{"id":168960,"date":"2023-09-06T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=168960"},"modified":"2023-09-06T05:59:56","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T10:59:56","slug":"ictp-268-using-business-intelligence-to-optimise-business-performance-and-success-with-raquel-seville-of-bi-brainz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2023\/09\/ictp-268-using-business-intelligence-to-optimise-business-performance-and-success-with-raquel-seville-of-bi-brainz\/","title":{"rendered":"ICTP 268: Optimising performance and success through business intelligence, with Raquel Seville of BI Brainz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Business intelligence (BI), like data analytics, does not seem to be as prominent these days as data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, data analytics and BI are separate disciplines from data science and AI, with the former still being especially relevant when trying to improve organisational performance and success. With Raquel Seville of BI Brainz, we get a primer on BI, and among other things, she highlights: misconceptions people have about BI; important skills individuals who want to work in BI should possess; and basic activities and tools MSMEs can use to begin to tap into the benefits of BI.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1609532010&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true\"><\/iframe><div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-673719274\" title=\"ICT Pulse Podcast\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener\">ICT Pulse Podcast<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-673719274\/ictp-268-optimising\" title=\"ICTP 268:  Optimising performance and success through business intelligence, with Raquel Seville of BI Brainz\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener\">ICTP 268:  Optimising performance and success through business intelligence, with Raquel Seville of BI Brainz<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This episode is also available on <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-673719274\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SoundCloud<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/ict-pulse-podcast\/id1373550291\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9pY3QtcHVsc2UtcG9kY2FzdC5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/3d0U4ZYX80e5lenYLdzyX4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spotify<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/music.amazon.com\/podcasts\/3f727ec1-de7d-416f-8bdc-31d9a911a09e\/ict-pulse-podcast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Amazon Music<\/a>!!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the phrase \u201cData is the new oil\u201d has been around for some time, and arguably may even be overused, still too few organisations are leveraging data as they should. For the most part, data is automatically generated, but organisations need to be intentional about wanting it to serve specific purposes \u2013 such as providing greater insights into their operation and performance, and improving their decision-making \u2013 to provide a basis for the appropriate systems and resources to be established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result, and in 2023, business leaders and decision-makers across the Caribbean region are still relying on, gut instincts, third-party and anecdotal information to make important decisions for and on behalf of the organisations they serve. However, even in the Caribbean region, industries have become more competitive, shareholders are demanding increased profits, and consumers are becoming savvier and more discerning about the quality of products and services they purchase or with which they engage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are revisiting an earlier episode on Business Intelligence, which seems as relevant today as it was when it was first released in 2019. In our increasingly data-driven world, organisations \u2013 from micro businesses to large corporates \u2013 need to do a better job of using the data they inherently possess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Introducing our guest<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"168964\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2023\/09\/ictp-268-using-business-intelligence-to-optimise-business-performance-and-success-with-raquel-seville-of-bi-brainz\/raquel-seville-cropped-r-seville\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Raquel-Seville-cropped-R-Seville.png?fit=504%2C502&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"504,502\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Raquel-Seville cropped (R Seville)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Raquel Seville&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Raquel-Seville-cropped-R-Seville.png?fit=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Raquel-Seville-cropped-R-Seville.png?fit=504%2C502&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fgd.dfv.mybluehost.me\/.website_c81a1e61\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Raquel-Seville-cropped-R-Seville.png?resize=300%2C299&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-168964\" style=\"width:300px;height:299px\" width=\"300\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Raquel-Seville-cropped-R-Seville.png?w=504&amp;ssl=1 504w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Raquel-Seville-cropped-R-Seville.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Raquel-Seville-cropped-R-Seville.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Raquel-Seville-cropped-R-Seville.png?resize=440%2C440&amp;ssl=1 440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Raquel Seville<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/raquelseville\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Raquel Seville<\/a><\/strong> is a Business Intelligence (BI) expert, a published Author, an International Speaker, and a Lecturer with nearly 20 years of experience in the field. Her path to BI began with software development, as a Computer Science major at The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus in Jamaica. But a fortuitous internship at the telecoms company, LIME (now known as Flow) introduced her to data analytics, and she has not looked back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Raquel is the Chief Executive Officer for the Caribbean region for BI Brainz, a BI and analytics training and solutions company that is headquartered in the United States of America, but with offices in Jamaica, which Raquel heads. The company has worked with Fortune 500 companies helping them solve their business problems with data, and through its BI Brainz Academy, it has trained over 10,000 BI and Analytics professionals from over 150 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Insight into our conversation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>BI and data analytics are perhaps more important than ever, as organisations, regardless of their field, need to be more efficient, effective and relevant. To a considerable degree, the keys to do so lie in the ability to measure, track and analyse relevant data and thereafter, draw suitable insights and inferences that