Rob Meredith

A Framework for Understanding the Role of Social Media in Business Intelligence Systems

Social media is having a significant impact on the way major business intelligence software vendors are positioning their product offerings. They have been quick to associate their products with the popular term “Web 2.0”, branding the new releases of their product suites “BI 2.0”. This paper argues that beyond its value as a device to enhance sales and marketing, the functions typically found in Web 2.0 web sites can be usefully applied to BI applications. The paper explores the application and role of Web 2.0 concepts within BI applications. A simple framework is presented that classifies the collaboration that is afforded by Web 2.0 applications. It identifies the functions that are provided in social media platforms to foster user collaboration and contribution. The framework is then used to examine how these forms of collaboration can be used to create more effective and active BI applications.

Organisational transformation through Business Intelligence: theory, the vendor perspective and a research agenda

Business Intelligence (BI) vendors have often asserted that the use of their tools can lead to organisational transformation. This paper compares the vendor literature on the topic with two management theories. The results of a content analysis of the vendor literature are presented, followed by an overview of dynamic capability theory and absorptive capacity. This comparison shows that the BI vendor literature treats transformation in a simplistic and narrow way. The paper argues for greater engagement between academia, BI vendors and BI customers, and outlines a research agenda for further work.

A Functional Model of Social Media and its Application to Business Intelligence

The marketing departments of the major business intelligence (BI) software vendors have been quick to associate their products with the popular term Web 2.0, branding the new releases of their product suites BI 2.0. This paper argues that beyond its value as a device to enhance sales and marketing, the functions typically found in Web 2.0 web sites can be usefully applied to BI applications. It explores the application and role of Web 2.0 concepts within BI applications. The paper develops a simple framework to help understand the collaboration that is afforded by Web 2.0 applications. It classifies the functions that are provided in social media platforms to foster user collaboration and contribution. The framework is then used to examine how these forms of collaboration can be used to create more effective and active BI applications.

Business Intelligence (BI) system evolution: a case in a healthcare institution

Abstract Business Intelligence (BI) systems are an important part of many organisations’ IT portfolios. While the evolutionary nature of other kinds of decision support technology has been noted, there is little research investigating the evolutionary nature of BI systems. This paper presents a case study of a BI system development in a large Australian healthcare institution and uses evolutionary theories from decision support systems (DSS) to understand the system evolution observed. The paper concludes that the theories describing evolution in DSS can also be effectively applied to BI as well. BI practitioners and developers should be aware of evolutionary triggers, as well as the different kinds of evolution that can affect BI system evolution.

Databases and Data Warehouses for Decision Support

The modern approach to the development of decision support systems (DSS) typically makes extensive use of integrated repositories of data known as a data warehouse. These are often large, complex systems that have unique design and operational requirements that are significantly different to other kinds of databases, despite generally using the same relational database technologies as other systems. This chapter provides an overview of the purpose and design requirements of data warehouses, including approaches to data modeling and structuring of the technical architecture, as well as current trends and practices in the field.

Using the Internet to Support the Patient Treatment Decision Process

Decision Support Systems tend to be limited to organisational decision making, especially decisions that are easily quantifiable. These systems have had less success in decision situations where information is not quantitative and in a multitude of formats and locations. This article looks at one such decision situation, patient treatment decisions, and outlines an approach that utilises the Internet as an integral part of the technical architecture.

A data quality framework, method and tools for managing data quality in a health care setting: an action case study

Abstract The effectiveness, efficiency and reliability of health services depends on the quality of data in health information systems used by health care providers, managers and decision-makers. The aim of this research-in-progress paper is to propose a data quality framework, method and set of tools to help an information management team at a health care institution to monitor data quality as part of their business intelligence process. The proposed tool has the capacity to capture and visualise different stakeholder perceptions of data quality depending on the user role and the task they are responsible for. This study uses an action case method to develop a prototype of the tool and provide an illustration of its implementation and usage by multiple stakeholders.

Understanding the scientific contribution of an international community of researchers: the case of the IFIP WG 8.3 Conferences on DSS (1982–2014)

Abstract From its foundation in 1981, the goal of the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 8.3 has been to share ideas about the design, development, use, and impact of systems intended to support decision makers and about the process of decision-making – in other words, to contribute to the accumulation of knowledge in the field of decision support systems (DSS). The working group organised its first conference in 1982 and up to 2014, the group has held twenty major conferences with published proceedings. These proceedings include over six hundred papers authored by researchers from over fifty countries. This paper presents the story of the group and the contribution of its members via a bibliometric analysis of the conference corpus. This analysis examines the themes and domains of the papers published by the working group over the decades. This includes statistics on the country, institutional and individual contributions as well as citations and referencing history. The paper concludes with a systematic review of the contribution of the international community of researchers who have become members of the working group over the years.