Master's Thesis - The Role of Business Intelligence (BI) in Enhancing the Competitive Advantages of...

8/3/2019 Master's Thesis - The Role of Business Intelligence (BI) in Enhancing the Competitive Advantages of Organizations

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ARABIAN GULF UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF GRADUATE

STUDIES

TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

PROGRAMME

The Role of Business Intelligence (BI) in Enhancing the Competitive

Advantages of Organization

(Case Study: Batelco Company)

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MASTER‟S

DEGREE IN

TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

(Specializing in Business)

SUBMITTED BY

Ali Mohd Abbas Kamali

B.Sc. Business Information System – Bahrain University -2007

SUPERVISED BY

KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

December 2009 (A.D.) Ze Heja 1430 (A.H.)

Dr. Yas Alsltanny

Associate Professor -Technology

Management Program

Arabian Gulf University

Dr. Hafez Al-Motawa

Assistant Professor -Technology

Management Program

Arabian Gulf University



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ABSTRACT

Most of the decision-makers in large organizations use information technology in their

systems in order to improve work performance and increase the level of profitability in

the organizations. Additionally, information technology is used to create competitive

advantages that distinguish their organization from others in the application of

technology, but the problems in many organizations that they do not gain full advantage

of the value of systems and data in making decisions as well as in the evaluation of

future market risks in view of the complexity of existing systems and the variety and

abundance of information stored in a number of databases of different kinds. Intelligent

business (BI) systems emerged as the volatility of the balance of the technical solution

and give a unique model to optimize the use of data in making appropriate decisions.

In this research the focus is on Bahrain telecommunications company (Batelco) in the

evaluation of business intelligent systems and their impact on the company's

competitive advantage. Batelco was chosen based on several reasons including: It is one

of the leading companies in the area of bringing new technologies to run its business,and the company is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the region and

faces competition from other telecommunications companies at home after the

government of Bahrain changed the market strategy and led them to compete Batelco in

order to give customers more choices.

The thesis evaluates how Batelco applying the BI concepts and applications within its

business framework and the impacts of BI on the company‟s performance especially

since the competition allowed in the telecom market in Bahrain in order to assess the

extent of knowledge on business intelligence in the company. The survey was

conducted and included three main tiers through questionnaires that relevant to each

tier. The groups included senior management, users, including managers of departments

and finally some of the staff specialists in the Information Systems who deal with the

technical aspect of BI.

Another assessment conducted in this research to know how the existing systems work

and how they could meet the mission and vision of the company. The evolution over



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the knowledge systems being run assessed in the case study by asking the specialists

and staff that contributed in organizational developing projects, they described the

whole main steps that conducted by the company to develop its knowledge systems in

order to meet the challenges throughout the past years. Furthermore, the SAP system

that is used in the finance was selected to be assessed and evaluated to know the extent

of the system to bring the improvements to the company compared to its predecessor

and legacy systems. The Balanced Scorecard is used as a tool to assess the SAP system

because such the tool concentrates on the mission and vision that the company expects

to achieve.



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DEDICATION

I dedicate this work to my father and mother.



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ACKNOWLADGMENT

My study at AGU was much more than study or come to school and take a course, and

do exam and pass the course. It was a learning process, knowledge development, and

life experience. There are many people were, at various times at this faculty from

teachers, administration staff, IT professionals, and librarians that had different

participations in different levels, either direct or indirect, in helping me to develop my

work in the best I could, where without them I couldn‟t manage to finish my study in

this master program. I gratefully acknowledge their contribution, influence and support.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation and great respect to my supervisor, Dr.

Yas Al-Sultany for his honesty and respect, and useful and faithful guidance in

developing this master thesis. As a matter of fact, the work with Dr.Yas is a new

academic professional work and life experience, which is more than a supervision and

knowledge development.

I would like to acknowledge my supervisor in the collage, Dr. Hafedh Al-Mutawa.

I am so grateful to all the administration staff of AGU and my collage Technology in

particularly especially to Mrs Maheen Al-Bastaki for her honesty and respect,

professional way of work and friendly guidance, where she always tries to make things

simple and much clear and easier.

I would also like to thank all of my colleagues during 2.5 years spent with them at the

university and specially my friend A.Rahman Gharama who was so generous in his

support at various stages of my study.



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Table of Contents

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. i

DEDICATION ........................................................................................................... iii

ACKNOWLADGMENT ............................................................................................iv

Table of Contents ........................................................................................................ v

LIST OF TABLES .....................................................................................................ix

LIST OF FIGURES....................................................................................................xi

LIST OF ABBREVIATION.................................................................................... xiii

Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................. 1

1.1 Overview ............................................................................................................. 1

1.2 Problem Statement ............................................................................................... 2

1.3 How does BI work ............................................................................................... 2

1.4 Research Significance .......................................................................................... 3

1.4.1 Scope............................................................................................................. 4

1.5 Objectives ............................................................................................................ 4

1.6 Research Methodology ......................................................................................... 5

1.7 Limitations ........................................................................................................... 6

1.8 Thesis Outline ...................................................................................................... 6

Chapter 2: Literature Review ..................................................................................... 8

2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 8

2.2 Defining Intelligence ............................................................................................ 9

2.3 Business Intelligence .......................................................................................... 12

2.3.1 Business Intelligence Concepts .................................................................... 12

2.3.2 More definitions of BI ................................................................................. 16

2.3.3 Evolving of Business Intelligence ................................................................ 17



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2.3.4 BI Functions ................................................................................................ 18

2.4 The Competitiveness Concept ............................................................................ 18

2.4.1. Competitiveness and Productivity Growth .................................................. 19

2.4.2 Competitiveness and Performance ............................................................... 20

2.4.3 Competitive Advantages .............................................................................. 20

2.5 Business Intelligence and Information Technology ............................................ 22

2.5.1 Data Warehouse .......................................................................................... 23

2.5.2 Data Warehouse Design Concept ................................................................. 23

2.5.4 BI Tools ...................................................................................................... 24

2.6 Telecommunications .......................................................................................... 26

Chapter 3: Research Methodology ........................................................................... 27

3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 27

3.2 Execution of Data Gathering, Theoretical Part ................................................... 27

3.3 Choosing of the Method ..................................................................................... 27

3.4 Preliminary Preparations .................................................................................... 28

3.5 Research Method ............................................................................................... 29

3.5.1 Steps in Case Study ..................................................................................... 29

3.6 Research Phases ................................................................................................. 30

3.6.1 Research Questions...................................................................................... 31

3.6.2 Hypotheses .................................................................................................. 31

3.6.3 Units of Analysis ......................................................................................... 32

3.6.4 Constructs.................................................................................................... 32

3.7 Measuring the Value of BI in Batelco................................................................. 32

Chapter 4: State of the Art: Business Intelligence in Batelco .................................. 34

4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 34

4.2 Overview of Batelco .......................................................................................... 34



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4.3 Business Intelligence Practitioners in Batelco. .................................................... 35

4.4 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 47

Chapter 5: Competitive Advantage at Batelco ......................................................... 49

5.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 49

5.2 Bahrain Telecommunication‟s Market................................................................ 49

5.2.1 Changes Affected Bahrain Telecommunication Market ............................... 50

5.3 Business Strategy at Batelco .............................................................................. 51

5.3.1 Local Strategy ............................................................................................. 51

5.3.3 International Strategy................................................................................... 54

5.4 Batelco Performance after Telecom Liberalization ............................................. 55

5.4.1 Products and Services .................................................................................. 56

5.4.2 Profit ........................................................................................................... 64

5.4.3 Employees ............................................................................................. 65

5.4.4 Equity .......................................................................................................... 67

5.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 68

Chapter 6: Analysis of Business Intelligence at Batelco........................................... 70

6.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 70

6.2 BI and KM Data Collection by Interview ........................................................... 70

6.2.1 Organizational Transformation .................................................................... 76

6.3 Evaluation Models ............................................................................................. 77

6.3.1 Evaluation of the Current State of BI at Batelco ........................................... 77

6.3.2 BI value using the SAP System Based on the Balanced Scorecard Tool ....... 83

6.4 Evaluating SAP system within Inventory Management ...................................... 84

6.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 87

Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Work................................................................ 89

7.1 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 89



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7.2 Recommendations .............................................................................................. 91

7.3 Future Work ....................................................................................................... 92

REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 93

APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................ 99

APPENDIX B .......................................................................................................... 102

APPENDIX C .......................................................................................................... 103

APPENDIX D .......................................................................................................... 105

ا أ............................................................................................................................



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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Different views on business Intelligence ..................................................... 16

Table 4.1: Sample profile ............................................................................................ 36

Table 4.2: Respondents distribution according to Q2 ................................................... 38








Table 4.10: Respondents distribution according to Q9 ................................................. 47

Table 5.1: Major tariff deduction by Batelco ............................................................... 52

Table 5.2: Distinguished services and products provided by Batelco............................ 53

Table 5.3: Batelco‟s overseas groups ........................................................................... 54

Table 5.4: Batelco‟s mobile and subscribers data ......................................................... 56

Table 5.5: Batelco‟s fixed lines data ........................................................................... 58

Table 5.6: Batelco‟s internet revenue and subscribers .................................................. 60

Table 5.7: Batelco‟s DC data ....................................................................................... 62

Table 5.8: Batelco‟s profits data .................................................................................. 64

Table 5.9: Batelco‟s human resource data .................................................................... 66

Table 5.10: Batelco‟s equity data................................................................................ 67

Table 6.1: Phases of organizational changes at Batelco ................................................ 76

Table 6.2: The selected population for the survey ........................................................ 78

Table 6.3: Batelco‟s users from different business units ............................................... 78

Table 6.4 Batelco‟s BI Systems that used by Business units ........................................ 79



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Table 6.5: The SLT-related survey in Batelco .............................................................. 80

Table 6.7: The IT-related survey in Batelco ................................................................. 82

Table 6.8: Average by levels ...................................................................................... 82

Table 6.9: Basic flow of strategic area within the balanced scorecard .......................... 84

Table 6.10: Balanced scorecard Financial prospective in materials management .......... 85

Table 6.11: Balanced scorecard customer prospective in materials management .......... 85

Table 6.12: Balanced scorecard learning and growth prospective ................................. 86

Table 6.13: Balanced scorecard process prospective .................................................... 87



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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: The information hierarchy ......................................................................... 11

Figure 2.2: BI Cycle by the novintel‟s process............................................................. 14

Figure 2. 3: BI cycle by thomas group Inc ................................................................... 15

Figure 2. 4: The microsoft BI cycle ............................................................................. 16

Figure 2. 5: 40 Years of business intelligence development paradigm .......................... 17

Figure 2.6 : Graphical representation of porters five forces .......................................... 21

Figure 2. 7: The pyramid of BI .................................................................................... 22

Figure 2. 8: The roadmap of data warehouse................................................................ 24

Figure 4.1: Respondents distribution according to Q1 ................................................. 37

Figure 4. 2: Respondents distribution according to Q2 ................................................. 38

Figure 4. 3: Respondents distribution of Q3 ................................................................. 39



Figure 4.6: Respondents distribution according to Q5 .................................................. 43

Figure 4.7: Respondents distribution according to Q6 ................................................. 44



Figure 4. 10: Respondents distribution according to Q9 ............................................... 47

Figure 5.1: Market Share of mobile telephony ............................................................. 51

Figure 5.2: Competitive forces in business................................................................... 51

Figure 5.3: Competitive force used by Batelco ............................................................ 52

Figure 5.4: Batelco‟s business indicators for analysis .................................................. 55

Figure 5.5: Revenue over mobile service in Batelco .................................................... 57

Figure 5.6: Mobile subscribers in Batelco .................................................................... 57



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Figure 5.7: Regression line of mobile service and subscribers in Batelco ..................... 58

Figure 5. 8: Revenue over fixed line ............................................................................ 59

Figure 5.9: Subscibers of fixed line in Batelco ............................................................ 59

Figure 5. 10: Regression line between fixed line and subscribers in Batelco ................ 60

Figure 5.11: Revenue of internet in Batelco ................................................................. 61

Figure 5.12: Subscribers of Internet in Batelco ............................................................ 61

Figure 5.14: Revenue on data communication in Batelco ............................................. 63

Figure 5.15: Regression among five years of data communication in Batelco ............. 64

Figure 5.16: Batelco‟s profits ...................................................................................... 65

Figure 5.17: Regression line among the trend of profits in Batelco .............................. 65

Figure 5. 18 Batelco‟s employees ................................................................................ 66

Figure 5. 19: Regression line among the trend of employees in Batelco ....................... 67

Figure 5.20: Batelco‟s equity ....................................................................................... 68

Figure 5. 21: Regression line among the trend of equity in Batelco .............................. 68

Figure 6. 1: The evolution of BI at Batelco .................................................................. 72

Figure 6. 2: Balanced Scorecard view of measurement of BI at Batelco. ...................... 83



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LIST OF ABBREVIATION

2G/3G 2nd

Generation / 3rd

Generation

AGU Arabian Gulf University

Batelco Bahrain telecommunications company

BI Business Intelligence

BIS Business Information System

BISC Business Intelligence Steering Committee

BSC Balanced SCorecard

C&W Cable & Wireless

CEO Chief Executive Officer

CI Competitive Intelligence

CIO Chief Information Officer

CRM Customer Relationship Management

DSESR Decision Support and Enterprise Systems Research

DSS Decision Support System

E.Mail Electronic Mail

EBITDA Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization

E-Commerce Electronic Commerce

EIS Executive Information Systems

ERP Enterprise Resource Planning

ExRP Excess Resource Program

ETL Extracted Transformed and Loaded

FASMI Fast Analysis of Shared Multidimensional Information

GCC Gulf Cooperation Council

GDP Gross Domestic Product



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GSM Global System Mobile

HR Human Resource

HRM Human Resource Management

HRMS Human Resource Management System

ROI Return on Investment

ICT Information Communication Technology

IDD International Direct Dial

IP Internet Protocol

IS Information System

ISO International Standardization Organization

ISP Internet Service Provider

IPVPN Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network

IT Information Technology

KM Knowledge Management

KPI Key Performance Indicator

MENA Middle East & North Africa

MFP Multi-Factor Productivity

MPLS Multiprotocol Label Switching

NGN New Generation Network

OD Organizational Development

OI Operation Intelligence

OLAP On Line Analytical Processing

PMC Project Management Committee

PMR Performance Management Review

SAP Systems Applications and Products

SBU Senior Business Units



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SCIP Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals

SCM Supply Chain Management

SLT Senior Level Team

SCM Supply Chain Management

SMS Short Message System

TRA Telecom Regulatory Authority

TBMS Transaction Business Management System

USD United State Dollar

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol



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Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Overview

Under the trend of global competition, most medium and large businesses are now

required to contend with local and foreign competitors. The companies need more

compelling and complex decision support system mechanism to react such competition.

The business intelligence system can make an early detection of environmental changes,

a quick response to these changes, and the information provided by this system can help

corporate managers to understand the past, present and the future of their company.

Business Intelligence (BI) can be seen as an umbrella that covers a whole range of

concepts. BI can be approached roughly as being a Data Warehouse, with three layers

on top of it: Queries and Reports, OnLine Analytical Processing and Data Mining.

Authors and companies adopt this ordering widely. However, other orderings exist as

well, with the result that some contradict each other. This is simply because the

boundaries between the different components are very vague (www.whatis.com)

Today, the organizations‟ business environment is becoming more complex and

changes faster than ever before. This generates pressures on the organizations andforces them to respond quickly. To be able to respond to these pressures in an

appropriate manner, organizations have to make quick, operational, managerial, and

strategic decisions, which can be of a very complex nature and may require timely and

relevant information, data, and knowledge (Turban et al., 2007). To be able to improve

processes and create additional business value, organizations have started to realize the

value of existing information. As a result of the increasing demand, the number of BI

vendors and tools has increased substantially in the past years. Using analytical tools

and data warehousing, BI is extracting and analyzing relevant information and making

it accessible to the right member as a support in decision making processes. In this

process, data is gathered from different systems, which leads to large amounts of

organizational data. To support decision makers in their decision making process to

make more informed decisions this data needs to be analyzed, distributed, and accessed

by the right person, at the right time (Turban et al. 2007).

The number of implementations and organizations using BI has increased since 2006.

BI‟s major benefit is the ability to access relevant decision support when it is needed.



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Based on this, it would be interesting to see how decision support and decision-making

have changed in organizations after implementing a BI system (Miller and Reinke,

2007).

• How performing business through BI?

• How has decision support changed after a BI implementation?

• How has BI changed the way organizations make decisions?

• How to make business process faster if BI used?

• How it affect on business performance and profits in the organization?

1.2 Problem StatementSince 2004, Bahrain telecommunication company (Batelco) has been trying to improve

the whole business aspects within the organization in order to maintain its superiority in

the market.

One of the most business aspects that has been focused on by the board and senior level

management team of Batelco is to improve and enhance the whole process within the

business units in the organization. Launching advanced technology such as knowledge

and business intelligence systems was considered the first priority for enhancing theorganization in different business levels.

This study shows the impact of BI in enhancing the competitive advantages of

organizations in general and in Batelco as particular. The study will cover the

organization‟s performance since 2004, the year of liberalizing the telecom market by

the government of Bahrain. Furthermore, the impact of BI on Batelco‟s business, as the

main topic of this study, will be analyzed to show how the company is gaining benefit

from BI throughout all business levels and the advantages that are expected to generate

for the company.

