Information Innovation Exchange

This article describes a business intelligence continuing improvement program that is based on Six Sigma concepts and methods. It includes a discussion of the Six Sigma breakthrough formula and how it is used. Six Sigma, in many organizations, means a measure of quality that is near perfection. Six Sigma is also a shorthand term for the disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects in any process or product.

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Thanks to the misbehavior of a few individuals at Enron, MCI, and Tyco, many firms and individuals have become increasingly sensitive to ethical issues in the workplace. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other financial accountability regulations have made us all more aware of the need to address ethics as an important factor in organizational behavior and operations. Paying attention to ethics is good business. Most of us have read articles in the news about a business’ unethical behavior, and my guess is that we look poorly upon firms that exhibit it. What most people don’t realize is that ethical practices affect the very nature of an organization’s processes, products, and services. That is, how a firm behaves, the quality of its decision making, how it performs and delivers services, and the very essence of the products it produces all depend upon the intellectual capital of the organization and how it is manifested. Hence, if employees engage in unethical behavior, to think that the firm will somehow be unaffected is naïve.

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In the past, business intelligence (BI) simply meant software designed to enable organizations to understand their business. Today it has evolved to become a term describing how organizations use and analyze information to make decisions and manage performance. It has moved from an application used on a limited project basis to multiple applications that can be utilized not just at a departmental or company-wide level but across an organization’s entire business network. BI technology is now much easier to use. Gone are the slow and archaic systems. Today’s BI tools are sophisticated and user-friendly, enabling companies to improve the way they do business; supporting top business goals, attracting and retaining new customers and creating new products and services. So it is no wonder that business intelligence is the number one technology priority for CIOs, according to a survey released by Gartner in January this year.

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More and more companies are learning the hard way that business intelligence (BI) business requirements are a different breed of cat. After paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees for generic BI requirements, or after spending months and months generating traditional report requirements and functional specifications, major companies in many different industries have discovered that these approaches suffer from three primary deficiencies: 1) They don’t provide the basis for a compelling business case that business leaders buy into – one that clearly articulates how business intelligence will be used within specific business processes to improve business performance.

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Six Sigma business intelligence (BI) is a customer-focused, measurement-based approach to improving business intelligence. Six Sigma refers to a better and smarter way of managing business. Six Sigma means putting the customer first and striving for a product that is near perfection. Six Sigma principles have been used in the business world for years and have produced significant and frequently amazing results. In the late 1990s, Jack Welch at GE demonstrated just how successful Six Sigma can be. From 1996 to 1998, GE went from costs of $200 million and returns of $150 million to costs of $400 million and returns of more than $1 billion. Jack Welch was a Six Sigma convert who led his company in changing the way they did business. From his unique position, he transformed his company by focusing on customer needs and working smarter using Six Sigma principles and processes. Despite continued success in the business arena, Six Sigma principles and methods have not been freely translated over into information technology. Business intelligence is an excellent place to begin and the time is now.

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