The Right Stuff 2The Right Stuff 2

IE: What's high on your lists as you head into 2005, whether it's specific kinds of tools, integration software, or other directions?

Cates: I'm looking at two things: process management and business activity monitoring (BAM). I'm also looking at new data acquisition technology along the lines of what I just mentioned, to help me build common data models out of my disparate data systems for certain key types of data, like customer. I'm interested in how I can change the labor-intensive nature of this task today.

Kirkpatrick: We're measuring the results of compliance initiatives and are looking to use BI tools to evaluate result data and provide analysis so that we can take action, such as through a CRM application. We want to understand where noncompliance exists. Is it geographical? Is it a particular line item on tax returns? We need to understand the reasons for noncompliance so that we can better serve our customers and improve our processes.

Denis: This year, our main driver has been operational excellence. We're completing in phases a move from an old set of MRP products to more of an ERP approach. So, in 2005 our top priority is to complete that transition and add a layer of intelligence on top that will supply five business units with good information. The BI is going to be complex; I want to bring back a set of views for those top five questions. Of course, as our VP of operations recently told me, "I have five questions, but then I'll have a different five questions during the last two weeks of the quarter. I just want you to answer five questions, and then once I know the three actions that I want to take with those answers, I want you to automatically trigger those three actions." So, the challenge is to try to keep things simple and flexible, rather than try to boil the ocean. We're just going to try a little cup of soup around some basic things. However, we're going to focus on active, rather than static intelligence, and focus on operations.

Tracy: A key focus will be along the lines of what Jim mentioned in terms of data integration, or I should say more of a disparate information challenge regarding data collection and how it's represented and stored. We want to keep this level extremely flexible and allow users to look at what they need to see.

We're going to be trying to do a lot more for the business side and customer side for either slightly more or less money. It's about efficiency and reuse of things you've already invested in, which ultimately contributes to the financial health of your company. Whether it's through process management, performance management, BAM, or even just simple scheduling of alert mechanisms, we want to get BI pervasively out into the business, particularly on the service side: that is, the people who deal most directly with our customers.

David Stodder is the editorial director and editor-in-chief of Intelligent Enterprise.