Smart Intelligence
In its #25 autumn 2011 issue, Outsource Magazine publishes interview with Kirill Degtiarenko, IBA Group Development Center Director, and Yuri Zholnerkevich, IBA Project Manager, about business intelligence as an outsourced offering.
Outsource : Let’s start with the basics: what comprises business intelligence?
Kirill Degtiarenko : The TechTarget.com definition of business intelligence (BI) says: “Business intelligence is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analysing, and providing access to data to help organisations make better business decisions. BI applications include decision support systems, query and reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis, forecasting, and data mining.” Speaking a more user-friendly language, BI is the software that helps managers to understand what is happening with their business, why and what should be done to make it better.
O : Why are organisations increasingly interested in business intelligence as an outsourced offering – are there common drivers behind this trend?
KD: Business becomes global. The amount of data companies need to analyse is huge and the process can be messy. BI provides a great opportunity to get everything in order. BI implementation is quite a complicated task that requires specific skills and experience. The right people are hard to find and expensive to hire. Obviously, outsourcing is a good solution.
O : What verticals in particular are at the forefront of this trend?