Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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
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 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
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
Questions?