Description: They’re doing it using modern business intelligence, or BI. Analyzing large sets of data to rev up business operations is as old as arithmetic.
Source: USA Today
Date: Nov 17, 2010
Sitting in a cafe in Sydney awhile back, Danny Kennedy and Andrew Birch mused about all the valuable free data Microsoft and Google float out on the Internet. In particular, they wondered if they could tap into the tech giants’ mapping services to remotely design rooftop solar energy systems using satellite images and aerial photos. Turns out they could. Four years after that “aha” moment, Kennedy and Birch operate Sungevity, a thriving solar energy firm with 100 employees involved in designing residential solar energy systems. Click here for rest of story
Questions for discussion:
- How has Business Intelligence spurred on the development of unique business start-ups?
- How have data visualization tools changed who uses BI in an organization?
- What skill sets do you think will be the most important for employees to posses in using BI in the future?
justine.kennedy
I believe the most important skill set to posses in using BI is creativity. As Business intelligence and technology evolves it will surely become a norm in the business world. In order to maintain a competitive edge, businesses will have to continually and creatively modify their uses of BI to ensure their use is of cutting edge. Sure, Danny and Andrew were able to take high resolution photos of rooftops and transform it into information usable to start up there company but soon everyone will have access to information similar to that of the photos. So, again creativity and an ability to step out of the box and utilize technology in a different way than your competitors will be the most important skill an employee will have to posses. If not, technology will remain equal among businesses and no business will have an edge of the other.
Mark Molendyk
One of the most important skill would be intelligence. People in the business world will have to think up ideas for their companies to use for BI. For these 2 men to think up this idea was very good for their business. In 4 years, they took this from a simple idea and transformed it into a large company. Another important skill would be creativity and being able to think of things that no one else has thought of. If people have this skill, companies will be impressed by their intelligence and creativity to create different technologies that will change how people and societies do certian things. And with this increased intelligence and creativity, it will give the companies competative advantage over some of the other companies. Technology will always be changing and it is up to us to keep up with it. If we are able to, we can use it to our advantage and make life easier for everyone and make the company profitable and successful.
Alex Dechant
In my own personal opinion i believe that the most important skill set for employees to posses in BI (business intelligence) is creativity. Due to the hug spending and the great amount of demand for BI, employees are going to need to be creative to come up with new ways of using this technology to become successful. In order to maintain a companys’ competitive advantage individuals within the company are going to need to possess creative skills to stand out among the competition. With the creative skills that the two men in the case possessed, they were able to create the highly successful company Sungevity. This is why i believe creativity to be the most important skill set for employees to posses in BI.
tyson.baldrey
The ability to effectively interpret data is key in the survival of a business. You can take any business model or concept and apply it to an organization. But, in order for them to function properly there needs to be a viable way of interpreting the inputs. Data visualization tools make it possible to achieve this without having teams Nuclear-algorithm-biochemist-supercalifragilistic engineers to interpret and compute the data. It is now possible for everyone right from the CEO down to his 10 year old daughter to understand the cause and effect of daily business operations. Knowledge equates to dollars and the key to developing knowledge is an accurate understanding of new information. You can create motivated efficiencies in an organization by eliminating the downfalls of ambiguity.
Brittany H
Business Intelligence spurred on the development of unique business start-ups by making it easier to analyze large sets of data. The public is getting more and more knowledgeable about technology and so it makes it easier for people to use business intelligence to start some unique businesses. The Birds-eye view images that Sungevity uses and that it created software to measure roof dimensions is a very practical thing because it makes it safer for people. The data visualization tools changed who uses BI in an organization by making it more accessible and more useful for everyone to use. I think that the ideas that the solar energy firm is a unique business that was aided by BI. They used information that they got off the internet from the big tech guys to come up with a great business.