Business Intelligence: Thinking like Sherlock Holmes!

Business Intelligence

This super nice job comes with a strange challenge. How do you explain to friends and family what you do if they are not familiar with Business Intelligence (BI)? My current explanation that I am a Junior BI Consultant and that I will be opening up data and making it transparent seems to cause a lot of question marks. To make it clear to everyone what Business Intelligence is all about I will give an example of a well known Consultant using BI, namely none other than Sherlock Holmes!

Thinking like Sherlock Holmes

The fictional super detective Sherlock Holmes is known and loved by most people through movies and series. With the help of Watson Sherlock solves the most impossible crimes. We are taken into the exciting adventure that always takes place to solve the case. During these adventures we also see how Sherlock works and that data is an important part of his process! The key to Sherlock's success is data!

"Data, data, data. I cannot make bricks without clay."

It's all about the data

To come up with evidence Sherlock uses data. Data seems to be a magical word for many people, while it is nothing more than a collection of facts that describe an object or event. For Sherlock, data is nothing more than facts that describe a case, such as the cause of death. To solve most crimes Sherlock collects as much data as possible. Sherlock then converts this collected data into Business Intelligence. Business Intelligence is the continuous process of collecting data, analyzing it and using the resulting insights for decision making. For Sherlock BI is the process of collecting facts and comparing them with each other so he can find the perpetrator!

"Never theorize before you have data. Invariably, you end up twisting facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts."

Moving forward with Business Intelligence solutions

Solving crimes is not part of my job description. As Junior BI Consultant I help organizations to think like Sherlock Holmes. Organizations want to draw the right conclusions, just like Sherlock, but to solve organizational issues. I help organizations to think like Sherlock Holmes by translating data into insights. Like Sherlock I start with the collection of relevant data. Where Sherlock finds relevant data at the crime scene, I find relevant data in internal systems or online sources. The data from different sources is compared, combined and transformed into Business Intelligence. With the insights gained from Business Intelligence, organizations can answer their questions just like Sherlock!

It is my business to know what other people don't know.

With the right combination of data Sherlock can deduce a lot about a person, as he often shows. Sherlock has a great brain in which he stores, analyzes and combines all data. Such a brain I unfortunately do not have at my disposal! However, I help organizations think like Sherlock Holmes using Microsoft Power BI. To show the power of Power BI I am going to give you insight in crime in the Netherlands with data from the CBS, so you can all experience what it is like to be Sherlock Holmes!

Do you dare to be critical and help customers a step further? Then apply now for the position of Business Intelligence Consultant aka Sherlock Holmes.