1.3 How does BI work

Business intelligence (BI) is a broad category of applications and techniques for

gathering, storing, analyzing and providing access to data. It help‟s enterprise users

make better business and strategic decisions. Major applications include the activities of

query and reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), decision support system(DSS), data mining, forecasting and statistical analysis (Nelson, 2007).



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Business Intelligence (BI) delivers on a simple promise: to improve business

performance by driving had better decision-making throughout the organization. When

you are confident that your insight into corporate data is sound, informed, and complete,

you can trust that all your decisions will help you create competitive advantage and

achieve corporate objectives. To reach BI potential, it must have the flexibility and

functionality to extend from the individual through the team to the organization. BI

must also be responsive to the different needs of people in the organization and take into

account all the information- structured and unstructured, you use to make decisions

(www.Microsoft.com).

BI can deliver Decision Solutions through three key steps:• Provide quality data.

• Gain deeper insight and facilitate better decision making.

• Align decisions with corporate goals.

1.4 Research Significance

The purpose of this master thesis is to understand the BI as a concept and to indentify

the most advantages of BI in enhancing the competitive advantages in organisations and

Batelco in particular. The study will analyse the organisation‟s performance and link it

with BI in order to come out with the impact of Business Intelligence on how to be used

for enhancing performance in the organisation, and Batelco will be the case which going

to be focused in this thesis.

When the thinking about the idea goes to management theories: what kind of leading

changing theories does the BI-based company use and how have they used these in

overall? How does this strategy fit to the structure of the company? Obviously, the mostimportant issue in this master thesis is to explain and understand how organizations deal

with business using the BI concepts as a means for better changes.

The term strategies reveal changes, improvements and enhancements in the company. It

can be small changes or big changes. Therefore, the company such Batelco was

selected because of its continuous improvements and developments beside advanced

technology that always considered by its Management. Batelco has an existing BI

environment, which means that BI features already installed all information systems

currently being used, so the study in this research will concentrate on how the company

http://www.microsoft.com/




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is adapting this new technology and to how extent helps to achieve the company‟s

goals.

The thesis can be used as a guideline for other organizations to apply BI in theirbusiness using Batelco as a benchmark and good example.

1.4.1 Scope

The chosen topics are useful and related to BI, with focus on the competitive advantages

aspect. This study covers different aspects of organizations and special concentration

will be on the competitive advantages side, and Bahrain telecommunications company

(Batelco) is the selected case.

Most of information of the selected company are taken from the company annual

reports along with some key users who interviewed through both structured and

unstructured method to get some information that are not printed in the company‟s

annual report or through their web site.

1.5 Objectives

The main objective is:

To measure and evaluate whether Batelco runs its business on the base of BI, taking its

business performance, views of different management levels and using some models as

the base for the finding results. The sub-objectives are:

i. Determine the factors that affect Batelco to stay competitive in the current

telecommunication competition market, especially in the current local and

globalization environment.

ii. Determine the best methods that help to apply BI in full business activities.

iii. Business performance will focus on the following business indicators :

1. Revenues of products and services

2. Profits

3. Number of customers

4. Total equity

5. No of employees

6. Mobile subscriptions



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1.6 Research Methodology

The methodology used in this study to achieve the objectives as follows:

Exploratory study

i. Review the studies and researches relating to BI concepts.

ii. Identify the most effective points play the core in making BI-based organization.

iii. Review business performance of the selected organization.

Research variables ( will be used to analyze the business performance of the

selected organization during last consecutive five years i.e. the time of changing the

telecom market from monopoly to an open market)

The following variables will be considered:

i. Profit

ii. Mobile subscriptions

iii. Revenues of products and services

iv. Number of lines

v. Internet subscriptions

Descriptive Study

i. Describe the factors and conditions that lead to making the BI-based environment.

ii. Describe the impact of BI on the organization business performance.

iii. Describe the steps and initiatives that were taken by the company to enhance the

knowledge management and business intelligence within the organization.

iv. Indicate the effects of BI in the competition market taking in mind all factors

already mentioned.

v. Analyze in details the business performance of Batelco the strategic methods that

the organization is following to expand and catch other telecom market in the

Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Data Collection Methods

i. By literature survey.

ii. By Questionnaires with some key users, managers and top managers in the selected

organization.



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iii. By a small workshop with key staff who contributed in projects related to

knowledge management in Batelco, using both questionnaires and interviews.

iv. Through data collections from the company‟s annual reports.

1.7 Limitations

Only one company was chosen as a case study, and the selected company will be

analyzed and studied in terms of its business performance and the BI tools that being

used in the organization. Most information is mainly secondary data taken from the

company‟s annual reports. Not all details could be reached because of privacy.

1.8 Thesis OutlineThe thesis divided into seven chapters:

Chapter 1 which is an introduction and overview of the problem as a whole and the

effects of Business Intelligence on organizations and Batelco in particular, as well as

problem discussion, introduction on BI, research significant, the objectives of this

study, importance of the study and Limitat ion of the study.

Chapter 2, is for the literature review, included information about the major concepts in

the study, business intelligence, competitiveness and its related topics such as

Competitive Intelligence (CI), Operation Intelligence (OI), competitive advantages and

described at the end the telecommunications technology since the selected company

runs its business in the telecommunications field. The chapter covered in details all

topics related to this study.

Chapter 3 Covered the Research methodology. Clearly mentioned what methodology

used in this research to achieve the required data, how it could be achieved and the tools

that used to analyze the required data.

Chapter 4 Covered the state of the art of BI in Batelco. Give the overall picture on how

BI and its main elements are used within current business processes in the company.

Chapter 5 Covered the competitive strategy of Batelco business. Focused on the

business performance within the last five consecutive years in Batelco, using the data

obtained through their annual reports and website, and evaluate the results to figure out

and discover the relation between BI and the achieved results.



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Chapter 6 Covered the case study of BI at Batelco. Moreover, two models were used in

this research to evaluate the different aspects of BI. First model focused on a survey

amongst the core three management levels (Top management, Managers and Users, IT

People), in order to measure the effectiveness of BI on the company‟s busin ess and

process. Another model used in the chapter is to measure the impact of BI on Batelco‟s

vision using the balanced scorecard tool which leads to judge and measure whether the

BI is meeting its intended purpose.

Chapter 7 Covered the conclusion, recommendations and future work.



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Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 IntroductionThe significance of information as a strategic resource has been emphasized during the

last ten years. Comprehensive and timely information is crucial, e.g. in generating new

products and improving business operations. In addition, information plays a central

role in operative and strategic decision-making. On the other hand, all the existing

information cannot be observed or verbalized, quite apart from how well it can be

understood, and thus, organizations have to make decisions without perfect information.

Therefore, a competitive edge is gained through the ability to anticipate raw data, to turn

it into information, to craft it into knowledge relevant to the business environment and

to actually utilize intelligence gained from it.

Business intelligence plays a central role in producing up-to-date information for

operative and strategic decision-making. In this thesis, the business intelligence concept

is understood as an organized and systematic process by which organizations acquire,

analyze and disseminate information significant for their business activities and hence

business enhancement. However, the term can refer to processes, techniques or tools to

support the making of faster and better decisions. In any case, by utilization of business

intelligence, organizations learn to anticipate the actions of their customers and

competitors as well as different phenomena and trends in their market areas and fields

of activity. In addition to external information, organizations have to take advantage

efficiently of existing information and knowledge inside organizations (Barnes and

Hunt, 2001).

There has been no commonly shared conception regarding what business intelligence is;

on the contrary each author has promoted his or her own idea of its connotations. Also

business intelligence terms and practices have not yet become very well established, and

several different terms are employed for the concept. In the real world, business

intelligence is often used to refer to both information technology based systems and

actual business information management processes (Tyson, 1986).

In this chapter the chosen theoretical literature related to all aspects of BI are explained.



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To begin this chapter, first the definition for the word intelligence is studied, following

and sequentially to define the BI and its related topics. The information were arranged

into a harmonic structure, one topic leads to the other. The chapter highlights the major

concepts of the study and illustrates the outcomes of the literatures revised, going

through Intelligence, Business Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence, Competitiveness

and Telecommunications Technology since the selected company runs its business in

the telecom field.

2.2 Defining Intelligence

Intelligence is the most vital term used in this study beside the performance, and needs

to be defined. It needs to be understood both according to what it consists of and how itis achieved. In the age of information we are bombarded with data and it is more and

more difficult to distinguish information. Information leads eventually to knowledge

and understanding. The term „information anxiety‟, coined by Wurman, (2001) has an

interesting background. Wurman considers information anxiety to be a black hole

between data and knowledge. It is the ground between what we understand and what we

think we should understand. Intelligence is analyzed or processed information. At the

same time it is more than mere information; its relevance and meaning within thedecision-making process have been realized.

Fuld (1991) stated that „understanding the difference between intelligence and

information is essential to success. Companies that do not understand the difference do

not receive intelligence but instead a flood of data and information.

According to Hastedt (1991) no precise and generally agreed upon definition of

intelligence exists. Scholars also tend to give definitions with multiple meanings. Thiscan be confusing and lead to several interpretations of intelligence and what it should be

capable of.

Moreover, under the concept knowledge Hastedt (1991) defined knowledge as what is

needed to be known and could be used. Under activity he makes provision for the

activities that are needed to produce an intelligence product.

Kahaner (1996) defined intelligence in the following way: „Information has been

filtered, distilled, and analyzed‟. It has been turned into something that can be acted



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upon. The definition highlights all the various characteristics in BI activities and the

intelligence process.

Calof (1997) wrote about the big difference between data and intelligence. He includesthe saying that „until information is analyzed and actionable recommendations are

drawn out, you do not have intelligence‟.

Huseman and Goodman (1998) provided an amusing and yet a very descriptive analogy

of the difference between information and knowledge: „The difference between

information and knowledge is like the nutritional difference between bon-bons and

broccoli‟.

Abrams (1998) argued for a Data-Information-Knowledge -continuum, where the data

flows along the continuum and eventually is transformed /processed into knowledge. He

links behavior (action) and decision- making to this continuum and these can be seen as

a supporting pillar for decision-making.

Shaker et al.(1998) defined intelligence as „a compilation and analysis of data and

information provided by any and every source, human or otherwise, that has foresight

and can render an insightful picture of intentions, capabilities, or activities, as well as

their possible implications and consequences. All of these sources agree that any person

or electronic or printed items can possess information, which can be used. The

definition clearly puts a lot of emphasis on understanding the meaning of the

information you posses or have acquired. They provided a model of an information

hierarchy, which they arrange in the shape of a pyramid as shown in Figure (2.1).



11

Figure 1: Figure 2.1: The information hierarchy

In addition to differences between information and knowledge, Hamrefors (1999) wrote

in his article that there is also a difference between sharing information and sharing

knowledge. When the organization process the information received from customers

and interpret it to the meaningful process in this way increase the value of the

information.

Barclay and Kaye, (2000) defined, the essence of intelligence begins with

environmental scanning activities, also known as surveillance. The essence of this

process is a transformation of data, information and knowledge into intelligence as a

final product. Therefore, and as a result, intelligence must not be confused with

information.

Warner (2004) in that” (he has) to wonder if the difficulty in doing so resides more in

the slipperiness of the tools than in the poor skills of the craftsmen or the complexity of the topic”. He went on to state that almost each new scholar in the field of intelligence

aims to develop a compelling theory of intelligence.

It is possible to see intelligence as an activity including actions such as collection and

analysis, which is used for decision-making, which follows a specific process and is

linked to a specific organization. Furthermore, the definition of intelligence is well

known through the above quotes and it‟s in brief the processed information, that the

Intelligence – Information,

which is actionable and has

Information – Analyzed data,

value-added

Data – Public and published,

quantities in nature



12

organization can work through it to achieve its next steps. i.e. have knowledge means

you know what you want to achieve goals in the next step. (Pirolli, Lee and Card, 2004).

2.3 Business Intelligence

There are different basic terms that used for business intelligence (BI), Competitive

Intelligence (CI) and Operation Intelligence (OI). There is a slight difference between

BI verses CI and OI.

Gelb and Zinkhan (1985) related competitive intelligence with the term competitiveness

in the business context. West (2000) defined Competitive Intelligence (CI) as a part of

Business Intelligence, mentioned when BI is linked with competitiveness and how

organizations can manage through using the BI concepts.

Regarding operations intelligence (OI) is platform aggregates, relates, and presents

operational and business data in real-time. It does so in a manner that is intuitive and

useful for every individual who plays a role in delivering business results. It can be

applied initially to an individual site, and evolved to include all sites, divisions, regions,

and the overall enterprise. (Gilad and Gilad, 1986).

Mahesh (2004) referred OI as an important class of information technology that enables

better decision-making and improved business performance based on the ready

availability of real-time status and performance metrics throughout the organization.

The term business intelligence will be used throughout this research to emphasis on its

role in overall of business activities, and to keep on the same terminology that is used as

the title of this thesis.

2.3.1 Business Intelligence Concepts

Business intelligence has many forms. It can be said that it consists of many different

smaller components but at the same time it can be said that these smaller components

are totally different forms of business intelligence, which can be practiced as a separate

discipline. Different forms of business intelligence include: strategic intelligence,

competitor intelligence, market intelligence, customer intelligence, etc. (Hannula and

Pirttimaki, 2003).



13

Business intelligence as a term is broader and more comprehensive than other terms

being used such as competitive intelligence (CI). Nonetheless, both terms basically

consist of the same things (Diwitt, 1997).

Since 2005 the discipline has entered yet another stage of development. Business

intelligence is more seen as a motor for innovation. Risk and possibility analysis have

replaced fact and prognosis (Lonnqvist and Pirttimaki, 2006). Here are some findings

from the study, which shows the latest trends in business Intelligence:

The analysis is becoming more central. Other companies are planning to add

resources to the BI.

The BI is becoming more systematic.

The management is more and more supportive of BI activity.

Efficiency and integration are of particular focus. To integrate the BI more closely

with business is a priority in development plans.

The BI is taking a strategic lead in everything from information gathering to business

advantage and innovation.

The effective management and leverage of data represent both the greatest opportunityand the most difficult challenge for most enterprises. Chief Information Officer (CIO)

survey done by Gartner (2006) showed BI as their highest rating technology issue; as

they focus on projects that enable users to positively affect financial and business

performance. BI is a set of concepts, methods, and processes to improve business

decisions, which use information from multiple sources and apply experience and

assumptions to develop an accurate understanding of business dynamics. Gartner (2006)

added that its concept is to integrate the analysis of data with decision support system toprovide information to people throughout the organization in order to improve strategic

and tactical decisions.

Buytendijk (2001) concentrated on BI according on its profitable aspect for the

organizations and reported that, based on a study from 2001 to 2006, enterprises that

apply BI had achieved two to three times return of investment more than those who do

not.



14

Davis (2002) defined another concept of BI that related to competitive advantages in the

industry. That concept helps the industry to develop intelligent decision support systems

to gain the competitive advantage. It has been applied to many areas that are related to

the enterprise management process, and some of them have formed their own systems

with specific characteristics. Typical application scopes include: ERP (Enterprise

Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), HRM (Human

Resource Management), SCM (Supply Chain Management) and SAP (System

Application and Products) (Xie , 2001). Keith (2002) defined business intelligence according to its built concept as a fast

technology and becoming a strategic differentiator for today‟s leading organizations. Inhis own definition he mentioned “BI has evolved during the past three years from a

niche, departmentally focused solution to a strategic enterprise asset.”

2.3.1.1 Business Intelligence Cycles

This is a result and work of an international company specializing in providing BI and

competitive intelligence services and products. The Novintel‟s process (Viva Business

Intelligence Inc., 1998) consists of eight phases: Need Analysis, Observing and

Monitoring, Collecting Information, Structuring and Elimination, Analysis,

Communication, Storing, and Utilization and Feedback as shown in Figure (2.2).

2 : Figure 2.2: BI Cycle by The Novintel‟s process

Storing

Structuring and

Elimination

Analysis

Communications

Need Analysis

Collecting

Information

Observing and

Monitoring

Utilization

and Feedback



15

This BI cycle stresses, in particular, the importance in Observing and Monitoring

possible information sources, so that correct data sources may be identified for

uncovering the true knowledge of the „„needs‟‟ in the first phase. The second emphasis

is the preprocessing of raw data through structuring and elimination, which is to ensure

data validity and soundness, so that meaningful analysis can be carried out with

statistical methods.

Thomas Group Inc., a strategic intelligence consulting company in US, developed a

slightly different version of BI as shown in Figure (2.3), cycle with six phases: Planning

and Direction, Data Collection, Information Processing and Storage, Analysis and

Production, Dissemination, and Intelligence Users and Decision makers(Thomas, 2001).

gure 3 : Figure 2. 3: BI Cycle by Thomas Group Inc

One feature of this process is the emphasis of the „„needs‟‟ driven cycle. The „„needs‟‟

are the alternative expressions of business objectives. The second feature of this process

is the Dissemination phase, where the emphasis is to interpret results of analysis in

terms of business contexts, so that knowledge insights may be revealed. The revealed

knowledge must be further translated into clear and understandable business policies/

operations, and it should be distributed, through the application of IT technologies, to a

wide range of management levels/positions for implementation.

Intelligence

Users and

Decision

Planning and

Direction

Dissemination

Analysis and

Production

Information

Processing

and Storage

Data

Collection



16

Microsoft‟s process is perhaps the simplest BI process ever presented (Vitt, 2002).

