It’s likely you’re going to be hearing more and more about business intelligence (BI) and finding the right tools to fit it into the typical construction environment. My simplified definition of BI goes like this: BI is the process of trapping information and putting it to use as quickly as possible. So, when you query a database to find out the average age of receivables across all client accounts and simultaneously issue reminders to delinquent accounts, you are employing BI.
But it gets much more complex than that simplified example and that’s where many businesses are going to be missing the boat. In an article at Tech Target, Jeff Kelly reported a Gartner prediction showing that by 2012 more than 35 percent of global companies would be failing to make critical decisions in a timely fashion because they lack information, and the analysis of that information.
For construction businesses already struggling through tough economic times the thought of mining their data for morsels of information that will give them a competitive edge might seem like a trip on the far side. But many have already seen the writing on the wall and are first of all finding out what BI tools they already have, and how to use them. Others are discovering the tools in place just aren’t working and so they are looking for replacements. In either case, those construction businesses are positioning themselves during the down times so they are more competitive and efficient when things pick up. After all, if you already have the information, then why not get all the use out of it that you can?
