Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques: Environmental Scanning Using Text Mining and Competitor Analysis Using Scenarios and Manual Simulation - Softcover

Charles Halliman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0967490634 ISBN 13: 9780967490632

Publisher: Information Uncover, 2006

Synopsis

This book is a revised edition of the book, Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques: Environmental Scanning Using Text Mining and Competitor Analysis Using Scenarios and Manual Simulation . In this revised edition, the author addresses modifications made to the intelligence techniques shown in the first edition, and he talks about the link between business intelligence and strategic management.

As stated in the first edition, this book will show the reader how to examine business environmental information to find opportunities and threats. The ability to examine environmental information has always been desirable and useful. The ability has been especially useful in SWOT analysis where an organization's strengths and weaknesses are analyzed, in conjunction with the opportunities and threats the organization may experience.

Business intelligence, text mining, environmental scanning, scenario planning, competitor analysis, and actionable information are terms often heard today in the business world. This book pulls these terms together so that they take on lucid strategic meaning. Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques is a book about using text mining to perform environmental scanning, and using scenarios and simulation to perform competitor analysis.

This book focuses on methods that identify and extract important organization-external business information. This book addresses the conversion of business information into business intelligence. And this book addresses the use of business intelligence to improve an organization's competitive position by showing how potentially profitable actions can be taken based on the intelligence.

The author considers business intelligence to be at the heart of strategic management. And he sees strategic management as the broader process of analyzing an organization's environment, establishing business objectives, and planning and engaging in activities to meet those objectives. Moreover, the author believes that being able to analyze business information to arrive at business intelligence is key to effective strategic management.

He stresses the use of text mining to identify business-related concepts. He states that the need to examine the business environment for opportunities and threats has been recognized for many years. In this book, text mining is discussed as a way to identify and extract concepts related to business opportunities and threats. And visualization methods are discussed as an aid in analyzing the concepts.

Scenario and simulation methods have been used for many years. These methods help you imagine the future and determine what events might occur. These methods also help you determine how you might best manage these events. Many scenario and simulation methods require the use of a computer. The method described in this book does not.

Many scenario and simulation methods require a lot of time and effort to establish the scenario and simulation exercise. Again, the method described in this book does not. The method shown in this book uses forms containing hand-checkable boxes (you simply put a check mark or x next to your chosen strategic option) to facilitate the scenario and simulation process.

In the method shown in the book, the analyst first determines the dominant environmental force impacting an industry. The analyst assumes that this force will help create conditions that will greatly influence the industry's future environment. The analyst then performs industry analysis presupposing the existence of environmental conditions usually associated with the dominant environmental force. After investigating industry-associated competitors, the analyst uses scenario and simulation analysis to help establish or refine a business strategy.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Business intelligence is becoming more important to more and more companies. And text mining methods can be quite useful to any company engaged in obtaining business intelligence. Business Intelligence Using Smart Techniques presents text mining as a way to perform environmental scanning. This book illustrates the use of text mining for obtaining information about environmental forces.

These forces are regulatory forces, litigation forces, political forces, governmental forces, technology forces, collaborative forces, marketing forces, foreign forces, management forces, and competitor forces. Knowledge of events associated with environmental forces usually comes from company-external sources. By analyzing text from these sources, this book shows you how to gain environmental force-related knowledge.

Many books on business intelligence don’t really talk a lot about the specifics of company-external business information analysis techniques. But this book does. It uses scenario and simulation techniques as one of its analysis methods. And the book introduces a manual simulation method that is quick and useful.

This book puts the reader inside a fictional company as a strategic planner, and it takes the reader through the process of mining and analyzing text from company-external sources. Halliman discusses the identification and extraction of business concepts. He analyzes the concepts for threats and opportunities. And he outlines strategies for dealing with the isolated threats and opportunities.

This book highlights two categories of business “concepts.” The first category deals with environmental forces that can affect a company. Halliman analyzes a ten-year period, using visualization charts and “extracted concepts” analysis.

The second category of business “concepts” deals with competitor activities. Halliman identifies and analyzes twenty competitors and their activities. The analysis of the environmental forces, the competitors, and their activities is done using analysis forms. These forms expedite the analysis process.

The user does not have to figure out what questions to ask and then try to answer them. The forms indicate the kind of information the reader should have or try to get. The forms then take the reader through the analysis process.

Environmental scanning and competitor analysis should be at the heart of any company’s business analysis tools. This book explores environmental scanning and business analysis related ideas.

If the ideas set forth in this book are applied, a company can improve its strategic position.

From the Back Cover

"Charles Halliman has written an interesting book that is certainly of value to the business community. A strong point is the book's practical orientation towards the solution of real business problems. It is clear that Halliman has experience in this area. A related strong point is the way Halliman embeds text mining in a kind of ontology for competitor and environmental analysis." ---Pieter Adriaans Co-author of Data Mining, Research Director of Syllogic, and Professor of Learning and Adaptive Systems at the University of Amsterdam

"This book establishes a novel and important connection between text mining, environmental scanning, and the use of scenarios and simulation. While the book centers on environmental scanning and scenario development, it introduces text mining as a new approach to environmental scanning. And in this book, Halliman shows that he is cognizant of some of the main thrusts in strategic theory, drawing from such work as Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy." ---William Acar, Ph.D. Co-author of Scenario-Driven Planning and Associate Professor of Management Systems at the Graduate School of Management, Kent State University

Edition details

• Publisher: Information Uncover
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0967490634
• ISBN 13: 9780967490632
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224