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Business
Realising the strategic impact intelligence tools
of business intelligence tools
Ravi S. Sharma and Vironica Djiaw
School of Communication and Information, 113
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of business intelligence (BI) tools
as enablers of knowledge sharing used by employees in the organisation. This practice-oriented article
on the deployment and impact of BI tools in industry suggests a balanced scorecard (BSC) approach to
performance management. More specifically, a suite of web 2.0 tools is used in the practice of BI and
their impact measured with a BSC.
Design/methodology/approach – The research proposition is that the effectiveness of BI is indeed
strategic and relates to its corporate performance. This claim is validated using a global information
technology consultancy firm’s BI unit as the lead case of an immersive field study. Research
engagements with four other firms provide corroborative support.
Findings – The BSC approach to deriving targets and ascertaining outcomes was shown to be
applicable to good practice. The converse is equally valid. That is, strategic performance management
requires the use of BI in order to be sound. Therefore, tools such as web 2.0 and data analytics, must be
outcome driven with planned targets identified.
Practical implications – BI is a necessary activity for deriving improved performance. It aids in
the identification of a firm’s knowledge strengths, as well as gaps with respect to its environment.
The key message to executives is that Peter Drucker was right – we cannot manage what we do not
measure!
Originality/value – The use of BI as a strategic knowledge management technique is a composite of
a host of web 2.0 tools. It does not stand in isolation from other initiatives for exploiting knowledge in
order to drive performance.
Keywords Knowledge management, Knowledge management systems, Balanced scorecard,
Organizational performance, Marketing intelligence
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Improving the productivity of knowledge workers is one of the most important challenges
for companies that face the transition from the industrial economy to an economy based
on information and knowledge (Drucker, 1999). Key to this transition for business is an
understanding of the marketplace. However, most “business intelligence (BI)” efforts
have failed to address this problem and have resulted in solutions for information
management instead (Bohn, 1994; Lee and Kim, 2001; Malhotra, 1999; Wensley, 2000).
Organisations have also failed to realise the full potential of implemented BI and other
knowledge management tools to increase corporate performance (Anantatmula and
Kanungo, 2005; Eccles, 1991; Geishecker and Rayner, 2001; Grembergen and Bruggen, VINE: The journal of information and
1997; Lee et al., 2005; Massey and Montoya-Weiss, 2002). knowledge management systems
Vol. 41 No. 2, 2011
pp. 113-131
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
The authors collaborated on this field study as part of the ongoing efforts at understanding and 0305-5728
developing frameworks and tools for industrial knowledge management. DOI 10.1108/03055721111134772
VINE This study explores the effectiveness of BI tools as enablers of knowledge sharing
41,2 used by employees in the organisation. This is achieved through a case study of an
information technology (IT) consulting firm’s BI unit in Singapore. The case is arguably
a typical scenario of a knowledge-driven, process-oriented business organisation.
The study addresses two specific research questions. First, how can the balanced
scorecard (BSC) be implemented with BI tools in order to manage corporate performance?
114 Specifically, the research seeks to establish actionable attributes that in turn lead to
greater understanding of the effectiveness of typical BI tools. The premise is that
effectiveness denotes the capability of being used to a purpose. Hence, we posit that an
organisation will need to close the gap between execution and strategy with the help of a
BSC in order to increase the effectiveness of existing BI tools.
Second, how does corporate performance management that encompasses BI,
contribute to the success of the organisation? Could it perhaps lead to more scientific
management since decisions are based on measurement and tracking? For this purpose,
the research focuses on understanding the underlying relations between corporate
performance management and BI. In turn, these synergies define the contributions to
organisational performance. It is intended that the results of our investigations will help
in addressing the gap in the strategy and implementation of BI tools and processes.
The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. Section 2 is a review of BI, its link
with performance management and the BSC approach, and a field research procedure for
conducting a BSC investigation. In Section 3, a description of the context of the case and
particularly, the use of some more-commonly used BI tools are given. Section 4 is a field
analysis of how these BI tools were used in the IT firm that served as a case environment.
It specifically explores the link between BI and strategic performance management.
The paper concludes with a recapitulation of key findings and implications for
management.

