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10-Feb-03 Singapore, 10 February 2003 – Successful companies instinctively know the value of their intelligence and strategic planning functions, and do not need to resort to return-on-investment (ROI) calculations to justify their existence. This was the case put forward in a paper presented at the 3rd Annual Business Intelligence Asia Conference, Singapore by Peter Read, Director of Fusion Consulting, a business intelligence consul-tancy based in Singapore and Hong Kong, which delivers pragmatic, business intelligence-based strategies for Asia Pacific markets. The paper pulled together concepts and research from some of the world’s leading corporate intelligence proponents, including Fuld & Co, Bennion-Robertson, Outward Insights and the Fuld-Gilad-Herring Academy of Competitive Intelligence, in addition to Fusion Consulting’s own material. Functions like business intelligence, strategic planning and competitive intelligence are not viewed as ‘must haves’ on the same level as sales, finance and human resources in most companies. This is especially true during economic hard times, and in the past two years these units have been hit hard by layoffs, as cost-cutters target support functions first. Are these functions failing to deliver what they promise, or do companies lack the capability to use strategic intelligence effectively? Possibly both, says Mr Read, but for many companies it is hard to tell, because they are not measuring effectively the value delivered, and communicating this back up the hierarchy. ROI is not the way to achieve this. Some of the world’s most successful companies do know the value of their intelligence and strategic planning teams, without resorting to ROI. Mr Read cited GM, Palm, Applied Materials and Shell as examples of companies which gain great value from their intelligence and strategic planning units. To deliver such value, intelligence must be supported from the very top levels of management, and to gain this support initially, effective measurement of the value delivered is often needed. ROI calculations are only applicable to tactical business intelligence activities like investment in CRM software or reverse engineering. “ROI should not be used to evaluate the worth of intelligence or strategic planning functions. You can’t put a financial value on sharing intelligence over your intranet, for example,” says Mr Read. More important is for the intelligence or strategic planning function to deliver answers to the key questions which business managers need to have answered: 1. What is happening or will happen in the external business environment? 2. What are the reasons for this? 3. What is the impact on us? 4. What should we do about it? “Assuming the intelligence function is answering these questions effectively and delivering practical recommendations, then requesting qualitative feedback from stakeholders to measure the value delivered, and communicatiing this up the heirarchy, is the key to gaining top management support,” says Mr Read. Fusion Consulting recommends a simple three-stage formula for justifying intelligence functions: Communicate, Deliver and Measure. “Once management sees the value being delivered, as in the case of companies like Motorola, Shell and GM, justification then becomes unnecessary,” says Mr Read. About Fusion Consulting For more information, please contact Fusion Consulting at
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