Extending and Applying Business Intelligence and Customer Strategies for Green ICT

Introduction

There is a phenomenal amount of intelligence that exists in business. This intelligence, which is more than mere analysis of data and information, has been garnered by businesses to achieve enhanced customer experience and related business efficiencies. Such intelligence is gleaned from the organization’s various systems (such as ERP, CRM, HR and SCM), corresponding processes and vast amount of underlying data in multiple formats. These various elements of an organization’s intelligence that are embedded in its systems and data emerge as invaluable decision making tools when they all work together. This systems level collaboration and correlation results in ongoing improvement in customer service and optimization of business activities. The creation of this collaboration and correlation is business intelligence. Business intelligence (BI) is the process of using collective information within the organization to optimize its business performance, enhance its customer service and provide it with overall competitive advantage and sustainability.

Such business intelligence has tremendous potential for application in the modern-day environmentally-conscious business world. In fact, the business environment today mandates a highly intelligent approach that would make optimal use of all resources available to an organization. The environmental issues of a business are not too far removed from the issues of business efficiency and customer service. However, care needs to be taken to ensure that the environmental considerations of business do not embroil the business in expensive and, occasionally expansive, projects emanating out of its greening effort. For example, an organization embarking on environmental consciousness should not add to the already existing complexities of data warehouses and business systems in the organization. Another simpler example would be that a reduction in paper usage by the organization should not result in greater use of server space. An environmentally astute approach would make use of existing intelligence, without overloading it, to enable the organization to achieve its environmental objectives. This chapter is dedicated to the discussion on the use of existing business intelligence towards what the lead author calls “environmental intelligence”. Environmental Intelligence (EI) has been discussed and presented earlier by Unhelkar and Trivedi (2009a, 2009b, 2009c) and has been researched by the lead author. This chapter aspires to think creatively in the use of Business Intelligence (BI) towards EI