inbound logistics>operations>outbound logistics>marketing and sales>service

The idea is to use these activities so that the value of the service to customers is greater than the cost of producing that service (generating a profit).

I will send you my white paper and you can see how I try to explain the BI value chain. I think we are on the same page. I think we and others starting to break thru historical limitations that prevented us from fulfilling the IT promise.

I’m not 100% happy (big deal) with your diagram, but I see where you’re going.

I don’t have a suggestion to replace the title Executive Assitant, because (as I understand your explanation) I think the system itself fills that role.

I first made this diagram around a year back, and yes I haven’t been too happy with the nomenclature myself at a few places. I’ll be grateful if you (and others) can help me come up with better names for some of these.

I used the term value chain primarily to emphasise that Analytics should not be done in the amorphous ‘feel-good-hence-doing-it’ way its done in a lot of places, without a strategic direction and without demonstrable value.

I was trying to drive home the need for an analytics shop (either an internal Center of Excellence, or an external vendor) to always keep an eye on the value being created, and to use this value creation as an input for prioritization.

Within the analytics shop, I also wanted to visualise the incremental value-add as the raw data gradually gets transformed into actionable decisions along the process.

I would also need help in coming up with a better name for what I have called the “Executive Assistant”, the role that bridges the analytics shop with the top management and weaves the analytics results into a coherent picture with actionable recommendations. It’s a little ill-defined role in today’s groups, usually falling between desks. I thought of calling it a “Business Analyst” among other things, and would request you all to suggest a better name there as well.

I have been preparing another post to provide the context for the diagram, to explain what it means, and to seek ideas on the naming. But I guess we can have some of that discussion here itself now that you have beat me to it.

I am looking forward to feedback and suggestions from all of you, and would love to incorporate your thoughts in future posts.

Have a nice day ahead!