During my interview with Bob Copacino on today's PI Window on
Business Show, he indicated that with traditional BI methodologies and
systems approximately 90% of an organization's time and resources are
spent on the up front gathering, organizing and selecting of data while
only 10% of the time is spent on applying the intelligence in a
meaningful way.
In the above scenario I cannot help but think about the
inefficiencies associated with Michael Porter's Value Chain concept,
something for which he has been routinely criticized by some academics
for presenting an inconsistent logical argument in his assertions.
While the advent of the Virtual Value Chain (VVC), in which its
creators John Sviokla and Jeffrey Rayport propose that the value adding
steps are performed with information involving a series of five events (gathering, organization, selection, synthesization, and distribution),
transforms the value chain concept from one of tangible value-added
activities to one that exists within the virtual realm of electronic
data, the VVC concept is still encumbered by a Porter-type physical
thinking in a virtual Web 2.0 world. Perhaps this is the reason why
the recent Gartner Report on the Future of Business Intelligence
highlighted the fact that approximately 35% of the top 5,000 global
companies "will regularly fail to make insightful decisions about
significant changes in their business and markets."
Simply put, and referencing Copacino's statements pertaining to the
heavy up-front lifting that currently takes place, the VVC would carry
greater creditability with the consolidation of the gathering,
organization and selection elements into a single functional component
of an intelligent virtual chain that would then more closely reflect
the reality of the social software-business intelligence platform
combination presented by Gartner in their report. In other words, the
VVC events would be reduced to a simple and automated 3 stage
gathering, synthesization and application process that would leverage
advanced technology to produce real-time, real-world outcomes.
There are of course other noteworthy points that were addressed
during the broadcast including Six Sigma integration and the
elimination of communication silos that require equal attention. However, the key starting point is to recognize the importance of instituting a process of engagement that recognizes and adapts to organizational cultures and dynamics as a means of facilitating communication instead of replacing it.