Evolving From Information to Insight
Organizations are increasingly able to gather and process information from a variety of new sources. But competitive advantage will still belong to those who know how to use it.
Business leaders often believe their organizations are swamped with business process information collected through their own enterprise systems or those of their business partners, most of which is trapped in data warehouses. They seek to harness it and use it to inform better decision making, financial management and customer service.1 What they do not realize is that, even if they were able to meet this goal, they would merely have caught up with yesterday. The information frontier is moving forward quickly, opening up incredibly rich streams of new information sources and formats and dramatically increasing the technical ability to manage them. Forward-looking companies must stay ahead of that curve.
Consider an everyday example. More than 30 million packages are delivered globally by courier services every business day. All too often, the recipient isn’t there to receive the package when it arrives, which is frustrating for him, the sender and the courier. The problem is that packages are directed to a physical location, which is static, but the intended recipient is mobile. Yet with information and technology available today, the delivery “address” could be a person who could be found in real time, anywhere.
How would that work? Imagine that a delivery company had access to your electronic appointments calendar and could locate you using the Global Positioning System via your vehicle or cell phone — with your permission, of course. The company could notify you of an imminent delivery and ask if a courier should bring your package directly to you right away, leave it at another location, or reschedule delivery for a more convenient time and place. Depending on your choice, you might “sign” for the package, by verifying your identity through a smart card or a thumbprint. This kind of delivery would be a highly personalized service, made possible by combining several different types of information not commonly or economically available until recently.
So far none of the major package delivery services has adopted usercentric addressing. But the technical capabilities do exist.2 In the near future, leaders in any industry will be able to draw on not only enterprise data but also information from a wealth of new sources that will create a richer, real-time picture of the world.
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1. In 2002, Accenture interviewed 163 senior executives from large organizations representing a wide range of industries worldwide. The survey revealed that top organizations were still struggling to achieve full value from enterprise solutions. Only 69% had installed enterprise solutions throughout their entire organization or in most functions and business units. The key benefits that they sought from enterprise data were better management decision making, improved fiscal management and improved customer service and retention. For more on this survey, see T.H. Davenport, J.G. Harris and S. Cantrell, “The Return of Enterprise Solutions: The Director’s Cut,” Accenture Institute for Strategic Change, October 14, 2002.
2. Prototype systems have been developed in Accenture Technology Labs. See www.accenture.com/accenturetechlabs.