2. Performance management and the BSC

2.1 Review of processes, tools and strategies
BI is a systematic process, by which knowledge needed for an organisation to compete
effectively, is created, captured, shared and leveraged (Foo et al., 2007). The source of
such knowledge may be internal or external, individual or collective, historical or
forecasted. BI hence consists of a dynamic and continuous set of processes and practices
embedded in individuals, as well as in groups and organisational structures. At any
point in time, any part of a given organisation may be engaged in several different
aspects of BI that attempts to constitute a 3608 view of its business health status. Thus,
it is not discrete, independent and monolithic organisational phenomenon.
Effron (2004, p. 40) asserts that given the definition of knowledge as “the fact or
condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or
association”, it is “impossible to acquire ‘knowledge’ without either experiencing
something yourself or interacting with someone else who has”. The key to BI is to
capture and share such knowledge. BI is often confused with IT systems and processes.
Unlike information, knowledge resides in the experiences of people in different contexts.
As noted above, the aim of BI in an organisation is to work within business processes
that create, and transfer knowledge throughout the organisation. If knowledge is created
and transferred via human experiences then these business processes must encompass
an understanding of how people learn and transfer their knowledge (Effron, 2004).
 According to Alavi and Leidner (2001), it is not the quantity of knowledge capital that Business
is a strategic advantage but the organisation’s ability to effectively apply the existing intelligence tools
knowledge to create new knowledge. There are many studies that support BI initiatives
and their contribution in aligning organisational goals with objectives. One of them is
from report based on a survey of 423 organisations from Europe and the USA (KPMG,
2000). In the survey, KPMG identified several expected BI outcomes. They are:
.
better decision making; 115
.
better customer handling;
.
faster response to key business issues;
.
improved employee skills;
.
improved productivity;
.
increased profits;
.
sharing best practices;
.
reduced costs;
.
increased market share;
.
creation of new business opportunities; and
.
improved new product development.

A poll of executives from 80 large companies in the USA, such as BP, Chemical Bank,
Hewlett-Packard and Kodak, revealed that 80 per cent believed managing the knowledge
capital of their organisation should be an essential or important part of business strategy
(Takeuchi, 1998). Strategic goals and business requirements drive process requirements,
which in turn determine knowledge requirements and BI initiatives will be effective
when they are aligned with the performance goals and requirements of a business, its
processes, and its people (Massey and Montaya-Weiss, 2002). Davenport and Probst
(2001) suggest that BI is also about creating synergy in organisations and it will increase
business performance by aligning individual goals with organisational goals. Hence,
the link between BI and corporate performance management has been long held.
Typically, BI outcomes are achieved through the business processes which are
implemented with tools and information systems in order to empower the acquisition,
integration, sharing and dissemination of organisational knowledge (Bartlett, 1998;
Sensiper, 1997). According to Ruggles (1997) and Wensley (2000), BI tools could be
categorised into four types of systems as shown in Table I.
Generally, knowledge management systems (KMSs) refer to a class of information
systems applied to managing organisational knowledge. These IT-based systems are
developed to support and enhance the organisational processes of knowledge creation,

KMS Functions

1. Content management tools Integrate, classify and codify knowledge from various sources
2. Knowledge-sharing tools Support sharing knowledge between people or other agents
3. Knowledge search and retrieval Knowledge-discovery abilities Table I.
systems Four categories
4. General KMSs Overall solution to the company’s BI needs of BI systems
VINE storage and retrieval, transfer, and application. Many BI initiatives also rely on IT as an
41,2 important enabler. IT provides a number of tools that facilitate the free sharing of
knowledge among co-workers and team members. On the other hand, not all BI
initiatives require an implementation of IT to make them successful (Davenport and
Prusak, 1998; Malhotra, 1999; O’Dell and Grayson, 1998). Conducting a desktop analysis
using Porter’s five forces to describe an industry is an example where little or no IT but a
116 high degree of market experience is needed. Therefore, it is important to consider the
human and social factors at play in the implementation and use of BI tools. Hence, BI
initiatives are executed by combining IT, organisational structures, and cognitive-based
strategies to raise the yield of existing knowledge and produce new knowledge.
In the highly competitive global marketplace, it is also important to realise that BI
plays a key role in business processes within the organisation. BI goes beyond the sharing
of database or policies but it also involves employee’s sharing and expertise. BI tools
combine IT and a knowledge-sharing culture to create a central repository of intellectual
assets, helping the various stakeholders in the company to effectively discharge their
roles and in achieving their strategic business goals. Hence, knowledge strategies can be
a reflection of business objectives.
Many knowledge-based enterprises, and especially IT consulting firms, focus on the
effective use of the intellectual assets within the organisation with the following
objectives:
(1) improve overall corporate performance;
(2) increase organisational competencies;
(3) increase the capability to form teams and develop communities;
(4) increase the effectiveness of managing intellectual assets; and
(5) enable collaboration among employees, systems and enterprises.

