Gap in Business Research
Gap in Business Research
Gap in Business Research
Business intelligence is integral to business success. Business intelligence systems, like other IT components, need to change with the changing technologies and per the current trends in the business environment. Lack of adaptability is a reason for failure because it limits companies from responding in real time to market needs. This paper assesses a business problem associated with a lack of adaptability, focusing on business intelligence, its impact on business, and how it can be addressed by proposing an appropriate project.
Why the Gap in Practice Properly Aligns with the Specific Problem
Breakthrough Technologies has several practice problems that need addressing to gain a competitive advantage and enhance competitive and organizational agility. In the current big data business environment, adaptability is a key success factor, and Breakthrough Technologies have failed to adapt accordingly to the current market conditions. Per the reading, the company’s leadership team has consistently used its traditional strategic goals and objectives over the years with minimal adaptations to respond to the changing market conditions, which have led to the company being insufficiently prepared for future growth opportunities. The gap in practice is using an outdated business intelligence system that has been offering data showing that the strategic goals and objectives in place are adequate to sustain future growth opportunities. This lack of adaptability is a problem because the business and market environments are changing, and businesses must also change to remain relevant and competitive. To change accordingly, businesses need access to current data, which an outdated business intelligence system cannot sufficiently provide. The company has to change with the changing technological advances and acquire a business intelligence system able to make sense of the growing complex and robust market data to help the organization make decisions along with identified future growth opportunities.
Lack of adaptability limits the company’s competitive agility because the outdated business intelligence system cannot help the company use data in real-time and make intelligent and effective decisions. Competitive agility requires companies to be flexible, nimble, and fast in scanning the business environment and quickly responding to the findings in real time. For instance, an outdated business intelligence system cannot inform the company about the current consumer needs regarding their products and services, and the business would stick to its line of products or product types it has developed over the years. As indicated in the respective reading on Breakthrough Technologies, the consequence is decreasing market share and sales.
Literature Support for the Gap in Practice
Breakthrough Technologies has failed to update or implement a new business intelligence system, limiting adaptability to market changes. Research indicates that business intelligence tools are critical business success factors when properly implemented and can also be problematic when not used in line with the company’s strategic goals (Azeroual & Theel, 2019). Companies are becoming more proficient in utilizing data and business intelligence tools to make decisions and solutions to predictable questions. Businesses can get high-level views in the current unpredictable and fast-moving business environment using business intelligence tools (Park et al., 2017). However, outdated business intelligence tools are slow and not agile enough to help achieve sustainability in the market as the pace of business increases and the environment becomes more competitive (Eidizadeh et al., 2017). Updating the business intelligence system would help facilitate agile decision-making to meet strategic goals, including increasing sales, bolstering product innovation, minimizing operating costs, and becoming disruptive in core industry segments.
(Gap in Business Research)
Businesses cannot succeed when they do not get the data and reports needed and cannot overly rely on the IT department to get the data. Traditional business intelligence tools have overly relied on the IT department, and in the fast-pacing business environment, it is unsustainable to continue using the same tools. The company needs a business intelligence system that applies and can be used in all business departments to enhance data acquisition and utilization in real-time. Updating to a more agile and flexible business intelligence system also calls for updating the data mining tools because business intelligence is as good as the data behind it (Gaardboe & Jonasen, 2018). The data currently used by Breakthrough Technologies was formatted for the business intelligence system currently in use, a reason why the tool shows that the current business goals and objectives are adequate to prepare the company for future growth opportunities. Evidently, the company’s data culture, although data-driven, its analytic maturity is slow, leading to a slow response to current trends and market needs. Conclusively, the company’s lack of adaptability is behind its impaired competitive agility, and it needs a new or updated business intelligence system to respond accordingly to the ever-changing and overly competitive market environment.
Appropriate Business Project and The Role of Removing Personal Biases in The Project Discovery Process
Undoubtedly, Breakthrough Technologies needs a new business intelligence system. An appropriate project would be implementing a new business intelligence system that is more flexible and scalable. The current consumer behavior is volatile, and products have a short life cycle. Therefore, an agile business intelligence system is needed to help with real-time data collection and utilization. Breakthrough Technologies should build a business intelligence system that incorporates AI and machine-learning tools to discover and gather relevant data to trace current and future trends in the datasets. An AI-driven business intelligence system can amass information from myriad data sources and align it with measurements and dimensions in place for further evaluation. AI-driven business intelligence systems can also perform queries, data representation, and reporting to help the business plan its strategic actions correspondingly. Implementing the AI-driven business intelligence system would allow real-time data tracking, and harmonization, enhance visibility, bolster the company’s efficiency in identifying and tackling problem areas, provide deeper insights, and, most importantly, give the business a competitive edge.
(Gap in Business Research)
Reflection
Startup businesses are taking over the markets traditionally dominated by tech giants or businesses that have existed for some time. This trend is attributed to startups adopting current technology to navigate the business environment and adopting consumer-centered strategies. Much information about the market is available, and how efficient and effective businesses acquire and use it in decision-making is a success determinant. From this exercise, the learner can articulate how a lack of adaptability can be detrimental to a business that has been around for some time. The learner understands that the business environment is ever-changing and is highly volatile today. It is up to businesses to act accordingly and be one step ahead by being more responsive to current trends and their implications for the future. Increasing competitive agility requires businesses to be flexible, nimble, and aggressive in responding to growth opportunities.
References
Azeroual, O., & Theel, H. (2019). The effects of using business intelligence systems on an excellence management and decision-making process by start-up companies: A case study. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, 4(3), 30-40. https://doi.org/10.18775/ijmsba.1849-5664-5419.2014.43.1004
Eidizadeh, R., Salehzadeh, R., & Chitsaz Esfahani, A. (2017). Analysing the role of business intelligence, knowledge sharing and organisational innovation on gaining competitive advantage. Journal of Workplace Learning, 29(4), 250-267. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl-07-2016-0070
Gaardboe, R., Nyvang, T., & Sandalgaard, N. (2018). Business intelligence success applied to healthcare information systems. Procedia Computer Science, 121, 483-490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.11.065
Park, Y., Sawy, O., & Fiss, P. (2017). The role of business intelligence and communication technologies in organizational agility: A configurational approach. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 18(9), 648-686. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00001
