Information Architecture Analysis
1. Introduction
Information technology should help organizations to understand their position in relation to their competitors, learn about their customers, monitor relationships with suppliers, and control strategic objectives. Business Intelligence (BI) technology aims to improve the quality of information delivered to managers; it is being increasingly used in the business environment and has been the subject of scientific research.
BI, or business intelligence, encompasses broad concepts: a) an intelligence tool based on information and monitoring the environment using data from various sources; b) a technological tool to support managerial business decisions in organizations by means of software. With respect to technology, systems centralize information from multiple data sources, in large quantities, stored in data warehouse systems or data marts, with flexibility in accessing, structuring, and navigating through information.
Information architecture is an important factor in making businesses more agile and based on factual analysis, rapidly and consistently providing company executives with the necessary information so that decisions can be made based on these analyses.
In a survey of large Brazilian companies, Petrini, Pozzebon, and Freitas, found that 73% had been using BI for just over 3years. The authors concluded that its implementation, at that time, was based more on technological objectives than information needs. This led to problems in the initial use of BU technology, whether in establishing information needs, defining its relevance for the business, or identifying the necessary indicators. In a more recent study, Popovic and Jaklic reported that investment in Business Intelligence in Latin America is on the rise. Brazil alone spent US$ 251 million on the sector in 2009, with a trend toward growth in the coming years. This type of technology has long been restricted to large companies. However, research points to an increase in its use among small and medium-sized companies. A study by the Gartner Group observed that many companies use BI, but some still fail in extracting the benefits of this technology and have a long way to go in building an architecture that will enable them to get the best results from this type of solution. A similar conclusion was reached by Popovic and Jaklic when analyzing the impacts of BI implementation on information quality. The authors report that a gap still exists between the needs of executives and the information provided by the system.
The importance of dynamic and agile analysis of the data registered and organized via traditional transaction processing systems justifies the study of BI application and the possibility of better information use, employing a method to define and prioritize the necessary company information for executive decision-making. This gives rise to the research question for the present study: how can information architecture meet the information needs of executives using Business Intelligence (BI) tools?
The aim of this study was to assess how information needs can be met by BI, and which of these are not registered in the current systems used by the company analyzed. A case study research strategy was applied, based on multiple data sources. The information architecture used by the company was analyzed within a framework of Business Intelligence. Architecture and technology were evaluated based on the information needs of executives, identified through semi-structured interviews, secondary data, and the suggestions of company IT analysts.
The paper is structured as follows: Sections 2, 3, and 4 address, respectively, theoretical aspects concerning information and executive decisions, information needs, and Business Intelligence. Section 5 discusses the methodological aspects of the study, while section 6 describes the case study performed. Section 7 deals with information architecture and an analysis of information needs, and section 8 contains the final considerations, limitations, and challenges for future studies. This is followed by a list of references used in the study.