Month: January 2022

AI has been more viable for commercial applications, it has brought consumers many things already personal assistants in the form of Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, and Apple’s voice assistant Siri.

AI has also been used to help consumers make purchases or other decisions (like the Netflix algorithm that suggests things you might like based on prior viewing history) and through smart home devices like the Nest thermostat that can adjust based on whether you’re home or not.

Artificial intelligence is designed to parse, analyze, and transform data into humanized formats that are easy to digest and act upon. We see this every day in the predictions and suggestions our smart phones push to us without having to be prompted.

With an influx of data in the HR space, AI has the capacity to provide a wealth of insights in areas including talent assessment, employee engagement, manager effectiveness, and team productivity insights that might otherwise go undiscovered. This helps HR teams better understand and predict workforce trends and problem areas.

More importantly, it can also help solve one of the most important challenges HR teams face today building and executing plans for improvement by recommending specific actions to take to solve the biggest problems.

So, AI has already easily and quickly integrated into consumer spaces to help make the lives of everyday people easier and more convenient.

Adding AI to Product line-up

The first thing to think about when considering the impact of artificial intelligence in business is to consider your customer. They might already be using AI seamlessly with virtual assistants and smart home devices.

Using AI to Manage Business Functions

Another way that artificial intelligence is playing a role in business is behind the scenes. This means that AI can be rolled out to handle, manage, or assist with regular aspects and functions of the business.

Using artificial intelligence in business information can be a huge benefit. AI algorithms are already helping more businesses manage their data through deep analysis and plenty of specific industries are already benefitting from AI in their operations.

Healthcare: Some healthcare organizations are using AI to supplement physician training and education. Plus, AI has already been used in the healthcare industry to help review medical records and evaluate treatment approaches, like a digital assistant for doctors.

Logistics: Companies that use freight trucks or flights have found that using AI processes helps to determine efficient travel patterns based on the AI ability to source information from several places including weather, average fuel consumption, traffic, and other elements.

HR and staffing: Human resource departments and staffing agencies are using AI technologies to help them find the best talent from resume submissions. AI can match the best applicants with the job positions based on keyword functionality and AI’s ability to gather and analyze information from several sources co-currently. Ultimately, the power of data for HR organizations isn’t just in proving return on investment or predicting future outcomes. The real advantage comes when AI leverages people data to translate insights into action.

Artificial Intelligence

We will start our analysis of what is new in business intelligence with AI. This is a trend that is wildly being covered by Gartner in their latest Strategic Technology Trends report, combining AI with engineering and hyperautomation, and concentrating on the level of security in which AI risks developing vulnerable points of attacks.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the science aiming to make machines execute what is usually done by complex human intelligence. Often seen as the highest foe-friend of the human race in movies (Skynet in Terminator, The Machines of Matrix, or the Master Control Program of Tron), AI is not yet on the verge to destroy us, in spite of the legit warnings of some reputed scientists and tech-entrepreneurs.

Self-service analytics

Industry analysts now predict that within two years, most business users in organizations will have access to self-service tools to prepare data for analysis. Such self-service BI solutions can transform business users from data consumers to active data analysts, reducing the time and complexity of data gathering and preparation, and shifting the monopoly on data extraction, processing, and visualization from IT to a model of data analysis across the organization.

Power BI is a complete self-service data analysis tool available right now, enabling all users to make smart decisions with data. Connect with ease to internal data sources and external data services, such as Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and QuickBooks. Process data with drag-and-drop gestures. Use natural language to query datasets and create compelling visualizations. And share your reports with colleagues using content packs. Power BI is at the forefront of tools that help cultivate and strengthen data-savvy knowledge workers.

Data Security

Data and information security have been on everyone’s lips in 2021, and they will continue to buzz the world in 2022. The implementation of privacy regulations such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the EU, the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) in the USA, and the LGPD (General Personal Data Protection Law) in Brazil have set building blocks for data security and management of users’ personal information.

Moreover, the recent overturn by the European Court of Justice of the legal framework called Data Privacy Shield hasn’t made software companies’ life much easier. The Shield was a legal framework that enabled companies to transfer data from the EU to the USA but, with recent legal developments causing the invalidation of the process, companies that have their headquarters in the US don’t have the right to transfer any of the EU data subjects.

