont.
Value placed on decision supporting information
Mixed value placed on BI tools, some functionality already
provided by other software
Strategic level decision support: High level of importance
Tactical level decision support: Moderate level of
importance
Operational level support: Low level of importance
ICT systems and Information considered an asset to
business

THE FINAL QUESTION?

Conclusions
ICT infrastructure of the Medium enterprises
The information needs of SMEs
The SMEs owners response to adopting BI:
BI would replace their decision making
BI systems are currently too costly

BI system is meant to support decision making and


not replace it

Questions?

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