Business Intelligence (BI) leverages the usefulness of existing information. It equips business users with relevant information to perform various analyses to make key business decisions. Over the last two decades, BI has become a core strategy for the growth of many companies, in particular large corporations. However, studies show that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lag behind in implementation and exploitation of BI solutions. To stay ahead of the competition, SMEs must be able to monitor and effectively use all of their resources, in particular information resources, to assist them in making important business decisions. In this paper, we examine the challenges such as lack of technical expertise and limited budget when implementing a BI solution within an SME in the UK. In light of our experiences in tackling these issues, we discuss how these challenges can be overcome through applying various tools and strategies and the potential benefits.
This research is investigating the claim that Change Data Capture (CDC) technologies capture data changes in real-time. Based on theory, our hypothesis states that realtime CDC is not achievable with traditional approaches (log scanning, triggers and timestamps). Traditional approaches to CDC require a resource to be polled, which prevents true realtime CDC. We propose an approach to CDC that encapsulates the data source with a set of web services. These web services will propagate the changes to the targets and eliminate the need for polling. Additionally we propose a framework for CDC technologies that allow changes to flow from source to target. This paper discusses current CDC technologies and presents the theory about why they are unable to deliver changes in real-time. Following, we discuss our web service approach to CDC and accompanying framework, explaining how they can produce real-time CDC. The paper concludes with a discussion on the research required to investigate the real-time capabilities of CDC technologies.
With the advance of Business Information Systems (BIS), irrespective of the size, companies have adopted an approach to electronic data collection and management for two decades. The advancement in technology means they have in their possessions large volumes of historical data. Large organizations have cached on this and use a range of tools and techniques to leverage the usefulness of this information to make more informed business decisions. For most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), however, such data typically sits in an archive without being utilized. While SMEs appreciate the need for utilizing historical data to make more informed business decisions, they often lack the technical knowhow and funding to embrace an effective BI solution. In this paper, drawing from our experience in implementing a BI solution for a UK SME we discuss some potential tools and strategies that could help SMEs overcome these challenges so as to reap the benefits of adopting an effective BI solution.
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