Microsoft defines a BI cycle as a progression from Analysis to Insight to Action and

finally to Measurement as shown in Figure (2.4).

igure 4 : Figure 2. 4: The Microsoft BI cycle

2.3.2 More definitions of BI

Table 2.1, shows more reviews of existing definitions of Business Intelligence quoted

by various authors.

Table 1:Table 2.1:Different views on Business Intelligence

Quotes Authors

BI is the processes, technologies, and tools needed to turn data intoinformation, information into knowledge and knowledge into plans thatdrive profitable business action. BI encompasses data warehousing,

business analytics tools and content/knowledge management‟.

Rouach andSanti (2001)

BI is involves the use of data from internal and external sources to feed apowerful suite of analytical tools in order to discover strengths andweaknesses within an organization as well as opportunities and threats inthe organization‟s environment.

Hoelscher(2002)

BI is a solution suite that integrates data from multiple enterprise sourcesand transforms it into key insights that enable executives, managers, andfront-line employees to take actions that lead to dramatic improvements inbusiness performance.

Siebel (2005)

BI is the process for increasing the competitive advantage of a company byintelligent use of available data in decision-making.

Bergerou(2005)

BI is a concept of applying a set of technologies to turn data intomeaningful information. With Business Intelligence Applications, largeamounts of data originating in many different formats (spreadsheets,relationship databases, web logs) can be consolidated and presented to keybusiness analysts.., and armed with timely, intelligent information that iseasily understood, and the business analyst is enabled to affect change anddevelop strategies to drive higher profits.

Chang, Dillionand Hussain

(2006)

BI is the conscious methodical transformation of data from all sources intonew forms to provide information that is business driven and resultsoriented.

Biere (2008)

Measurement Analysis

InsightAction

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



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2.3.3 Evolving of Business Intelligence

The diagram in Figure (2.5) is the view of the almost 40 years (i.e. 1970 to 2010) of

Business Intelligence development as defined by Gordon (1989). He defined that the

notion of Business Intelligence has evolved over the last thirty years and is likely to

evolve further.

Time

Business

Intelligence40 Years of Business Intelligence Technologies and Applications

DatabasesInventory ControlCustomer ServiceAccount Managementetc

Business ModellingWorkflow ManagementProcess ControlQuality StandardsSLA (Service LevelAgreement)DBMS, UIMS, etc

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Data WarehouseSupply Chain ManagemtDecision Support SystemsCRM (CustomerRelationship Management)ERP (Enterprise ResourcePlanning)KPI (key performanceIndex),e-Commerceetc.

Data MiningRecommendation Sys

Document HandlingInformation ExchangeKnowledge Disc/SharingOLAP (On-line analytical proc.)JIT Services and Track & TraceInter-OP MiddlewareIntelligent Multi-agentsSecurity &Privacyetc

Trustworthiness SystemsReputation SystemsSemantic Web and OntologyDigital eco-systems and TechQuality Assessment SysRisk Management sysDoc & Text miningWeb Services and GridsAutonomous Agents

etc

BI through organization internal data BI through organization external data

Figure 5 : Figure 2. 5: 40 Years of Business Intelligence Development Paradigm

Business Intelligence is largely focused on the ideas of Data Mining, Recommender

systems and Knowledge Discovery Techniques. These represent very important aspects

of Business Intelligence.

Once their new dimensions of interactions and knowledge is added, the Business

Intelligence now and in the future will include amongst other things, Trust and

Reputation systems, Knowledge Sharing, Ontologies and Ontology based search

engines and internal and external holistic risk management. This is illustrated by the

projected notions of Business Intelligence given in Figure (2.5).



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2.3.4 BI Functions

Hugh, Watson and Winter (2006) defined that the overall intent and function of business

intelligence is to deliver analyzed information to clients so that they can make better

decisions either in their daily work to improve business performance and in strategic

level to enhance the organization‟s competitiveness.

The main energy for BI to function properly and gives the expected results is the

Information used within it. Information can be divided in different ways. There are

basically two kinds of information available within any organization: internal and

external information. Internal information covers all kinds of internal documents

(strategy documents, internal reports, development reports, product line introductions,etc.), internal communication on the intranet, the knowledge base of the company

(knowledge management systems), and tacit knowledge. External information refers to

information from the business environment and it includes the whole range of

information from the media and oral information to the key groups and their informants

(competitors, clients, subcontractors, retailers, manufacturers, etc.) (Biere, 2003).

In addition to official information, there are also unofficial information that can obtain

through conversations in lunchrooms, at trade fairs or informal get-togethers, and face-

to-face discussions with key persons. It must be strongly emphasized that industrial

espionage is not in accordance with ethical intelligence work (Duffy, 2000).

Business intelligence can also be divided into systematic and unsystematic intelligence.

Systematic intelligence means that it is a structured and an official and established part

of a company‟s functions. Unsystematic intelligence takes place everywhere in daily

functions and is often communicated orally or through other unofficial (Moss, 2003).

Anneli Pirttilä (2000) writes that studies have shown that the efforts engaged for

systematic intelligence gathering do not correlate well with the meaning it has for a

manager. The amount of unofficial and unsystematic intelligence is much lower but it

can be much more valuable to a manager.

2.4 The Competitiveness Concept

Another aspect investigated in the research is the firm‟s competitiveness. Porter (1990)

defined competitiveness as at the national level and it‟s based on superior productivity



19

performance and the economy‟s ability to shift output to high productivity activities

which in turn can generate high levels of real wages.

Kitzmantel (1995) defined competitiveness like any other human quality that everybodystrives for but is difficult to define and even more difficult to achieve.

Another view of competitiveness in some organization‟s perspective is the ability to

persuade customers to choose their offerings over alternatives, while others view

competitiveness as the ability to improve continuously process capabilities (Rainer and

Kazem, 1994).

Boltho (1996) and Frohlich (1989) defined competitiveness as technological leadershipor growth rate.

The World Economic Forum, for instance, defines a country‟s competitiveness as “the

ability of a national economy to achieve sustained rates of economic growth as

measured by the annual changes in per capita Gross Domestic product (GDP)” ”

(OECD, 2001).

Little (2004) defined competitiveness (from a company‟s perspective) as its ability toprovide products and services more effectively and efficiently than relevant

competitors.

Rusu (2003) added in a majority of discussions and studies on the subject of

competitiveness, the typical approach appears to be focused around the various factors

and goals used to measure competitiveness instead of defining the actual concept itself.

2.4.1. Competitiveness and Productivity Growth

Enterprises are competitive when they can achieve sustainable growth in both labour

and multi-factor productivity that enable them to beat the costs per unit of output, and

the non-cost characteristics, of other firms (IDABC, 2005). The institute added that this

is true both on the domestic and on the international level. Productivity is commonly

defined as a ratio of a volume measure of output to a volume measure of input use. The

most common measure used to compare productivity level and growth between

countries is labour productivity, defined as output per unit of labour input – most oftenmeasured in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per man-hour. However, labour



20

productivity growth provides only part of the picture and may actually be misleading.

Competitiveness is determined by productivity growth; a competitive economy is one

that experiences high and sustained productivity growth leading to an increase in

standards of living.

2.4.2 Competitiveness and Performance

Improving competitiveness through performance-measurement systems: An integrated

performance-measurement system can improve competitiveness by meshing the

organization's long-term goals with its day-to-day clinical and administrative functions.

If performance is high the organization then increases their competitiveness in the

market and means they are the right track to their set goals. In the last years,

performance management is a hot topic for organizations. To stay in business they have

to do their work excellently (Nash, 1983). Nash added that traditional performance

management focused mainly on financial measures. It is easy to compare financial numbers, but

also non-financial measures are important. The non-financial measures contribute over time

to the financial numbers.

2.4.3 Competitive Advantages

In the global context, this means that countries should identify and develop some

sources of competitiveness in one or a few areas of economic activities. However Porter

believes that competitiveness is an industry specific phenomenon (Porter, 1990).

Leidner (1995) determined the success of competitive advantage through skilled labor,

communication infrastructure and local raw material source, along with customer‟s

expectation about the product that should be assessed too.

Porter (1980) came with new views on the same model and stressed the company to

face a threat from the buyer as the buyers in the market can act as a vital force. When

the customers are few in number and switching to another company‟s product are easy

for them, and then the customers are considered to be powerful. In this situation the

company is always under the threat of buyer‟s specified price and also the possibility of

buyer switching to another company. When the company is supposed to design their

product according to suppliers demand as the suppliers output is unique then the

suppliers are considered to be powerful. If number of suppliers is large, then the



21

suppliers become weak as the company have more option. Low switching cost can be

one more reason for the supplier to be weak and vice versa.

Porter‟s (1998) defined five forces model which has the ability to determine thecompetitiveness of a market for the organizations. The collective strength of five major

forces determines the ultimate profit potential of an industry. But whatever the

collective strength is, the strategy should be formulated in such way that the company

can defend itself against these forces or influence them in its favor.

Porter‟s five forces are, (See Figure 2.6):

1. Barriers of Entry

2. Bargaining Power of customer

3. Bargaining Power of Supplier

4. Available substitutes

5. Level of existing rivalries

Figure 6 : Figure 2.6 : Graphical Representation of Porters Five Forces

. Storper (1997) emphasized that while entering in a market, it is important to assess the

barriers that could create some hinders during the entry. Low entry barriers create high

competition in the market and vice versa. If the existing companies have already created

a unique brand positioning, then that could be a great barrier for new comers as it will

force the new entrant to invest heavily to establish new brand image over the old ones.



22

2.5 Business Intelligence and Information Technology

Business intelligence is highly supported by Information System and tools. The effects

that the Information System (IS) and Information Technology (IT) use have on BI are

prominently highlighted in the literature. Huber (1990) proposed that the use of

computer assisted information storage and acquisition technologies leads to

organizational intelligence that is more accurate, comprehensive, timely and available.

In addition Leidner and Elam (1995) suggest that the use of executive information

systems (EIS) is positively associated with faster problem identification. According to

Hashmi (2004) the systemization of BI is achieved through the use of facts and fact-

based systems, such as executive information systems, decision support systems,

enterprise information systems, management support systems, on line Analytical

Processing (OLAP), and newer technologies such as data mining, data visualization, and

geographical information systems.

Business Intelligence (BI) can be seen as an umbrella that covers a whole range of

concepts. BI can be approached roughly as being a Data Warehouse, with three layers

on top of it: Queries and Reports, OnLine Analytical Processing and Data Mining (see

Figure 2.7). Authors and companies adopt this ordering widely. However, other

orderings exist as well, with the result that some contradict each other. This is simply

because the boundaries between the different components are very vague (Lewis, 2001).

Figure 7 : Figure 2. 7: The pyramid of BI

A Data Warehouse consists of one or more copies of transaction and/or non-transaction

data that have been transformed in such a way that they are suitable for querying,

Data Warehouse

F r e u e n c & #

u s e r s

C o m

l e x i t &

B

u s . P o t e n t i a lData Mining

OLAP

Queries &

Reports



23

reporting and other data analysis. It forms the basis “on top of which” further analyses

can be carried out. Figure (2.7) showed that the first level of analysis is querying and

reporting. Query means using a computer language to obtain immediate, online answers

to user questions. A level higher is Online Analytical Processing (OLAP). This

technology allows users to carry out complex data analyses with the help of a quick and

interactive access to the information in data warehouses from different viewpoints. The

top layer is Data Mining. A simple definition is: analyzing and finding patterns in large

amounts of data in order to support decision making and predict future behavior. In the

area of Data Mining especially concepts like Customer Profiling will stay popular,

because in the end it will always be rewarding to keep on knowing who your most

profitable customers are (Lewis, 2001).

The information and knowledge that is “dug up” by data mining can also be used to

provide information about a web site and its visitors: Web Mining. When engaged in e-

commerce activities it is the „invisible‟ and „not-straightforward‟ information that is

most valuable, information hidden in the gigabytes of data generated each day that

describe actions made by every visitor to the site (Laudon and Laudon, 2000).

With BI-tools it is possible to carry out analyses and reports on virtually all thinkable

aspects of the underlying business, as long as the data about this business come in large

amounts and are stored in a Data Warehouse. Departments that are known to benefit

most from Business Intelligence are (Database) Marketing, Sales, Finance, ICT

(especially the Web) and the higher Management (Kimball, 2000).

2.5.1 Data Warehouse

Data warehouse is a collection of data, from a variety of sources, organized to provide

useful guidance to an organization's decision makers and business intelligence entails

the gathering of data from internal and external data sources, as well as the storing and

analysis thereof to make it measurable, so as to assist and sustain more efficient and

longitudinal decision-making (Kimball, 2002).

2.5.2 Data Warehouse Design Concept

Figure (2.8) is the roadmap for the design of this data warehouse and is based on the

data warehouse approach by Kimball and Ross (2002). Data that already exists within



24

information system sources are extracted , transformed and loaded (ETL) into a data

warehouse that consists out of one or more data marts. From this data warehouse ad hoc

queries and longitudinal business measures can be drawn as needed.

Figure 8 : Figure 2. 8: The roadmap of data warehouse

Source: Loudon, (2007)

A data mart is a small scaled-down version of a data warehouse designed for a strategic

business unit (SBU) or a department. Since they contain less information than the data

warehouse they provide more rapid response and are more easily navigated than

enterprise-wide data warehouses (Dyche, 2000).

A data mart is “a subset of an organization data warehouse that is usually orientated to a

specific purpose of major data subject.” (McFadden, Hoffer and Prescott, 1999).

According to the EDUCAUSE, Higher Education data warehouse directory (Heise,

2007). Higher Education institutions typically draw data from data marts such as

Alumni, Prospective students, modules and facilities.

2.5.4 BI Tools

It is important to move across the different BI tools since they are the key to implement

the BI concept in the organization. In this section the key general categories of business

intelligence tools are; (Lönnqvist and Pirttimäki, 2006).

MS Excel

This is the most common tool used everywhere from personal data storing and

classification to a basic organizational tool. Excel sheets are easy to maintain,send through mail and primarily used to display data.



25

Reporting Tools

It‟s categorized as custom-built reporting tools and commercial reporting tools.

The general purposes are to create, schedule, maintain and run reports. Business

operation reporting is the common application in this category.

OLAP Online Analytical Processing tools are used by more complex conditions when

the quantity of data is very high and analyzing manually is difficult. These

include Hybrid OLAP, Relational OLAP and Multidimensional OLAP and

supports in analyzing data in many dimensions.

Data Mining Tools

These are used to extract data like information about consumer by special

software that can show some unique pattern or trends in a large amount of data.

Classification and clustering are commonly used data mining tools.

2.5.4.1 Enterprise Application Integration tools

These are used to consolidate and organizing various data, analyzing

methodology, querying for enhancing business performance. Query tools are

software that describes a particular pattern and gives details in the data.

The above tools are embedded in the latest ERP information systems and used by many

organizations and Batelco is one of them:

SAP: The original name for SAP was German: Systeme, Anwendungen,

Produkte, German for "Systems Applications and Products." The original SAP

idea was to provide customers with the ability to interact with a commoncorporate database for a comprehensive range of applications.

CRM: customer relationship management is an information industry term for

methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise

manage customer relationships in an organized way

SCM: supply chain management is the process of planning, implementing, and

controlling the operations of the supply chain as efficiently as possible. SupplyChain Management spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-



26

process inventory, and finished goods from point-of-origin to point-of-

consumption.

Oracle: Oracle is made up of a set of processes running in operating system.

These processes manage how data is stored and how it is accessed.

2.6 Telecommunications

The study will focus on Batelco, and it is specialist in the telecommunications field

which is known as the fastest to keep pace with evolving technology. According to

Newton (1998), the term “telecommunications” is defined as “the art and science of

„communicating‟ over a distance by telephone, telegraph and radio.” It is “the

transmission, reception and the switching of signals, such as electrical or optical, by

wire, fiber, or electromagnetic (i.e. through-the-air) means” .

“Telecommunications is like communications, except that it involves communicating

electronically across distances (generally over telephone lines) without any changes

occurring to the original message. All forms of information may be sent electronically:

voice, text, data, graphics, and video” (O‟Neil and Everett, 1988).

Another definition is given to “telecommunications technology” as “the electronic

communication of information over distance” (Mitchell, Hendricks and Sterry 1993).

The telecommunications is broadly defined as “the process by which information gets

transferred electronically from one place to another” (Kooker and Brey, 1991).

The word telecommunication is a combination of tele, the Greek word for far or remote

and the Latin word communicare, which means to inform someone or exchange

information. Telecommunication describes the process of exchanging Information over

a long distance without a physical medium such as a letter. Based on this definition,

telecommunication started with smoke signals (visual telecommunication) and drums

(audio telecommunication), (www.answers.com/topic/telecommunication).



27

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

3.1 IntroductionIn this chapter the research methods and the actual research process of the study are

explained in detail. This thesis is mainly an investigation of business intelligence (BI)

awareness within Bahrain Telecommunication Company (Batelco) and how it is

applied. This study is of both qualitative and quantitative kinds using collected data to

measure and analyze the BI‟s environment within Batelco. The thesis is included both

primary data with personal interviews as well as secondary data such as Internet and

Batelco‟s reports to get information on its business activities and performance. Both

inductive and deductive theory methods are attempted in this research.

3.2 Execution of Data Gathering, Theoretical Part

An extensive data- gathering project was started over months, when the subject of the

thesis was beginning to take form. Numerous sources have been used to gather articles,

books, papers and studies related to the study. The searches at AGU have mostly

concentrated on the university databases, the Arabian Gulf University, and through its

database systems. At the University‟s Database various external references, full text and

books have been used, including ebscohost and Proquest database web sites.

