Pieter J. Conradie

Creating Business Intelligence from Course Management Systems

Purpose – This article seeks to address the interface between individual learning facilitators that use course management systems (CMS) data to support decision‐making and course design and institutional infrastructure providers that are responsible for institutional business intelligence.Design/methodology/approach – The design of a data warehouse is proposed that draw data from institutional transactional systems to provide decision support to individual action researchers. A prototype data warehouse is built to evaluate by means of a case study the usefulness validity of analyses performed.Findings – Many facilitators of learning draw manually the same type of queries from CMS data for purposes of action research. On the other hand, more and more HEI infrastructure providers create data warehouses to support many kinds of decision‐making. It is possible and valuable to follow a business intelligence approach to facilitate the queries drawn by individual action researchers from course management systems...

THE NECESSITY OF INFORMATION QUALITY FOR EFFECTIVE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Data quality, or rather the lack thereof, has been the downfall of many Data warehousing (DW) / Business Intelligence (BI) projects. The concept of Information Quality (IQ) has become increasingly important as the popularity of Business Intelligence (BI) increases. Industrial engineers have played a key role in the development and implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) principles that are widely used in the manufacturing environment. In the information era, industrial engineers can apply the same principles to data. This article aims to identify strategies and processes to improve IQ that will eventually lead to data warehouses with complete, accurate and timely data that consistently meets the requirements of knowledge workers in their quest to make improved business decisions. OPSOMMING Die gebrek aan datakwaliteit het al menige Databergings- en Besigheidsintelligensieprojekte laat sneuwel. Die konsep van Inligtingskwaliteit word al meer prominent soos die gewildheid van Besigheidsintelligensie toeneem. Bedryfsingenieurs het reeds ‘n sleutelrol gespeel in die ontwikkeling en implementering van Totale Kwaliteitsbestuurbeginsels wat algemeen in die vervaardigingsomgewing gebruik word. In die inligtingsera kan bedryfsingenieurs dieselfde beginsels ook op data toepas. Hierdie artikel identifiseer strategiee en prosesse om inligtingskwaliteit te verbeter wat uiteindelik behoort te lei tot datastore met volledige en akkurate data wat betyds en konsekwent aan kenniswerkers se behoeftes voldoen en hulle instaat stel om beter besigheidsbesluite te neem.

USING A NEW SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING METHODOLOGY TO IMPROVE SUPPLY CHAIN EFFICIENCY

Effective supply chain planning and management has emerged as one of the most challenging opportunities for companies in the global economy during the last decade or two. This article reviews the evolution of Supply Chain Management and the traditional Supply Chain Solutions. It then introduces a new Supply Chain Planning methodology in which simulation modelling plays an important value-adding role to help organisations understand the dynamics of their Supply Chains. OPSOMMING Effektiewe voorsieningskettingbeplanning en –bestuur het gedurende die laaste twee dekades ontwikkel tot een van die mees uitdagende geleenthede vir ondernemings in die wereldekonomie. Hierdie artikel hersien kortliks die ontwikkeling van voorsieningskettingbestuur en die tradisionele oplossings. ‘n Nuwe voorsieningskettingbeplanningsmetodologie word dan voorgestel en bespreek waarin simulasiemodellering ‘n belangrike rol speel om ondernemings te help om die dinamika van hul voorsieningskettings te begryp.

A new process improvement approach for management consultancy organisations

Management consultancy organisations of the 21 st century realise that they need to move away from balance sheet accounting systems as the primary tool of management. Intangible assets, such as knowledge, skills and process assets, may be worth more than their physical assets, and require effective management to gain a competitive advantage. Many models for process-improvement and knowledge management that currently exist could be used in leveraging organisational intangible assets. Though the intricate interaction between the domains of process improvement management and knowledge management is clear in current models, a fully integrated model does not exist. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the integration possibilities of process improvement and knowledge management in an attempt to improve the practices of both during the same exercise, using an integrated model. OPSOMMING Bestuurskonsultasie-organisasies van die 21 ste eeu besef dat hul moet wegbeweeg van balansstaat gebaseerde rekenkundige stelsels as die primere gereedskapstuk vir bestuur. Ontasbare bates, soos kennis, vaardighede en prosesbates, mag meer waardevol wees as fisiese bates, en moet effektief bestuur word om ‘n mededingende voordeel te behou. Talle modelle vir prosesverbeteringsbestuur en kennisbestuur bestaan tans en word ingespan om optimale benutting van die ontasbare bates te verseker. Alhoewel die ingewikkelde interaksie tussen die velde van prosesverbeteringsbestuur en kennisbestuur duidelik is in die bestaande modelle, bestaan daar nie ‘n geintegreerde model nie. Hierdie artikel demonstreer die integrasie moontlikhede van prosesverbeteringsbestuur en kennisbestuur deur gebruik te maak van ‘n geintegreerde model, sodat praktyke van beide velde gedurende dieselfde oefening verbeter word.