Draft:Operational intelligence: Difference between revisions

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{{AfC submission|t||ts=20250329230315|u=Sinotara|ns=118|demo=}}

'''Operational Intelligence''' ('''OI'''), sometimes known as '''Business Process Intelligence''', focuses on providing [[real-time]] monitoring of [[business process]]es and activities as they are executed within [[computer system]]s, and in assisting in optimizing these activities and processes by identifying and detecting situations that correspond to interruptions and bottlenecks.

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==Purpose==

*[[Business process intelligence]]

*[[Operational Intelligence]]

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{{Short description|Category of business analytics}}

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'''Operational intelligence''' ('''OI''') is a category of [[real-time business intelligence|real-time]] dynamic, [[business analytics]] that delivers visibility and insight into data, streaming events and business operations. OI solutions run queries against streaming [[data feed]]s and event data to deliver analytic results as operational instructions. OI provides organizations with the ability to make decisions and immediately act on these analytic insights, through manual or automated actions.

The purpose of OI is to monitor business activities and identify and detect situations relating to inefficiencies, opportunities, and threats. Some definitions define Operational Intelligence an event-centric approach to delivering information that empowers people to make better decisions<ref>[http://www.ventanaresearch.com/research/category_new.aspx?id=1624 Ventana Research on Operational Intelligence]</ref>. OI helps quantify:

==Purpose==

* the efficiency of the business activities

The purpose of OI is to monitor business activities and identify and detect situations relating to inefficiencies, opportunities, and threats and to provide operational solutions. Some definitions define Operationaloperational Intelligenceintelligence as an event-centric approach to delivering information that empowers people to make better decisions<ref>[http://www.ventanaresearch.com/research/category_new.aspx?id=1624 Ventana, Researchbased on Operationalcomplete Intelligence]</ref>.and actual OI helps quantify:information.

* how the IT infrastructure and unexpected events affect the business activities (resource bottlenecks, system failures, events external to the company, etc.)

* how the execution of the business activities contribute to revenue gains or losses.

In addition, these metrics act as the starting point for further analysis (drilling down intoexamining details, performing [[root cause analysis]] — tying anomalies to specific transactions and of the business activity).

This is achieved by observing the progress of the business activities and computing several metrics in real-time using these ''progress events'' and publishing the metrics to one or more channels (e.g., a dashboard that can display the metrics as charts and graphs, [[autonomic]] software that can receive these updates and fine-tune the processes in real-time, email, mobile, and [[messaging system]]s that can notify users, and so on). Thresholds can also be placed on these metrics to create notifications or new events.

Sophisticated OI systems also provide the ability to associate [[metadata]] with metrics, process steps, channels, etc. With this, it becomes easy to get related information, e.g., '"retrieve the contact information of the person that manages the application that executed the step in the business transaction that took 60% more time than the norm," or "view the acceptance/rejection trend for the customer who was denied approval in this transaction," or "Launch the application that this process stepsteps interacted with."

In addition, these metrics act as the starting point for further analysis (drilling down into details, performing root cause analysis — tying anomalies to specific transactions and of the business activity).

Sophisticated OI systems also provide the ability to associate metadata with metrics, process steps, channels, etc. With this, it becomes easy to get related information, e.g., 'retrieve the contact information of the person that manages the application that executed the step in the business transaction that took 60% more time than the norm," or "view the acceptance/rejection trend for the customer who was denied approval in this transaction," "Launch the application that this process step interacted with."

==Features==

Different Operationaloperational Intelligenceintelligence solutionssystems may use many different technologies and be implemented in different ways. This section lists the common features of an Operationaloperational Intelligenceintelligence solutionsystem:

* Real-time monitoring

* Real-Timetime Monitoringsituation detection

* Real-Timetime dashboards for different user roles

* Real-Time Situation Detection

* Real-Time dashboards for different user roles

* Correlation of events

* Industry-specific [[dashboard]]sdashboards

* [[Multidimensional analysis]]

** Root cause analysis

** [[Time Series]] and [[trendingtrend analysis]] analysis

* [[Big data]] Analytics: Operational Intelligence is well suited to address the inherent challenges of Big Data. Operational Intelligence continuously monitors and analyzes the variety of high velocity, high volume Big Data sources. Often performed in memory, OI platforms and solutions then present the incremental calculations and changes, in real-time, to the end-user.

==Technology components==

Operational Intelligenceintelligence solutions sharesystemsshare many features, and therefore many also share technology components. This is a list of some of the commonly found technology components, and the features they enable:

* [[Business activity monitoring]] (BAM)&nbsp;– Dashboard customization and personalization

Operational Intelligence solutions share many features, and therefore many also share technology components. This is a list of some of the commonly found technology components, and the features they enable:

* [[Complex event processing]] (CEP)&nbsp;– Advanced, continuous analysis of real-time information and historical data

* [[Business process management]] (BPM)&nbsp;– To perform model-driven execution of policies and processes defined as [[Business Process Model and Notation]] (BPMN) models

* [[Complex Event Processing]] (CEP) (Real-Time Situation Detection, Real-Time Window Calculations)

* [[Metadata]] framework to model and link events to resources

* Dashboard customization and personalization

* Multi-channel publishing and notification

* [[Dimensional database]]

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* Multi-protocol event collection

Operational Intelligenceintelligence is a relatively new market segment (compared to the more mature business intelligence and [[business process management]] segments). In addition to companies

that produce dedicated and focussedfocused products in this area, there are numerous companies in adjacent areas that provide solutions with some OI components.

