Abstract :
Modern technology is providing organisations with the thrilling opportunity to inject a revolutionary and unprecedented level of sophistication and control into their business analysis and planning. The old days when these functions were cumbersome, clumsy back-office functions that required many days - or weeks - to yield useful and insightful information are over. Organisations that have the good sense to implement new, state-of-the-art business analysis and planning systems are creating an enormously important in-house resource that can provide comprehensive and detailed information about every aspect of the organisation´s activities, and also facilitate a rapid response to new, unforeseen, opportunities or challenges. The research organisation the Gartner Group has crystallised the objectives of business analysis and planning today into the phrase ´business activity monitoring´ (BAM). This phrase aptly sums up the purpose of the business planning task: to monitor an organisations activity in every sense and to develop an understanding of what is happening now with the organisation, where the organisation is going and where the major opportunities for increased profitability lie within it. The author shows how to find out just what is going on within your business.