Literatures were gathered using the library catalogues of AGU. Moreover, the Internet

was used several times as a search tool. Frequently used search engines were Google

and the clustering engine, “Clusty”. A lot of information gathering took place according

to the „snowball‟ method, meaning that a lot of good sources were always found from

the reference lists of particular articles. In addition to that and in order to collect

required information from the selected company, using trusted sources that issued from

the company itself and contain rich information such as annual reports, which cover

all financial and non-financial events over the company.

3.3 Choosing of the Method

Studies are usually either quantitative or qualitative in nature or a mixture of both. As is

realized, quantitative means amounts and numbers and qualitative means quality and

character (Repstad, 1988). Because the nature of this study was to study how the



28

situation is going on in Batelco, and to measure and analyze the results quoted from

their official reports and both structured and non structured interviews that conducted to

reach to some set results. Moreover, such kind of study requires hearing opinions from

the experts about the issues related to the topic from their own perspective. In order to

go deeper to understand the qualifications to act as an information or intelligence

professional it was realized which way the study needs to go, it was not desired to ask

these circumstances from a larger number of participants and go with a quantitative

study but it was desired to find out what these respondents think specially who are in

decision taking positions. One of the aims of this study was to look into different

aspects of BI and to conduct a survey to come out with a result on how the BI system

being used in the company and how the employees are dealing with it. Also, a model of

BI was selected to indicate how the intelligent function is used, and the SAP system

through its logistic part was selected to experiment such the model.

3.4 Preliminary Preparations

The empirical part of the study was performed by obtaining Batelco business results

from their annual reports and the website in previous five years in order to analyze and

study the results to come out with a conclusion over the business‟s results, especiallyafter transferring the telecom market to a competitive market. Furthermore, the results

will be used to test the effect of Business Intelligence systems used to maintain and

enhance the business outcomes, and measure the impacts on the company‟s growth and

profits.

Through using the mentioned methods it could be judged whether the company is

running and gaining benefits from business intelligence and then its intended purposes

especially in terms of business enhancement and improvements.

Both structured and non-structured questionnaires along with some models used to

measure the BI within Batelco, the details of the survey are explained in this chapter.

However, a small workshop was conducted which involved some key persons to explain

how the company handed initiatives on knowledge systems, and used interviews face to

face to reach to the information that needed for the case study. Beside that the

questionnaire method used to reach to the company‟s perspective regarding BI used in

different management levels and they divided according to the research questions. The



29

questions were slightly different for IT in charges than for the staff in operation and

senior level team. The source of questions quoted from Monhash University, one of

university that specialist in BI blog.

3.5 Research Method

Case study analysis on Batelco is chosen as a method for this research. Because the

research included both exploratory and descriptive, this is the most suitable method

according to Yin (2003). The second reason for selecting Batelco as a case study is to

measure how the company could keep and boost its competitive advantage using BI

features even after the changes made to the telecom market in the kingdom of Bahrain.

3.5.1 Steps in Case Study

The steps taken while conducting a case study are:.

(a) Preparation for Data Collection

There are three steps should be prepared before collect the data in case studies. Those

steps are:

i. Prior skill of investigators.

ii. Develop a case study protocol.

iii. Conduct a study case.

(b) Data Collection Technique

Six sources of data collection used for this case study:

i. Documentation.

ii. Workshop

iii. Archival records.

iv. Internet, interviews.v. Direct observations.

vi. Participant-observation.

In order to apply high-quality case study three principles of data collection were used:

• Multiple sources of evidence (Experts people)

• A case study based on the evidence

• Maintained a chain of evidence.



30

(c) Analyzing Case Study Evidence

This last step used to analyze the case study and is a core part to reach to the requiredinformation.

(d) Composing the Case Study Report

The reporting of the case study takes written or oral forms. The steps followed in the

compositional process:

i. Identifying the audience for report,

ii. Developing the compositional structure,

iii. Following certain procedures.

3.6 Research Phases

Four main phases followed in the research:

i. Design

ii. Data Collection

iii. Analysis

iv. Reporting

The Design and Data Collection phases were started immediately after the idea and

proposal of the thesis was approved. The main axis of the thesis to collect data about

business intelligence and latest studies conducted over it, and then to obtain how BI is

dealt with at Batelco prior to evaluate the current BI environment in the company.

Also, analysis on business performance in Batelco during last five consecutive years are

presented in chapter five to evaluate, to how extent the BI affects on the company‟sbusiness progress.

The design of the research consists of four components:

• Research questions

• Propositions (hypothesis)

• Unit of analysis

• Logic linking of the data to the propositions (constructs)



31

The following subsections discuss each component:

3.6.1 Research QuestionsThe questions are concentrated in Business activities and Business intelligence aspects

as detail in the following part:

1. What is the definitions and state of art in Business Intelligence?

2. What is the meaning of Intelligence?

3. Relation between BI and Competitiveness?

4. What is Competitive Intelligence (CI)?

5.

What values can Business intelligence add to organization?6. How can Telecommunications organizations be defined and classified?

7. What does mean by telecommunication and its primary process in organizations

look like?

8. How is the state of the art of Business Intelligence in Batelco?

9. What does the case of Business Intelligence systems in telecommunications look

like? ( Batelco Case )

10. Do the results of the last five consecutive years on Batelco‟s performance reflect

growth of the company?

11. Does Batelco implement BI concepts properly in its current business?

12. Does Batelco need to catch experience from others regarding BI?

13. Which Business Intelligence tools are used in Batelco?

14. What is the Business Intelligence maturity of telecommunications organizations

and in Batelco?

15. How Business Intelligence enhance Competitive Intelligence in organizations

and Batelco in particular?

16. To what extent is Business Intelligence used in telecom industry?

17. To what extent will trends in the current telecom industry influence the business

intelligence maturity and use?

3.6.2 Hypotheses

There are some core hypotheses for this research, these are:



32

H1: Business Intelligence is playing an important role to enhance business of Batelco

and then to increase its competitive advantage?

H2: Business Intelligence mostly used by top level rather than used in tactics and

operation.

H3: Business Intelligence is mainly used for reports and analyses.

H4: The changes in the telecom market did not change on Batelco business

performance.

H5: Batelco is already running its business within the BI environment.

3.6.3 Units of Analysis

The research was done in Batelco as a telecom operator. The analysis will focus on

departments that BI should be considered crucial for their duties.

To get a good case study of the organizations, it is necessary to speak with the right

people. Therefore both structured and unstructured questions set for the senior level

team (SLT) members, IT-employee, Mangers and end users.

3.6.4 Constructs

In order to analyze the interviews and questionnaires in a constructive way constructs

are set up. A construct is a dimension of BI and knowledge in general within the

organization. Also different levels and measurements to determine the levels are linked

to the construct. After the analysis phase with the constructs these constructs are

combined to see relationships between them.

In this guideline one can see that the voice of the SLT members, Managers and IT-

employee count more than the voice of the end users. This can be explained by the fact

that the SLT members, managers and IT-employee look from a wider perspective than

end users. Of course sometimes the end users will be right; in that case the level is

determined on basis of the statements of the end users. When this situation occurs, it is

mentioned and a reasonable explanation, based on valid arguments, is given.

3.7 Measuring the Value of BI in Batelco

The value of BI at Batelco was covered in chapter six, it is necessary to consider the

concept of value. Namely, the first question is: Value for whom? The perceived value



33

varies depending on the subjective appreciation and need of the person to whom the

question is addressed. In this thesis, value is viewed from the point of view of an

organization using BI (e.g. enhancing its competitive advantages, improving business

performance and improving profits.etc) or the user ( employee) of the intelligence

(perceived usefulness).

In addition to the questionnaire model that is used to measure state of the art of business

intelligence, the balanced scorecard method is also considered a valuable method that

can be used to identify and measure the factors that related to the company‟s vision, at

the same time, it defines the components to be used to determine performance.

• First, performance measures are chosen based on the organization‟s vision andstrategy.

• Second, success factors are chosen from several perspectives (e.g. Figures indicate the

Business performance) in order to provide a balanced and holistic view of the

organization and other factors contributing to its success.

• Third, measurement is focused on a limited number of critical success factors.

• Fourth, the measurement system is designed in such a way that there are causal

relationships between the success factors.

• Fifth, the measurement system can be used as a tool in communicating and

implementing strategy.



34

Chapter 4: State of the Art: Business Intelligence in Batelco

4.1 Introduction

The state of the art of Business Intelligence at Batelco designed to provide a better

understanding of how Business intelligence practitioners of Batelco are working in the

field of the company‟s business today. Over time the results of this survey will provide

a basis for understanding trends, changes, and consistency in business intelligence

practice at Batelco.

This chapter will help us to come out with initial pictures on the overall business

intelligence at Batelco, and to develop an understanding of how business intelligence

supports the organizational environment and business activities of Batelco.

4.2 Overview of Batelco

Bahrain telecommunications company (Batelco) was established in 1981 as a

shareholding company and is 37 percent government-owned. Cable & Wireless (C&W)

of the U.K. owns 20 percent and the remaining 43 percent is held by investors on the

Bahrain Stock Exchange. Batelco has an authorized paid-up capital of USD 265 million.

Annual profit growth averaged 16 percent, reaching USD 127.6 million in 1999. C&W

has supplied much of the organization‟s current management. Batelco has equity in the

International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Intelsat), which provides

telecommunications services between countries across the world, and participated in the

SEA-ME-WE international fiber optic cable project linking Asian countries with Europe

via the Middle East. Batelco also provides Internet service in Saudi Arabia

(www.batelco.com).

The company serves both the corporate, consumer markets in the most liberalized, and

competitive environment in the Middle East, and remains committed to delivering

cutting-edge telecommunications to its customers in Bahrain and the Middle East North

Africa (MENA) region. The Company‟s management and staff are driven by an

enthusiasm for delivering the best customer experience based on innovation,affordability and reliability of products and services.



35

Batelco‟s specialized services cover the full spectrum of telecommunications solutions

for residential and business customers and span a comprehensive range of mobile

services, international roaming, high-speed Internet connections, satellite services,

WiFi, MPLS IP-VPN network provisioning and management, Datacoms services over

fixed, wireless and internet platforms, managed services, systems integration and

enterprise solutions.

Batelco used to be the only telecom company in the kingdom for several years and thus

was able to dominate on the market as a unique monopolist. Furthermore, the company

is now seemed a fully Bahrain-based shareholding company engaged in providing

telecommunications and information solutions. The Company caters individual andcorporate customers through its home, mobile and business products and services. It

offers its services through two divisions: Personal and Business. Its Personal services

include mobile services, which offer pay as you go, messaging and other related

services; fixed services, which offers national and international telephony services,

calling cards, and other related services. The Business division offers such products as

data services; Internet services, which includes Internet access, messaging, and E-

commerce & Hosting, and mobile services geared towards business users, which offers

pay as you go, messaging and other services (www.ameinfo.com).

4.3 Business Intelligence Practitioners in Batelco.

Business Intelligence is a relatively small functions funded and supported in varying

degree by other departments throughout the organization. BI can be located in different

parts of the business, but often operates either as a separate BI or business intelligence

department, or part of marketing or market research.

Most BI units support several types of business activities, using an assortment of

competitive intelligence tools and techniques, and supply intelligence to multiple levels

of management through a variety of BI deliverables. Moving forward through

identifying the current trends and best practice of business intelligence, processes,

technologies and resources, it will help to reach to the level of BI maturity through the

practitioner‟s response in the company.

The survey conducted among BI practitioners who are seemed most experienced withbusiness intelligence in Batelco. Furthermore, a structured questionnaire was conducted



36

using the online survey tool with twelve practitioners (with one reject) working in 4

main business units, the participants that took part in this survey is shown in Table

(4.1). The sample was selected based on their experience with BI and they are the most

individuals who use BI in the company. The suggested questions, names and positions

of the respondents are mentioned in Appendix A.

The questions concentrated on the following main BI points which are suggested by the

Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) (www.scip.org).

i. Time spent on BI

ii. Primary BI functions

iii. Business Activities supported by BI

iv. BI Primary and Secondary Sources

v. BI dissemination and deliverables

vi. BI delivery methods

vii. Technologies used to support BI activities

viii. Changes that improve BI activities over the next years

ix. Methods used to assess BI effectiveness

Table 2 : Table 4.1 : Sample Profile Business Units Sample Size Sample Proportions

Marketing 3 25%

Sales 3 25%

Logistic 3 25%

IT 3 25%

Total 12 100%

The following are the key findings achieved through the survey:

The answer for the question one is open end, but for the remaining questions is fixed.

http://www.scip.org/





37

Q1: How many hours do you spend on BI in your day to day jobs? (Open Answer)

The time spent by each selected business unit on BI in Business Intelligence is a part-

time function according to the most respondents of the survey that was applied in

Batelco as shown in Figure (4.1).

Fi 9 : Figure 4.1: Respondents distribution according to Q1

The results indicated that the Marketing unit spends 75% of their working times on BI

for research and analysis over customers, markets and products and services. The Sales

unit came in the second rank by spending 44% of their times on BI, and its use mainly

concentrated on customers‟ statistics and reports. The time spent by IT unit is 25%, and

BI in IT department is used for internal reports and as data mining. Logistic spend only

25% of their time on BI, and the reporting feature is the major element of BI used both

logistic and IT.

Q2: What are the primary functions of business intelligence used by your

department?

Answer selections:

• Data Mining

• Reports

• Analytical

•

Alerts

Hours of

works

Business

Units



38

Business Intelligence is most often a stand-alone department in Batelco in order to

provide the BI-related services to other departments. However, most business units

using it as a major part for their daily business function. In the survey, four main BI

functions were given to the selected sample to select the one that is the most used by

their department, so that to reach to the ranking level between them. Data mining,

Reports, Analytical tool and Alerts are the main BI functions used in most business

units and the result that was reached is shown in both Table (4.2) and Figure (4.2).

Table

Table 3: Table 4.2 : Respondents distribution according to Q2 BI Primary Functions Responses Responses in Percentage

Analytical 5 42%

Reports 4 33%

Data Mining 2 17%

Alerts 1 8%

Total 12 100%

Figure 10 : Figure 4. 2: Respondents distribution according to Q2

The result showed the analytical function take highest rank, where five of them think

that Analytical function is the main function that needed for their role and this

represented 42%. Four of them think that reports that are generated through BI is the

most important intelligent element for their role and it represents 33%. Two of the

participants think that the data mining function is the most important which represents

17%. Only one thinks that the Alert function is the most important and represents 8%.



39

Q3: What are the main business activities that are supported by BI in your

department?

Answer selections:

• Business Decision

• Forecasting

• Business Development

• Others business Activities

Business Intelligence is used to support different business activities in order to achieve

its intended and final goals. BI supports four main activities in each department as

shown in Table (4.3) and Figure (4.3).

Table 4 Table 4.3: Respondents distribution according to Q3

Business Activity Responses Responses in Percentage

Business Decision 6 50%

Forecasting 3 25%

Business Development 2 17%

Other Business Activities 1 8%

Total 12 100%

Figure 11 : Figure 4. 3: Respondents distribution of Q3

Six of participants think that the supporting business decision is the ultimate goal by

using BI in their business activities which represented 50% among other activities.Three of the participants think that they use BI for business forecasting, and this figure



40

represents 25% of the total people contributed in the survey. Two of the participants

use BI for business development and it forms 17%. Only one individual thinks that BI is

used for other activates and it represents 8%.

Q4: Please specify the main primary and secondary sources used for BI in your

department?

Answer selections:

• Customers

• Employee

• Supplier

•

Consultants

Business Intelligence leverages a variety of primary and secondary sources. In the

survey, both primary and secondary sources are important to their BI practitioners.

Different BI primary sources are used by the departments in Batelco as shown in Table

(4.4) and Figure (4.4).

5 Table 4.4: Respondents distribution according to Q4

BI Primary Source Responses Responses in Percentage

Customer 6 50%

Employee 3 25%

Supplier 2 17%

Consultants 1 8%

Total 12 100%



41

Fige 12 : Figure 4. 4: Respondents distribution according to Q4

Customer‟s views are priority as primary source and agreed by half of respondents that

represented 50% of the total primary sources. Employees are also playing a very

important source, 25% of the respondents think it comes in the second rank. Suppliers

came in the third rank by 17%, and mainly it‟s used by logistic department. Consultants

also participated by their views and represented 8% in the survey based on their

expertise in the market.

The respondents to the BI secondary sources that are used by departments in Batelco

distributed as shown in Figure Table (4.5) and (4.5).

6 Table 4.5: Respondents distribution according to Q4

BI Secondary Source Responses Responses in Percentage

Internal Database 6 50%

Publications 3 25%

Web 2 17%

Conference 1 8%

Total 12 100%



42


Six of respondents think that Internal Database takes the main source as secondary BI

source. And consequently, external sources such as publications, Web and Business

conferences represented other secondary sources by 25%, 17% and 8% according to the

respondents.

Q5: The main internal group being addressed by BI through your department?

Answer selections:

• Top Management

• Managers

• Others

Business Intelligence deliverables go to a wide and diverse internal audience. By its

nature BI often contributes to more than one internal group, and the survey applied

indicated the main internal audiences as shown in Table (4.6) and Figure (4.6).

