Businesses today are more global than they have ever been in the past. With the world economy becoming a leveled playing field, business organizations have to make sure that they have the right arsenal to win the business wars. The additions in the C-Suite have been one of the most noticeable changes amongst the other things that we have seen. We have come a long way from the time of one CEO and one CFO. The C-Suite has been effectively reinvented with most business units demanding a dedicated head who ensures the future of that particular business. So today, we have the CIO and the COO too who have assumed responsible portfolios that contribute significantly to the health of the organization. Lately, we are seeing the gradual re-emergence of the CTO. There are some new stars too that are slowly but surely finding their place in the C-Suite. Owing to the rise of technologies such as bid data, data analytics, cloud computing etc. organizations are looking at a Chief Digital Officer to oversee an organization’s digital strategies. The Chief Information Security Officer or CISO is also an emerging C-suite role that aims to protect the organization against digital threats.
Clearly, the roles in the C-Suite are becoming more defined. While they are becoming defined, they are also becoming equally demanding. The question then becomes, how are these CXO’s providing business value and ensuring that they make solid decisions? The answer lies in information. However, it is only ‘quality’ information that helps in making good business decisions. This is where business intelligence comes into play.
In today’s era, data is the ultimate leveler. It is this data that gives this C-Suite the insights that they need to do more and do better. At the same time, data is just useless numbers unless analyzed and interpreted. The quirky thing about data is that different people can arrive at different conclusions using the same data. The trick, thus, lies in interpreting that data, understanding its nuances, and implementing it to suit your needs with the help of business intelligence. It becomes essential for the C-Suite to educate themselves on this data to take sound decisions. Unless C-Suite leaders learn to read and interpret the data presented to them, how can they understand the business patterns and opportunities that lie hidden in it?
With the right business intelligence tools, the C-Suite can identify the winds of change, assess which strategies are successful and execute future strategies that are based on factual data and not on pure intuition alone. When your decisions impact the growth of the company, the C-Suite needs strong business intelligence to be able to bring transformational value to the organization.
Now as we emphasize the importance of data, it is also important to know that the CXO’s do not have the time to sit and analyze volumes of data at their disposal. At the same time, they also want to minimize the time that employees spend in identifying relevant data and analyzing it. They also want to ensure that there are no human errors to impact the data and ultimately, the business decisions. What the CXO’s do need is a single view of this analyzed data on a dashboard to independently gain the insights that they need to make critical business decisions.
The business intelligence analysis that the CXO’s are looking at has to provide an overview of the business to enable efficient and fast decision making. A good and efficient business intelligence solution makes information from across the organization available to the CXO in a reliable and consistent manner. Doing this opens up the opportunity for like-for-like data comparisons across business units and ensure that the reports generated enable the top management with the information that they need to make profitable business decisions.
We won’t be off the mark to say that a CXO looks to increase efficiency with the help of business intelligence. The right business intelligence solution can improve the operational efficiency of an organization by freeing up employees from doing recurring tasks of creating and updating data reports and giving the employees an opportunity to use their time more productively. Since BI dashboards are up to date, credible and easy to read and manage, it can help the CXO define performance indicators and perform a qualitative evaluation, evaluate profitability, identify potential risks and performance loopholes for successful decision making.
Business Intelligence data gives CXOs key insights into the trends and patterns within the organization and in the market. This data helps in connecting the dots between important business areas that on the surface might appear to be completely disconnected. By identifying the commonalities, CXOs can enhance their ability to create suitable opportunities for their organization.
The job of the CXOs demands that they take risks to take the business ahead. However, the risks that these CXO’s take have to be calculated and extremely accurate because these decisions impact the current and future health of an organization. With the help of business intelligence, CXOs can now take the right risks without fear since they can now set alerts on the KPI’s for the business. Armed with the right insights and visibility into performance, progress, and the processes of the organizations, CXOs can dial up strategies that can take the business ahead.
At the end of the day, the CXO’s need actionable information that can enable management excellence. A customized BI solution that understands the nature and complexities of the business unit and provides self-service analytics and interoperability with other heterogeneous databases, applications, enterprise technology infrastructure etc. acts as the facilitator of great, not just good, decision making.