The effective use of the intellectual assets within the organisation approach, centers on
enhancing strategic thinking within the organisation through a centralised knowledge
platform which acts as a catalyst for innovative ideas. By creating a culture of knowledge
sharing with an emphasis on learning, the firm will be able to reduce the development
time to market new products and services, increase reusability, improve quality of the
deliverables and manage costs better (Rao, 2003, p. 235). An instance of this is the typical IT
consulting firm’s approach to implementing an information application for clients where the
efficient reuse of codified knowledge is essential. In such cases, it is clear that the customer
benefits because the consultants can build a reliable, high-quality enterprise application
faster and at a better price by using work plans, software codes and solutions that have been
fine-tuned and proven successful. A defining consideration in the use of BI tools is the nature
of competitive knowledge in two forms – codification and personalisation.
Codification emphasises the capability to create, store, share and use organisation’s
explicitly documented knowledge. The strategy emphasises codifying and storing
knowledge. Typically, explicit knowledge is easily codified using IT (Davenport et al.,
1998; Lee and Kim, 2001; Liebowitz and Wilcox, 1997; Swan et al., 2000). Codified
knowledge is more likely to be reused. The emphasis is on completely specified sets of
rules about what to do under every possible set of circumstances (Bohn, 1994).
On the other hand, personalisation emphasises knowledge sharing via interpersonal
interaction. The strategy utilises dialogue through social networks including
occupational groups and teams (Swan et al., 2000). It helps to share knowledge through Business
communication via person to person (Hansen et al., 1999). This strategy attempts to acquire intelligence tools
internal and opportunistic knowledge and share it informally (Jordan and Jones, 1997).
Knowledge, mostly in its tacit form, can be obtained from experienced and skilled people.
This strategy can be referred to as human strategy especially in the context of IT consulting.
However, several studies have different views on the guidelines for employing
codification or personalisation. Some claim that organisations should pursue one strategy 117
while using another to support it (Hansen et al., 1999). Others found that organisations
that acquire and share knowledge by combining codification and personalisation
strategies tend to be more profitable (Bierly and Chakrabarti, 1996). Yet, others hold that
there should be also a balance between explicit and tacit knowledge-based strategy for
encouraging the development of more innovative knowledge (Jordan and Jones, 1997).
And another claim is that organisations that employ an aggressive strategy, which
integrates codification strategy with personalisation strategy, tend to outperform those of
less aggressive strategy (Zack, 1999). The net result is that both codification and
personalisation are necessary for BI.

2.2 Corporate performance management

Corporate performance management adds value to the business by focusing on how an
organisation develops, implements and monitors strategic plans (Eccles, 1991). This
strategic focus is kept throughout all business management processes. Corporate
performance management is therefore about the execution of the strategic plan
(Nickols, 2003).
Corporate performance management takes a holistic approach to the implementation
and monitoring of strategy. It combines business methodologies, business processes and
systems with each category represented by the following:
.
Business methodologies. BSCs and metrics that are specific measures used within
strategic planning.
.
Processes. Procedures that align the right information and resources to strategic
objectives.
. Systems. Technology solutions that combine the business methodologies and
business processes into a single management system.

Corporate performance management differs from other approaches to performance

management in that it leverages both technology and best business practices to help
management answer the key questions around the formulation and implementation of
strategy with a bird’s eye view of the operating environment.
Corporate performance management enables a closed-loop process which comprises
four inter-related phases:
(1) strategies and objectives;
(2) derived targets and metrics;
(3) execution of strategic plans; and
(4) measurement and analysis (Kurtzman, 1997; Veth, 2006).

It starts with an understanding of where the organisation is today, where it wants to

go to, what targets should be set, and how resources should be allocated to achieve
VINE these targets. Once plans have been set, the system monitors the implementation of
41,2 those plans, highlights exceptions, and provides insights as to why they occurred. The
system hence supports the evaluation of alternatives from which decisions can be
made and closes the loop by leading back to the decision on where the organisation
wants to go (Lee and Kim, 2001; Zikmund, 1997).
Corporate performance management at best enables management to communicate
118 and drive strategy through the entire organisation in a way that helps management act
and make decisions that support the strategic objectives and targets. It helps the
organisation to focus on key issues and critical data, rather than on all the data and
events that are possible. As Paladina (2007) puts it: it delivers the right information to the
right people at the right time in the right context. The nexus between BI and corporate
performance management is clear and simple.