Table 7 Table 4.6: Respondents distribution according to Q5

Internal Group Responses Responses in Percentage

Top management 6 50%

Managers 4 30%

Other Departments 2 20%

Total 12 100%



43

Figure 14 : Figure 4.6: Respondents distribution according to Q5

Top management is the main audience and represents the main target according to 50%

of the total participants. Weekly and monthly reports and analysis quoted through BI are

sent to them for final decisions. Managers came in the second rank by 30%. Reports and

forecasting are the two main elements that are delivered to managers by their

subordinates. Reports sent between departments are represented 20% of BI deliverable.

Q6: What the BI methods used by your department?

Answer selections:

• Email

• Intranet

• Newsletters

The main methods used by Batelco are Email, Intranet and newsletter. The respondents

asked to rank between them to come out with which one is the most used as a means of

BI. The result is shown in Table (4.7) and Figure (4.7).

le 8 Table 4.7: Respondents distribution according to Q6

BI Methods Responses Responses in Percentage

Email 7 58%

Intranet 3 25%

Newsletter 2 17%

Total 12 100%



44

15 Figure 4.7: Respondents distribution according to Q6

E.Mail in Batelco is the most common way to deliver information and analysis. Seven

participants who represent 58% think it‟s the common method used in the company.

The email service is available with different level of staff in the company either through

their desktop and Blackberry. The Intranet service represents 25% as the second method

used. Newsletters that published by each department represented 17%.

Q7: What the software used to support BI in your department?

Answer selections:

• ERP

• CRM

• SCM

• MS Office

A variety of technologies helps collect information and report intelligence. Mosttechnologies on the market today support business intelligence for collecting

information. The survey, as indicated in Table (4.8) and Figure (4.8), shows the main

technologies used by departments in Batelco.



45

e 9 Table 4.8: Respondents distribution according to Q7

BI Software Responses Responses in PercentageERP 4 33%

CRM 4 33%

SCM 2 17%

MS Office 2 17%

Total 12 100%


Enterprise Resource Planning Software (ERP) and Customer Relation management

Software (CRM) came in priority by 33% of the total respondents. The ERP system in

Batelco included the SAP system which runs in the finance unit. The Supply chain

management and MS office (specially excel) represented 17% in the applied survey.

Q8: What methods do your recommend to improve BI in future?

Answer selections:

• Awareness

• Training

• Sharing Information

BI is an ongoing process which means that different methods should be used to improve

it so that to meet its intended purpose. There are three different methods recommended

to improve BI activities as shown in Table (4.9) and Figure (4.9).



46

Table 10Table 4.9: Respondents distribution according to Q8

Methods for BI Improvement Responses Responses in Percentage

Awareness 6 50%

Training 5 42%

Sharing Information 1 8%

Total 12 100%


Half of respondents think that BI can be improved through continuous awareness

sessions. Five of them think that BI can be improved through training, and it represents

42%. Only one participant thinks that sharing information is the way to improve BI, and

it represents 8% of the total percentage.

Q9: What methods do you use to evaluate effectiveness of BI in your department?

Answer selections:

• Meet the company‟s vision

• Cost Saving

• Customer Satisfaction

Many organizations assess the effectiveness and value of their BI activities through

different methods. Batelco is also has its own criteria to assess the effectiveness of the

BI systems, more details on this topic is covered in chapter six. However, a brief



47

indication in this chapter about the main methods that are used to assess BI activities is

shown in Table (4.10) and Figure (4.10).

le 11 Table 4.10: Respondents distribution according to Q9

Methods for BI Evolution Responses Responses in Percentage

Meet the company‟s vision 6 50%

Cost Saving 3 25%

Customer Satisfaction 3 25%

Total 12 100%


There are three different methods used to assess the effectiveness of BI by the selected

departments. Half of participants think that if BI meets the vision of the company it

means that the system met to its intended objectives. Cost saving in departments and

achieving to customers requirements are also the criteria that can be used to assess the

effectiveness of BI, each one represented 25% in the survey according to the

participants‟ thoughts.

4.4 Conclusion

This chapter described the state of the art of business intelligence in Batelco through

concentrating on the most important aspects and functionalities of BI as recommended

by SCIP. The survey applied to the participants who were (14), two of them rejected to

respond on the questionnaires. The participants are working in four departments:

• Marketing



48

• Sales

• Logistic

• IT

The results showed that BI is considered a very important item in running and managing

business activities. The BI is utilized by marketing and sales more than others and this

seems that the BI system is being invested correctly and logically based on its intelligent

options and feature that could be used for analysis and future views.

The questionnaire indicated that marketing takes up more times in the use of

intelligence work by 75% of work time and this indicates the importance of BI in their

role. The survey gave the sign that the BI analytical function is the most function usedby the participants. The questionnaire was also pointed out that BI is used mostly in

Business decision, and most participants believe that the accuracy of decisions could

reach through the business intelligence system. Customers used as the main primary

source whereas internal database is the main secondary BI source in Batelco.

The survey was also pointed out that senior managers are the main internal group that

are addressed through BI, and all analysis and conclusions generated by BI are delivered

to them to take the appropriate decisions for the company. The email is one of the most

important method and means used with BI in Batelco, and most staff in the company

has email both in their desktop and mobile phone. Furthermore, ERP & CRM are

considered the most important software used to support BI in the Batelco.

The awareness sessions was selected as the most important method that may help to

improve the BI future in the firm. Finally, the survey pointed out that the most

important method used to measure the effectiveness of BI in Batelco is its ability to

meet the objectives related to the company's vision.



49

Chapter 5: Competitive Advantage at Batelco

5.1 Introduction

This chapter will analyze the business performance of Batelco, especially after

transferring the telecom industry from Monopoly system to open market from 2004 to

2008. The analysis will cover business activities and achievements during the

competition periods, and hence review the competitive advantage and how the company

could manage its business with the new environment. Moreover, the chapter will focus

on the strategy that Batelco followed in local and overseas market. The chapter includes

empirical data that was quoted from different sources, specially the annual reports

which contained details over all business-related figures.

5.2 Bahrain Telecommunication’s Market

The telecommunications market in the kingdom of Bahrain was gradually deregulated

during the 2000s and formally liberalized in 2004. Being an early starter, the Bahraini

government had to develop a new regulatory framework on its own and established a

formal body that looks after telecom regulatory affairs in the kingdom. The organization

named Telecom Regulatory Authority (www.tra.com).

The Kingdom of Bahrain has embarked upon a process of further liberalization within

several sectors of the economy by ceasing the de facto monopoly by Batelco and creates

a free market environment that will be attractive to new private sector entrants to the

telecommunications sector. The TRA is independent, and responsible to grant and issue

licenses to operate, and use spectrum, through transparent procedures (www.tra.com).

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the Kingdom of Bahrain (TRA

Bahrain) considers that the encouragement of sharing in the telecommunications sector

and the cooperation of market players in this regard is an important regulatory principle.

Such sharing and cooperation could deliver specific benefits which include:

i. Substantial cost savings for the operators involved, potentially resulting in more

extensive development of networks, provision of services at more affordable prices as

well as increasing likelihood of investments in some costly but extremely important

http://www.tra.com/

http://www.tra.com/



50

telecommunications projects, such as international (in particular, submarine) fiber

optic cables;

ii. Faster deployment of networks, in particular when elements of existing infrastructureare used for the deployment of new networks;

iii. Positive environmental (including visual) impact, in particular by reducing the number

of mobile masts and towers;

iv. Reduced disturbance to normal use of roads (including reduced impact to road traffic

and better ability to maintain quality of roads because of less frequent need to open

them) and land of other use, in particular when ducts are shared;

v. Positive impact on town and country planning.

The deployment of new networks, in particular new fiber optic networks requiring

extensive duct infrastructure which is similar to new wireless networks which required

towers and masts. That will increases the need for appropriate commercial and

regulatory strategies to be implemented, which could help to reduce network

deployment costs specially the construction and land use costs which constitute asubstantial proportion of total costs of network build. (www.tra.com).

5.2.1 Changes Affected Bahrain Telecommunication Market

Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco) used to be the only player in the

market until 2004. Most of its shares were owned by the government which got right to

appoint the chairman of board. Batelco had an overwhelmingly dominant market

position from 1981 to 2003, with market shares for domestic nation calls, international

calls, Data and mobile communications at 100 percent respectively. Starting from 2004,

the market share for Mobile phone is getting decrease gradually which is now at 70%,

and the rest 30% is dominating by Zain Telecom, the only competitor in the current

market. The Authority allowed the competitor (Zain) to start its business in Mobile

telephony only since 2004, but recently permitted the company the Internet service as

well. Figure (5.1) is the current market share of Mobile Services which are divided

between Batelco 70% and Zain 30% (www.tra.com).



51

Mobile Market Share

70

30

Batelco

Zain

Figure 19 : Figure 5.1: Market Share of mobile telephony

5.3 Business Strategy at Batelco

This section will cover both local and overseas strategy at Batelco. The focus will be on

latest achievements and developments on the strategy scope over the long-term and

short term.

5.3.1 Local Strategy

Most telecommunications companies in the world follow the strategy that suggested by

Porter (1985), that taking advantage over competitors gained by offering customers

greater value, either by means of lower prices or by providing greater benefits and

service that justifies higher prices.

The two basic types of competitive advantage combined with the scope of activities for

which a firm seeks to achieve them lead to three generic strategies for achieving above-

average performance in an industry: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. The

focus strategy has two variants, cost focus and differentiation focus (See Figure 5.2).

Figure 20 : Figure 5.2: Competitive forces in business

Differentiation

Forces

Differentiation

Cost Focused Cost Leadership

High

Low

Narrow BroadScope of Business Activates

Degree of

Product

differentiation



52

Each of the generic strategies involves a fundamentally different route to competitive

advantage, combining a choice about the type of competitive advantage sought with the

scope of the strategic target in which competitive advantage is to be achieved. The cost

leadership and differentiation strategies seek competitive advantage in a broad range of

industry segments, while focus strategies aim at cost advantage (cost focus) or

differentiation (differentiation focus) in a narrow segment.

In Bahrain‟s telecommunication mark et the current situation falling in “Cost

Leadership” level, especially in Mobile services as indicated in Figure (5.4).

Figure 21 : Figure 5.3: Competitive force used by Batelco

The current competition in Bahrain‟s market falling in mobile services only between

Batelco and Zain, and both companies has broad business activities. However, the

degree of product differentiation is low since both got almost the same technology. The

cost of phone services is continuously getting decreased by Batelco so that to make sure

that their superiority in the market will persist. Table (5.1) shows the major tariff

deductions made by Batelco during 2004 to 2008 as the strategy that being implemented

to keep on its customers and to attract more customers to its service.

Table 12 : Table 5.1: Major Tariff deduction by Batelco Services Rate Deduction

Broadband Business and Education Internetpackages.

50%

Inet Dedicated Access ( IDD) 50%

International Direct Dial call rates to Gulf Cooperation Council countries

Dropped 100 fils - Used tobe 160fils

International Calls 50%

(Source: www.Batelco.com )

Cost

LeadershipLow

Broad

http://www.batelco.com/




53

Batelco could achieve many differentiations in terms of its services and products as

shown in Table (5.2), and such policy helped the company to maintain its position in the

new market.

Te 13 : Table 5.2: Distinguished services and products provided by Batelco Services and Products Features

Voice over Internet Protocol(VOIP)

IDD (International Direct Dial) calls to worldwidedestinations with up to 91% reduction on IDDcharges

„Batelco World Freedom‟ free of charge„3888‟ Range of new mobilenumbers

Choosing a new number through Batelco‟swebsite, free of charge

2G/3G Indoor coveragesolution

Mobile broadband solution capable of throughputsup to 14.4Mbit/s

Enable to make and receivecalls in any part of thecomplex including the carpark.

New Technology that is not provided by othersoperators.

The New GenerationNetwork (NGN) technology.

Transports all information and services (voice,data, and all sorts of media such as video) byencapsulating these into packets, like it is on theInternet.

(Source: www.Batelco.com)

Table (5.2) shows the latest products and services in the telecommunications market:

Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is known as Internet Voice, is a technology that

allows a customer to make a telephone call using a broadband Internet connection,

instead of a regular (or analog) phone line.

Batelco World Freedom used for frequently travelling customers introduced by Batelco

World Freedom, the service that enables customers to receive calls and Short Message

system (SMS) free of charge while roaming in 21 countries.

The generic term for the next generation of mobile communications networks is 2G/3G.

These technologies are commonly described as graceful enhancements to the GSM

cellular standards; the GSM networks are intended to be upgraded to 3G networks

without service interruption. New generation network (NGN) is the transmission of

voice, data, video and any other form of information in packets over the same network.


http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/voice

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/data

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/video

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/information

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/packet

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/network

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/network

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/packet

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/information

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/video

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/data

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/voice




54

5.3.3 International Strategy

Batelco has started its overseas business since 2004 to expand its business out of the

kingdom of Bahrain as a new strategy and to grow overseas. The first time has

establishing a presence outside the country through its investment in Middle East and

North Africa (MENA). Table (5.3) shows the Batelco groups that have been established

along with other relevant details.

Batelco‟s overseas operations contributed 33% of gross revenues and 19% of EBITDA

(Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) in 2008 with all the

overseas operations being profitable and each delivering double digit net profit growth.

While Batelco‟s operation in Bahrain will remain most critical to the Group‟s futuresuccess, its strategy will continue to focus on growth and diversification in new

overseas markets.

Table 14 : Table 5.3: Batelco‟s overseas groups Group Name Location Batelco’s

shares

Services

Umniah Jordan 96% • Managed data services IPVPN-MPLS.

• Data communications links andover 300 Internet leased lines.

• Leading ISP with over 19,000broadband customers.

Qualitynet Kuwait 44% • Provides the DataCommunications and InternetServices industry.

Batelco EgyptCommunications

(S.A.E.)

Egypt 100% • Managed international privatelines service and a global Internetaccess service.

Sabafon Yemen 26% • GSM mobile operator in Yemen

Etihad AtheebTelecom - Saudi

Arabia

SaudiArabia

40% • Wire/Wireless services.• Voice telephone communications.• Data Services.• Internet telephony services.• Broadband Internet via WiMax

technology.• Fixed telephone lines.• Optical fibers to homes and

businesses.• Video services.

(Source: Batelco Annual Report)



55

5.4 Batelco Performance after Telecom Liberalization

In this section the business performance of Batelco is reviewed taking into consideration

the years after transferring the market in the kingdom i.e. 2004 to 2008, and then

evaluated and analyzed the findings according to the new business environment and

whether it will affect on the company‟s business or opposite.

Since Batelco dependents on its business on information systems and business

intelligent in particular, so its performance through this analysis will be a pointer to the

effectiveness of BI in the development and then increase the profits of the company

through the last five consecutive years.

This section divided into two parts; one part is designated for data that were collected

from various sources such as Batelco annual reports, TRA official website and

Batelco‟s Intranet. The second part is formed to analyze the collected data using some

statistical techniques such as bar chart and regression methods to examine the trends in

order to evaluate the result within the last five years based on the statistical methods.

Figure (5.4) shows the Batelco‟s business indicators for analysis:

Figure 22 : Figure 5.4: Batelco‟s business indicators for analysis

The data in this section indicated the business performance of Batelco in the last five

years, the data gathered from the company annual reports and the TRA website.

Linear Regression is used to measure the relationship between two values of variables

to describe the straight line, which is the simplest and most commonly used form.

The formula o linear regression is:

Products and

Services Profits Employee

Equity

Fixed Lines

Internet

Data Comm.

Mobile

Revenue

from

Groups



56

Y = a + bX (in geometry we said Y = mx + b where m was slope and b was y-int).

Where Y is the dependent variable, measured in units of the dependent variable, X is the

independent variable, measured in units of the independent variable, and a and b areconstants defining the nature of the relationship between the variables X and Y.

5.4.1 Products and Services

The following four products and services will be analyzed:

i. Mobile Service

Table (5.4) shows the data related to mobile service and its subscribers during 2004 to

2008. The table also included the percentage changes in both revenue and subscribers in

each year.

Table 15 : 5.4: Batelco‟s mobile and subscribers data Years Revenue

BD’000

Revenue rate of

change

Subscribers Subscriber rate of

change

2004 95375 - 649764 -

2005 98172 3% 76710318%2006 113815 16% 907433 18.3%

2007 149118 31% 1115979 23%

2008 163209 9% 1440782 29%

Data Analysis:

Revenue over mobile service seems increased firmly since 2004 through 2007, but

came down in 2008 according to the change of percentage due to increase in over

standing bills as indicated in Figure (5.5).



57

Figure 23 : Figure 5.5: Revenue over mobile service in Batelco

The situation with Mobile‟s subscribers shows solid increased in number of customers

since 2004 as shown in Figure (5.6), and this due to different facilities that were added

to mobile service and the strategy of tariff reduction that was followed by the company

in recent years.

Figure 24 : Figure 5.6: Mobile subscribers in Batelco

Comparing the revenues gained with the number of subscribers the correlation between

them revealed curving towards the positive trend according to the regression line shown

in Figure (5.7).

Year

Rate of ChangeRevenues

Year

Rate of ChangeSubscribers



58

e 25 : Figure 5.7: Regression line of mobile service and subscribers in Batelco

The differentiation and cost leader strategy that used by Batelco helped the company to

sustainably increase its revenue. As the graph shows that revenues gained from mobile

service is a result of increasing number of subscribers by launching new features to

attract more customers to its service, besides reducing the tariff.

ii. Fixed Line

Fixed line is the line that works through connected cables in both residential and

business premises. Table 5.5 shows the revenues and number of subscribers of the fixed

lines.