Data integration

Increases in data volume, velocity, and variety is fueling a trend toward comprehensive BI solutions that process information from multiple sources and in multiple views. Massive amounts of data are now available from disparate sources, increasing the demand for rapid data source integration accessible through simple interfaces.

Businesses are drawing upon huge volumes of unstructured social data to gain insights into customer behavior. Tracking social conversations at scale enables companies to learn when a topic is trending and what their customers are talking about. Insights gleaned from social data analytics lead to responsive optimization of products and services.

Power BI gives business users across the organization an easy-to-use tool to tap into insights hidden in large amounts of data. Whether the data reside in the cloud or on-premises, in structured databases or unstructured data processed by Hadoop, it’s accessible through Power BI. Use the Power BI visualization tools to communicate social trends to colleagues. As social trends evolve, have real-time updates reflected in your visualizations, enabling more agile responses to emerging market changes.

Business Intelligence for Sales and Marketing

Another popular trend is the use of business information by sales and marketing departments in various businesses. Without depending on a technical IT specialist or a business analyst, sales and marketing personnel may access the latest sales and purchase patterns among their consumers thanks to the usage of BI dashboards. Any sales or marketing activity may benefit from BI tools. It enhances the accuracy of sales objectives and projections, assesses the market effect of the most recent marketing campaign or promotion, and develops client acquisition and retention plans. Companies may profit from greater revenues (due to product cross-selling and up-selling) and assure improved customer satisfaction by implementing the proper business intelligence tools for sales and marketing.

Mobile BI

The workforce is more mobile than ever, and mobile solutions for data analytics are maturing.  Knowledge workers can now access and analyze data from their mobile devices more readily than ever. The trend toward mobile BI solutions will only continue to accelerate.

Power BI enables you to access and modify your dashboards no matter where you are, using touch-enabled native apps for Windows, iOS, and Android. Use the Power BI app to connect to your data, discover insights easily with data alerts, and share them with your team. The Power BI app also enables you to filter and pivot your data in different ways to quickly find answers on the go through your mobile device.

These trends point to the evolution of BI toward making new sources of information accessible, consumable, and meaningful to organizations of all sizes, including those that do not have advanced analytics skills or in-house resources.

Data Discovery

Data discovery, also known as data analysis for business users, is one of the top business intelligence trends for 2022. For a business user, data discovery is a business process that involves using data analytics tools to find patterns and derive insights from data. The three steps of data discovery as a business process are as follows. Business users are connected to numerous data sources throughout the data preparation step. Business users may quickly do visual data analysis utilizing data visualization dashboards including useful charts and graphs at the data visualization stage. Business users can utilize analytical abilities to uncover advanced patterns in the available data at the data analytics stage. Business users may more easily uncover business patterns and even anomalies thanks to visualization tools, and take fast and appropriate action as a result.

Project management. ERP implementations entail multiple phases: discovery and planning, design, development, data migration, testing, deployment, support and post-launch updates. Each phase brings critical tasks, and all elements need to stay on track, which requires meticulous project management. Additionally, successful ERP implementations require participation from all the groups that will be involved in developing and using the system. That can be incredibly challenging, because each department is juggling its ERP project responsibilities with multiple other priorities.

Strong project and people management, which includes setting realistic expectations, time frames and milestones, along with timely two-way communication, is critical to success. As with change management, backing from executives and other top leaders is essential to conquering this challenge, as well.

Project planning: Organizations often underestimate the time and budget necessary for a successful implementation. One of the most common causes of budget overruns is scope creep when a business adds capabilities or features to the system that weren’t part of the original plan and another is underestimating staffing needs.

Data quality: Once the organization has located all data sources, it can start thinking about migrating it to the ERP system. But that may involve a serious data hygiene exercise. Because multiple departments interact with the same customers, products and orders, organizations often have duplicate versions of the same information in their systems. The information may be stored in different formats; there may be inconsistencies, like in addresses or name spellings; some information may be inaccurate; and it may include obsolete information such as customers or suppliers that have since gone out of business.

