The term "collaborative" refers to an organized group of people who work towards achieving a common goal. Business intelligence, on the other hand, is defined as a process driven by technology that is used for data analysis and presentation [1] of actionable information that assists executives, managers, and other figure 1 shown below corporate end-users to make informed business decisions.

Figure 1: Collaborative Business Intelligence

Collaborative Business Intelligence (CBI) is a concept that involves the integration of Business Intelligence (BI) and collaborative technological tools in order to support an organization in making new and improved business decisions.

According to BI industry thought leader, Wayne Eckerson, Collaborative BI or Collaborative Business Intelligence is now moving from a niche-nice-to-have capability to an industry-defining component of leading BI solutions: “Most people don’t make decisions in a vacuum; they share ideas, options, and perspectives [2] with others. Nor do they analyze data in a vacuum, at least anomalies or variances that require further attention. When people exchange ideas on a topic, they refine each other’s knowledge, fill in the gaps, and challenge assumptions. The result is a more comprehensive understanding of a situation and a better course of action.

Cooperative interaction Business managers and users feel comfortable to interact with one another to improve communication as part of BI initiatives. They will be able to share BI findings and discuss their meaning and possible options for improving business performance. Ease of discovery and documentation of ensuing discussions are key features of collaborative BI or Collaborative Business Intelligence.

Enriching information with knowledge Users also will be able to add their own knowledge to BI results. Through collaborative processes, users can share information about why events are unfolding the way they are to provide a business context to findings, and they can point to related data and content. Published BI results can be enhanced through feedback mechanisms such as by providing a social media-style forum within the collaborative Business Intelligence tool itself, for the discussion and dissemination of ideas surrounding reporting and analytics, create a knowledge-sharing network that improves the reach of information and analysis throughout an organization and across departmental lines.

Benefits of Collaborative BI

• Faster and more informed decision-making – subject matter experts and decision makers can quickly share ideas and drive cohesive fact-based decisions.
• Knowledge Sharing – encourages [3] diverse groups to interact with a common focus and gather ideas that otherwise may not have been visible to the decision makers.
• Employee Satisfaction – empowers employees by giving them a means of voicing thoughts and ideas in a targeted way, and enables them to better see an association between a decision and the conversations that led up to it.
• Stakeholder Involvement – with the right tools and/or processes, stakeholders can respond at a time that is convenient to them; this is especially important when stakeholders have busy schedules and are in multiple time zones.
• Audit trail – decisions and conversations can be saved and referred back to at a later date; having a documented decision trail can also reduce decision churn and prevent having the same discussion multiple times.
• Security – more cutting-edge collaboration tools integrate security with their collaboration offering. This enforces report permissions for those being asked to review a report and ensure they authorized to view it.

References:

1. https://thebusinessprofessor.com/mgmt-operations/collaborative-business-intelligence-definition#:~:text=Collaborative%20Business%20Intelligence%20%28CBI%29%20is%20a%20concept%20that,%26%20SUPPLY%20CHAIN%20MANAGEMENT%20Collaborative%20Business%20Interaction%20Tools
2. https://www.defteam.com/collaborative-bi-vis-a-vis-better-decision-making/
3. https://plastergroup.com/collaborative-business-intelligence/

Cite this article:

Nandhinidwaraka.S (2021) The Collaborative Business Intelligence, AnaTechmaz, pp. 21