In this modules case, youre going to explore some of what passes for conventional wisdom in the domain of business intelligence application, probably noting in passing that first, much of the advice may be contradictory although delivered with great passion and enthusiasm, and second, most of it manages to avoid any real confrontation with traditional management structures and decision procedures and priorities, concentrating instead on ways of manipulating information to presumably work around the organization rather than allow itself to point out shortcomings in the organizations themselves. This is not a course primarily about organizational politicsthere is plenty of time in the rest of your program to come to terms with the old reptilian sub-brains of the organization that perpetuate power differentials, reward distributions only vaguely related to organizational priorities, suboptimization of organizational resource utilization, and all of the other weirdnesses that pretty much guarantee performance and satisfaction shortfalls and failures. But, as you may have surmised, even though its not our main focus it is the key subtext for all these issues. Unless we openly acknowledge that decisions are largely political (in either the organizational or national sense) and that information is often more useful as a cloak for political priorities than as a substitute for them, the only ones were going to fool are ourselves. The website is a gold mine of useful information about BI specifically. Read some of the overview articles (theyre short), to generally familiarize yourself with BI terminology: Electrosmart Ltd. (2011) The Business Intelligence Guide. . Recommended sections include: BI Best Practices. BI Solutions. BI Drivers. BI Barriers. Getting Started in BI. But feel free to follow up in any other sections that you believe will help you address the case. Now lets look at two specific cases of BI implementation. Remember, these cases were written by the companies supplying the solutions, so read carefully and if possible between the lines: Konitzer, K. and Cummens, M. (2011) CASE STUDY Using Analytics to Improve Patient Outcomes and Billing Accuracy at Marshfield Clinic. TDWI. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from Microsoft Inc. (2011) Destination Club Generates Rapid ROI, Enhances Services, Takes Control of Business. Microsoft Case Studies. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from from Theres a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for whats working and whats not in this area; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be. When you believe you have a reasonable feel for a variety of business intelligence implementation experiences, youll be in a position to write an effective short paper on the topic: Remember, BI is a complex socio-technical innovation, so thinking about the question in socio-technical terms is likely to be of use. Minimum 57 pages excluding cover page and references (since a page is about 300 words, this is approximately 1,5002,100 words). Demonstrates clear understanding of the subject and addresses all key elements of the assignment. Demonstrates mastery conceptualizing the problem. Shows analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of required material. Demonstrates writing proficiency at the academic level of the course; addresses the Learning Outcomes of the assignment. Uses relevant and credible sources to support assertions. Assignment is well organized and follows the structure of a well-written paper. Uses in-text citations and properly formats references in APA style