Data integration: One of the key advantages of ERP is that it provides a single, accurate source of data for the whole organization. A key step in ERP implementation is data migration, which typically involves moving data from multiple older systems into the ERP database. But first, you have to find all of your data. This may be much more challenging than you expect. The information may be spread far and wide across the organization, buried in accounting systems, department-specific applications, spreadsheets and perhaps on paper.

Change management. An ERP implementation involves more than just switching to a new software system. It typically means overhauling business processes to take advantage of the efficiency and productivity improvements possible with the new solution. This requires a shift in mindset and a change in everyday work processes for many employees, which presents typical change management challenges.

Continuous improvement: An ERP implementation is not a one-off effort that ends when the new system goes live. The solution must continue to evolve to support new business demands and technology. The project team needs to continue to manage the project after deployment, fixing issues and supporting new requirements as they come up.

Cost overruns: ERP projects are infamous for sailing past budgets after the implementation kicks off. Many organizations underestimate the amount of work required to move to a new business system, and that results in spending more money than expected. These cost overruns often show up in a few different areas.

MIS Reports are reports required by the management to assess the performance of the organization and allow for faster decision-making. A Management Information System, often simply referred to as MIS, can be understood by looking at each of the words that make up the name. There is the management, the information, and the system. At the heart of it, such a system is one that will provide important information to the management of the company.

The complexities of running businesses, have made us more reliant on advanced technologies which will remove any room for errors. On one hand, it accurately states what a management information system does for the management of the company. On the other hand, it cannot be overemphasized that management information systems are very important to the smooth running of a business. It is crucial that businesses opt for an automated management information system is set up for better decision-making.

Need for MIS

MIS reports are crucial for the smooth functioning and growth of your company. Here are a few key points that highlight the importance of an MIS report:

• MIS reports are used to collect data from various sources. These include employees, management, documents, executives as well as the raw numbers for business sales. All of these are beneficial for identifying and solving problems within your company. They can help in making important decisions.
• An MIS report also helps to track a company’s financial growth and financial health. It is often used to track, analyze, and report business income.
• The data collected from the above-mentioned sources is then visualized. This includes presenting the data in the form of bars, graphs, and charts. This provides ease of analysis and helps to gain faster insights from the available data.

The following are some of the justifications for having an MIS system

• MIS systems facilitate communication within and outside the organization employees within the organization are able to easily access the required information for the day-to-day operations. Facilitates such as Short Message Service (SMS) & Email make it possible to communicate with customers and suppliers from within the MIS system that an organization is using.
• Decision makers need information to make effective decisions. Management Information Systems (MIS) make this possible.
• Record keeping: management information systems record all business transactions of an organization and provide a reference point for the transactions.

Types of MIS Reports

Summary Reports

Summary reports are a type of MIS reports used to visualize aggregate data and provide a summary. This summary could be of different business units, different products, different customer demographics among other things. The report is presented in a format that can be understood by the company’s management.

Trend Reports

Trend Reports are types of MIS reports that allow your company to see the trends and patterns among different categories. Trend reports are also used to compare different products or services. They are often used to draw comparisons between the actual versus the predicted output/growth within an organization. These reports help to pinpoint the problem areas in a company and give potential solutions to them.

On-Demand Reports

The on-demand report is a type of MIS reports that are produced on specific demands from your company’s management team. There is no fixed criteria or format that must be included in an on-demand report. This type of MIS report includes the requirements of a company and the prevailing circumstances will dictate the contents of an on-demand report.

Exception Reports

An exception report is a type of MIS reports that is an aggregate report of exceptions, which are abnormal or unusual circumstances within a company. The exceptions report will collect instances of all such conditions within different departments in your company, and present them to the management in a uniform format. Exceptions reports are useful for catching problems early, and solving them before they cause a major disruption.

Financial Reports

Financial reports are types of MIS reports that can be used to determine the financial condition of an organization. A financial report often includes a company’s balance sheets, income, and expense details, and cash flow statements. Financial reports are used by your company’s financial analysts, investors, the board of directors, and even government units to access the overall financial health of your organization. These reports are used in making critical financial decisions within a company.

Inventory Reports

Inventory reports are a type of MIS report that is used to manage and keep a track of all the products in your inventory. The inventory report includes details about the number of products left in stock, the best selling products, the top-selling categories of products and how they vary by demographic, etc. Inventory reports can help your business to make smarter, data-driven decisions.