2.3 The balanced scorecard

The BSC, first developed by Kaplan and Norton (1996a, b), is a tool that tracks the
execution of an organisation’s vision. It does more than just measure performance. It is
a management system that focuses the efforts of people, throughout the organisation,
toward achieving strategic objectives. It gives feedback on current performance and
targets future performance. Put in another way, the BSC converts an organisation’s
vision and strategy into a comprehensive set of performance and action measures
that provides the basis for a strategic measurement and management system. It is a
still popular approach to measuring an organisation’s performance, and one that
has been widely adopted in BI (Geishecker and Rayner, 2001; Grembergen and
Bruggen, 1997).
In summary, the BSC complements financial measures of past performance with
measures of the drivers of future performance. The objectives and measures of the
scorecard are derived from an organisation’s vision and strategy. The objectives and
measures view organisational performance from the four perspective: financial,
customer, internal business process and learning and growth. These four perspectives
and their accompanying objectives, measures, targets and initiatives provide the
framework for using the balanced scorecard[1].
In addition to the well-known financial perspective, the customer perspective includes
measures relating to the identification of target groups for the organisation’s products in
addition to marketing focused measures of customer satisfaction and retention. The
internal business process draws heavily from the concept of the value chain. Kaplan and
Norton had indeed included all the processes relating to the realisation of products and
services to satisfy customer needs. Finally, the learning and growth perspective includes
all measures relating to employees and systems that the company has in place to
facilitate learning and knowledge diffusion.
The BSC expands the set of business unit objectives beyond summary financial
measures. Executives can now measure how their business units create value for current
and future customers and how they must enhance internal capabilities and the
investment in people, systems and procedures necessary to improve future performance.
The BSC thus captures the critical value-creation activities created by skilled, motivated
organisational knowledge. While retaining via the financial perspective, an interest in
short-term performance, the BSC clearly reveals the value drivers for superior long-term
financial and competitive performance (Wensley, 2000; Zikmund, 1997).
 However, the idea of monitoring non-financial measures is not new (Eccles, 1991). Business
In the early 1990s, many organisations were already measuring cycle times, quality intelligence tools
rates, customer satisfaction, market shares: all of which are non-financial. The new
concept, however, was to encourage the systematic measurement of these quantities,
and to link all these measures in a coherent system. A similar suggestion emerged in
France in the 1950s and 1960s, and coalesced into a tool known as La Tableau de Bord.
But the literature on the Tableau, however, was never translated, and thus did not catch 119
on across the Atlantic (Epstein and Manzoni, 1998).
The advantage of a measurement system in BI terms is that it directly links growth,
learning, customer capital, economic value added and other knowledge assets to process
performance, which in turn linked with overall organisational performance. In contrast
to traditional accounting measures, the BSC organises its measurement system in four
perspectives. The financial perspective includes traditional accounting measures.
Research has suggested the adoption of different measures for different parts of the
company, sacrificing comparability to fit with the strategic business units strategy
(Massey and Montoya-Weiss, 2002). Hence, tools that support a BSC must measure and
monitor the knowledge assets of various parts of the organisation.

2.4 Strategies and measurement

Nickols (2003) suggested that the primary focus of strategy is about getting it right and
doing it right. On the one hand, an organisation has to pick the right course of action.
On the other hand, once chosen, the organisation has to execute it effectively (and know
that it has!). If organisation’s strategy and its execution are both flawed, or even if only
one of the two was sound, the chances of success are zero. Only when the strategy and
its execution are sound will the organisation stand a good chance of success in meeting
objectives and targets.
According to Zack (1999), an organisation having unique access to valuable resources
is in a way creating competitive advantage. But in some cases, this may not be possible,
or competitors may imitate or develop substitutes for those resources. Organisations
having superior BI, however, are able to coordinate and combine their traditional
resources and capabilities in new and distinctive ways, providing more value for their
customers than can their competitors. That is, by having superior intellectual resources,
an organisation can understand how to exploit and develop its traditional resources
better than competitors through the use of BI tools. Therefore, knowledge can be
considered the most important strategic resource. The ability to acquire, integrate, store,
share and apply it becomes the most important capability for building and sustaining
competitive advantage. The broadest value proposition, then, for engaging in BI is that it
can enhance the organisation’s fundamental ability to compete.
To achieve success in BI initiatives, an organisation is required to close the gap
between the execution and strategy of implementing business objectives. A firm
that adopts this process can expect to outperform its competitors (Paladino, 2007).
This situation is further compounded by the fact that, in most organisations, the
strategic plan is normally devised by the upper management while the execution takes
place at the lower level, steered by the executives at tactical level (Kurtzman, 1997).
Therefore, this paper presupposes that in addressing the gap between execution
and strategy, better corporate performance with the help of implementing a BSC,
will be the result.
VINE More specifically, a BSC may be implemented as a measurement for BI tools which
41,2 involves processes, people and technology. This spawns two fundamental research
questions:
RQ1. How can the BSC be implemented with BI tools to optimise corporate
performance?
120 RQ2. How does corporate performance management that encompasses BI
contribute to the success of the organisation in terms of effectiveness?
The framework shown in Figure 1 illustrates the context of the research questions. In other
words, we take the synergistic view that just as BI is necessary for the measurement of
key BSC performance metrics, corporate performance management must be guided in a
sound and valid manner in which key competitive measurements are derived.
To increase business performance, the gap between strategy and execution need to be
closed through the effectiveness of BI tools. This involves the mapping of each BI tool
into the BSC. The organisation must be aligned around a clear and concise strategy for
competing effectively. The strategy is what feeds the BSC. Therefore, a strategic plan
needs to be constructed which includes the identification of the specific objectives that
inform what to do with the BI tools and a set of targets to convey what is expected.
Measurements are established for each strategic objective of the BI tools in the areas
identified. The measurement criteria provide the targets which can then be used to
measure the level of success in achieving them.
The theoretical reasoning that is used in the research goes as follows. BI drives the
establishment of a BSC for corporate performance. Such an approach requires the prior
establishment of corporate objectives, targets, initiatives and measures that define the
success of an organisation’s strategic vision. Targets are set for each measurement.
Measurement alone is not good sufficient. Organisation must drive behavioural changes
if the strategy is expected to be executed. This requires establishing a target for each
measurement within the BSC. Targets are designed to stretch and push the organisation
in meeting its strategic objectives. The initiatives are designed and launched to achieve
the targets set for each BI tool. Finally, the organisation needs to close the loop and put
specific initiatives in place to make the vision happen. This will bring success to the
execution of the strategy which will increase the corporate performance.
Based on a synthesis of the research literature (Anantatmula and Kanungo, 2005;
Epstein and Manzoni, 1998; Geishecker and Rayner, 2001; Grembergen and Bruggen,
1997; Grembergen, 2000; Kurtzman, 1997; Lee et al., 2005; Massey and Montoya-Weiss,
2002; Paladino, 2007), we developed a seven-step procedure to create a BSC. This is

