As part of the Business Intelligence Development Plan template, including section headings (project outline), you should submit a Business Performance Methodologies section of 4–5 pages that include

Business Intelligence Development Plan

Connie Farris

Colorado Technical University

Business Intelligence

(IT415-1902B-01)

Donald Wilcoxen

05/29/2019

Business Intelligence Development Plan

Medical Needs is a company located in Tennessee, with locations in Nashville and Memphis. This is a company that manufactures many different medical devices. They have been in business for over a year now. Project administrators in the medical device industry have confronted the need to decide the fitting condition for a given item for a long time now. (Molded Devices Inc, 2016) In making the assurance, inquiries to consider incorporate the inquiry, does a cleanroom give additional points of interest that would legitimize the cost of structure and taking care of one? What are the rules including cleanroom conditions? What things or methods deal with the necessity for such a situation? (Molded Devices Inc, 2016)

This company has built up a controlled situation and proper specifications for temperature, cleaning, and pollution controls set up. For instance, filters ought to be supplanted per plan or as required dependent on planned examinations. Any practices or factors from the accompanying rundown that the producer has considered proper and chosen to utilize ought to be determined and routinely performed or pursued. (Molded Devices Inc, 2016) Utilizing a controlled domain as opposed to a cleanroom regularly likens to noteworthy cost funds amid introductory development and in arranged, intermittent upkeep. The essential explanation behind structure a cleanroom is to represent future monetary contemplations. (Molded Devices Inc, 2016)

The success of a business lies in a number of factors that are determined by the contributions of the stakeholders that make up the business. Among these factors are the decisions made and the processes followed when making these decisions and when solving problems. Companies are kept running with progressive decisions that aim at picking the choices that have the best interests of the companies. As such, proper guidelines have to be followed and suitable circumstances have to be in place in order to make the right decisions that ensure the progressivity of the company. In the event that these criteria are not achieved, then problems may arise that hinder the decision-making process.

In the organization from the case study, production managers have to make a decision between a clean room and a controlled environment with the goal of determining the most appropriate production environment for a given product. From the company description, several factors appear to exist that influenced the manufacturer’s decision to establish a controlled environment rather than a clean room. For a start, the company has been in business for a fairly short period of time (just over a year) and that duration may not appear to be enough to have gathered all the necessary information to make the decision. Secondly, the company’s decision was also influenced by the financial factor, in which the company opted to go for the option that would be cheaper to establish and maintain. A third problem that relates to the decision that the company made is a fear of failure. This problem arises from the possibility of taking a risk and having negative results from taking the risk, which makes managers weary of taking risks when making vital decisions with a future positive objective. From the brief, it is certain that the benefits from the choice of a clean room puts into dispute the legitimacy its cost and maintenance. Besides from there being a financial sufficiency question, the fear of failing after establishing a clean room is also evident. Technology is another factor that has relations with decision making. Its availability influences the form that decisions made take. In terms of technology, a clean room is more technologically advanced than a basic controlled environment. Although they serve the same purpose, in circumstances where one has the technology to run a clean room, one would consider establishing a clean room rather than a controlled environment. In the case study given, Medical Needs chose to establish a controlled environment as opposed to a clean room, an indication of the level of their technological assets. The fifth issue relating to the organization is the lack of effective decision-making processes. For many years, production managers from that field have not entirely succeeded in choosing an appropriate production environment, a factor that can be realized from not having effective decision-making processes. Ineffective decision-making processes can be reflected by a lack of decision-making skills which result from a lack of training.

The business pressure-responses-support model is a model that indicates that the pressures brought about by business are responded to and opportunities are taken advantage of. As demonstrated through the model, support facilities are availed to monitor the environment for opportunities and thus the responses given become of higher quality. The business pressure-responses-support model therefore is made up of three major components: the business pressures, the responses to the pressures and integrated computer support systems (Sharda, 2018). The responses to counter the business pressures include measures such as adoption of new business models and use of strategic planning techniques. These measures for instance are appropriate for countering the fear of failure and the making of decisions without enough information. Additionally, innovation and creativity can be used as a measure to counter the problem of failure. Also, using automated decision-making processes such as Automated Decision Systems or ADS can help counter the problem of a lack of effective decision-making processes and that of a lack of training in decision making. In response to capital unavailability and technological insufficiency, the model offers the option of engaging in partnership collaborations.

In general, the responses to the business pressures are required to be reactive, adaptive, anticipative and proactive measures. These responses are valuable to a company in enabling the company to keep up with competition and progress as a company by making work easier and decisions more favorable. One such response is automating some decision processes by using automated decision systems or ADS. As explained by (SlidePlayer, 2006), ADS is a system bound by rules that uses intelligence to offer or recommend solutions to decisions that have to be made repetitively. Thanks to the intelligence in the system, business decisions are better made since the system does a better job at calculating risk while adhering to the rules governing business processes. Secondly, as earlier mentioned, business collaborations are effective responses to the problem of capital and technological insufficiency. This is because when companies collaborate in their operations, they may realize significant advantages in relation to cost reductions for example. The companies can use common facilities in some areas which would help them cost share instead of each having an individual establishment. Also, the use of strategic planning is valuable to decision making as it clarifies the direction in which to take in order to achieve a set objective. Through strategic planning, managers’ abilities are enhanced and in turn, they take better control at managing resources relevant for the survival of the organization (Gartenstein, 2018). Flexibility within the organization is also vital as the company will better handle transitions that are made for the wellbeing of the company, such as transitions to better technology realized through innovations, and e-commerce. By moving to platforms such as e-commerce, the company improves its operations through experiencing better communication, better data transfer and easier marketing to name but a few. When such functions are streamlined within a company, problems within the company are easily solved.