Budget Reports

Organizations operate on a variety of budgets. These may include cash budgets, income v/s expenditure budgets, marketing budget, HR budget, production budget, etc. An MIS budget report contains internal information about your organization. It is used to maintain your company’s financial health while driving growth.

Sales Reports

The sales report is prepared by the marketing and sales division of your organization. It includes a visualization of products that have been sold during the last quarter/month in your organization. The sales data is often visualized by taking into account the budgeted and actual sales numbers. It provides an insight into the sales variance (the difference between the budgeted and actual sales), the geographical distribution of products sold, and the timeline of sales among other factors.

Cash Flow Statements

Cash flow statements are a Types of MIS report that underlines the exact amount of cash inflow versus the cash outflow in your organization. The cash flow statements include the cash flows from your company’s operations (the core business), investments (capital investments), and financing (external investors). These are together referred to as your company’s ‘net cash flow‘. Cash flow statements are very important to maintain a profitable business.

Production Reports

Production report is a types of MIS report that contains information about the raw production numbers in your company. The manufacturing division within your company will prepare this report, and provide details of the production targets that were achieved or missed. This report also details the predicted v/s actual products manufactured in the time frame. It may also highlight a production bottleneck or ideas on how to speed up the production process.

Funds Flow Statement

Your company’s accounts and finance department is responsible for the preparation of funds flow statement. These statements give insights into the various sources of funding within your company, and how that funding is being utilized. Fund flow reports usually analyze your company’s balance sheet from the past two years, and understand the flow of funds from the previous year to the current financial year.

Change management risks are factors that may inhibit or prevent the acceptance or adoption of that solution. These risks may involve any individuals involved or connected to the solution both leaders and employees.

Factors of Risk Assessment:

Add credibility to change management: Instead of pointing out the negatives, success factors illustrate the big picture and what is crucial for success.

Reduce barriers with positive language: It is understandable that people may become defensive when negative feedback is attributed to them or their work. Success factors express how leaders and employees contribute to success instead of failure.

Compare outcomes and evaluate success: Identifying the success factors creates a clear definition of success so outcomes can be evaluated.

Critical success factors

When a project is strong in every critical success factor, it is more likely to succeed. And of course, gaps or weaknesses show what can be improved to contribute to better results.

• Strong case for change: The reason or purpose of the change make sense at the time to all audiences.
• Impact of history is acknowledged: The causes of poorly managed changes in the past are identified, analyzed and mitigated as needed.
• Impact of culture is acknowledged: The culture of an organization is taken into consideration when planning the change, and this may require change as well.
• Definition of desired state is clear: All elements of the desired state (structure, process, people and culture) are defined and understood by all impacted people.
• Transition dip is acknowledged: The potential unwanted impacts of the transition are identified and mitigated if possible.
• Impact of multiple changes is understood: Other concurrent or overlapping changes are identified, and the impacts are analyzed and mitigated as necessary.
• Leaders are effective at all levels: Every leader involved understands the change and commits to fulfilling their role and responsibilities.
• Change practitioners are capable and willing: Change practitioners are ready, competent and have the resources necessary to support the change.
• Risk is identified and analyzed: Potential risks during and after the change are understood.
• Risk is mitigated effectively: The change management plan includes strategies and resources to mitigate the identified risks.
• Organization is competent in managing change: The organization has the resources and capability from internal or external sources to manage the entire change.
• Project management is effective: The solution implementation team is engaged, capable and incorporates the change management plan into the overall project plan.
• Decision making structure is operational: The role and responsibilities of all leaders are defined, and the change governance and decision-making structure are clear and operational.

Change Management and Risk

There are risks associated with change, and risks associated with the failure to change. Examples of risks associated with the failure to change include Eastman Kodak’s failure to recognize the market’s shift to digital media, and the U.S. auto industry’s failure to identify the threat of a worldwide oil shortage in the 1970s.

