The New Business Intelligence

Modern corporations operate in an incredibly complex and extremely dynamic environment characterized by rapidly changing corporate dynamics, incessant changes in technology and market forces, continuous shareholder scrutiny, and ongoing pressures from competitors and government regulators.

Only proactive, adaptable, knowledgeable and well resourced organizations will survive and potentially dominate the markets of the future. These attributes are the hallmark of an "intelligent enterprise".

An "intelligent enterprise" has a finger on the pulse of all influencers of its corporate strategy including customers, partners, suppliers, investors, employees, competitors, media and the government.

It uses this real-time knowledge in making better business decisions and to create and protect better products. It actively promotes a knowledge creation and sharing culture as well as innovation within the organization. It applies this knowledge to reduce operational costs as well as to get and retain satisfied customers.

The "intelligent enterprise" is becoming a reality—the enabling technologies are emerging today while the challenging business climate and market conditions are already here. To understand what the enabling technologies are, we should first look at what are now known as "Business Intelligence" solutions.

Traditional Business Intelligence Solutions

When vendors, analysts and the media talk about Business Intelligence today, they are most likely talking about one of the following types of software:

• End User Query/Reporting Tools-;

• On-line Analytic Processing (OLAP) Tools;

• Data Mining Software;

• Packaged Data Mart/Warehouse Products;

• Executive Information Systems;

• Business Intelligence Portals;

These software tools typically support decision making for executives and knowledge workers (not too long ago, their predecessors were called "Decision Support" tools or systems). They can be used to analyze structured data created by E-Commerce applications, Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and more.

Traditionally, applications of these Business Intelligence tools have included Financial and Profitability Analysis, Customer Relationships Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis, Sales Force Automation, Marketing Analysis and Product Quality Management.

This is a growing, yet maturing technology with its roots in over 15 years of computing history since the mid-1980s.

The Impact of the Internet

The Internet, as a burgeoning information source, has introduced a wide range of new factors that affect a corporation's performance.

On the positive side, the Internet, if well leveraged, affords corporations the opportunity to be better aware of the marketplace they compete in, track competitors, explore new markets, evaluate opportunities and risks more efficiently, find new customers, recruit qualified candidates, create better products, test new products faster, streamline communications with partners and suppliers, increase sales and improve customer satisfaction.

On the negative side, the Internet is a fertile ground for gossip, rumors, information leaks and more. If not effectively and actively managed, these aspects of the Internet can rapidly shake customer confidence, seriously erode brand equity, squander strategic and competitive advantage, and even cause company stock price and valuation to tumble overnight. Bad news, even if it isn't true, seems to travel at the speed of light over the global Internet.

Traditional Business Intelligence has to grow up to deal with the irrevocable changes and new challenges of the post-Internet world we live in.

The New Business Intelligence

We are at the dawn of a new era where Internet-based data and Intelligence needs to be combined with internal data so that it is effectively applied to the traditional enterprise life-cycle. Imagine a company where:

• The Consumer Affairs department knows of brewing product safety rumors, and effectively combats the situation before the rumors hit mainstream media and go global.;

Impact: Timely action saves the company millions of dollars in damage to company reputation.

• The PR department is aware of changing sentiments in the press about company policies, products and key executives as well as those of the competition.;

Impact: An aggressive proactive PR campaign boosts sagging image surrounding new company policies.

• Brand Managers and Product Researchers have real-time access to consumer feedback on their products and they proactively respond to consumer needs.-;

Impact: With real-time feedback, Product Researchers skip an entire product improvement cycle, enabling the company to deliver new and improved product to market 12 to 24 months sooner. With aggregated consumer sentiments and brand comparisons, a Brand Manager formulates a new marketing strategy that combines the appeal and polish of higher-price brands while retaining the bottom-line of lower cost—this results in 25% increased sales the following quarter.

• Investor Relations has up-to-the-minute knowledge of rumors and events that could cause substantive impact to the company's stock and value.-;

Impact: Timely dissemination of information to counter a vicious rumor about the financial stability of the company saves the company millions of dollars in potential loss of shareholder value.

