Business Intelligence and Strategic Cost Management

If we were able to devote an entire semester, rather than an 8-week term, to this material we would have extended our focus of the material from the core of managerial accounting to the broader context of strategic cost management. As such, an array of additional specialized topics would have been explored toward the bigger picture understanding of strategic cost management.
So for your final assignment/project of the course I’d like you to select and explore one of the following topics normally developed as part of the study of strategic cost management:
The Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Map
Business Process Improvement
Value Chain Analysis
TQM and Measuring the Cost of Quality
Activity-Based Costing and Management
Lean Manufacturing and Accounting for Lean
Business Intelligence
The Theory of Constraints
Target Costing
Customer Profitability Analysis
Life-Cycle Costing
Ethical Issues of Cost Allocation
Benchmarking
Transfer Pricing
Research the topic of your choice and develop an appropriate understanding of the topic to complete the following special topic assignment activities:
By Wednesday, May 4, please enter a “Directed Discussion post” in Week 8, giving a high-level summary overview to present your topic to the class and then respond as necessary to additional replies. Post your summary to this discussion: Week 8 - Directed Discussion
I’d like the report to include three parts:
An introduction explaining your interest and why you chose the topic.
What you learned, delivered from an instructional lens as if you were teaching me about the topic from what you learned through your research and discovery.
Your summary perspective about the topic, as a special extension of the course material, and a reflection on any perceived value you expect to realize, either personally or as part of your professional responsibilities, from the deeper exploration of the topic.
Submit your report to this assignment: Final Exam - Special Topics
Finally, the value:
Aside from the intellectual value of extending the course content to realize there is much to appreciate about Strategic Cost Management at the next level, I will treat the special topic assignment activities described above as a “take home” portion of the final exam to be worth 20 points or 20% of the final exam.

Topic chosen is Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence

What is Business Intelligence (BI)?

“BI is the use of technology to generate and analyze data which can be shared with employees, stakeholders, and decision, makers to make an informed decision. The data can support the organization in strategic, operational, and tactical   decision making.”

Why Business Intelligence?

“BI reports help in analyzing historical data, current trends, competition analysis to forecast future business decisions, regarding product innovation, identifying an organization’s weaknesses, maximize revenue, cost reduction, etc.”

Business Intelligence and Strategic Cost Management:

BI uses technology to analyze internal data of the organization and external data from the market. It helps to identify the organization's loopholes and comes up with insights into decision making and corrective actions required maximizing returns and eliminating wastes.

It helps in the following key processes:

• Defining the key performance indicators: Identify and create clear strategic decisions and rework KPI’s accordingly.


• Benchmarking the organization: Planning where you want your organization positioned who are your competitors and your marketing strategy to maximize revenues.


• Visualizing the data: Clear picture and transparent reporting of data to make informed decisions


• Data Analytics: It includes data mining, predictive and statistical analysis, report generation, etc

The tools required for Business intelligence can be many; most organizations opt for specific industry-related software’s like CRM, ERP, etc. There are many other methods to track and analyze data like excel, data mining, digital dashboards, data cleansing, online data processing or customized software’s are made for specialized and big corporate.

Most data is stored in Data warehouse, which is on a server and supplies information according to the functionality and business need to be identified. The vast data can be analyzed and presented in millions of ways.

The data storage access is defined and restricted to different levels of management to protect data from misuse, and it forms the basis for making critical decisions like:

• Cost Reductions


• Improving systems


• Product feedback


• Marketing activity feedback


• Supply chain management and logistics controls


• Innovations


• New business development

This has helped in fraud detection, resource allocation, risk assessment, etc.

Further, to sum it up, no organization can function without useful business intelligence and data analytics which is expanding further to mobile applications and innovative use of sales points to track consumer behavior, etc.