What does it mean?
Business intelligence is the information process through which companies prospectively monitor their environment in order to create opportunities and to reduce their uncertainty.
- Being able to identify weak signals in mapping out information environments of our own making
- Pull information from other sources
- Search / scan information outside the company
- Monitoring outside environment
Gathering external information to transform it into knowledge at the organization level
Example
STMicroelectronics has organized a process through which, the company is collectively and individually able to scan the surrounding environment. Every individual continuously maps out information environments of their own making, select some information and add anticipating interpretation to this information. They share their interpretation with their division or pass on the information to the BI division. This latter analyze and exploit the package of information and transfer quarterly the synthesis to the entire firm.
The BI process - Blanco et al, Journal of competitive intelligence and Management, Vol. 1, n°1, Spring 2003