Risks associated with change are influenced by the firm’s preference for change and the rate of change in the industry. A firm’s preference for change can range from low to high. However, a low preference for change will be safe only if the rate of change in the industry is also relatively low. If the firm’s preference for change is low and the rate of change in the industry is high, the firm will be exposed to a higher risk of becoming obsolete. The upper most arrow in the graphic illustration below indicates that a firm with a risk avoidance preference in a rapidly changing industry should move towards a culture that promotes change. On the other hand, there is greater risk associated with a change culture that is too far ahead of the rate of change in the industry. The lower arrow indicates that a firm with a risk seeking preference in an industry with a low rate of change might choose to move towards a culture to inhibit change. Note that the line labeled risk neutral is where the firm’s preference for change matches the rate of change in the industry. The area between the dashed lines is the comfort zone where the firm may be somewhat risk-adverse or somewhat risk-tolerant, but not an outlier with respect to change.

Change Management and Transition

There are essentially two ways that change takes place in an organization: continuous improvement, and change initiated at a tipping point. Continuous improvement has been promoted for many years by statisticians, quality management experts and lean enterprise advocates. However, Malone and Mouritsen point out that improving on a continuous basis is not sufficient. As indicated in the discussion above, organizations must improve at a rate compatible with the rate set by the industry and markets in which it competes.

A tipping point change occurs when a firm faces a severe condition that threatens its competitive position or survival. The examples mentioned above related to Eastman Kodak and the U.S. auto industry illustrate change initiated by tipping points. Eastman Kodak did eventually make changes compatible with the digital media and equipment market, but was too late and took bankruptcy in 2102. The U.S. auto industry survived by producing more fuel-efficient autos, but during the transition lost a considerable share of their market to Japanese and European competitors. To avoid tipping point, change many firms have developed teams of experts who attempt to identify industry trends, threats, and events that might initiate a tipping point change.

Change Management and Strategic Alignment

According to Balanced Scorecard authors Kaplan and Norton, “managing strategy is about managing change”. Aligning change management with strategy includes selling a desired change internally, providing the necessary training, revising performance measurements to fit the change, and adopting the appropriate incentive systems. An organization must be able to sustain the change needed to execute the desired strategy from both technical and human resource perspectives (e.g., culture, leadership, teamwork).

1) Denial stage

Denial is the first stage of the four stages of change management and it is observed as soon as a change is implemented. In this stage, you will first deny that change has arrived, even if you can read the signs boldly. Due to the fear of losing belonging, safety and psychological needs, you usually feel bad and deny the importance of change.

Since denial is normally unconscious, you as a manager will not agree that you are in denial yet the signs can be read, thus putting the business at risk. During the denial period, you push your customers away, because there is an alternative of accessing the same goods and services, with similar qualities at a lower cost.

Denial can happen due to many reasons. You did not like the hostile takeover of the company. You don’t like the new responsibilities being thrust on you. Or any reason which affects the comfort zone of you or your employees.

Common denial signs expressed by managers include:

• Undertaking activities and decisions that will actively sabotage or undermine the change.
• Not participating or engaging in the business discussions.
• Becoming preoccupied with other matters.
• Assuming everything is running smoothly.

2) Resistance stage

resistance stage is the second and very critical, as it is the stage where the productivity, morale, and competency of the employees decline. As a manager, you should know at this stage your employees have accepted the change but they are now rejecting it.

Employees actively know that they don’t want this change to happen as a result of which they will try to switch back to the old ways of working things. This results in several delays and can also result in losses for the company.

It is important to note that at this stage, the employees will resist both incompetence and awareness. They will try to keep their own control on things. and to be aware of the control resulting from the change. Following the resistance, the employees will do the following:

• See anything that is wrong.
• Result in complaints instead of making the change work.
• Get into criticism and blame discussions, or responses with anger.

3) Exploration stage

After the unsuccessful resistance of change, most employees start exploring it, after realizing they cannot stop the change. At this stage, the employees look into the future by searching for new responsibilities. But, resistance makes some retain some skepticism, thus exploring alternatives.

The exploration of alternatives might make the employees be distracted, lose focus, be indecisive and feel like they are doing too much from the many ideas they explore. Since the employees’ alternates for some time between resistance and exploration, you should play your role as a manager well, because the turning down of their ideas and alternatives might make them return to resistance. However, during the exploration, employees are hopeful of making it in a new organization but ready to receive ideas of solving the problem.

