Why IT's BI or Die (Part II)

"...it's really simple: companies that are automating and using intelligent systems are growing, those that aren't are dying."

This expression sounds "pat", like a cliche. Yet, it's amazing that maybe 1/2 of established organizations are not really using intelligent systems.

There are 3 main reasons why intelligent systems are necessary for survival:

1) Global Competitiveness
With firms like McDonalds where 60% of sales are outside the U.S., most organizations have to operate in a global context - that means currency flucations, tax implications, vastly different labor costs, and varying shipping rates. In short, firms are now totally dynamic operations which requires real-time smart systems to handle and optimize the variables.

2) Productivity, Leanness, Adding value, Innovation
To compete, firms must automate not only for reducing labor costs, but to maintain quality consistency, be able to scale up, and quickly adapt to new innovation Automation requires intelligent systems - period.

3) Speed of Change
Call it Moore's Law or Kurzweil's Age of Singularity, but either way, technology is advancing exponentially. In many cases, technology is advancing faster than people can implement it. Yet, intelligent systems, such as machine learning, have no problem advancing along with the technology.

The answer is so simple, it's ignored by many organizations: Apply intelligent systems or die.