Table 16 : Table 5.5: Batelco‟s Fixed Lines Data Years Revenue

BD’000 Revenue rate of

change


change

2004 48656 - 191553 -

2005 52708 9% 193520 1%

2006 44382 -16% 194196 0%

2007 39202 -12% 202469 4%

2008 38833 -1% 206301 2%

Data Analysis:

As shown in Figure (5.8) revenues over fixed line service getting down from 2006 to

2008 and this is because of decreasing in demands on such the service. However,

comparing to the change in percentage the revenues gradually increased and this due to

the reduced costs strategy used since 2006.



59

Figure 26: Figure 5. 8: Revenue over fixed line

Table (5.9) shows the subscribers in term of number from 2004 to 2008. There were

slight changes up and down in term of percentage, while the number is steadily getting

increased since 2006.

Figure 27 : Figure 5.9: Subscibers of fixed line in Batelco

Fixed line service is completely dominating by Batelco and yet its competitor not

allowed selling this service to customers. However, the company faced decreased in its

revenue as already explained because of the costs reducing strategy used since 2006

which resulted a negative in trend as shown in Figure (5.10).

Rate of Change

Year

Revenue

Subscriber

Year

Rate of Change



60

ure 28 : Figure 5. 10: Regression line between fixed line and subscribers in Batelco

iii. Internet

Batelco one of companies that initiated the internet services in the region. Table 5.6

shows both revenues and number of subscribers during 2004 to 2008.

Table 17 : Table 5.6: Batelco‟s Internet Revenue and Subscribers Years Revenue

BD’000

Revenue rate of

change


change

2004 26494 - 50621 -

2005 28579 8% 50299 -1%

2006 34557 21% 60094 19%

2007 36910 7% 79988 33%

2008 40285 9% 114502 43%

Data Analysis:

Internet service used to be dominated by Batelco until 2007, then the other company

(Zain) was allowed to sell the same service in the local market. However, the revenue of

this service has been steadily increased, as shown in Figure (5.11), because of

continuous improvement and adding values on the service done by the company.

However, revenues in term of percentage were not stable and this because of special

offers being provided by the competitor.



61

re 29 : Figure 5.11: Revenue of internet in Batelco

However, the number of customers getting increased since 2006 as shown in Figure

(5.12), and this because of special price that being offered to customers by Batelco

along with adding new technology to the internet service.

Figure 30 : Figure 5.12: Subscribers of Internet in Batelco

Batelco is giving high attention to the internet service since it represents a core source

of revenue. Therefore, the company is using Broadband service and continuously

expanding it geographically. Moreover, and in order to be in line with the latest

technologies, Batelco has already completed its Next Generation Network (NGN)

migration ahead of target, backed by a BD22 million investment. The company also

Revenue BD

Year

Rate of change

Subscribers

Year

Rate of chan e



62

rolled out across the Kingdom the 3.5G wireless technology being one of the first

countries in the world with national, high speed wireless broadband access.

The result of revenue comparing to the number of customers is satisfied according tothe positive trend shown in Figure (5.13).

31 : Figure 5.13: Regression line among Internet‟s revenue and subscribers in

Batelco

iv. Data Communication Equipment

Data Communication equipment is the devices and connections of a communications

network that connect the communication circuit between the data source and

destination. Table (5.7) shows the revenue that gained by Batelco in last consecutive

five years with the change from year to year.

18 : Table 5.7: Batelco‟s DC Data

Years Revenue BD’000 Rate of change

2004 21342 -

2005 27508 29%

2006 30268 10%

2007 34147 13%

2008 45619 34%

Data Analysis:

Data communications service is one of the important services provided by Batelco to

businesses. Data Communications concerns the transmission of digital messages to



63

devices external to the message source. The company is doing well through this

service and revenues increased since 2004 as shown in Figure (5.14).

Figure 32 : Figure 5.14: Revenue on data communication in Batelco

Data communication is becoming more important in Batelco‟s business strategy

specially after launching the new technology Next Generation Network (NGN). NGN

is a broad term to describe some key architectural evolutions in telecommunicationcore and access networks that will be deployed over the next 5-10 years. The NGN is a

new technology that transports all information and services (voice, data, and all sorts

of media such as video) by encapsulating these into packets, like it is on the Internet.

NGNs are commonly built around the Internet Protocol, and therefore the term "all-IP"

is also sometimes used to describe the transformation towards NGN.

Data communication‟s customers are getting growing during five years because each

company wants to adopt the latest technology for their business. Figure (5.15) showed

the positive trend which is a result of increasing the number to double in 2008, and it‟s

expected to increase more because of increase investments by International companies

in the kingdom of Bahrain. Batelco got a significant deal with the Huawei company to

get their full services relating to the network expansion, and thus established a strong

working relationship through their collaboration in completing Batelco‟s Next

Generation Network (NGN).

Revenue

Year

Rate of change



64

e 33 : Figure 5.15: Regression among five years of data communication in Batelco

5.4.2 Profit

Profits figures extracted from the company‟s annual r eports along with the revenues that

was gained through the overseas groups.

Table 19 : Table 5.8: Batelco‟s profits data

Years ProfitBD’000

Rate of change

2004 83782 -

2005 86916 4%

2006 90835 5%

2007 104099 15%

2008 107901 4%

Profits during five years getting increased and can be noticed through the Figure

(5.16). The company has been able to pass beyond BD 100 millions in 2007 and

2008 and expected to continue curve up in the first quarter of 2009. The overseas

strategy played a very important part to increase the profits and firmly increased

since 2004.

Year



65

Figure 34 : Figure 5.16: Batelco‟s profits

The overseas business is the new strategy as acknowledged by Chief Executive of

Batelco. Batelco is determining to remain the leading telecommunications operator in

Bahrain and extending its business across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

region. The international expansion is most often carried out by using acquisitions,

mergers, joint ventures and other forms of strategic alliances and partnerships.

The trend is continuously going toward positive as indicated in Figure (5.17).

ure 35 : Figure 5.17: Regression line among the trend of profits in Batelco

5.4.3 Employees

Table (5.9) shows the number of employees in Batelco during the last five consecutive

years and the change of percentage from year to another.

BD Rate of chan e

Year

Year



66

le 20 : Table 5.9: Batelco‟s human resource data

Years No of Staff Rate of change

2004 1923 -

2005 1,997 4%2006 2,486 2.4%

2007 2,579 4%

2008 2,428 -6%

Data Analysis:

Figure (5.18) shows that the workforce in Batelco had been increased constantly

from 2004 to 2007 as a result of the business expansion in both local and overseasmarket. However, in 2008 the workforce get reduced comparing to 2007 because of

the Excess Resource Program, the program is set to reduce excess staff by providing

them a special package. The program is still in force and is not compulsory anyway,

it depends however on each business units to take the decision upon the number of

workforce needed to run the unit and must be agreed with both the staff and HR unit.

Figure 36 : Figure 5. 18 Batelco‟s employees

The Human resource trend is almost in positive way as in Figure (5.19), and

expected to continue on the same trend because of expanding of strategy that is

followed by the company in next year.

No. of Employees Rate of change

Year



67

Figure 37 : Figure 5. 19: Regression Line among the trend of Employees in Batelco

5.4.4 Equity

An accounting term used to describe the net investment of owners or stockholders in a

business. Table (5.10) shows the number of equity of Batelco in the last consecutive

years.

ble 21 : Table 5.10: Batelco‟s equity data Years Equity Rate of change

2004 305926 -

2005 341,984 12%

2006 371,164 9%

2007 416,806 12%

2008 439,592 5%

Data Analysis:

Batelco is one of the organisations that are well-trusted by different investors and the

constant increasing of its equity is an evidence that company is still the safe and

profitable track in shareholder‟s perspective as shown through Figure (5.20 ).

Year



68

Figure 38 : Figure 5.20: Batelco‟s equity

The positive trend of Batelco‟s equity as indicated in Figure (5.21), and this will

encourage investors to invest more in the company‟s shares which will strength the

company‟s position in the local market.

F 39 : Figure 5. 21: Regression line among the trend of equity in Batelco

5.5 Conclusion

The chapter concentrated on the overall business performance at Batelco during the last

five years i.e. during the competitive period. The focus was on both local and overseas

strategy that has been followed by the company to increase its positions in both local

and overseas markets. Furthermore, the threats of new entrants (New competitors) has

made some effects on Batelco‟s business especially in the mobile service. The revenues

over the products that sold through the company remarkably increased, except the fixed

No of Equity Rate of change

Year

Year



69

lines service which decreased gradually due to declining of demands on the cable wire

services.

The company could achieve its target in profits point of view by reaching the profits inlast two years to more than one 100 millions Bahraini dinars, and this means that they

applying the plans to face the new environment in the telecom market. Furthermore,

increasing in profits means that the changes in the market did not affect on the

company‟s business performance but on contrary motivated them to perform better than

before.

The number of employees increased gradually due to expansion of Batelco‟s business,

but decreased in 2008 because of the Excess Resource Program strategy that used for

staff reduction. And the company‟s Equity was the final item analyzed in this chapter

and noticed its constant increase during the last five years, which means that the

company is still in a strong position in terms of its value in the market.

The overall results of the company‟s performance showed that the management is going

through the right strategy plan to improve the business, and this of course connected

with the latest IT technology that the company is always considering the core to keep

them to be in advance.

The progress in the company's performance that was discovered through the analysis

reveals that different factors are used by Batelco to keep its business advancing in the

current telecommunications environment, and the core factor that needs to invest in

order to achieve to the set target is to obtain the latest business systems and technology.

The technology and the knowledge systems thought the base of success in any

organization, and the knowledge systems and BI seems the core success factors in thisregards. The evolution on BI in Batelco which will be covered in chapter six will make

clear to know the extent of BI in advancing the competitive advantages of the company

and the role that BI plays to obtain and achieve the company‟s planned vision.

Undoubtedly, by using business intelligence the company will use its organizational

knowledge even better, and consequently they will become even more successful.



70

Chapter 6: Analysis of Business Intelligence at Batelco

6.1 Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the Business Intelligence environment within

Batelco and try to measure its value and maturity, and how its role in improving and

enhancing the business activities of the company. Moreover, the chapter includes the

case study, which focuses on the Business Intelligence concepts and tools along with

overall Knowledge Management Systems that have been considered in last 15 years by

different Management levels. The present case study is based on interviews with some

concerned staff who involved in BI and KM projects in Batelco. Questionnaires and

Interviews used to measure the BI‟s capability through the models that thought by most

BI experts the most measurement techniques.

The chapter also reviews the competitive advantage based on the current capability of

BI used, and the analysis will be conducted through different methods as explained in

the methodology part.

6.2 BI and KM Data Collection by InterviewBusiness intelligence and knowledge management systems are the base that Batelco the

company depends on in developing and advancing its business and performance. The

story of BI at Batelco started in 1995 as the case study explained in this section, and still

takes the high attention by top management levels in the company. The information and

details reached through the company annual reports, Batelco profile along with

interviews that conducted through a small workshop with some decision makers who

contributed in organizational development projects. These interviews were recorded andsystemically analyzed in order to measure the BI and KM‟s capability in Batelco. (The

questions raised during the workshop in appendix B).

i. BI Started in 1995

The history of BI‟s concept started in 1995 through using knowledge management with

a cultural change towards customer-centered organization. Since that time, Batelco has

undertaken various knowledge management initiatives. However, many of those

initiatives were not integrated and did not involve formal action plans extending across



71

the corporation. Nevertheless, almost all senior and other managers who participated in

the study agreed on the merits of the knowledge management concept and its

applications and expressed their interest in the concept, acknowledging its value and

importance for their business.

ii. Organizational Development Projects

In 1996 Batelco obtained an International Standards Organization (ISO) 9002 certificate

and launched a major programmed for organizational transformation known as

Organization Development (OD). The human resources management department

undertook the project, which was chiefly concerned with reengineering business

processes and improving organizational performance. The initiatives taken in this regardare summarized and set on a time line as shown in Figure (6.1)

(www.batelco.com.bh/profile.htm).



72

Figure 40 : Figure 6. 1: The evolution of BI at Batelco

Source: (www.batelco.com/profile)

As a result of its customer-centered strategy, OD projects and knowledge management

strategic vision, Batelco continued to develop its information systems, which serve

different business functions including finance, human resources management, and

marketing and customer services. Also, enterprise application integration was

performed with a view to integration of existing systems.

Moreover, investment in and implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP)

system worth more than USD 1 million, namely, SAP R/3, resulted in internalefficiency and quality of information throughout Batelco. Today, SAP R/3 supports

1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010

ISO9002

ERP& Legacy systems, SAP R/3, intranet,

Lotus Notes, Integrated document system

Culture/ organizational

change (OD1 project)

BI (DW &

CRM)

Culture/

organizational

change

(OD12 ro ect)

HRMS

DW Project: Vendor selection->phase 1 - “increase business Value” ->

-> hase 2” Ex ansion & Growth”

Culture/ organizational

change (OD3 project)

CRM

Culture/ organizational change (OD4 project)

New CE was appointed and telecom market liberated in thekingdom.The company started its business abroad as groups.

Initiatives conducted under the name of Knowledge Management (KM) & BI

SAP

http://www.batelco.com/profile






73

financial, material and project management functional areas. It provides timely, high-

quality management information and contributes to the achievement of knowledge

sharing and application. Enhanced external customer support systems in particular have

a positive impact on all services provided.

iii. Business Intelligence Systems

Some of the information systems aim to manage knowledge and go one step beyond

information processing to analysis, categorization, distribution and application of

knowledge in supporting of the business strategy. These systems are:

(a) Human resources management system (HRMS-Oracle). This system was completed

in 2002. The system integrates previous human resources management systems (known

as legacy systems, which include payroll and training management) and includes a

competency dictionary as a base for performance management review. It enables

employees to assess their competencies, Performance Management Review (PMR),

from their own terminals and their line managers then reassess this assessment. The

knowledge map that PMR creates makes it possible to identify gaps between required

and existing knowledge and is used as a repository of knowledge for making human

resources management decisions related to yearly salary incremental, promotion,

transfer, rotation, training and recruitment. Another component of human resources

management systems, namely, employee self-service, allows employees access to their

own information, such as training programs completed during the preceding two years

and applications for loans.

(b) Business intelligence and data warehousing. In 1998-1999, Batelco demonstrated

foresight when it realized that knowledge was crucial to the establishment of long-term

customer relationships. In early 2000, the company decided to manage this knowledge

and implement the first formal knowledge management initiative, namely, a data

warehouse that was coupled in 2003 with a customer relationship management system

(CRM). The data warehouse is a repository of data derived from operational legacy

systems, namely, customer care, billing (including the three customer profiles, namely,

IT GSM, and fixed line billing), finance, accounts receivable and other systems.

The company continuously improves its Data Warehouse to meet its business which has

been expanded since 2004. The existing Data Warehouse being used is “Teradata



74

Enterprise Data Warehouse” (Batelco‟s BI Manager). This type of Data Warehouse

offers a totally integrated solution optimized to provide the company for an enterprise

data warehouse and its operational expansion as an active data warehouse in the real-

time enterprise.

(c) SAP. Batelco‟s Financial and Logistics systems provide the underlying support for

Batelco‟s day-to-day financial accounting, procurement, administrative and resource

management functions.

The system aims to identify and implement an integrated information system solution

suite of Finance and Logistics applications that have failed to provide the desired level

of functionality and management information. Batelco‟s corporate objective is toimprove efficiency, whilst delivering collateral benefits in support of the other corporate

objectives. (Batelco‟s SAP Project Team).

(d) Customer relationship management . This initiative combines business processes

and technology in order to gain a better understanding of “customer lifetime value” and

thus competitively differentiate company products and services. This system is

continuously developed in order to meet new business processes, and together with the

data warehouse which is formally addressed as a BI initiative. The objective of

customer relationship management system is to enable the exploitation of knowledge at

operational and analytical levels. The analytical level includes online processing of data

for back-end marketing activities, such as campaigns, sales management and customer

satisfaction surveys.

(e) Integrated document management system. This system provides document

management and workflow, allowing documents to be moved from one place toanother, for example when approval is required. At present, the integrated document

management system is used, and mainly used trough SAP for logistics and in human

resources management for performance management review (PMR), but it is planned to

extend its use to other areas within the company.

http://www.teradata.com/t/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=4480






75

iv. Other Knowledge Management Initiatives

Batelco has other knowledge management initiatives in place, some of which focus oncultural and organizational procedures while others are more dependent on ICTs. A

number of these initiatives are described below.

i. A policy was established as part of corporate strategy to document all procedures as

far as possible and, by doing so, make knowledge explicit and available and facilitate

the transfer of tasks to new personnel.

ii. Change Management Programs, which include training and other initiatives tofacilitate change of roles or responsibilities, in addition to advisory groups, which

designate mentors and advisers, and constitute initiatives for the transfer of

managerial and strategic knowledge.

ii. Initiatives aimed at capturing knowledge from customers include the use of

suggestion boxes, face-to-face interviews and call centre scripting. Acquired

customer feedback is subsequently documented and distributed to other departments.

iii. In addition to exchanging documents, employees make heavy use of Lotus Notes for

e-mail (replaced recently with office outlook), calendars, contacts and memorandums

to organize meetings, events and deadlines in their quest for collaboration. Moreover,

most employees have a blackberry device whereby they can be online 24 hours to

exchange the documents.

iv. Other initiatives aim at the creation of a collaborative environment. A highly

successful pilot initiative is “project portals”, where every project at Batelco opens a

session and permits linkage to the financial department, project manager and all

members of a project, allowing documents to be shared and e-mails to be exchanged.

v. Two methods are used in order to transfer knowledge from experts to trainees in the

case of the temporary or permanent absence of employees. Knowledge can be

transferred directly through training and coaching or, alternatively through

knowledge gatherings, at which people involved in similar activities, meet and learn

from one another.