Increase corporate performance

Effective use of
Strategy Execution
BI tools

Figure 1.
Corporate performance
BSC

management framework Objectives Measures Targets Initiatives

shown in Figure 2. Note that BI, being a subset of knowledge management, is closely tied Business
to the flow of knowledge and the exploitation of both internal and external knowledge as intelligence tools
an outcome. Hence, it should not be a surprise that in the sequence of procedures for
creating a BSC shown in Figure 2, much attention is being paid to KM tools per se with
respect to strategy, objectives, targets and outcomes. It is intended that the BSC
approach reveal gaps in the alignment of an organisation’s BI strategy to execution.
121
3. The case of an IT consulting firm
The subject of the case research is an IT consulting firm which offers consulting and IT
services worldwide. We selected the BI group based in Singapore as the unit of analysis
for both convenience[2], as well as sophistication. The firm’s BI unit has the mandate to
help consumer-oriented organisations efficiently and effectively utilise enterprise data
to gain strategic and tactical advantage over its competitors. The unit was established

Step1:
Assessment of organisation’s knowledge management tools

Step 2:
Development of knowledge management strategies

Step 3:
Decomposition of knowledge management strategies into smaller
components, called “objectives”

Step 4:
“Measures” and “targets” are developed to track both strategic
and operational progress

Step 5:
“Initiatives” are identified that need to be implemented to ensure
knowledge management strategies are successful

Step 6:
Cascading the balanced scorecard throughout the organisation to
business and support units, and ultimately to teams and Quarterly
individuals evaluation
and revision
of balanced
scorecard
Step 7: Figure 2.
Evaluating the success of chosen knowledge management Seven steps to
strategies creating the BSC
VINE in 1997 with strength of 288 employees. Headquartered in Singapore with subsidiaries in
41,2 Malaysia and India, the BI unit has a strong brand reputation as a niche consulting
player in the Asia-Pacific region with strong domain expertise in financial services and
telecommunications verticals and strong consulting skills in all aspects of BI. Its list of
clients include Fortune 500 companies in the Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe.
Figure 3 shows the structure and strength of the BI unit. The IT consulting firm
122 started internal KM initiatives to address the pain areas of its project managers and
presales teams by filling the current information and knowledge gaps in 2001. These
KM initiatives were specifically targeted for enhancing the communication among
project management and presales activities. In 2004, these KM initiatives had spread
its wings and shares information among all its employees. By focusing on employees’
pattern of working and their business priorities, the company had launched a series of
KM tools which later evolved to a service line for clients.
Whether for itself or clients, the firm soon realised that all organisational knowledge
could be utilised for competitive advantage. The management thinking at the company
was to use KM to leverage existing resources with appropriate tools and methods to
increase corporate performance. Naturally, there was specific interest in using KM tools
for the purpose of BI for the firm, as well as its clients. The expectation from clients of the
IT consulting firm was one of physician, heal thyself. The firm therefore deployed nine
fundamental tools for its knowledge work and to the practice of BI. Through the skilful
utilisation of the tools (often in combination) a 3608 perspective of knowledge relating
to finance, internal process, the customer and growth could be derived. And as would

