T HEORY MODEL CREATION

Theory that has been presented in this thesis so far has given a foundation for creating a model that will help to examine the different areas of BI implementation in an organization and study how they are understood, needed and what is expected from them. Hence a model called PET model of BI implementation (Figure 15) was created to try to illustrate the different areas/foundations of the BI implementation.

The model is divided into three layers, the Purchase, Employment, and Task layer which all together represent the process of BI implementation. The whole process consists of nine different foundations.

The first three foundations are presented in the Purchase layer. When companies are about to purchase a BI system they ask three questions; What kind of system?;

What is the motive for purchasing?; and What purpose will this system serve?. In the System Foundation, a company’s choice of system will be examined. There are a lot of BI systems on the market today, and the purpose of the System Foundation is to find out what specific system suits a specific company in a specific industry.

The Motive Foundation is examining what motives lay behind the purchase of the system. There might be many reasons for a company to purchase a BI system. As presented earlier in this paper some companies like to have a greater visibility of their business environment, shorten their reaction time, improve the execution of a strategy, or improve revenue/customer growth, et cetera.

The Purpose Foundation may sound like it is accomplishing the same task as the Motive Foundation but it is not. Unlike the Motive, that answers the “why”

question, the Purpose Foundation looks at “how” a BI system will be used.

Perhaps the BI system will be used for Marketing, Finance, Manufacturing, Logistics, or Forecasting et cetera.

The next three layers are presented in the Employment Layer. The purpose of this layer is to find out how companies actually employ their BI systems. What benefits do they experience?; Where in the organization do they place the system?; and For how long have they been doing so? The Benefit Foundation examines the actual benefits behind a BI system that a company has implemented.

Has there been an increased user satisfaction since the system has been employed?; Have any costs been decreased?; Is the decision making speed higher now than before the introduction of the system?

Depending on the company size, the industry and the organization, companies place their BI system differently in their organization. Some tend to place it as a special department while others like to implement it as a part of a Marketing department, et cetera. The sole reason of the Placement Foundation is to find out how companies place the BI system in their organization.

It might be interesting, for comparison reasons, to examine the usage time of a BI system. For how long has the company used a specific BI system, or plan to do so? How often is the BI system used? On a daily basis, or less often? The result can then be compared to other foundations in the model. For example; Depending on the time that a BI system has been used, how has the company chosen to place their BI system? This is one reason for the creation of Usage Time Foundation.

Other reason might be to examine the time that it takes for a BI system to process intelligence. It is presented in this chapter that time plays an important role when working with BI systems because the time, very often, can actually determine the value of the intelligence.

The last layer of the PET model is called the Task Layer and it is a rather technical and more detail-demanding layer in the BI implementation examination.

The Task layer consists of an Important Functions foundation, Functional Area foundation and Analysis foundation.

The important Function Foundation examines what functions the companies believe a BI system must accomplish to serve for their specific business purpose.

In some businesses, as mentioned earlier in this chapter, where companies often use Excel Software, Microsoft Office integration is a very important function.

Other companies like to believe that Data Warehousing and Online analytical processing (OLAP) is a vital function. Depending on the user, whether it is a CEO or an analyst, Dashboards and Scorecards are preferred. Some like their BI systems to be able to write Reports and illustrate data in form of diagrams and models and so on.

Another foundation in the Task layer is called the Functional Area Foundation and is not examining the actual functions of a BI system like the previous foundation but rather the whole area of functions that a BI system covers. Some businesses have implemented their BI System as a system for Customer Relations Management (CRM) or Knowledge management (KM), while others use their BI system for analysis only. It is also known that some companies use BI systems for

consulting purposes, for example Business-related consulting, Technical consulting, Help Desks, et cetera.

The last foundation in the PET model is called the Analysis Foundation. Most BI systems consist of some kind of analytical processing technology and companies using these systems, commonly want their BI system to be able to do an analysis.

Therefore, the purpose of this foundation is to find out what kind of analysis the companies actually demand from their BI system. Examples of analyses are, SWOT analysis, Cost analysis, Trend Analysis, PEST analysis, Benchmarking, or Questionnaires, et cetera.

With the help of the PET model and the Research plan, which is presented later in the Empirical Method Chapter, the survey that will be conducted has now a greater chance to cover the most important areas of BI implementation and answer the research proposals of this thesis.

System Motive

Usage Time Placement

Important Functions

Purpose

Benefits

Analysis Functional

Area

Purchase

Task Employment

Figure 15 – The PET model of BI implementation

BI ?