Abstract
The fields of business intelligence and crisis management have recently emerged as crucial concerns for organizations to address. With the prolonged health crisis and geopolitical disputes in Europe, the global economy is experiencing one of the most significant changes. The purpose of the research study is to identify the ideas of business intelligence and their application in the context of crisis management. The research study examines the significance of business intelligence from the contemporary international business climate perspective. Evaluations of the influence of specialized data and analytical processing and data mining from the perspective of companies like HelloFresh, REI improved co-op shop membership rates, Coca-Cola Bottling Company, and technology companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google. It is apparent that the insights professions play a crucial role in small to big businesses and are becoming more sought-after back-office positions. This research paper examines the true meaning of business intelligence, exploring how the concepts are applied in business and what the future holds for professionals in the technology and business industries. The discussions focus on the technological basis of business intelligence and the skills required for optimal performance in crisis management phases. Business intelligence is appreciated as a technology-driven method fundamental in analyzing data and providing actionable information that enables leaders, managers, and employees to make educated business choices.
Introduction
The changing nature of society presents the corporate sector with several problems and possibilities. Several new jobs have been created in business management, notably in the technology industry, for companies to stay up with the dynamic world and compete on a grander scale than the competitors. However, despite the rising prospects of technology growing business, there are emerging external business challenges that are slowing down the global economy. The climate change crisis, the conflict in Eastern Europe, and the collapsing supply chain systems are increasing living costs. This research paper explores the industry application of business intelligence, the different types of business intelligence users, and the trends in industries already applying business intelligence in business management. The aim is to discuss new ideas and practical solutions while offering suggestions based on evaluations for companies employing the tools in business intelligence. There is an apparent need for companies to take advantage of the benefits of business intelligence technologies in navigating the current economic dynamics.
Growing Demand for Business Intelligence in Companies
Business intelligence concepts have emerged as significant employment sectors in today’s dynamic external business environment. One of the most significant shocks in the external business environment is the COVID-19 outbreak that disrupted consumer behavior. To reduce the transmission of sickness and control COVID-19 infection, public and private realms had to adapt to costly new health regulations (Veršič.2022, p.3593). Trends indicate that international economic organizations and agencies suffered early losses, resulting in a drop in growth rates and worldwide demand. For instance, since the epidemic began in China, there has been a reduction in the pace of Chinese economic growth. The worldwide decrease in productivity drastically altered the external environment for most firms.
Similarly, the present shift in consumer behavior suggests the probability of a recession, which may result in an anti-waste stance, which has influenced consumption habits for decades. Today, the Asian financial crisis has saved the region’s position as the world’s most influential group of foreign currencies. Likewise, the global financial crisis has fostered discontent towards advanced democratic governments who have been unwilling to pay. The low-wage employees of the last decade have created a public health emergency that threatens the global economy. Today, lockdown due to health concerns is still a worry, and the use of masks, storage of essentials, and cancellation of social and commercial meetings have become the norm. Canceling trips and work-from-home plans have altered customer behavior, necessitating access to trend data for improved decision-making.
Existing Economic Facts for Businesses
Business intelligence is becoming more crucial with the decreasing food supply efficiencies and rising living costs. The most immediate economic consequence of the Ukraine crisis has been a rapid rise in commodities prices, which has sparked alarm (Danyly shyn 2020, p.14). In addition to endangering food, oil, and fertilizer supplies from Russia and Ukraine, the conflict also threatens the availability of essential items from Russia and Ukraine, such as food. There are similar fears that the cessation of grain imports via Black Sea ports might have devastating effects on the food security of developing nations. Likewise, New COVID-19 lockdowns in China impede maritime traffic. Economic disruptions might result in fresh raw material shortages and more significant inflation. Figure 1 shows a general decline in the global GDP due to severe economic disruptions.
In most business reviews, global finance analysts concur that global leaders must take immediate measures to prevent an economic disaster. The analysts emphasize that the ambiguity over the direction of the Ukraine war and the absence of concrete data on its economic consequences lend credence to the likelihood of a humanitarian disaster (Cottey 2022, p.211). Today’s trends indicate that the expansion of global goods trade volumes in 2022 might range from 0.5% to 5.5%, further straining the global supply chains (Sajedi et al., pp.31). The graphic displays different error margins as colored bands. The World Commerce Organization (WTO) has insisted that increased trade is required to ensure everyone has access to vital commodities. The WTO urges governments and partner organizations to collaborate to promote trade.