Operational intelligence integrates information, supporting smarter decision making in time to maximize impact. By correlating a variety of events and data from both streaming feeds and historical data silos, operational intelligence helps organizations gain real-time visibility of information, in context, through dashboards, real-time insight into business performance, health and status so that immediate action based on business policies and processes can be taken. Operational intelligence applies the benefits of real-time analytics, alerts, and actions to a broad spectrum of use cases across and beyond the enterprise.

One specific technology segment is [[AIDC]] (Automatic Identification and Data Collection) represented by [[Barcodes]], [[RFID]] and [[Voice Recognition]].

One specific technology segment is AIDC ([[Automatic Identification and Data Capture]]) represented by [[barcodes]], [[RFID]] and [[speech recognition|voice recognition]]. Another specific technology is the OKAPI platform. It is an [[Operational Excellence]] software platform that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide companies with SMART KPIs. The platform then uses data visualization to track the progress of hitting [[Performance indicator|KPIs]].

==Comparison with other technologies or solutions==

===[[Business Intelligence]]intelligence===

{{Main|Business intelligence}}

OI is often linked to or compared with [[Businessbusiness Intelligenceintelligence]] (BI) or [[Realreal time business intelligence]], in the sense that both help makemakes sense out of large amounts of information. But there are some basic differences: OI is primarily activity-centric, whereas BI is primarily data-centric. (As with most technologies, each of these could be sub-optimally coerced to perform the other's task.) OI is, by definition, real-time, unlike BI or “On-Demand” BI, which isare traditionally an after-the-fact and report-based approachapproaches to identifying patterns,. andReal-time unlikeBI real(i.e., timeOn-Demand BI) which relies on athe database as the sole source of events.

OI provides continuous, real-time analytics on data at rest and data in-flight, whereas BI typically looks only at historical data at rest. OI and BI can be complementary. OI is best used for short-term planning, such as deciding on the “next best action,” while BI is best used for longer-term planning (over the next days to weeks). BI requires a more reactive approach, often reacting to events that have already taken place.

===[[Systems management]]===

System Management mainly refers to the availability and capability monitoring of IT infrastructure. Availability monitoring refers to monitoring the status of IT infrastructure components such as servers, routers, networks, etc. This usually entails pinging or polling the component and waiting to receive a response. Capability monitoring usually refers to synthetic transactions where user activity is mimicked by a special software program, and the responses received are checked for correctness.

If all that is needed is a glimpse at historical performance over a very specific period of time, existing BI solutions should meet the requirement. However, historical data needs to be analyzed with events that are happening now or to reduce the time between when intelligence is received and when action is taken, then Operational Intelligence is the more appropriate approach.

===[[Complex Event Processing]]===

There is a strong relationship between Complex Event Processing companies and Operational Intelligence, especially since CEP is regarded by many OI companies as a core component of their OI solutions. CEP companies tend to focus solely on development of a CEP framework for other companies to use within their organisations as a pure CEP engine.

===[[Systems management]]===

===[[Business Activity Monitoring]]===

{{Main|Systems management}}

Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) is software that aids in monitoring of business processes, as those processes are implemented in computer systems. BAM is an enterprise solution primarily intended to provide a real-time summary of business processes to operations managers and upper management. The main difference between BAM and OI appears to be in the implementation details — real-time situation detection is a feature that only appears in OI and is often implemented using CEP. Furthermore, BAM focuses on formally modelled processes whereas OI instead relies on correlation to infer a relationship between different events.

System Management mainly refers to the availability and capability monitoring of [[IT infrastructure]]. Availability monitoring refers to monitoring the status of IT infrastructure components such as servers, routers, networks, etc. This usually entails pinging or polling the component and waiting to receive a response. Capability monitoring usually refers to synthetic transactions where user activity is mimicked by a special software program, and the responses received are checked for correctness.

===[[Complex Eventevent Processing]]processing===

{{Main|Complex event processing}}

There is a strong relationship between Complexcomplex Eventevent Processingprocessing companies and Operationaloperational Intelligenceintelligence, especially since CEP is regarded by many OI companies as a core component of their OI solutions. CEP companies tend to focus solely on the development of a CEP framework for other companies to use within their organisations as a pure CEP engine.

===[[Business Activityactivity Monitoring]]monitoring===

{{Main|Business activity monitoring}}

Business Activityactivity Monitoringmonitoring (BAM) is software that aids in monitoring of business processes, as those processes are implemented in computer systems. BAM is an enterprise solution primarily intended to provide a real-time summary of business processes to operations managers and upper management. The main difference between BAM and OI appears to be in the implementation details — real-time situation detection isappears ain featureBAM that only appears inand OI and is often implemented using CEP. Furthermore, BAM focuses on formallyhigh-level modelledprocess processesmodels whereas OI instead relies on correlation to infer a relationship between different events.

===Business process management===

{{Main|Business process management}}

A business process management suite is the runtime environment where one can perform model-driven execution of policies and processes defined as [[BPMN]] models. As part of an operational intelligence suite, a BPM suite can provide the capability to define and manage policies across the enterprise, apply the policies to events, and then take action according to the predefined policies. A BPM suite also provides the capability to define policies as if/then statements and apply them to events.

==References==

{{refsReflist}}

== External links ==

[[Category:Information technology management]]

* [https://a16z.com/2019/05/01/a16z-podcast-future-of-decision-startup-opportunities/ a16z Podcast Episode: "The Future Of Decision-Making—3 Startup Opportunities"]

{{Draft categories|

[[Category:Business process management]]

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{{Drafts moved from mainspace|date=March 2025}}