Do you believe that business intelligence is some mumbo jumbo fantasized by greedy management consultants who are after your hard earned cash? Are you a business owner or manager who will not employ business analysis tools? Do you think you know your business inside out? Are you confident that there is nothing you can learn about your business? In other words are you complacent? If you are any of the above then you can think again.

If you have a particularly small business which employs less than 10 people and is primarily based locally, then chances are that you know a lot about your business or if not, just enough to make sure that it doesn’t go under. However if you are running a larger show, you may never be able to understand what goes on in your company and surely that is a recipe for disaster.

It is surprising what can be discovered about your business when you explore the rich world of business process discovery. A tool of the business intelligence model, this process enables you to map the activities of your business and you may even be able to make some improvements. In this article we will highlight some of the basic processes and outcomes involved in the business discovery process (BPD). It is possible to automate the whole BPD process so that seasonal or process variations can quite easily be identified and responsive action implemented with the minimum of fuss.

BPD more often than not is primarily based on the examination of existing data/information gleaned through structured interviews with frontline staff followed by evidence-based verification via management information systems. The latter aspect can be automated depending on the resources available. At this point it is crucial to account for human subjectivity when responding to structured or even unstructured interviews as well as the frailties of memory and bias. Verification via an independent information system will provide an estimate of the reliability of the information that is being gathered.

One school of thought is that the ultimate aim of BPD is to standardize all processes, thereby eliminating the inconsistencies of human influence. Those that believe in this approach argue that computerized processed are less likely to be subject to inaccuracy and what some call noise. Whereas standardization is generally a peripatetic business objective not least because it enables proper performance management, it is also worth noting that without human influence in operations most businesses lose customer service.

The two business resources are complementary particularly when the ultimate goal is good business intelligence. It also adds to other information resources by providing data that is well sourced and subject to referrals as well as revisits of the original data sources.

What happens then when you effectively know about your company or organization? The logical step is to move on to embedding the reports from the BPD into the business intelligence model. A fringe benefit of this is that wastage and duplication is quite easily picked up and management action would presumably follow. It also facilitates the construction of business plans and bids for funding or contracts given the fact that it is actually a detailed description of what the organization actually does. So, challenge yourself and understand your business. You never know you might like it.