• The Legal Counsel is able to actively protect company assets like trademarks and service marks by being aware of their use worldwide.;

Impact: With up-to-date proof of trademark usage and infringement detection worldwide on the Internet, the company is able to aggressively protect valuable trademarks and logos.

• The Intellectual Property division can assess the worth of the company's patent portfolio, actively monitor competitive patents, infringements, and new licensing opportunities.-;

Impact: Company licenses what was originally thought as a sleeper patent and creates a new multi-million dollar revenue stream.

• The Human Resources department has a handle on brewing dissent among present employees, can gauge the company's image among prospective employees, and actively recruits qualified passive candidates.;

Impact: New passive candidates are identified, screened and hired in one-tenth of the time, making hiring a competitive advantage for the company.

• The Sales organization derives new qualified customer leads that need the company's products or services based on events happening in real-time.;

Impact: One new customer lead discovered, results in paying for the IT investment in lead-generation ten-times over.

• Employees have instant access to relevant information as well as expertise from the extended enterprise, and this enables them to make better business decisions every day.;

Impact: With 2000 knowledge workers "searching for information" 30% of their work day, the company sees a positive payback of $13 million on an IT investment of approximately $1 million in "True Enterprise Search".

Leading-edge companies are already deploying a new breed of applications to provide this New Business Intelligence. These applications are in stark contrast to the glitz and hype of the Web of yesteryear. These applications are grounded in sound value propositions and bottom-line ROI. They leverage existing enterprise investments by integrating with existing systems, and allow for a measurable payback for new IT investments made in them. One industry consultant calls this "leveraged high-impact intelligence."

New Business Intelligence Solutions

Intelliseek offers a suite of applications and services that enable corporations and other organizations to leverage the New Business Intelligence today.

• Enterprise Search Server (ESS)—This is Intelliseek's core product. As an out-of-the-box solution, ESS enables "true enterprise search" and intelligent knowledge discovery across the extended enterprise. Large corporations are also deploying ESS today to promote current awareness of their marketplace, as well as to enable proactive gathering of intelligence on competitors.;

At the heart of Intelliseek's ESS is an intelligent agent platform that enables the creation of a wide range of specialized applications for New Business Intelligence.

• BrandPulse™—Enhanced from an initial Corporate Intelligence Service (CIS) that gathered unsolicited consumer feedback, BrandPulse offers a 360-degree view of intelligence on consumers. Built on top of the ESS platform, BrandPulse aggregates multiple channels of consumer feedback (explicit direct feedback to the enterprise and implicit feedback from Internet communities) and offers much-needed analytics and metrics on loyalty, customer service, unmet needs, competitive factors, and brand mavens. Using BrandPulse, many enterprises today get early warning on rumors, as well as the timely marketplace intelligence to create, nurture, and protect brand equity.;

• ExpressFeedback™—This new offering from Intelliseek permits companies to establish a 24x7 direct feedback channel with their customers. Created using valuable insights obtained from operating the world's largest feedback infomediary (PlanetFeedback.com, an Intelliseek division), ExpressFeedback offers a world-class, ready-to-deploy feedback engine that provides valuable analytics on customer sentiments and issues via the BrandPulse system.Intelliseek is actively pursuing key industry partnerships that will soon unveil applications to power the Intelligent Enterprise for:;

• Active Recruiting;

• Real-Time Lead Generation;

• Trademark Protection and Management;

• Patent/Intellectual Property Management;

Toward the Intelligent Enterprise

Given the increasing complexities faced by the modern corporation, marketplaces of the future will be dominated by intelligent enterprises. These organizations sense and respond to all factors that influence its corporate strategy including customers, partners, suppliers, investors, employees, competitors, media and the government.

Leading-edge companies are taking advantage of New Business Intelligence solutions from Intelliseek to leverage knowledge equity within the enterprise, to promote current awareness and intelligence on competitors, as well as to create, nurture and protect their brands. These solutions are high-impact, easy to deploy, and have a clear, proven ROI.