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How business intelligence can improve your bottom line
The acid-test for any technology or software solution is not how it's doing when times are good but how it's doing when times are bad. Right now, economically, times couldn't be much worse, but when it comes to IT spending there are few technologies holding their own like business intelligence (BI) software. BI is an umbrella term for a variety of software solutions that are designed to help businesses gather, analyse and use data to make better business decisions.
Managing TCO: Preventing business intelligence costs from getting out of control
Money is not something that can be wasted at any time but when there's a lot less of it floating around, IT managers have to be even more vigilant when it comes to justifying spend and controlling project costs. The same is true for implementing business intelligence (BI) solutions. BI tools might be the most sought after business technology by most of the world's leading firms but, controlling costs should play an important part in any BI implementation so as to prevent a potentially great technology investment becoming a money pit. Many BI projects fail because they get too big and expensive, thanks mainly to hidden costs.
Giving business intelligence a human face - getting user buy in
If you want your business to be best placed to face the future, you need to unlock the value of all the information your organisation holds and generates - whether about customers, sales or operations. Top-of-the-range tools offer the promise of integrated, real-time information that will give your business unparalleled insight into customer behaviour, market trends and your own business.
Levels of business intelligence
If you're not sure what level of business intelligence your firm has reached, try the 'man sitting in the corner' test. If you ask for the answer to a question and somebody points to a guy in the corner and says you need to talk to him, you know you're at the bottom level. In such organisations, BI is the exclusive domain of information mavericks who control the tools and information for particular areas of the business.
Data integration: Getting different BI systems to talk to each other
Business intelligence may be at the cutting-edge of IT, but it still falls foul of an age-old technology problem - garbage in, garbage out. It's all very well aspiring to a sophisticated level of BI where you can glean key insights by combining, slicing and dicing various sources of information, but the challenge facing many organisations is how to integrate those information sources successfully, so the intelligence presented is both valuable and valid.
The importance of protecting business critical company information
Keylogger. Rootkit. Screen scraper. Spyware. It might sound like the gadget list from a James Bond movie but the chances are you have heard of at least one of the above. It's even more likely that your company's IT systems are being attacked by one or more of them as you read this article.
Setting and maintaining successful security policies
Data security is not just down to the IT department. Securing critical business information is the responsibility of the whole company. To do that, you need a well-written, easy-to-understand security policy so that everyone knows where they stand in relation to dealing with the company's information.
IT security: From cottage industry to organised crime
Read too many reports on IT security and you could end up a quivering wreck. What with hackers threatening to take over systems for nefarious purposes, criminal gangs intent on stealing valuable information and insiders engaged in fraud, data theft, sabotage and stupidity, the problems can seem insurmountable.
Network security: Multiple layers of protection
Today, network security can seem to the uninitiated like an unfathomable sprawl of arcane techniques and technologies. Vendors bandy around terms like authentication, encryption, firewalling, intrusion prevention, network behavioural analysis and a host of others with little thought for the customer. Most companies want to know they are investing in an appropriate level of defence for their systems without spending over the odds on ineffective, unnecessary or overly burdensome solutions.
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