Combine data & acumen to fill information gaps: Creating the kinds of data that financial executives most need and can apply for decision-making is more than a smart operational move. It's a roadmap to enterprise achievement.

• Author: Rohrecker, Kathleen
• Position: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

When cliches become part of our shared language, it often signals a mature, well-understood concept. Yet the cliches surrounding the use of business intelligence(BI) leave many people feeling as if they have missed out on some universal understanding of how exactly to use data to improve performance.

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"You have to close the information gaps." "Get everyone on the same page." "You need to put better information in the hands of decision-makers." Such cliches leave many financial executives wondering what others know that they don't; how to close the information gaps, what page everyone is reading and which information needs to be put in the hands of decision-makers.

The 2010 Gartner-FERF Technology Issues for Financial Executives survey further highlights the problem. The study offers a comprehensive view of financial executives' opinions about how technology facilitates better management and which technology-related challenges remain.

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Findings from this research--FERF's 12th annual survey--have consistently shown that financial executives believe that in spite of investments that have been made in technology, their organization does not have the information it needs to analyze its operation and drive financial performance. According to the report, among the specific top 10 challenges resulting from technology constraints within the financial organization are:

* Measuring product and customer profitability;

* Seeing an enterprise-wide view of business relationships;

* Monitoring business performance; and

* Facilitating analysis and decision-making.

Additional research by arcplan Inc., a business intelligence (BI) solutions provider, finds that information fails organizations for two primary reasons: Relevance and quality. It's key that information provided for decision-makers must be relevant to the fundamental way that the company does business and makes money. It must show cause and effect relationships. Information quality is rated as poor if it is not complete, accurate and timely. When people perceive these shortcomings, they will not use the information provided for decision-making and financial performance suffers.

Additionally, there are three fundamental types of information gaps. They can be personal, team-based or interdepartmental, and some BI tools do a better job than others in closing all three types of gaps for decision makers. (See chart above.)

The following details examples of...