It's not what you know it's how you use it

Under the current economic climate senior executives are now under pressure to extract the maximum value from the banks of data that they hold. In order to target customers with a personalised service and thus encourage brand loyalty, companies have invested in central Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions to accumulate as much customer information as possible. But when it has come to using this information for the greater company good, the course of CRM has not run so smoothly.

One of the key reasons why the true potential of CRM has not been realised is that while the implementation of solutions to collect data has been a priority, the issue of how to access and analyse this data has been an afterthought. The result is that companies are struggling to ensure that the right information gets to the right people at the right time in a simple format that allows them to make informed business decisions.

This is where Business Intelligence (BI) software has stepped into the breach to enable companies to simplify and personalise the data access process for every decision-maker in its organisation. Put simply, business intelligence is the system that enables companies to better understand its customers, partners, suppliers, and employees.

By enhancing CRM with BI solutions, organisations are able to use their CRM systems more efficiently internally to access relevant, targeted and timely information which aides the decision-making on both practical and strategic fronts. And as long as the BI software has a user-friendly interface and low training costs, it is very easy to deploy enterprise-wide. This in turn enables devolved decision making, which ultimately results in more effective strategic decisions at the higher level.

Internet technology has made Business Intelligence more sophisticated than ever before. The Web has made the automated sifting of masses of information a reality, facilitating access to, reporting on, analysis and sharing of information. This leads on to the second key failing of CRM, which is that it remains highly company-centric despite the Internet's ability to easily disseminate information. Traditionally, information is gathered and held centrally for access by company employees but not by other parties. Customers, suppliers and partners are unable to view and analyse or drill down into the 360 degree data that is being held by the company.

In a climate where companies are falling over each other to keep hold of customers and improve customer relationship management, the ability to give these parties access to information will be a key differentiator. It's a bold step but in today's cut-throat environment the resulting customer loyalty will pay dividends. Companies that are ahead of the game are realising the value of turning BI and web-reporting tools back around on the customer, and allowing customers to view, personalise and analyse their own information as they wish.

For example, with on-line business analysis, it is relatively easy to deliver individual bills to users. However, providing customers with the functionality to compare bills through time – for example to "slice and dice" credit card bills by type of purchase (e.g. how much have you spent on shoes in the last 6 months, or how much you have spent in the supermarket this year. – will prove to be much more challenging and most effectively implemented by organisations that build their initial systems on top of an existing BI infrastructure.

Financial services such as online banking are set to become even more sophisticated, allowing both residential and corporate customers to analyse their bills for the most pertinent information, for example how much has been spent on business, entertainment, travel etc. Indeed, the opportunities offered by this capability are endless. This type of historical information will be highly valuable to the customer and will ultimately be a key driver for loyalty.

Business intelligence is becoming the key information infrastructure of any business, and according to Gartner 50% of Global 2000 companies will have a corporate-wide BI strategy before 2004. Those businesses which have ventured into the business intelligence world have recognised that it is no longer an add-on, but a must-have. In today's world - where mountains of Internet-induced information about customers, business partners and internal processes are constantly acquired - businesses are expected to use their intelligence to provide a better service.

Without a business intelligence infrastructure all this information will simply go to waste, leaving the quintessential customer of the New Economy every reason to leap from one on-line brand - in other words from every respectable company - to the next. The acquisition, analysis and sharing of relevant information, and the subsequent superior interaction with customers enabled by a business intelligence infrastructure, will soon be the only way to gain a competitive advantage and maintain a loyal customer base.