Power of Intelligence-Based Decision Making in Real Time - Sponsored Whitepaper

It is a performance-driven world. Customers demand it. Shareholders demand it. Business analysts demand it. Company executives demand it. Managers demand it. There is no question that lack of performance has serious ramifications. As competitive pressures escalate, costs of doing business increase, regulatory requirements become more stringent, and expectations for doing more with less become standard business mantra. Successful companies cannot afford to underperform.

In a world obsessed with performance, manufacturing companies must develop a solid productivity culture and strategy in order to successfully negotiate the serious challenges involved in achieving continuous improvement. In order to overcome this serious challenge, one of the key first steps is to understand the roots of poor performance. Although the causes of poor performance can be quite widespread, in general, they may be attributed to the following:

• Lack of solid strategy: flavor-of-the-day plans • Unattainable expectations • Bad assumptions • Lack of effective training and tools • Poor information leading to bad decision-making

It is not hard to see that poor and untimely information can significantly impact decision- making. Imagine how many times during the course of a regular business day opportunities for making positive contributions and improving performance are squandered because decision makers don’t have access to the intelligence they need. In the past, without proper technological tools, many managers relied on experience and intuition to make judgment calls. Although the value of experience must never be marginalized, considering the magnitude of investment in information technology, reliance on experience and intuition in place of solid intelligence is nothing but risky – at best.

In many cases the various business systems deployed throughout the enterprise are more akin to islands and fiefdoms instead of integrated operations that freely exchange accurate information. There are many legitimate challenges in effectively integrating dissimilar systems. The sheer magnitude of effort, expense, and business disruption is quite impressive. So what is the answer?