Head of business
intelligence-Singapore
(1 staff)

Marketing Service
Sales team
support delivery team
(8)
(5) (6)

Resourcing Project
team managers
(6) (40)

Consultants
Figure 3. (232)
Organisation of BI unit
be expected for such a 3608 knowledge mining exercise, these tools were utilised across Business
codification vs personalisation, individual vs group, internal vs external, historical vs intelligence tools
forecast data. Brief descriptions of these nine tools are given as follows:
(1) Webinar (Web Seminar). A webinar is a presentation, lecture, workshop or
seminar that is transmitted over the web. A key feature of a webinar is its
interactive elements – the ability to give, receive and discuss information. The
online seminars allow participants to ask the instructor questions and get answers 123
in real time. The internal or external instructor will be able to conduct polls and
ask questions. Webinars offer exceptional convenience and are very cost-effective
especially when travel is not required to attend such events. The firm deems this
a critical personalisation tool for collective knowledge sharing and diffusion.
(2) e-Learning. e-Learning provides consultants opportunities to learn and upgrade
their knowledge online in an anytime, anywhere manner. It is part of corporate
education where the medium of instruction is the enterprise knowledge portal.
E-learning is used interchangeably in a wide variety of contexts. In the
organisation, it is the preferred strategy to use the organisation network to
deliver specific training courses to consultants and clients. This tool is a key
aspect of growth and learning within the firm’s consultants.
(3) e-Buddy. e-Buddy is an online application concerning human resource
management that connects an employee with the human resource department.
The application covers human resource processes and thus, knowledge workers
are able to track their personal human resource matters such as expatriate
arrangement, career advancement opportunities. On top of this, it also performs
as a recruitment tool to attract new talents through referral or recommendations
from existing employees using their social capital.
(4) e-Library. e-Library provides consultants with efficient access to high-quality
information to support their learning, research and analysis needs. Recognising
the unique challenges of a consultant or client acquiring knowledge, the e-library
is integrated with work requirements to provide seamless, single-sign-on access
anytime, anywhere. In addition to templates, deliverables, best practices and
how-to guides, the library collection comprises of full-text journals, White Papers
and books on a broad range of subjects. The e-library is the most significant
source of codified, collective knowledge in the firm from internal, as well as
external resources.
(5) IT Service Desk. This is an online support 24 £ 7 which provides solution to
IT-related problems. Users may search and retrieve possible solutions from the
knowledge base which is available on the web. If they are unable to get an
immediate solution, a ticket will be given for a new technical issue being raised.
The database contains a collection of solutions to technical problems as is the
case with Microsoft MSDN. It enables users to retrieve information from one
place and increase the quality of information which is helpful to another who
faces the same technical problem.
(6) Blog. This is a corporate blog that is published and used by the organisation.
The advantage of the blog is that the posts and comments are easy to reach and
follow due to centralised hosting, and generally structured conversation threads.
The organisation’s blog is an internal one that is generally accessed through
VINE the organisation’s intranet which any employee can view. These blogs are often
41,2 used in lieu of meetings and e-mail discussions, and can be especially useful when
the employees involved are in different locations, or have conflicting schedules.
Blogs encourage the personalisation of employee participation, free discussion of
issues, collective intelligence and direct communication among various layers of
an organisation.
124 (7) Technical forum. The purpose of the technical forum is to increase internal
technical competency. Such a technical forum is a web-based discussion group
to provide ideas, consultation and solution of technical-related problems.
Consultants and clients will have a chance to interact with other members in the
forum to learn and broaden their knowledge and shared their view when they
encounter a problem from multiple perspectives. They may initiate discussions
and post-technical-related issues on web. Lastly, they are able to seek advice
from others in the forum for solutions to technical problem that they are facing,
or they can also suggest and share their technical experience to others.
(8) Collaboration World. The Collaboration World is a software platform designed to
help consultants involved in a common task and achieve their goals through
groupware or workgroup support systems. Collaborative management tools
facilitate and manage group activities. Examples of such activities include:
electronic calendars – schedule events and automatically notify, and remind
group members; project management systems – schedule, track and chart the
steps in a project as it is being completed; workflow systems – collaborative
management of tasks and documents within a knowledge-based business
process; extranet systems – collect, organise, manage and share information
associated with the delivery of a project; online spreadsheets – collaborate and
share structured data and information.
(9) Mentoring. Mentoring is an online personal development and empowerment
tool. It is an effective way of helping people to progress in their careers. It is a
partnership between two people (mentor and mentee) normally working in a
similar field or sharing similar experiences online. The mentor helps the mentee
to find the right direction and develops solutions to career issues. Mentoring is a
significant contributor to individual growth and development.