In figure 2, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forecasts a sluggish economy for the main European markets. According to OECD, trends indicate that the three major economies in the euro area, such as Germany, France, and Italy, will contract at an annualized pace of 1 percent in the third quarter and 0.7% in the fourth (Macchiarelli et al., 2022, p.259). A case-by-case study predicts that the German economy will decrease at an annualized pace of 0.5% in the third quarter and 0.8% in the fourth. The French economy contracted at an annualized pace of 0.4% in the third quarter, followed by a minor acceleration in the growth of 0.2% in the fourth quarter (Sajedi et al., p.41). In Italy, the severe recession will continue at an annualized pace of 2.9% in the third quarter and 1.4% in the fourth quarter (Sajedi et al., pp.43). Such dynamics directly affect company risks, necessitating access to more information on dangers and opportunities.
The Need to Reflect on Employment Market Trends
The business intelligence scope should include employment market changes that directly impact the behavior of SME market sectors. The dismal economic projection is anticipated to increase the already high unemployment rate. The key to recovery is resolving the euro area’s financial, budgetary, and competitiveness issues. The downturn in the Eurozone similarly impacts the United States. The Japanese economy and the central Asian, Australian, and African economies are expected to shrink during the third and fourth quarters of 2022. Changes of this kind directly affect the chances of firms surviving interruptions.
However, businesses in the United States have growth potential in their immediate external environment. In the United States, growth is expected to be 2 percent annualized in the third quarter and 2.4 percent annualized in the fourth (Yuliani 2022, pp.1011). Similarly, the Canadian economy is projected to expand by 1.3% in the third quarter and 1.9% in the fourth (Yuliani 2022, pp.1009). Despite such growth potential, there are concerns that the global economy may be shrinking, impacting the market confidence directly. Several adverse risks threaten the forecast, including further rises in already high oil prices, excessive fiscal contraction, and consumer confidence losses resulting from protracted unemployment.
Industry Application of Business Intelligence
In effectively navigating such bleak economic times, industry-specific functions must be applied. The business intelligence insights can be used in companies for order shipping and customer service. Business intelligence is used in the retail sector for user targeting and profiling, in the financial and banking sector for claims and risk analysis, and in the transportation sector for fleet management (Danylyshyn 2020, p.17). In telecommunication companies, business intelligence may be used to evaluate customer churn rates, and in electricity and utilities, the technology can be used to analyze power consumption. These patterns are created using business intelligence technologies, particularly the acquired data.
Business Intelligence Data
The data used in business intelligence may comprise both historical and recently collected information from unique sources. Business intelligence tools integrate all of the data collected into various data analysis applications and functionalities for interpretation. Recent application trends indicate that technological progress has made it simpler for users to collect vast data. Constantly expanding in data science are the technological requirements for data analysis. The technological advancement is a chance for large firms such as Google and Microsoft to create and develop business intelligence technologies commercialized as software as a Service (SaaS) (Sun et al., 2018, p.163). Microsoft develops Power BI as an interactive data visualization package emphasizing business intelligence. Power BI is great for data collection, customer behavior analysis, database development and management, and report generation. Every function assists business choices that may significantly enhance a company’s competitive position in substantially dynamic marketplaces.
Business Intelligence Technology in Crisis Administration
Business intelligence technology can be used in risk assessment and crisis management in economies under recession. The data analysis can open-source software from companies as a collection of tools to manage vast amounts of organized and occasionally unstructured data. The goal should be to help find, develop, and otherwise exploit the value of big data to generate new strategic business possibilities. In the current market, business intelligence solutions consist of ad hoc analysis, data querying and discovery, a data warehouse, and enterprise reporting. Data warehouses are becoming crucial cooperation tools for scientists operating on similar global crises in the dynamic external market environment. The data warehouse is an essential element of business intelligence technology. The centralized cloud data warehouse is a central repository for integrating data gathered from several sources. The primary objective of the data warehouse is to consolidate and organize the data so that it is simpler to comprehend and use in the ever-changing business environment. Decision-making in business intelligence is dependent on data warehouses that complete the query, analyze, and visualize phases.
