Die gebruik van besigheidsintellegensie in bestuursbesluitneming in landbouverkope

Abstract

The flow of information within a company should be one of the most important managerial functions that the company occupies itself with. (Arnott et al., 2017). For this reason the development of Business Intelligence (BI) has been the most encompassing area of IT development since 2009 and this tendency should continue for the foreseeable future. Therefore now the question arises how prevalent BI is in the agricultural sector in South-Africa and BI is within decision support systems (DSS) The purpose of this study is to determine the influence BI has on agricultural companies in South-Africa, the obstacles working against effective implementation, the involved parties in the acquisition of data, how the data is processed, and in the end, how the information is used to improve efficient decision making. The roles that the sales manager, representative and client has must be determined, especially what the influence of BI is on there internal and external relationships and on communications amongst them. The unique obstacles associated with the agricultural sector and the everchanging natural environment received special attention Questionnaires were sent to sales managers, representatives and clients of 7 different companies, the data was analysed and evaluated according to four critical questions. Just under 50% of respondents were from companies where BIS is implemented. The data that was generated from the questionnaires to the sales managers and representatives showed clear distinction between the group within and not within the BIS environment. For the overall summarised data the BIS group showed a 10% improved response on the questions. For the data from the clients’ questionnaires such an improvement was not apparent. It was interesting to note that there were clear differences on aspects regarding decision making and relationships while the aspects related to the acquiring, analysis and reporting of data and information showed lower responses to BIS. Both the sales managers and the representatives felt more empowered to make sales decisions within the BIS environment For all parties the importance of the internet as a source for data and information scored amongst the highest. For the sales managers the quest for information regarding market conditions and the opposition was very important while the representatives focussed on technical information. For all respondents information gained through interactions within and amongst groups was the most important