In principle, the effectiveness of BI tools must be guided by an organisation’s goals

and bottom-line results. If BI tools do not contribute to an organisation’s business and
performance, top management would not support further investments of time and
resources for such initiatives in the near future. Thus, using the BSC approach, it makes
sense to relate these research findings to bottom-line results by implementing a scorecard
that translates its BI strategy into a set of objectives and measures. The result of such an
exercise is shown in Table II. This table was derived using the procedures shown in
Figure 2 by the authors (one of whom interned at the firm for a six-month period and was
able to directly observe and analyse the impact of BI tools on corporate performance).
Interviews and workshops with key executives and lead users, as well as a user
survey of tool effectiveness for various problem scenarios were conducted over this
period. As the study was not meant as action research, the researchers took great care to
remain unobtrusive and used numerous sources of secondary data from the corporate
finance and IT departments. The scorecard was then used to communicate objectives,
BI tools Objectives Target Initiatives Measures

1. Webinar (1) Deliver advance knowledge and (1) Achieve 100 webinar events (1) Conduct (online) web seminars by (1) Number of webinar events
(Web Seminar) innovative knowledge per week inviting partners, customers and rated “effective”
(2) Increase internal communication in (2) Achieve an attendance rate vendors to share their knowledge (2) Number of participants per
organisation of 90 per cent per webinar (2) Initiate a regular technical meeting webinar event
(3) Combine the consulting and event with the market players to share (3) Number of subject matter
implementation expertise with (3) Achieve 40 per cent of their technical knowledge, skill and experts invited from the
partners’ product capabilities to webinar events to be best practice industry and innovation
provide real value for customers conducted by guest lecturers centres
(4) Alliances between the market
leaders and the niche technology
vendors in data warehousing, BI
and performance management
2. e-Learning Increase internal competency (1) Lead time reduction by Provide e-learning for employee to (1) Number of e-learning
25 per cent enhance their knowledge and getting sessions per day
(2) Increase revenue 80 per cent of the employee to obtain (2) Number of e-learning hours
contribution of more professional certification per employees
US$20 million (3) Number of consultants who
(3) Increase the average hold internal and
learning hour for employee professional certifications
to eight hours per week
(4) Increase the productivity of
new hires by 10 per cent
3. e-Buddy and Search new talents Increase the number of new Introduce e-buddy and e-channel Number of referrals
B-channel hires by 15 per cent programmes through internal
networks
4. E-library Increase internal competency (1) Increase the published paper (1) Distribute internal magazine and (1) Number of publications by
by 15 per cent journal through e-library external media
(continued)
Business

for IT consulting
Summary BSC

firm under study

intelligence tools

125

Table II.
 41,2

126
VINE

Table II.
BI tools Objectives Target Initiatives Measures

(2) Achieve 100 per cent (2) Encourage consultants to (2) Number of associates who
certification for the contribute to thought leadership contribute to writing
employees (3) Encourage consultants to articles
participate in internal and and thought leadership
professional certification
5. IT Service (1) Reduce cycle time Increase cost effectiveness Provide online technical support Time spent to resolve
Desk 24 £ 7 problems and issues
6. Blog (1) Increase innovation and creativity Increase number of innovative (1) Encourage consultants to (1) Number of blog postings
(2) Generate new idea to improve ideas contribute new ideas (2) Number of new ideas
business processes (2) Provide blog for associates to share contributed
their thoughts and aspirations
through informal interaction
7. Technical (1) Reduce cycle time Increase number of projects Using reusable components in project (1) Number of “bugs” detected
forum (2) Less time from design to full with zero defect (bugs) by 30 development per project
production per cent (2) Number of rework hours
(3) Innovate at a faster rate
(4) Reduce rework
(5) Reduce defect
8. Collaboration (1) Generate more revenue (1) Become the top three IT Encourage consultants to contribute (1) Number of testimonials
World (2) Increase industry recognition consulting firm in the world ideas with reward and incentive received
(3) Increase brand recognition and (2) Increase best practice schemes (2) Number of innovation
better service orientation accolades by 20 per cent awards received
(3) Achieve employee index (3) Number of ineractions
delight by 4.5 (4) Number of awards and
achievements received
9. Mentoring (1) Nurture promising associates to be Increase number of managers (1) Promote leadership programmes (1) Number of leaders
new leaders who participate in mentoring through mentoring nurtured and promoted
(2) Provide excellent project delivery programmes
and solution for clients
targets and outcomes to executives, consultants and even clients as the situation Business
warranted. It was clearly understood by all stakeholders that the firm or client is best intelligence tools
served if knowledge workers aligned their day-to-day activities to accomplish objectives
and to find new, innovative, and often cross-functional and cross-unit opportunities for
contributing to BI objectives.
Table II is hence a summary of our analysis using the BSC approach. A closed
examination of the firm and its BI consulting for major clients allowed the 127
recommendation of a comprehensive and continuing communication process (based on
the BSC) to ensure that key actors understood the BI initiatives. In other words, since
objectives and targets were derived from BSC perspectives and thus aligned to strategy,
the measures of BI were matched with targets as corporate performance was also
tracked. In addition, management could review the BSC quarterly and update it to reflect
new opportunities and competitive conditions. It was also found that with the updated
strategic information, management was able to formulate their BI plans and targets for
the upcoming year, including decisions about new BI initiatives and capital spending.