Data Exploration and Queries
Equally powerful technology in business intelligence is the data discovery and querying tools. In practice, data discovery and query are technologies that enable users to be abstract and obtain data warehouse records. Data discovery technology is intended to simplify the process of gathering diverse data and integrating them to form the queries that help maintain focus in an ocean of data. In practice, a combination of technical data management abilities and an understanding the global trends influencing the corporate environment is required for rational decision-making based on data. The current job market provides a variety of business intelligence specialists that may contribute to an organization’s decision-making process. A data analyst may be hired as a statistician with the ability to delve deeply into data in search of novel insights that can be utilized to inform corporate strategy. This position’s responsibilities include documenting corporate data, recognizing trends, and developing decision-supporting reports and dashboards.
The Administrative Use of Business Intelligence tools
Similarly, in data exploration and use, the executive management teams are crucial decision-makers in the organization’s leadership. The decision-making teams must possess business intelligence application expertise. Every choice affects the company’s performance by enhancing operational analytics efficiency and seeking cost-cutting opportunities. Company intelligence provides an organizational picture that enables the chief executive officer to see patterns throughout the whole business structure – insights that may help. Effective performance would directly affect corporate expansion, innovation, and operational efficiency, which are essential in a fluid market.
The Enterprise User
The current labor market comprises various user levels with comparable effects on the use of business intelligence. Companies need both casual and advanced users of business information. Regarding skillset application in data management, a power user can deal with complicated data sets, while a casual user would use dashboards to evaluate predetermined data sets. Typically, the business user is a manager searching for methods to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of departmental operations. Managers are often unskilled in using business intelligence tools but are capable of learning the fundamentals of reporting and may utilize business intelligence to report on company operations effectively. Nonetheless, the managers may get more training and become entirely ready to conduct in-depth analyses.
Information Technology Teams
The Information Technology (IT) teams perform crucial technical responsibilities in the business integration process. The IT user plays a crucial role in maintaining the infrastructure and providing departments with the resources necessary to satisfy their data demands. IT teams must work considerably more closely with other departments and the enterprise. The teams are responsible for ensuring that business users maximize the benefits of data analytics, data governance, and business intelligence security. The technical teams bridge the gap between IT and business, promoting the widespread use of business intelligence.
Business intelligence involves the deployment of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions. Ineffective data gathering and administration, the ERPs are beneficial as one of the most essential technical and organizational innovations in contemporary businesses and SMEs. The systems encourage knowledge dissemination and reasonable corporate decision-making procedures.
In the present crisis, most SMEs still underestimate the use and the dynamism of Business intelligence in their decision-making processes. There is a need for sensitization on the concept that businesses have a greater probability of growth when adopting and deploying ERP systems. It is essential to fact or in associated marketing-focused subsystems like Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Businesses must acknowledge that extra attention must be paid to the essential variables impacting SMEs’ adoption of business intelligence-based ERPs. There is a need to highlight the business intelligence potential of deploying and utilizing ERP during a moment of crisis.
Impact of Business Intelligence on Companies
Some companies have effectively deployed functioning business intelligence procedures in business management. These businesses recognize that financial pressure to perform is essential to be competitive even in a healthy economy. For most businesses, the need for business intelligence solutions that can handle concerns such as demand volatility, input cost volatility, and the nonlinear relationship between costs and volume has expanded substantially. With choices such as subcontracting production and logistical activities, the present supply chain is more complicated regarding demand volatility. The breadth of supply networks has expanded to include items supplied across global supply systems. These disruptions directly impact the business process owing to delayed goods, dissatisfied customers, and higher product prices.
Similarly, input cost volatility affects markets by continually increasing profitability challenges. Regardless of the nature of the item, rapid market fluctuations might influence the product’s supply and price. Such imbalances may result in a nonlinear relationship between costs and volume fluctuations, including fixed and variable expenses. Some expenses fluctuate based on volume, while others change based on time, making it more challenging to comprehend the financial consequences of company actions. In such instances, company intelligence committees must be heavily involved in harmonizing a company’s business objectives (Rezaeilarijani et al., 2022, p.11). Risks in finance, supply chain, product development, marketing, and other operational areas are used to evaluate the objectives. Companies recognize that a deficiency in a competitor’s business intelligence might result in company failure. The company recognizes the need to move swiftly, but in a disconnected fashion; you may retain consumers but at the price of a higher cost of products sold and a smaller profit margin.