can be incorporated back into systems and processes to improve performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we stated when this conversation with Raquel was initially released, it can be considered a primer on business intelligence. We asked some basic questions on the subject and sought some advice to help large enterprises, small businesses, and everything in between, get a firmer footing on the business intelligence path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, due to the \u2018noise\u2019 about AI, it can appear that BI is no longer a separate discipline, but has been subsumed by generative AI. However, although AI does certain things very well, currently, it may be ill-equipped to provide highly specific information or advice specific to a particular organisation operating in a specific business environment in a specific country, for example. And the remedy for these limitations would be costly and time-consuming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, AI cannot (currently) replace BI. Below are questions posed to Raquel during our conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" type=\"1\">\n<li>What is business intelligence?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How is business intelligence different from data analytics?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How is business intelligence different from market intelligence?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Are there any predefined\/standard metrics or measures that a business intelligence exercise must include?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Are there any constraints or limitations in the types of organisations that could apply business intelligence?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What might be some of the misconceptions people have about business intelligence?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To what degree is an organisation\u2019s operating environment considered in a business intelligence exercise?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What are some of the important skills that individuals who work in business intelligence must possess?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For organisations that want to begin to rely on business intelligence, what are some of the first set of questions they should be asking themselves?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), what might be some basic things they can do, or tools they can use, in order to begin to tap into the benefits of business intelligence?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><em>We would love to hear your thoughts!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><em>Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ICTPulse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/ict-pulse-consulting-limited\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a>&nbsp;pages, or via Twitter,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ICTPulse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">@ICTPulse<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><em>Also, if you or a member of your network is interested in joining us for an episode,&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/fgd.dfv.mybluehost.me\/.website_c81a1e61\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>do get in touch<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><em>Let\u2019s make it happen!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Select Links<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/raquelseville\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Raquel Seville<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>BI Brainz \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/bi-brainz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">LinkedIn<\/a>&nbsp;&nbsp; | <a href=\"https:\/\/bibrainz.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Website<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Raquel Seville\u2019s book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/SAP-OpenUI5-Mobile-BI-Analytics-ebook\/dp\/B07693KX73\/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=raquel+seville&amp;qid=1554817809&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-1-fkmrnull\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><em>SAP OpenUI5 for Mobile BI and Analytics<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ICT Pulse Podcast episode, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3HMv1DS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">ICTP 237: Revisiting tech innovation in the Caribbean region and at TTLAB in Trinidad and Tobago<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ICT Pulse Podcast episode, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/41Assww\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">ICTP 241: AI in the workplace and in society and some of the tough conversations we need to have, with Kevan Rajaram, of PwC Caribbean<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ICT Pulse Podcast episode, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3F5Rhqx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">ICTP 242: Breaking the glass ceiling in Data Science<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tableau.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Tableau<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/powerbi.microsoft.com\/en-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Power BI<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Images credit:&nbsp; R Seville; Mihai Surdu (<a href=\"http:\/\/pixabay.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Pixabay<\/a>);&nbsp; DCStudio (<a href=\"http:\/\/freepik.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Freepik<\/a>); &nbsp;Lukas (<a href=\"http:\/\/pexels.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Pexels<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Ch\u00e9rie), by Andy Narrell<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Business intelligence (BI), like data analytics, does not seem to be as prominent these days as data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, data analytics and BI are separate disciplines from data science and AI, with the former still being especially relevant when trying to improve organisational performance and success. With Raquel Seville of BI Brainz, we get a primer on BI, and among other things, she highlights: misconceptions people have about BI; important skills individuals who want to work in BI should possess; and basic activities and tools MSMEs can use to begin to tap into the benefits of BI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[355],"tags":[186,71,274,357],"class_list":["post-168960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-big-data","tag-businesses","tag-data-analytics","tag-interviews","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Featured-Image-%E2%80%93-2023-Raquel-Seville-of-BI-Brainz.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-HXa","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168960"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168973,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168960\/revisions\/168973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}