Strategic Business Intelligence at Toyota Material Handling Europe

Abstract: Business Intelligence (BI) is as an academic subject a rather unexplored research field and within the business context, BI leads an ambivalent existence. BI is foremost used either as a term capturing other intelligence terms or as a denotation for decision-support systems. Within this Master Thesis, BI is therefore approached as an umbrella concept covering both these offshoots. The Thesis is centered on a Case Study conducted at Toyota Material Handling Europe (TMHE) and the initiated process of defining and enhancing Strategic Business Intelligence. TMHE has divided their BI in Strategic and Operative BI, where the latter has been in focus historically. The Case Study indicates that it is neither pragmatic nor illustrational to define BI as an umbrella concept and that BI is too complex to be described only in one dimension (i.e. in Strategic and Operative). A new structure is proposed in which BI is described with three frameworks (Activities, Categories, and Processes); in order to better capture the complexity of the subject. As a way to improve the BI work within TMHE, an information needs analysis was conducted among the top and middle management using a modification of the World Mapping Method. The outcome of the analysis was suggestions of potential areas for coordination of information needs. To improve issues of handling of unstructured information within TMHE, there is a need for change of the organizational culture. The concepts of Wiki, RSS, and Enterprise Search, all connected to Enterprise 2.0, are seen as tools that could help the organization. Keywords: Business Intelligence, BI, Strategic Business Intelligence, Operative Business Intelligence, Information Needs Analysis, Unstructured Information, World Mapping Method, Information Handling, Enterprise 2.0, Wiki, RSS, Enterprise Search, Toyota Material Handling