Companies Employing Business Intelligence Tools in Operations
Some instances accentuate the requirement for business intelligence in management operations. HelloFresh, for instance, unified digital marketing data to boost transactions (Turi & Li 2022, p.125). REI improved co-op shop membership rates, while Coca-Cola Bottling Company optimized operational performance optimization. Companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google, for instance, Amazon is a supply chain juggernaut with efficient warehouse operations systems. The firm began as an online retailer but discovered a niche in supply chains and warehouse bottlenecks. Figure 3 models can be applied to dramatic changes in the global economy. The corporation implemented business intelligence technologies and revised its business plan. After a top-down simulation and design phase, most businesses re-aligned their research and risk management, demand forecasting, profitability, revenue analysis, supply chain planning, and advertising and marketing strategy.
In most businesses with a functional business intelligence system, the corporate culture is often modified to emphasize creative thinking. The creators must have recognized that there was room for improvement in the connection between strategic planning and day-to-day operations. Current Chief Operations Officers (COOs) are responsible for coordinating operations with product order processing, brand management, and financial goals and budgets. Successful integrated business planning in such an environment demands specialized technological skills. Among the essential competencies is an underlying holistic model that portrays the firm following its actual behavior, including commercial, financial, and supply chain restrictions.
In addition, it is crucial to understand how variable and ongoing costs are incurred, as well as the structure of reporting hierarchies and process flows with energy balance. The integrated model must allow sophisticated analytics so that users may find and assess the optimal plans and choices. Users must be able to model and optimize instances with numerous goal functions using the business intelligence tools. In such a business case, supporting analysis from several perspectives is imperative to optimize the proposed solutions. The business considerations include determining the ideal product mix rather than maintaining a fixed product mix and determining a supply strategy. The tools enable users to explain and adequately comprehend the impact on key outcome measures. In technological businesses such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google, business intelligence tools provide a wealth of data for analyzing customer behavior. The tools include extensive cost evaluations, marginal profitability, accounting records, and significant bottlenecks/restrictions.
Obstacles to Integrated Enterprise Planning
Despite the direct impact of business intelligence technology on business services, smaller companies face obstacles to their broad adoption. For instance, widely used spreadsheets are readily accessible, yet they lack the updates required to accomplish business intelligence activities. These conventional software solution structures are structurally distinct, impeding integration and restricting organizations’ acceptance of new ideas. In the majority of organizations, supply chain software is unavailable. The sophisticated business intelligence software was designed from the bottom up with a data model focused on specific domains, such as demand, supply, and logistics.
The opposite approach is taken by financial research and designing tools representing General Ledger/Chart of Accounts from a transaction and roll-up viewpoint. Therefore, supply chain modeling and financial planning technologies were doomed never to meet. Similar concerns exist over the sophisticated skill set necessary to solve business intelligence challenges. In the development of modeling solutions and the management of complex supply chain challenges, optimization solutions create additional hurdles. These business cases demand complex code and lack visualization. However, with the right organizational culture, businesses may implement business intelligence tools and capitalize on the technology’s benefits. The success experienced in most large-scale companies leveraging business intelligence technologies should inspire smaller businesses. The firms should consider adopting the technology for sustainability and potential growth in a global recession.
Suggestions for Business Intelligence Implementation
The firm’s primary business intelligence application for growing companies is risk management. In risk management, business intelligence and analytics address key issues for practitioners and scholars to explore the meaning of collected data. Business intelligence technologies represent the extent and significance of data-related issues that modern business organizations must handle. In corporate management, risk management enables the accurate evaluation of risks and the development of methods for mitigating their effects. The risk assessment may shed light on the company’s behavior and the nature of its internal and external environments. With the evaluation of consumer patterns, market trends may be forecasted.
SMEs must appreciate that business intelligence is the foundation for risk management techniques that may limit, transfer, prevent, or mitigate risks. The choices involved in crisis management give a foundation for considering repercussions and solving inevitable hazards. Risk management may be described as an administrative activity designed to regulate and minimize risks to acceptable levels in a dynamic external market environment. Specifically, risk management should be applied to identifying, assessing, managing, and minimizing threats to a business, organization, or project.
Employing Data Analytics in Business Management
Data analysis can be employed for companies struggling with demand issues as there is a correlation between an occurrence’s likelihood and its consequences. Trends in analytics encourage risk management with a focus on hazards stemming from material or legal grounds. All big corporations, organizations, and smaller businesses have a risk management team regardless of risk management. Risk management must be emphasized and implemented in light of the present economic climate. Business intelligence’s technological use in successful risk management. Managers would be exposed to risks with significant losses and a high probability of occurrence, which should be handled first, followed by risks with lower losses and probabilities of occurrence.
