Business Intelligence in the Taps and Fittings Sector: Organizational and Technological Aspects

Abstract

Effective management of business information has become mission-critical in most enterprises. Companies are increasingly realizing the importance of a flexible, scalable, and fully integrated infrastructure, i.e. the platform for Business Intelligence (BI) strategies.

In the latest few years, it has been proved that the effectiveness of processes for an efficient enterprise management led to a consistent realization of the business strategy. The application of the mentioned strategy in day-to-day activities became a crucial factor in today enterprise development.

Enterprises need correct information, where strategic, tactical and operational decisions are based on, in order to ensure the strategy aligned with execution. Furthermore, enterprises need to provide an intelligence system and insights into the business processes.

The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how organizational and technological improvements in controlling processes, might help companies to better understand their specific internal and external environment. The sector of the taps and fittings district of north-eastern Piedmont has been analyzed to display:

• The degree of maturity of both processes control and information systems, especially referred to the BI systems;

• The most significant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs);

• How existing informative systems can support the introduction of KPIs.

The final objective is to build up a standard set of measures for this specific sector, useful for all companies willing to improve their processes management and, eventually, to implement the performance indicators in the BI system.

This work has been carried out within the research project “ICT Converging on Law: Next Generation Services for Citizens, Enterprises, Public Administration and Policymakers”, sponsored by Piedmont Region (http://www.ict4law.org). Although this work is the result of a common will, every paragraph has been written by a single author; particularly: 1st and 3rd sections by Roberto Candiotto (roberto.candiotto@eco.unipmn.it). 2nd, 4th and 5th sections by Silvia Gandini (silvia.gandini@eco.unipmn.it).