BI Is Changing, But Importance of Data Quality Stay the Same
The terms business intelligence and big data have entered the world of construction, as companies are looking for the data sources that will help them improve their firms and operations in real-time. A recent article for Information Age outlined how business intelligence has changed in recent years and how it can help construction firms.
In the past, the IT sector managed BI tools and data mining from information sources, but now, new tools can be managed by business users. This development allows them to access the information they need to make business-critical decisions, said the website.
"Tighter budgets and strict deadlines force construction companies to better utilize their assets," said Alan Sharp, business area director for Trimble's Site Positioning Systems and Software Solutions, in a company statement.
New BI improving efficiency
Cloud, mobile, social media, collaboration, information visualization, in-memory databases and big data technologies can now all be harnessed by construction reporting tools to be utilized in real-time. By having access to this critical information within moments of it being available on the internet, construction executives can have better insights for the difficult decisions they face on a daily basis.
"Having real-time and accurate construction equipment information on hand with integrated enterprise resource planning software can result in a quicker return on investment and increased productivity," said Sharp.
Make sure only the best data makes it to the hands of decision makers
While data mining and collecting information from a number of different sources is important for construction firms to get a leg up on their competition, focusing on data governance and quality needs to be something all firms pay more attention to, said the website.
"If you don't have data quality standards, and if you don't have a data governance framework in place, you'll end up with poor-quality data and therefore poor-quality, if not utterly misleading, insight," Tom Pringle, an independent analyst covering business technology, told Information Age.
One of the best ways to provide construction executives with the right data is by forming strong lines of communication between the employees harnessing the data and construction executives who have a good sense of what data is most important for the businesses' day-to-day tasks, the website stated.
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