In reality, managing the balance between high-risk and low-losses and low-risk risks and high-losses may be challenging, especially for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMEs). Intangible risk management identifies a new form of risk with a high likelihood of occurrence but is neglected by the organization owing to its inability to recognize it. For example, knowledge dangers are associated with the use of insufficient knowledge. These hazards affect employees’ knowledge-based productivity and efficiency of expenditure, profit, service, quality, reputation, and earnings. Risk management examines issues in allocating and distributing resources; this exemplifies the concept of opportunity cost since some of the assets spent on risk management may have been allocated to other lucrative endeavors.
Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises Sensitization Drives
Today, SMEs are suffering during extended economic downturns experienced across the globe, yet most business owners are unaware of the opportunities offered by readily accessible cloud technologies in business intelligence. Due to their limited financial resources and reliance on bank credit, for which they pay such high-interest rates, economic downturns significantly affect the struggling businesses. The financial imitations and their respective technical, administrative and human limitations may diminish their potential to overcome the economic recession.
The prospects for survival for the SMEs dwindle further with their fragile internal business environment. The companies’ growth relies on buyers, and employees may make it more difficult for them to continue operations in the face of a crisis. Research revealed that some industries that rely on the SME sector are damaged more by the financial crisis (Dias et al., 2022, p.19). However, with proper decision-making at the management levels, some firms show growth in yield, receive a profit from the crisis, and make use of possibilities. The diversity of the companies’ attribution remains noticed in the exact geographic locations even though they to the same marketplace. There is an apparent need for adequate SMEs sensitization on business intelligence technologies that generate alternative marketing strategies, inventive methods, and fresh thoughts to thrive.
The sensitization should highlight the disparities between organizations with more deliberate use of business intelligence technologies against SMEs struggling with accessing customers for their products. Studies have indicated that various elements are associated with SMEs’ economic and organizational features (Dias et al., 2022, p.21). Trends demonstrate that while SMEs appreciate the advantages and benefits of implementing these systems, the business intelligence capabilities of ERP systems are underutilized. SMEs must understand that business intelligence solutions are crucial in handling and summarizing heterogeneous data. The managers must use the information and expertise obtained by employing technology in company intelligence. More studies must be done on SMEs sensitization and appropriate solution in adopting ERP systems and SMEs’ growth of business intelligence utilization.
Senior data management teams must concur that deploying surveying takes severe work and consideration before a business can employ the technology. The business analysis should establish the project’s scope thoroughly and not attempt to absorb everything in the initial step. The senior executives should not see the restricted scope of the first phase as a waste of resources. The next significant consideration is selecting the appropriate information and technology solution. Small enterprises must exercise extreme caution when selecting a tool. In this instance, information systems should consider the schedule and budget for the first phase and future requirements.
During the implementation design of a business intelligence project, emphasis should be given to cost, time, features, minimum, and market availability of competent workers. Ensure that the solution is compatible with cutting-edge technologies such as cloud, virtualization, mobile, and social media. In addition, the license requirements must be thoroughly studied. The licensing policies for most business analytics tools are quite complicated, including requirements such as connector licenses, multi-application access, and virtualization. Ignoring these truths may impede the organization’s growth of business intelligence in the future. The partner must be seasoned and has competent resources. It must have a strong reputation on the market since it is the only organization that will ultimately develop the business intelligence plan.
Conclusions
Business intelligence exists to facilitate better business choices based on data analysis and machine learning. Due to the fast-changing economic environment for enterprises, these technologies are particularly vital today. Business intelligence provides firms access to information crucial to the performance of numerous departments and divisions, including sales, finance, and marketing. Implementing a crisis may lessen its effect and even generate a competitive advantage, even though attempting to foresee all bad events that may occur in an organization and then planning associated crisis solutions can be complicated. Business intelligence models have been employed in risk management scenarios globally. This research appreciates the significant impact of concepts and technologies in business intelligence in the context of crisis management. Risk is the one thing every business wants to avoid to survive in a struggling economy. Creating strategic models that function inside strategy plans and evaluating performance may lessen the catastrophe crisis and raise the possibility of the firm’s survival and profit in times of crisis.
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