Some of the things you can do as a manager in addressing exploration include:

• Initiating temporary and non-binding pilot projects to understand the impacts resulting from the change.
• Conducting a survey of the change.
• Helping the shareholders in modifying their ideas in order to suit the change.
• Accepting the change of attitude by the employees and providing positive feedback.
• Helping the employees in re-evaluating their careers.
• Providing more training and networking the employees to gain competence and knowledge.
• Addressing the lack of focus, fear and indecisiveness of the employees.
• Supporting and encouraging strategy and brainstorming sessions.

4) Acceptance/ Commitment stage

Although acceptance is the final stage of change, it may not be due to consensus. The commitment is brought about by accepting the change, rather than fighting and ignoring it. After the acceptance, the change is integrated into the processes, thinking, and values of the organization. The acceptance stage is where both the managers and the employees embrace the change.

Although the employees are committed after acceptance, they might not agree with everything, but they convinced by the implementation then or later of a firm business strategy and an inspiring vision of the business. Thus, the employees get committed with a feeling that their contribution will lead to a successful implementation.

Through commitment, the productivity, and morale of the employees increases, as well as their self-esteem. As a result, the relationship between employees and team managers gets stronger, deeper and trustworthy.

Change management is fundamentally about successfully guiding people through a behavior change.

Change management is a collection of activities intended to support groups, organizations and individuals during business transitions. These transitions include changes to new business models, technologies or procedures. When businesses change the way they function, the success of the change is reliant on how well its members adopt the new practices. While it’s primarily a way to support the human portion of the change, change management also involves reallocating resources and assisting with the implementation of new technologies. When businesses identify a need for change management, they may organize a team or hire a consultant.

Principles of change management:

• Goal identification
• Organization
• Collaboration and communication
• Implementation

Step 1: Urgency Creation

A change is only successful if the whole company really wants it. If you are planning to make a change, then you need to make others want it. You can create urgency around what you want to change and create hype.

This will make your idea well received when you start your initiative. Use statistics and visual presentations to convey why the change should take place and how the company and employees can be at advantage.

Step 2: Build a Team

If your convincing is strong, you will win a lot of people in favour of change. You can now build a team to carry out the change from the people, who support you. Since changing is your idea, make sure you lead the team.

Organize your team structure and assign responsibilities to the team members. Make them feel that they are important within the team.

Step 3: Create a Vision

When a change takes place, having a vision is a must. The vision makes everything clear to everyone. When you have a clear vision, your team members know why they are working on the change initiative and rest of the staff know why your team is doing the change.

If you are facing difficulties coming up with a vision, read chapter one (Mission and Values) of WINNING, by Jack Welch.

Step 4: Communication of Vision

Deriving the vision is not just enough for you to implement the change. You need to communicate your vision across the company.

This communication should take place frequently and at important forums. Get the influential people in the company to endorse your effort. Use every chance to communicate your vision; this could be a board meeting or just talking over the lunch.

Step 5: Removing Obstacles

No change takes place without obstacles. Once you communicate your vision, you will only be able to get the support of a fraction of the staff. Always, there are people, who resist the change.

Sometimes, there are processes and procedures that resist the change too! Always watch out for obstacles and remove them as soon as they appear. This will increase the morale of your team as well the rest of the staff.

Step 6: Go for Quick Wins

Quick wins are the best way to keep the momentum going. By quick wins, your team will have a great satisfaction and the company will immediately see the advantages of your change initiative.

Every now and then, produce a quick win for different stakeholders, who get affected by the change process. But always remember to keep the eye on the long-term goals as well.

Step 7: Let the Change Mature

Many change initiatives fail due to early declaration of victory. If you haven’t implemented the change 100% by the time you declare the victory, people will be dissatisfied when they see the gaps.

Therefore, complete the change process 100% and let it be there for sometime. Let it have its own time to get integrated to the people’s lives and organizational processes before you say it ‘over.’

Step 8: Integrate the Change

Use mechanisms to integrate the change into people’s daily life and corporate culture. Have a continuous monitoring mechanism in place in order to monitor whether every aspect of the change taking place in the organization. When you see noncompliance, act immediately.