Does Information Technology bring anything to the table?

Information Technology (IT) is synonymous to business competitive advantage.

Information Technology is defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), as "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." Simply put, Information Technology is any form of technology used to manipulate, inspect, disseminate and store information.

Information Technology isn't the only catalyst for success.

Information Technology together with different management and operating information systems is just a component of Business Intelligence.


What is Business Intelligence?

According to an article compiled by Ryan Mulcahy, Business Intelligence or BI, is an umbrella term that refers to a variety of software applications used to analyze an organization’s raw data. BI as a discipline is made up of several related activities, including data mining, online analytical processing, querying and reporting.

Business Intelligence models provides the end user with the information needed to maneuver a company into the right direction or keep it on track by optimizing its business operations by cutting down costs and keeping the strong products into the shelf while tossing the weak ones away. This removes the reliance in the old "gut feeling."
Having the knowledge right at your fingertips provide an immeasurable advantage over to those who are still in the dark. The world has become a smaller place and because of it, a lot of companies spawned. Companies that are selling almost the same products with almost the same benefits; therefore the need to compete on analytics arises.

Organizations are competing on analytics just because they can -- business today is awash with in data and data crunchers -- but also because they should. At a time when firms in many industries offer similar products and use comparable technologies, business processes are among the last remaining points of differentiation.

Thomas H. Davenport
Competing On Analytics

In life, who we are dictates what we do or what we do dictates who we are but its not about what we do, but rather how we do it. The same can be said regarding businesses, reputation can bring in the revenue or revenue can bring in the reputation but at the end of the day, you will be differentiated from your competitors by how you present your product.

A perfect example for this would have to be the banking industry. Basically, all the banks existing today are the same in one way or another, they have the same purpose. A race between two identical cars would have to go down to the skill of the driver. Banking relies heavily on technology and business intelligence for its daily operations and more often than not, the bank who manages to use their management information systems to its full potential would probably go down as the best among the rest. Thus, buffing up its reputation that will ultimately lead to more revenue.

According to an article by Don Tapscott, Business Intelligence provides us with the ability to use data in such a way that we would be able to derive insight and gain a competitive advantage. We no longer have to hit and miss, if we use the system and the knowledge it provides, we will hit time and time again. That is, if we use it correctly.

This blog is for our data mining class under Mr. Mon Duremdes Jr.