76

6.2.1 Organizational Transformation

Organizational transformation as an initiative is having a huge impact in the

development of knowledge management, in part because organizational structure acts as

an enabler for knowledge management. Table (6.1) described the phases of

organizational development changes:

Table 22 : Table 6.1: Phases of organizational changes at Batelco

Year Project Reasons

1996 OD1 • To transform the system of management from a bureaucratic,control-oriented top-down structure to a democratic one based onemployee empowerment.

• The emergence of powerful organizational interventiontechniques triggered OD1, including business process re-engineering and total quality management.

1999 OD2 • To address a number of shortcomings found in OD1.

2002 OD3 • Principal objective of better confronting business competition.Entitled “Get Ready” for competition.

• Developed more or less in parallel with the data warehousingsystem.

2004 OD4 • New CEO Appointed.• New strategy to meet new competitive market.

• To be prepared for new expansion through groups in MENA.

Special attention was given to cultural change and barriers to it in the implementation of

organizational transformation.

i. Cultural change

It had been the case since the 1980s that knowledge sharing was not prevalent at

Batelco. The human resources manager recalled, for example, that the human resources

manual had been confidential.

“Batelco is prepared for knowledge sharing; you see that most people are very positive

about sharing and exchanging what they know with others. But you can also say that

there are some people with lack of confidence who fear sharing in case they lose their

power or lose their knowledge or position, or somebody becomes better than them.



77

Another obstacle in their culture is Managers who taking responsibility of their

departments are empowered to select or reject any staff for a new vacancy without any

involvement of HR.

ii. Barriers

The main barrier reported at Batelco is resistance to change, which is manifest in the

reluctance of individuals to start talking to one another within departments and sections.

The consequence of certain drawbacks in the culture is that regardless of how much

information is disseminated; employees tend to be suspicious that a hidden agenda

exists. Moreover, according to one manager, it is difficult to capture certain types of

knowledge such as skills, despite the best efforts of employees to pass these on tocolleagues. Other barriers include the following:

(a) Use of the system can be difficult.

(b) Training raises particular issues.

(c) Customer knowledge poses certain difficulties.

(d) Conflict frequently arises between short and long-term objectives.

6.3 Evaluation Models

The evaluation of the BI consists from two models these are:

6.3.1 Evaluation of the Current State of BI at Batelco

This section discusses the ways in which Batelco understands the core concept of

Business Management which is thought the main role of BI in enhancing the company‟s

competitiveness advantages. Averages comprise values between 1 and 5 on the Likert

scale through the survey that sent to each selected group. The source of questions

obtained from the center of decision support and enterprise systems research (DSESR)

in Monhash University Business Intelligence Blog.



78

i. User TypesThree types of users were selected for the survey as indicated in Table (6.2). The Names

and positions of the selected staff are described in (appendix C).

Table 23 : TTable 6.2: The selected population for the survey Strategic ( SLT ) Users ( Managers / Staff ) IT Department

5 15 5

Five general managers represented senior level team (SLT) were selected and surveyed

about the points related to BI use in the top level. Fifteen Managers and staff from

different business units were selected to answer questions related to BI in tactical and

operational level. IT department was separated from the two to get point of view

respecting Business Intelligence‟s technical parts, and hence five of the staff were

selected to answer the questions related to BI‟s technical issues.

Users were selected from six units which thought they used the BIS heavily either in

day to day business activities or as analytical tools to improve and increase their

business process / profits. Most staff were selected from Marketing department since

they are expected to use BI facilities more in terms of analytical and forecasting

purposes than others. Sales almost got the same roles thus it came in number two

regarding the number of staff selected for the survey as indicated in Table (6.3). Other

units are mainly doing the back office jobs and their BI use lie with their internal issues.

Table 24 : Table 6.3: Batelco‟s users from different business units

Business Units Selected users

Marketing 1

Engineering 2

Logistic 6

Network 2

Human Resource 1

Business Risk 3



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ii. Business Intelligence Systems used by the Selected Units

The survey showed that all the selected units are using SAP & HRMS i.e. both of them

are used 100% by all Business units. CRM is used by Sales, Marketing and Network.

Some special system such as Billing and GSM system are used by sales only.

Furthermore, as indicated in Table (6.4) that Microsoft applications and Excel in

particular is one of the application, which is used by all users, especially for analysis

and monthly statistics purposes.

Table 25 : Table 6.4 Batelco‟s BI Systems that used by Business unitsSystems

Business Unit SAP CRM HRMS Billing GSM MS Excel

Marketing √ √ √ √

Sales √ √ √ √ √ √

Logistic √ √ √

Network √ √ √ √

Human Resource √ √ √

Business Risk √ √ √ √

Total 6 5 6 1 1 5

iii. Batelco’s BI value Based on the Selected Perspectives

Tables (6.5, 6.6 and 6.7) are assigned for a specific level (i.e. Top Level, Users, IT). The

left hand side column includes survey questions while the other five columns assigned

for the likert scores. The last column is to calculate the average (score reached out of 5for each question).

i. Top Level ( SLT )

The average obtained on questions touched to the (5) influencers in the top level at the

company. The seven questions were mainly concentrated on the impacts of BI on the

organization in terms of Vision, Mission, enhancing the competitive advantage of

Batelco and overall strategies related to BI. The score reached was 4.45. (i.e.31.2/7 =

4.45). The results are interpreted in Table (6.5).



80

ble 26 : Table 6.5: The SLT-related survey in BatelcoScore

Questions

1Stronglydisagree

2Disagree

3Undecided

4Agree

5Strongly

agree

Average

Score

Q1: There is strongcommitment from Top Levelfor implementing BI in thecompany.

0 0 0 2 3

4.6/5(92%)

Q2: Continuous support fromtop level for utilizing andimproving BI.

0 0 0 2 34.6/5

(92%)

Q3: Do you think the currentmanagement style regarding theBI supports the organization toenhance its business?

0 0 0 2 34.6/5

(92%)

Q4: BI is able to achieve theorganization‟s mission and

vision and enhance thecompany‟s competitiveadvantages in the market.

0 0 0 4 14.2/5

(84%)

Q5: BI is playing importingroles to increase the company‟srevenue.

0 0 0 1 04/ 5

(80%)

Q6: BI is able to make futureplans unambiguous. 0 0 0 2 3

4.6 / 5

(92%)

Q7: BI has created an easy lifebetween the company and itscustomers.

0 0 0 2 34.6 / 5

(92%)

Total 31.2 /7

= 4.45

ii. Users / Managers

The average obtained on (11) questions related to tactical and operational level, which is

basically handled to (15) users and managers. The score reached was 3.5 (i.e. 38

/11=3.5). The results are interpreted in Table (6.6).



81

27 : Table 6.6: The Users-related survey in BatelcoScore

Questions

1Strongly

disagree

2Disagree

3Undecided

4Agree

5Strongly

agree

Average Score

Q1: Transactioncycle is run inshortest time.

1 3 3 6 23.33 / 5 (66.6%)

Q2: BI used fornew, better, moretimely information.

0 5 2 4 43.47 / 5 (69.4%)

Q3: BI used forcritical info to bequickly and easilymanipulated into auseful form.

1 3 3 6 23.33 / 5 (66.6%)

Q4: Current

priorities for the useof BI softwarewithin thedepartment areacceptable.

0 4 3 4 4

3.53 / 5 (70.6%)

Q5: BI used forimproved dailytransactions withinthe department.

1 3 2 7 23.40 / 5 (68%)

Q6: BI initiativewill support thebusiness mosteffectively.

0 4 2 4 53.67 / 5 (73.4%)

Q7: The current BI

systems play theimportant role toforecast for futurebusiness.

1 3 2 7 2

3.40 / 5 (68%)

Q8: BI is used toimprove the flow of critical informationto executives.

0 4 2 5 43.60 / 5 (72%)

Q9: Thereis resistance tochange in yourdepartment.

1 3 2 7 23.40 / 5 (68%)

Q10: The current BIhas No value added

over manualprocess.

0 4 3 4 43.53 / 5 (70.6%)

Q11: BI is able tocollaborate betweenthe parties.

1 3 3 6 23.33 / 5 (66.6%)

Total 38/11= 3.5



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iii. IT

The average obtained on (6) questions related to technical aspects of BI, which is

basically handled to (5) experts in IT department. The score reached was 3.7 (i.e. 22.2/6=

3.7). The results are interpreted in Table (6.7).

Table 28 : Table 6.7: The IT-related survey in BatelcoScore

Questions

1Stronglydisagree

2Disagree

3Undecided

4Agree

5Strongly

agree

AverageScore

Q1: BI used to integrate information fromdiverse and heterogeneous sources.

0 0 1 2 2 4.2 / 5

(84%)

Q2: The rate of the BI technology beingused by the company is highly appropriate.

0 0 1 2 2 4.2 / 5

(84%)

Q3: The current BI system incompatibilitywith users‟ cognitive styles.

3 2 0 0 0 1.4 / 5

(28%)

Q4: People in all departments withinBatelco receive the right level of trainingand development for their effectiveparticipation in knowledge-basedinitiatives.

0 0 2 1 2 4 / 5

(80%)

Q5: BI Software is continuously upgradated to meet the new businessenvironment.

0 0 1 2 2 4.2 / 5

(84%)

Q6: BI support team is highly trained thathave ability to face any technical problems.

0 0 1 2 2 4.2 / 5(84%)

Total 22.2/6

= 3.7

Total averages factor

The questions were analyzed here in terms of the levels. Table (6.8) shows that

responses to this factor were almost higher than the average.

Table 29 : Table 6.8: Average by levels

Levels Average ( Mean )

Top Level ( SLT ) 4.45

Users / Manager 3.5

IT 3.7

Total 11.7

Global Average 3.9



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The result shows that total average reached to (3.9) which almost considered very good

in terms of BI‟s aspects in achieving the company‟s current and future goals, and has

become one of the most important tool to keep a company in a high rank level and thus

competent in the market.

6.3.2 BI value using the SAP System Based on the Balanced Scorecard Tool

As mentioned in the research methodology that there are various methods to evaluate

and value BI performance. In the previous section the selected three different

management levels as the BI‟s perspectives to measure and evaluate the BI based on

Means scores. This section will measure the main four elements whereby the

organization are expecting to achieve its set vision from implementing business

intelligence systems, and the best tool that helps to get to that point is the balance

scorecard tool ( BSC). BSC is used to measure the business intelligence systems, and

the SAP system was selected as a model in order to evaluate its functionality and how it

could meet the company‟s vision. The four main elements of BCS are chosen as a

mechanism to value the SAP in this regards. Figure (6.2) illustrates the BSC and its four

elements that are relevant to the SAP functions.

Figure 41 : Figure 6. 2: Balanced Scorecard view of measurement of BI at Batelco.

Source: www.ebalancedscorecard.org/

Financial

• Resources / Cost-BI ROI

• Reduce Inventory Costs

• Reduce department‟s costs

• Growth revenue within thede artment

BI Process

• Resources / Time

• Outputs

• Accuracy

• Short life cycle

Learning and Growth

• Development of BI over time

• Easy to learn and use

• Better decision-making

Customer

• Resources / Time

• Satisfaction and Quality

• Usage

• Coverage

• Reduce delivery time

Batelco’s Vision

“To enrich our customers’ lifestyle

and enable businesses

to excel”

Aims of the BI Function

Efficiency, Enhance Businessperformance, reasonable coverage

and user satisfaction



84

Figure (6.2) shows Batelco‟s vision and the BI function‟s targets are in the centre and

they have a direct affect on the four chosen measurement focus areas; financial, BI

process, learning and growth and customer. The most important issue in measuring

Batelco‟s BI is the input-output ratio and progress in key performance indicators that

the SAP system is performing. BI measurement is implemented by a three-phased

process: measuring persons (Users) and system activities, establishing systematic

information gathering as a base for measuring and through efficient communication and

analyzing between the BI parties.

In general balanced scorecard is usually used as an indicator to follow up the following

four elements in stakeholder‟s perspective, and the reason to invest money in acquiring

the SAP system was to meet the objectives as shown in Table (6.9).

Table 30 : Table 6.9 : Basic flow of strategic area within the Balanced Scorecard Shareholder Value

Financial Revenue Growth

Customer More Customers

Processes Service ProgramsLearning Support Systems & Personnel

(Source: www.ebalancedscorecard.org)

6.4 Evaluating SAP system within Inventory Management

The four common elements of the balanced scorecard tool are applied on inventory

management through measuring them before and after launching the SAP system in the

department. The reasons for using inventory management is the required information

are available through the inventory management department on their intranet site.:

i. Financial perspective:

The financial perspective addresses the question how shareholders view the firm and

which financial goals are desired from shareholder‟s perspective. Table (6.10) shows

how the inventory management department in Batelco looks financially and how BI

maximizes income and reduce costs (Through the SAP system) could add value to the

company.

http://www.ebalancedscorecard.org%29/






85

le 31 : Table 6.10: Balanced Scorecard Financial prospective in materials management Objective Before BI After BI KPI

Resources 30 staff 15 staff Reduced 50%

Reduce Inventory Costs BD5m BD2 million Reduced BD3millions

Reduce department‟s costs(e.g. Stationary )

BD 1000Monthly

BD 500 Monthly. i.e.Paperless system

Reduced BD500

Growth revenue within thedepartment Discounts on orders Not fixed

(Source: Logistic Intranet in Batelco)

Table (6.10) indicated how the material management department gained advantages

after launching the SAP system, which is considered a core part of business intelligence.

Number of resource (Staff) was reduced to half and 3 million in the last five years

reduced total costs of inventory. Moreover, a stationary cost was reduced because the

SAP system is working as a paperless system. Growth of revenue within the department

gained advantages through discounts on orders.

ii. Customer perspective:

The customer perspective addresses the question of how the firm is viewed by its

customers and how well the firm is serving its targeted customers in order to meet the

financial objectives. Strategically, customer‟s view used to excel in servicing internal

customers. Moreover, customers view the firm in terms of time, quality, performance,

and cost. Most customer objectives fall into one of those categories. Table (6.11) shows

how customer perspective looks within the inventory management department in

Batelco after using the SAP system in the last five years

e 32 : Table 6.11: Balanced Scorecard Customer prospective in materials managementObjective Before BI After BI KPI

Performance 10 Minutes inone transition

5 Minutes in onetransition

Reduced 50%

Time to meetcustomer demands

1 to 2 days Same day Reduced 100%

Usage Manual Automation Easy to use..eliminatepaper works (costs )

Delivery Time One day Same day Reduced 100%(Source: Logistic Intranet in Batelco)



86

The overall results as reported were satisfied and met the targets. Table (6.11) shows

that, all objectives within customer perspective get reduced by using the SAP system.

The performance Efficiency increased by half when the time of performing a transaction

reduced from 10 minute to 5 minute. Customer demands are met in the same day after it

was done after one to two days before using the SAP system. The SAP system is a fully

automated system, so no need to papers and hence increases in costs. Furthermore, the

time of delivery reduced by 100% and all delivery and goods receive notes raised in the

system at the same day of delivery. However, In order to make sure more about the

customer‟s view over the changes made by the SAP system and the roles that they

system played to make things easy in the work environment.

iii. Learning and Growth perspective:

Learning and Growth metrics address the question of how the firm must learn, improve,

and innovate in order to meet its objectives. In its strategic point of view, the learning

and growth element used to onsite professional development. Table (6.12) shows the

progress gained in learning and growth perspective during the SAP period in material

management department.

ble 33 : Table 6.12: Balanced Scorecard learning and growth prospective Objective Before BI After BI KPI

Development of BI over time

Not able to develop Easy to develop and addany new function or query

Easy to meet jobrequirements

Easy to learn anduse

Complicated anddifficult to adapt it

User friendly Less training costs

Better decision-making

Without Intelligencefunctions

Working intelligently Better decisions thathelp to increase

revenue and reducecosts

(Source: Logistic Intranet in Batelco)

As mentioned in the literature review that the mission of SAP Business Intelligence (in

SAP or other ERP/ BI) is to create a container in which all the data necessary for

making good decisions is stored, analyzed, and served up to the right people at the right

time. In the ideal situation, when a decision needs to be made, the relevant, organized,

timely information is available in an easy-to-use form. Table (6.12) described how the

SAP system could play the important roles in terms of easy to develop the system to

meet any new job requirement, easy to learn and coach others and how it works



87

intelligently for future prospective. Please refer to Appendix (D) shows how the

analytical model in the SAP system which is used by users for business analysis.

iv. Process perspective:

Business process objectives address the question of which process are most critical for

satisfying customers and shareholders. This BSC‟s element used as strategical tool to

measure how the system faster responses to business. Table (6.13) shows the role of the

SAP system to gain benefit for Batelco through the materials management department.

E 34 : Table 6.13: Balanced Scorecard process prospective

Objective BeforeBI

After BI KPI

Outputs Limitedoutput

Unlimitedoutput

Unlimitedtransactions

with lesscost.

