E-Business Intelligence: Turning Information into Knowledge into Profit

It is widely acknowledged that businesses today must harness the Net to effectively utilise the myriad details they glean from--and then pass around to--their various stakeholders. But how best to do that? e-Business Intelligence, by the head of a global company that helps others develop such efforts, lays out a variety of inter-related methodologies already in use by pioneering corporations around the world. In doing so, author Bernard Liautaud explains how to move from data (the extensive raw stats to which most contemporary firms are privy) to information (the proper context in which they must be applied) to intelligence (the collective knowledge from which appropriate actions are initiated). Liautaud shows how companies such as Eli Lilly, MasterCard and British Airways have created electronic relationships among employees, suppliers, consumers and business partners to boost marketing, customer service, quality control, purchasing and other activities. He explains how internal "information democracies" allow them to instantaneously distribute pertinent details throughout their organisations, while external "information embassies" facilitate their rapid transfer of pertinent facts to outside constituencies. To help readers develop their own individualised strategies, he presents specifics on gathering "customer intelligence", sharing product information, optimising supply chains, and performing other critical tasks. --Howard Rothman

Bernard Liautaud (Palo Alto, CA) is CEO of Business Objects, the world's leading provider of e-business solutions, and, according to Intelligent Enterprise magazine, one of the "12 Most Influential Companies in the Information Technology Industry." In 1996, five years after founding Business Objects, Liautaud was named one of BusinessWeek's "Hottest Entrepreneurs of the Year."