| Many organisations are data rich and information poor. This action research project helped British Columbia Parks staff set management priorities for a rapidly expanding protected areas system, by using business intelligence tools to transform data into information. Through this work and parallel research, a list of success factors for business intelligence projects has been compiled. This research suggests many factors including metacontent and a collaborative culture are important, and that business issues are more significant than technical ones. Because business intelligence tools encourage integrative thinking and shared decision making, their use raises issues about organisational "silos," over-arching organisational goals or needs, collaboration, information sharing, and empowerment of front line staff. If used as a catalyst for open dialogue and enhanced understanding, these tools have the potential to build bridges from mechanistic organisational structures of the past, to the more systems-based approaches of the future. |