4. Recap of key findings

This study is an effort to identify the effectiveness of BI tools in an IT consulting firm. The
concept of BI initiatives and their resultant effect on corporate performance are of
paramount importance in managing corporate performance (Davenport et al., 1998). In so
doing, organisations can leverage BI tools effectively and transform their core competencies
into a competitive advantage. Since implementing BI tools as part of their KM strategy,
the IT firm had met half the target for increasing clients’ corporate performance.
It was a major finding that despite the use of the BSC as a service offering, the firm
lacked a measurement system to manage and guide the effective use of BI tools
internally. Apparently, the physician preferred other means of healing. As well, it was
telling that only two out of nine BI tools – webinars and e-Learning – were widely
used by professional staff at the firm. Anecdotally, consultants acknowledged that
while they were able to benefit from the BI outcomes, they had little confidence that BI
tools would help increase their work efficiency.
Based on these and other findings, it was recommended that the firm closes the gap
between the execution and strategy of implementing BI tools. This study further
suggests a BSC to align strategy and execution to increase the effectiveness of BI tools.
This would involve the mapping of each BI tool into the BSC. The organisation must be
aligned around a clear and concise strategy for BI per se and only thereafter can the
utilisation of BI tools be made effective. In other words, the strategy is what feeds the
BSC. Therefore, a strategic plan needs to be constructed which includes the identification
of the specific objectives that tell professionals in the firm what to do with the BI tools
and a set of targets to convey what is expected. Measurements must be established for
each strategic objective of BI tools in the areas identified. The measurement criteria
provide the targets which can then be used to determine the level of success in achieving
them. Hence, the organisation that adopts this process through a BSC may be expected to
increase its corporate performance and hopefully to outperform its competitors.
However, as a limitation of the study, we concede that replicating it in other geographic
regions and business sectors would add to the validity of its findings. As well,
longitudinal, action research could be performed to test if corporate performance indeed
increases with the adoption of the recommendations derived from BSCs.
VINE Our research using the BSC and benchmarking also revealed that the firm had less
41,2 favorable competitive advantage in the following:
.
internal processes such as knowledge transfer, knowledge sharing and
knowledge reusability;
.
internal competency such as technical skills and industry knowledge;
128 .
recruitment of new talents;
.
longer than competitors’ project cycle time;
.
generation of new and innovative ideas to improve work processes;
.
projects with zero defect (bugs); and
.
nurturing of new leaders (through internal promotions).

The study gives reason to conclude that a fuller implementation of the BSC and
benchmarking (including bench-learning) will guide the effective use of the BI tool
suite to manage the above situations. This, we conjecture, will increase the corporate
performance of the IT consulting firm. Drucker was right! Be it BI or knowledge
management per se, we cannot manage what we do not measure. Conversely, we must
measure what we intend to manage. Lord Kelvin famously stated:
I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in
numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot
express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; (PLA, Vol. 1,
Electrical Units of Measurement, 1883-05-03).
This article is intended to demonstrate the use of a BSC approach to the measurement
and monitoring of a class of such KM tools. As Takeuchi (1998) implied, practitioners
and executives must go beyond accepting the logic of the “wisdom of the commons” to
establishing the validity of executing a knowledge strategy with such tools and
processes by first identifying and then monitoring targets and outcomes. We conclude
that the practice of BI is better served in such a manner.

Notes
1. A more detailed description of this may be found in: www.balancedscorecard.org/
BSCResources/AbouttheBalancedScorecard/tabid/55/Default.aspx
2. It is disclosed here that one of the authors served as an executive intern in the firm during the
course of this research and obtained management approval to conduct this study provided
anonymity was maintained.

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About the authors 131

Ravi S. Sharma is an Associate Professor and Principal Investigator in the School of
Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Ravi S. Sharma
is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected]
Vironica Djiaw is a recent graduate of the MSc (Knowledge Management) programme in the
School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

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