Business intelligence is a process that converts data to business wisdom. The transition from information to wisdom begins from data to information, then to knowledge, and then to business wisdom. Business intelligence uses a combination of techniques such as data mining, data warehousing and decision support to be able to make powerful management systems. These techniques gather, manage, analyze and share information to come up with hints that result to the making of wise and informed decisions (Kopáčková & Škrobáčková, n.d.). Business information can also be described as a tool made up of a set of methods and concepts that use systems supported with facts to improve the decision-making process. This kind of tool can prove very important in a company such as Medical Needs. Through business intelligence, stronger and more profitable bonds can be created which can guide the company through its participation in business alliances with partners. Since the end result is business wisdom, exploiting business intelligence in an organization results to the making of wiser decisions which then raise the odds of identifying valuable business opportunities.

Business Performance Plan

An organization can analyze the issues faced in various ways depending on the company perspective or orientation. Some business and organizations’ owners adopt a macro level approach with a micro-level orientation. Business requirements analysis is a very important aspect of determining the objectives and goals of a project and it is relevant to various areas of a company or an organization.

There is a difference between requirements gathering at micro and macro levels. At macro level the concern is always about the bigger picture. Usually at the macro-level, the concern is not about the operations but rather about the strategy which the organization implements which determines the failure or success of the organization. For instance, the macro view can tell how an organization’s profit margin has shrunk over the last six months but the micro view can tell the reasons as to why the margin has shrunk. This means requirements gathering at macro-level analysis involves general areas of organization focus while at micro it shows the ability to measure organization’s performance via the use of metrics. It tells someone where the organization is at a certain given time.

Micro-level relate to the various methods for measuring business performance as it looks at the organization financial statements. When looking at micro-level one measures the revenue that an organization is generating. In addition, micro-level checks customer satisfaction and accesses the organization own expectations. To measure sales variable an organization needs to measure the volume of sales and the number of customers served. To measure profit an organization needs to first indicate the organization income and the expenses. The difference between the two indicates the organization profit (Team Publications, 2012).

The key variables for measuring business performance are sales and profitability. This establishes the extent to which an organization or a company achieves its target sales volume predicted in organizational business planning. Profitability checks the profit margin of a company or an organization. The profit indicates how much each cost unit earned from the sales of company products. The two variables indicate the overall performance of an organization.

A business plan is a very important aspect of measuring an organization throughput. Every successful organization regularly reviews its business plan as it is one method of reviewing the progress of an organization. A business plan has to indicate a summary of what the organization does and the organizational business strategy. Specifically it ought to cover the organization strategy for improving the existing processes and sales. A business performance plan is a set of analytical processes and performance management procedures which enables the management of an organization to achieve the pre-determined performance goals. Business performance has three major activities which include selecting the organizational goals, consolidating organizational measurement, and intervention made by managers.

For an organization to formulate a business performance plan it needs to first define the organization strategic vision; this defines where the organization is headed. This also assists the organization in developing a strategy or an approach to achieve the company goals and objectives. Second, the organization needs to define its current situation; this assists the organization to determine the organization’s capital and what the organization has achieved. Third, planning horizon is an important element as it helps to determine the organization competitive strategy. Fourth, an organization needs to perform environmental scanning; this helps the company to gather the use and the monitoring of the organizational environment. This is used to determine the threats and opportunities of the organization to avoid unpleasant surprises. Fifth, an organization needs to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) as they will assist in pulling the team together which will be working with CSFs. A gap analysis helps in identifying methods or ways to improve the organizational performance. For example, gap analysis helps in revealing employee skills gaps as well as customer service gaps. Lastly, to develop a business performance an organization needs to identify its objectives and goals; this directs the organization activities (Bititci, 2015).

Business Performance Methodologies TBD

Data Classification and Visualization Assessment TBD

Data-Mining Methods and Processes TBD

Gartenstein, D. (2018). Why Is Strategic Planning Important to an Organization? Retrieved from https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/strategic-planning-important-organization-4103.html

Kopáčková, H., & Škrobáčková, M. (n.d.). Decision Support Systems or Business Intelligence: What Can Help in Decision Making? Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d83f/6c88e02f8922d8b425cfaf0c4e9c886a4a17.pdf

Sharda. (2018). Solution Manual for Business Intelligence and Analytics Systems for Decision Support. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/a508153957/docs/solution-manual-for-business-intell_45e476d6022c25

SlidePlayer. (2006). Decision Support Systems and Business Intelligence. Retrieved from http://endustri.eskisehir.edu.tr/gurkan.o/BİL409/icerik/CH01_withFigures.pdf

Molded Devices Inc. (2016). Why Clean Room Manufacturing Matters for Medical Device Plastics | Molded Devices INC. [online] Available at: https://www.moldeddevices.com/2016/12/21/why-clean-room-manufacturing-matters-for-medical-device-plastics/

[Accessed 17 May 2019].

Bititci, U. S. (2015). Managing business performance: The science and the art.

Team Publications, (2012). Performance action planning.