Applied BI

Business domains – will IT finally be managed effectively? 01 November 2009

Following the discussions we´ve had of ERP and BI integration, it is natural to move into the domain thinking. The usual definition of a domain is a rather general interpretation, i.e. a territory, space, knowedge area but also including some kind of managerial or power.

Looking at the integration of ERP and BI, with a managerial perspective, it is interesting to discuss Business Domains, i.e. a domain of business with managerial power to improve the business value of information systems.

The tricky part here is the budgeting and governance part, i.e. the division of budget between IT, business units and a “virtual decision forum” of a Business Domain. The line of thinking leads us to the opportunity of actual movet budget from IT and business units to a new (virtual) managerial body – a Business Domain. By doing that, it is usually possible to gain more business value of the integration of ERP + BI. However, the major obstacle here is the knowledge level of the participants in the domain decision forums and the ability of those preparing decision proposals to present ERP and BI challenges at a management level.

There are a number of examples where the ability to take decisions needs to be improved:
- How do you present masterdata on management level for investments ?
- How do you understand the complexity of a target state ERP+BI landscape ?
- How do you present the performance and cost drivers of alternative BI target states ?
- How do you prioritize target group information need trade-offs vs. efficicent ERP installations ?
etc. etc.