Knowledge and Intelligence: Like Peas and Carrots

  Business Intelligence   Manufacturing   Strategy  

Many times, clients have asked me whether business intelligence and knowledge management are the same thing. There are subtle differences between the two, but together they are a dynamic duo that can give your organization a competitive edge. The difference as defined by the industry between these two terms is that business intelligence is focused on the numerical analysis of external and internal forces while knowledge management involves the categorization of text documents and reports for easy access throughout the organization.

Business intelligence is all about numerical analysis. Business intelligence involves the slicing and dicing of data, statistical data mining analyses, and reporting on a number of things such as customer attrition, product purchases, cost analysis and manufacturing defects. All of these analyses are numerical in nature and involve no text-based information. In other words, business intelligence is all about measuring effect, not a description of the underlying causes.

These underlying causes may be captured somewhere in your corporate knowledge management system. For example, the sales management team may have put together a report saying that three states should be targeted for selling because they have experienced an explosion in population growth. This information may reside somewhere within the organization's knowledge management…

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