Accuracy Hugeerrors

Précisedwith lack of

errors

Adequacy inbusinessdecisions

Short life

cycle

Not

integratedsystem

Integrated

andcollaboratedsystem

Performing

assignmentsthroughshortest life

cycle.(Source: Logistic Intranet portal)

Table (6.13) indicated clearly how the business process perspective progressed with the

SAP system which business intelligent forms its main feature. Transaction outputs that

generate by the system are unlimited and with less costs comparing with the systems

that used to be use before. And the SAP system works through more accuracy way and

method along with short life cycle for each transaction made through it.

6.5 Conclusion

The chapter covered in detail the case study of Batelco. The case focused on different

aspects of business intelligence and knowledge management, going through their

history and ending to the current status of BI run in the company. In addition, the

chapter covered different BI tools used by the company and how they are adding value

to the current business especially when they started to make changes in 1996.



88

Organizational Development (OD1) was the first Knowledge-related project conducted

by the company to meet the developing situations in the telecom market. The similar

projects were implemented in different periods since that time to keep and maintain the

company‟s position in the market even though there was no competitor for Batelco

before 2004 in the kingdom of Bahrain. Furthermore, new technologies and systems

were acquired to make its business processes run smoothly and speedily. Business

Intelligence system was one of the main technology that Batelco depended on during

the last 15 years, various BI systems procured by the company for each business units

and all of them showed their effectively to keep them advance in the local market.

In order to value the BI capability in the company two models were used to measurehow the BI is perceived by Batelco. The first model concentrated on some

questionnaires and scoped the main three groups that deal with BI (Top Management

Level, Users, IT experts), the survey helped to obtain their view on different BI points

which are related to each respective group in the company. The criteria of measuring the

effectiveness of BI was the average score that resulted from each questionnaire directed

to each group and then summing up the score of each questionnaire and divided it on the

number of questionnaires in each level. The result revealed the importance of business

intelligence in the company for all management levels and is the one of the

fundamentals to improve the business at Batelco.

Another model used as a measurement tool was “Balanced Scorecard”. The tool is well

known and used to compare the four standards perspectives with the company‟s vision

and mission. BSC consists of four elements (Financial, Process BI, Customer and

Growth and learning) to evaluate the existing SAP BI system that being used by the

materials management department. The Key Performance Indicator (KPI) findingsindicated the existence of distinct improvements and costs reductions after the use of the

SAP system, which works on the basis of business intelligence.



89

Chapter 7: Conclusion and Future Work

7.1 Conclusion

In this chapter, the conclusions concerning the relationship between the BI and

competitive advantages, and how the current state of business intelligence in Batelco

assisted the company to keep its business strong even with existence of other

competitor. In addition, recommendations to face future challenges and opportunities in

the field are discussed.

Several business intelligence concepts were presented. However, it is unclear how and

for what purposes the different process models are intended to be used. Furthermore,

very less studies on how the actual business intelligence processes are applied in

Bahrain companies, or on how well the business intelligence processes support business

activities and their development.

In this research both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in explaining

business intelligence, and the literatures included rich and dependable studies andtheories as well as practical experiences throughout the previous years.

The thesis also explained extensively the competitive advantage in companies,

particularly in the Batelco with the company's performance figures listed in the

competitive phase and look to the firm-level productivity and their ability to adapt and

an era of competition after it was the only company in the dominant

telecommunications market in Bahrain, the analysis showed that the company was able

to be more powerful than ever before and its profits exceeded 100 million is an

indication to its strong position in the current telecommunications market.

In order to ascertain the ability of business intelligence roles and its powerful position in

running the business in the company two models were conducted in this study, and

concluded that BI is considered a must for the company to challenge the new

telecommunications market which opened the door to other companies to compete

Batelco locally. The results that achieved through the case study showed that the

knowledge systems are the main priority for different management levels since 1996.



90

Batelco applied different knowledge systems throughout its business units and still

considering upgrading them and working through the same strategy in order to able to

face the business expansion outside the country. Furthermore, all three management

level that included in the survey agreed the importance of BI in their respective levels.

In the second model the results showed that the company could effectively achieve its

goals when the productivity of the SAP system tested and compared to the legacy

system and found how the KPI could meet the company‟s vision.

The major findings of this research work are two folds:

• First, Batelco is sustaining improving and growing its business as one of the strong

telecommunications industry in the kingdom even after librating the market to other

telecom companies. Moreover, Batelco has expanded its business out of the kingdom

by operating many groups in the MENA, and these indicators showed that the

management is working hard to make the company recognized globally based on their

long years experience in the telecom industry and the capability that the organization

poses to face out other competitors beyond the border.

• Secondly, the concept of BI as knowledge is strongly recognized and supported by the

managements since 1996. Moreover, the plans conducted during the last fourteen years

indicated that BI and Knowledge Management were the core elements to keep the

company ahead.

Although the average score that came out through the survey indicated the company is

dealing with BI successfully, and the BI is able to meet the company‟s set vision as

mentioned however, Batelco still needs to set an aggressive strategy for more

accelerating the benefits of BI so that to give the real value to the existing systems. This

point rose because there are many users still not understanding the real value of BI and

its impact on improving the current business.

The balanced scorecard model that is used to measure the effectiveness of BI indicated

that the company is able to achieve its intended goal, and the KPI progress from the

SAP revealed that the system could target the four BSC elements and tremendous

change witnessed in the materials management department that the SAP system is used

in.



91

7.2 Recommendations

The outcome recommendations of the study are:

i. BI should be utilized as critical success sectors in Batelco

In view of the findings of the case study and survey conducted, five interrelated critical

success factors can be used as recommendations to improve the BI concepts at the

company namely:

• Knowledge strategy,

• Project management,

• Infrastructural technologies,

• Source-data quality,

• Knowledge sharing culture.

• Knowledge strategy

Formulate an organization-wide formal knowledge management strategy and programs

for learning best practices and developing new knowledge management projects.

• Project management

Business concerns should drive the implementation of knowledge management projects

whereas IT should enable such projects. For this reason, business managers to be

considered the best champions of such projects.

• Infrastructural technologies

It is a critical success factor to make appropriate integration in order to maintain

equilibrium between systems requirements and functionality on the one hand, and the

flow of business processes on the other.

• Source-data quality

It is important to manage the expectations of users by communicating the real

limitations and benefits of the system and get rid of accumulated data that are no more

useable.

• Knowledge sharing culture

A tremendous amount of effort and persistence is required in order to bring about real

change in the people culture of an organization. This increases the visibility of

knowledge management projects and generates enthusiasm and motivation.



92

ii. Organizational Structure

As mentioned in this chapter that BI is handled by staff not categorized in the

management level and that policy really making the value of BI get reduced. The

organizational structure should reflect the needs for better knowledge management.

Therefore, BI should be structurally handled by high rank management to increase its

value.

7.3 Future Work

This thesis is by no means exhaustive. Further work will be required as listed below:

• The study reveals that it is recommended to further investigation and verify, in details,

the new information technologies that are supporting and influencing the business

sector in the kingdom of Bahrain.

• The IT department in Batelco needs also to import BI-related ideas from the experts

in this field, and focus on organizations that are matured in this technology will keep

the company to be updated with any new emerging technology occurs in future.

• A series of expert group meetings and brainstorming sessions should be arranged

between different business sectors in the kingdom to discuss on the latest information

technology that could help the country to prosper its economy.

• Since Technologies are rapidly and continuously changing and developing, the above

studies should regularly updated.

• It‟s recommended to carry out the above studies in different organizations and

companies in the kingdom in order to increase their business competitiveness and

processes.



93

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• Rusu, C.,(2003), Change Management, Economica Publishing House Bucharest.

• Sawka, Kenneth, A. (1996), Demystifying Competitive Intelligence, Management

Review, 1996, vol. 85, no.10, pp.47-51.

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• Siebel. (2005), Business Strategies for Accelerating Growth, New York: McGraw-

Hill.

• Storper, M., (1997), The Regional World: Territorial Development in a Global

Economy, New York: The Guilford Press.



97

• Thomas Jr., J. H. (2001) “Business Intelligence – Why?” AI Journal, July, pp47-49.

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• Tyson, K. (1986), Business Intelligence Putting It All Together, Leading EdgePublications.

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Websites:

www.batelco.com, retrieved in June 2009 and September 2009.

www.ebalancedscorecard.org, Retrieved in August 2009.

www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/business-intelligence.htm, Retrieved on 9 May2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resources_Performance_Management, Retrieved on 12May 2009.

www.cia.gov/sci/studies/vol46no3/article02.html,Retrieved on 9 May 2009.

www.cartner.com, Retrieved on 12/5/2009

www.intelligenterp.com/feature/hashmiOct20.shtml, Retrieved on 21 may 2009.

http://www.ebalancedscorecard.org/

http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/business-intelligence.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resources_Performance_Management

http://www.cia.gov/sci/studies/vol46no3/article02.html

http://www.cartner.com/

http://www.intelligenterp.com/feature/hashmiOct20.shtml

http://www.intelligenterp.com/feature/hashmiOct20.shtml

http://www.cartner.com/

http://www.cia.gov/sci/studies/vol46no3/article02.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resources_Performance_Management

http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/business-intelligence.htm

http://www.ebalancedscorecard.org/



98

http://dheise.andrews.edu/dw/DWData.html, Retrieved on 21 may 2009.

http://www.kairos.se/upload/pdf/Paradigmskifte_omvarld.pdf, Retrieved on 12 May2009.

http://cs3-hq.oecd.org/scripts/stats/glossary/detail.asp?ID=399, Retrieved on 12 May2009.

www.scip.org, Retrieved in September 2009.

www.tra.org.bh, Retrieved in September 2009.

www.ameinfo.com, Retrieved in August 2009.

www.Microsoft.com, Retrieved in October 2009.

www.viva-network.co.uk, Retrieved in October 2009.

http://www.kairos.se/upload/pdf/Paradigmskifte_omvarld.pdf

http://cs3-hq.oecd.org/scripts/stats/glossary/detail.asp?ID=399


http://www.tra.org.bh/



http://www.tra.org.bh/


http://cs3-hq.oecd.org/scripts/stats/glossary/detail.asp?ID=399

http://www.kairos.se/upload/pdf/Paradigmskifte_omvarld.pdf



99

APPENDIX A

Questionnaire Schedule

A.1: A list of the key persons that selected to answer on the questionnaires

No Date Name and Position Department Comment

1 August 2009 Aisha FoladhProduct Marketing Manager

Marketing Accept

2 August 2009 Fadhel NasheetProduct Marketing Manager

Marketing Accept

3 August 2009 Rana A.JabbarProduct Marketing Manager

Marketing Accept

4 August 2009 Mohd Jamal

Product Marketing Manager

Marketing Reject

5 August 2009 Amal Dhaif Manager Retail Operation

Sales Accept

6 August 2009 Abdulla HaddadRetail Shop Manager

Sales Accept

7 August 2009 Faisal AlAfooRetail Shop Manager

Sales Reject

8 August 2009 Faisal AlKamelRetail Shop Manager

Sales Accept

9 August 2009 Hassan EbrahimManager Inventory Management

Logistic Accept

10 August 2009 Sameer KazerooniManager Contracts and Legal

Logistic Accept

11 August 2009 Ebrahim SandiManager Procurement

Logistic Accept

12 Sep 2009 Haifa AlmahalManager Enterprise System

IT Accept

13 Sep 2009 Mario FerreiraManager Production Service

IT Accept

14 Sep 2009 Najla AlwanFinance and Admin System manager

IT Accept



100

A.2: A list of questions that included in the questionnaires:

Q1: How many hours do you spend on BI in your day to day jobs?

Q2: What are the primary functions of business intelligence used by yourdepartment?

Answer selections:

• Data Mining

• Reports

• Analytical

• Alerts

Q3: What are the main business activities that are supported by BI in yourdepartment?

Answer selections:

• Business Decision

• Forecasting

• Business Development

• Others business Activities

Q4: Please specify the main primary and secondary sources used for BI in your

department?

Answer selections:

• Customers

• Employee

• Supplier

• Consultants

Q5: The main internal group being addressed by BI through your department?

Answer selections:

• Top Management

• Managers

• Others

Q6: What the BI methods used by your department?

Answer selections:

• Email



101

• Intranet

• Newsletters

Q7: What the technology methods used to support BI in your department?

Answer selections:

• ERP

• CRM

• SCM

• MS Office

Q8: What methods do your recommend to improve BI in future?

Answer selections:

•

Awareness• Training

• Sharing Information

Q9: What methods do you use to evaluate effectiveness of BI in your

department?

Answer selections:

• Meet the company‟s vision

• Cost Saving

• Customer Satisfaction



102

APPENDIX B

Interviews Schedule through a small workshop

B.1: A list of the key persons who contributed in the organizational

developments projects that have been interviewed is shown below:

No Date Name and Position Comment

1 July 2009 Ebrahim ZainalGeneral Manager, Network

Accept

2 July 2009 Adel DaylamiGeneral Manager, Products and Services

Accept

3 July 2009 Ali Janahi

General Manager, Major Enterprises

Accept

B.2: The following questions were directed to the interviewees:

Q1: Giving general overview on the organizational developments

projects that have taken place since it started in 1996.

Q2: The main steps that have been taken by Batelco to develop the BI

concepts.

Q3: Why Batelco did focus on developing the knowledge management

systems though the company used to run solely the telecom market in

Bahrain.

Q4: What the technologies (systems) that have been used to implement

the business intelligence system in Batelco.

Q5: How much the new technologies cost the company.

Q6: Details and purposes on each BI system that implemented in the

company.

Q7: The current Data Warehouse being used and to how extent meets

the company‟s goals.

Q8: Details on any knowledge management initiatives conducted by

the company.

Q9: How Batelco could implement the organizational transformation

plans.

Q10: How you evaluate the OD projects took place so far in Batelco.



103

APPENDIX C

Questionnaire Schedule

A list of the key persons that selected to answer on the questionnaires

No Date Name and Position Categories Comment

1 August2009

Adel DaylamiGeneral Manager, Products andService

TopManagement

Accept

2 August2009

Abdulla Al-Thawadi,General Manager, Major

Accounts

TopManagement

Accept

3 August2009

Moh‟d Mukhtar Senior Manager, Network Manager

TopManagement

Accept

4 August2009

Suad Alkaabi,Senior Manager, BusinessQuality

TopManagement

Accept

5 July 2009 Sameer KazerooniSenior Manager, Procurment

TopManagement

Accept

6 July 2009 Abdulla HaddadRetail Shop Manager

User Accept

7 August2009

Faisal AlAfooRetail Shop Manager

User Accept

8 August2009

Faisal AlKamelRetail Shop Manager

User Accept

9 August2009

Hassan EbrahimManager Inventory Management

User Accept

10 July 2009 Maki Al-AswadProcurement Manager

User Accept

11 August2009

Ebrahim SandiManager Procurement

User Accept

12 July 2009 Sumaya A.QaderOfficer, HR User Accept

13 July 2009 Adel HazeemEngineer

User Accept

14 July 2009 Adel GhuloomEngineer

User Accept

15 July 2009 Adel A.RahmanCRM Executive

User Accept

16 July 2009 Fadhel SaffarManager, Access Network

User Accept

17 July 2009 Saeed Madan

Manager Access Network

User Accept

18 July 2009 Zuhair AlMaskati User Accept



104

Manager, Business Continuity19 July 2009 Isa Janahi

Risk Management AnalysisUser Accept

20 July 2009 Maha Ali

Manager, Insurance

User Accept

21 Sep 2009 Haifa AlmahalManager Enterprise System

IT Accept

22 Sep 2009 Mario FerreiraManager Production Service

IT Accept

23 Sep 2009 Najla AlwanFinance and Admin Systemmanager

IT Accept

24 Sep 2009 Nooran,BI specialist

IT Accept

25 Sep 2009 A.Adheem NaserInformation System Specialist

IT Accept



105

APPENDIX D

Evaluating SAP’s Standard Analysis Tool Model

In this section the analytical model is tested, and this function is highly depended on by

the users to make the right decisions. The standard analysis tools by most SAP‟s users

to analyze daily business transactions.

Steps:

i. four invetory items for the SAP test system to exhibt as shown below:

The test will cover the following transactions in last four months :

• Qty Receipt

• QTY Issued

• Total usage.

ii. Now we like to know the qtys for each item based on monthly basis by using the drilldown function:

The following details will be given :

Select Month

and click OK



106

The system gives full details on transaction took place on the selected item in the selected months. Details fall intorecepts, issues and total usage.

iii. If you want to see the qyts according to each storage locations within Batelco plant ( i.e. different stores )

As shown the system show figures in each location in left hand side.

In most cases the user want to anaylse the situation according to chart bars. SAP provides this function as well in

order to make the job easy for the analyst to see any variations that can help to take the right decision.

iv. analyse the transactions in last four months through the chart, and see how it looks like:

And see the results:

v. So through this way the manager can know exactly how the concerned items were treated and

accordingly can take a proper decision and hence plan intellegnetly for future demands as shown below:

Just

select

stora e

Just

select

the

chart

icon



107



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ة افت في اظثفي ن اأعل اذكتدور قت

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إداة اقت وا تد ىع صا ثطه وض تهذقه ت

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ظن اوهث ادات ب س

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اف إش

بن ال احو احن با جخا ته

ا ثاذا تك بهج إداة اقت

Master's Thesis - The Role of Business Intelligence (BI) in Enhancing the Competitive Advantages of...

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