Definition
Decision-support computing, also known as business intelligence (BI), refers to a set of information technology methods, resources and tools used for managing businesses and assisting with decision-making: dashboards, analytical reviews and prospective reports.
Source: Futura Science
Business intelligence versus economic intelligence
The author of the following text is Olivier Favre. It was published in its original form on InnovaBlog.
In French, economic intelligence (intelligence économique) and business intelligence are two concepts which are frequently used interchangeably, with the former considered, often mistakenly, as the translation of the latter. Let’s try to resolve this problem, which is in all likelihood nothing more than a translation error.
Economic intelligence: definitions
In France, the concept of economic intelligence suffers from a serious lack of awareness, practice and communication. How can you truly understand a discipline before it has been put into practice; when it is barely known? Two government reports, the Marte et Carayon Reports, have tried to promote this discipline, with varying degrees of success, but we can at least credit them for providing an intelligible definition.
Let’s start with the Martre Report Intelligence économique et stratégie des entreprises (La Documentation Française, Paris, 1994):
. […] Relevant information means that which is required by the different decision-making levels of the company or organization for the development and consistent implementation of the strategy and tactics required to achieve the targets set by the company for the purpose of improving its position in its competitive environment.
The Carayon Report (page 11), published in June 2003, brought the definition of economic intelligence up to date:
We can expect economic intelligence to ensure the protection of our scientific and industrial heritage, to increase competitiveness and market shares, and to promote a renewed influence in the world, especially for any operators who come to terms with depending on an exclusive supplier, but also, in international organizations, anyone who might be despondent about the avoidance or rejection of the rules of international law: yesterday those of Kyoto, today those of the United Nations, and tomorrow, perhaps even more than in the past, those of the WTO.
EI versus BI: more than a literal translation
Although the literal translation of business intelligence (BI) in French is intelligence économique (economic intelligence - EI), it would be wrong to consider them equivalent terms. The relationship between these two concepts is more complex than that.
To put it quite simplistically, BI is more focused on controlling and optimizing activities and costs (e.g. How much money will this product line make me in this geographical zone thanks to this procurement mode) than on analyzing and highlighting the strategic risks and threats facing a company due to the competition, in particular.
Due to its goal of collecting, but above all analyzing, data in order to create value-added information, BI in the sense of decision-support computing becomes a tool at the service of EI. A more appropriate translation of intelligence économique would be competitive intelligence.
Business Intelligence: an enlightened management tool at the service of economic intelligence
From economic intelligence to business intelligence - what do we mean?
We can then establish a link with decision-support computing, in the sense of using a company’s data to facilitate its’ executives’ decision-making. However, this is clearly an enlightened management tool, with the capacity to anticipate actions, and based on the best possible understanding and grasp of operations… And in the methodologies, the tools used are directly dependent on the quality and relevance of the decision-support information system (DSS) put in place.
In conclusion, although economic intelligence covers a vast field, at least some of its actions can be underpinned and informed by tools such as business intelligence, which will:
- Provide means of identifying major problems,
- Help to interpret and analyze the data collected by an appropriate processing method (cross-referencing of data, multi-dimensional analyses, etc.).