A Study of Usage and Prospects of Business Intelligence BI Toolsin SMEs and Large Organizations in Ahmedabad Region

Abstract

The fluctuating economic conditions and the pressures of competition force business owners and managers to try out many different performance improvement concepts and tools, often with mixed results. Business Intelligence (BI) is one such concept and tool which combines operational data with analytical tools to present complex and competitive information to planners and decision makers by improving the timeliness and quality of inputs to the decision process. Organizations adopt BI tools and information systems to learn from the past, control the present and predict the future. BI is used to understand the capabilities available in the firm; the state of the art trends, and future directions in the markets; the technologies, and the regulatory environment in which the firm competes; and the actions of competitors and the implications of these actions. The emergence of data warehouse as a repository, advancements in data cleansing, increased capabilities of hardware and software, and the emergence of analytics all combine to create a richer business intelligence environment. newlinePerformance-driven organizations leverage their processes, resources and workforces with enterprise data and analytics to realize a higher return on investment, increased productivity, decreased operational costs, improved customer and employee retention, faster turnaround times and a host of other benefits. By employing key assets and resources, and adopting appropriate process management and database administration practices, companies are able to reach a higher level of performance that leads to increased profitability and business success). newlineThe SME sector of India is considered as the backbone of economy contributing to approx. 45% of the industrial output, 40% of India s exports, employing 60 million people, creating 1.3 million jobs every year and producing more than 8000 quality products for the Indian and international markets1. The people of Ahmedabad (Gujarat) are known for their enterprising nature and Ahmedabad region not only has